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Delegates  to  the  lourth  tciimenical  Conference,  Toronto,  C^anada,  October  4-17,  1911. 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2009  witii  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://www.archive.org/details/proceedingsoffouOOecum 


PROCEEDINGS 


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Fourth 

/ 

Ecumenical  Methodist 
Conference, 

HELD   IN 

iEcttopoUtan  jHetl^otJf^t  Cl^iircl^, 
TORONTO,  CANADA, 

OCTOBER  4-17,    1911. 


WITH  INTRODUCTION 

BY 

H.   K.   CARROLL,   LL.   1).,  JAMES  CHAPMAN,  D.   D. 


CINCINNATI: 
JENNINC.S    AND    GRAHAM. 


RESOLUTION  OF  THE  CONFERENCE. 

"That  the  general  Secretaries,  Dr.  H.  K.  Carroll,  ot 
the  Western  Section,  and  the  Rev.  James  Chapman, 
D.  D.,  of  the  Eastern  Section,  shall  edit  the  Volume  of 
Proceedings  of  this  Ecumenical  Conference;  that  they 
shall  prepare  a  brief  introduction  to  the  same,  and  that, 
since  the  Volume  is  to  be  printed  in  America,  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Western  Section  shall  be  responsible  for  pass- 
ing the  book  through  the  press." 


CONTENTS. 

R-esolution  of  the  Conference ii 

Introduction,  by  the  Secretaries   vii 

Official  List  of  Delegates,  Western  Section xi 

Official  List  of  Delegates,  Eastern  Section xvi 

Officers  of  the  Conference    xix 

List  of  Committees xx 

Daily   Programme    • xxiii 

Rules  and  Regulations  for  the  Conference xxix 

FIRST  DAY. 

FIRST  SESSION. — Opening  Service,  3  ;  Conference  Sermon  by  Henry  Haigh,  D.  D., 
3;  Presentation  of  Garel,  12;  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  13. 

SECOND  SESSIOX. — Opening  Service,  13;  Announcements,  14;  Addresses  of  Wel- 
come— William  Briggs,  16;  Bishop  Parks,  23;  Bishoi)  Hoss,  27.  Responses — 
Dr.  Henry  Haigh,  29;  Sir  Robert  W.  Perks,  30;  S.  S.  Henshaw,  32;  R.  W. 
Essex,  35. 

SECOND  DAY, 

FIRST  SESSION. — Religious  Services,  38;  Essay,  "Methodism  in  the  Western 
Section  in  the  Past  Ten  Years,"  H.  K.  Carroll,  39.  Addi-esses — Bishop  E.  R. 
Hendrix,  45;  Howard  Sprague,  47;  S.  Ogata,  51.  Discussion — Bishop  Hoss, 
55 ;  George  Elliott,  56 ;  Henri  Arnaud  Scott,  56 ;  G.  W.  Marshall,  57 :  Bishop 
A.  Walters,  58;  E.  M.  Randall,  59;  W.  M.  Ainsworth,  60;  Wm.  Bradfield,  61; 
D.  e.  Bovmey,  61;  H.  M.  DuBose,   62;   S.  D.  Chown,   63;   Enoch  Salt,   64. 

SECOND  SESSION. — Opening  Services,  65;  Notices  and  Telegrams,  65;  Report  of 
Business  Committee,  66;  Answer  to  Telegrams,  66.  Essay,  "Methodism  in 
the  Eastern  Section  in  the. Past  Ten  Years,"  Simpson  Johnson,  66.  Ad- 
dresses— T.  Mitchell,  76;  Henry  Smith,  80;  W,  Williams,  83.  General  Dis- 
cussion— C.  Ensor  Walters,  85 ;  Wm.  Wakinshaw,  86 ;  C.  E.  Beecrof  t,  87 ;  John 
Hugh  Morgan,  87. 

THIRD  SESSION. — Opening  Services,  88.  Essay,  "Methodism — Its  Place  in  the 
Church  Universal,"  W.  H.  Fitchett,  88.  Addresses — N.  Luccock,  98:  J.  A. 
Bray,  101.  Discussion — Bishop  Hoss,  104;  Joseph  H.  Bateson,  105;  H.  L. 
Cloud,  106;  M.  C.  B.  Mason,  106.  Chief  Moty  Tiger  of  the  Creek  Indians 
presented  by  Bishop  Hoss,   107.     Discussion  continued — Joseph  Johnson,   107. 

THIRD  DAY. 

FIRST  SESSION. — Opening  Exercises,  109 ;  Telegram  from  Bishops  Oldham,  Warne, 
and  Robinson,  India;  Answer  to  Telegram,  110;  Report  from  Bu.siness  Com- 
mittee, 110.  Essay,  "Responsibility  of  Methodism  in  World  wide  Evangelism," 
T.  H.  Lewis,  110.  Addresses — David  Brook,  on  "Mission  of  Methodism  to 
the  Non-Christian  Races,"  118;  Bishop  Wm.  Burt,  on  "Mission  of  Methodi.sm 
to  the  Latin  Races,"  120;  Pasteur  Thomas  Hocart,  124.  Discussion — J.  Scott 
Lidgett,  126;  J.  W.  Butler,  127;  E.  W.  Bysshe,  128;  James  II.  Moulton,  128; 
Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  129;  Pasteur  Theophile  Roux,  130;  Bishop  C.  S.  Smith,  131; 
Mrs.  George  0.  Robinson,  131;  Bishop  John  M.  Walden,  132;  James  Lewis,  133. 

i 


ii  CONTENTS. 

SECOND  SESSION. — Opening,  134.  Essay,  "Our  Resources  in  Men  and  Means," 
James  Lewis,  134.  Addresses — Bishop  G.  "W.  Clinton,  on  "Mission  of  Meth- 
odism to  the  Bacliward  Races,"  139;  A.  B.  Leonard,  on  "Methodist  Native 
Churches,"  144;  Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  on  "Methodism  in  Korea"  (manuscript 
not  furnished),  147.  Discussion — Richard  F.  Bromfield,  147;  Owen  S.  Watkins, 
148;  H.  W.  Rowell,  149;  Joseph  H.  Bateson,  150;  R.  L.  Beale,  151;  G.  C. 
Clement,  151;  Miss  Clementine  Butler,  152;  Ernst  G.  Bek,  152;  Joseph  T. 
Barkby,   153;  Llewellyn  E.  Camp,  154;  M.  C.  B.  Mason,   155. 

THIRD  SESSION. — Opening,  155.  Missionary  Mass  Meeting;  Speakers — W.  Howell 
Davies,  156;  Bishop  E.  R.  Hendrix,  157;  Bishop  Wilson  S.  Lewis,  161;  Joseph 
Johnson,  on  "Home  Missions,"  166;  Joseph  H.  Bateson,  170. 


FOURTH  DAY. 

MORNING  SESSION. — Opening,  171;  Announcements,  171.  Essay,  "The  Theo- 
logical Heritage  of  Methodism,"  Geo.  G.  Findlay,  172.  Addresses — "The  Doc- 
trine of  Assurance,"  R.  J.  Cooke,  177;  "The  Essentials  of  Religion  According 
to  John  Wesley,"  W.  Windsor,  180.  Discussion — J.  G.  Tasker,  182;  Wm. 
Redfern,  183;  Thomas  Nicholson,  184;  W.  J.  Moulton,  185;  Joseph  Dinnick, 
185;  Bishop  J.  L.  Nuelsen,  186;  J.  M.  Buckley,  187;  George  Elliott,  188; 
N.  Burwash,  188;  Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  189;  M.  S.  Terry,  190;  William  Brad- 
field,  191;  C.  Ensor  Walters,  192;  C.  T.  Roman,  192.  Announcements  by 
Secretary,  193. 

FIFTH  DAY. 

MORNING  SERVICES. — Sermon,  by  Chancellor  James  R.  Day,  "Am  I  My  Brother's 
Keeper?"   194. 

AFTERNOON  SESSION. — "Religious  Aspects  of  Industry  and  Commerce" — Ad- 
dresses by  George  H.  McNeal,  210;  Hon.  C.  W.  Fairbanks,  213;  S.  S.  Henshaw, 
218;  R.  W.  Essex  (in  absence  of  Arthur  Hender.son),  223;  Paper  of  Arthur 
Henderson  read  by  presiding  oflSc*r,   225. 

EVENING  SERVICE. — Sermon  by  W.  H.  Fitchett,   "Doing  Wonders,"  228. 

SIXTH  DAY. 

FIRST  SESSION. — Opening  Services  and  Statement  of  Justice  Maclaren  concern- 
ing Exhibit  of  Methodist  Antiquities,  237.  Essay,  "The  Study  of  the  Scrip- 
tures," by  Prof.  Peake  (read  in  his  absence  by  J.  T.  Barkby),  238.  Ad- 
dresses— "Verification  of  Revelation  in  Experience,"  V.  A.  Gregory,  242; 
"Methods  of  Bible  Study,"  J.  Oliver  Park,  247.  Discussion,  James  L.  Curtis, 
250;  James  H.  Moulton,  250;  Levi  Gilbert,  251;  A.  Carman,  252;  W.  Redfern, 
253-  J  M.  Buckley,  254;  Wilfrid  J.  Moulton,  254;  George  Elliott,  255;  Joshua 
H  Jones,  256;  J.  S.  Clemens,  257;  M.  S.  Terry,  258;  E.  G.  Bek,  258;  Joseph 
Dinnick,  259;  Joseph  T.  Barkby,  259;  J.  Lewis,  260;  Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  261; 
J.   G.   Tasker,    262.      Announcements,   262. 

SECOND  SESSION. — Opening  Services  and  Statement  of  Chairman,  263.  Essay, 
"The  Newer  Forms  of  Unbelief,  and  How  to  Meet  Them,"  Prof.  H.  C.  Sheldon, 
263;  Paper  of  H.  Maldwj-n  Hughes,  on  "(Christianity  and  Recent  Philosophical 
Tendencies"  (in  his  absence)  read  by  W.  W.  Holdsworth,  269.  Address  on 
"Christianity  and  Modern  Ethical  Theories,"  President  Francis  J.  McConnell, 
272.  Discussion— H.  M.  DuBose,  275;  Wilfrid  J.  Moulton,  276;  Bishop  E. 
Cottrell,  277;  H.  L.  Cloud,  278;  J.  M.  Buckley,  278;  Thomas  Worthington, 
279;  Bishop  E.  R.  Hendrix,  279;  Wm.  Bradfield,  280;  J.  G.  Tasker,  281; 
Enoch  Salt,  281;  A.  B.  Leonard,  282, 


CONTENTS.  iii 

SEVENTH  DAY. 

FIRST  SESSION. — Opening,  284;  Notices  by  Secretaries,  284;  Resolution  con- 
oerning  National  Arbitration  read,  285.  Essay,  "Adaptation  of  the  Church 
to  the  Needs  of  Modern  Life,"  S.  D.  Chown,  286.  Addresses — "Function  of 
the  Church  in  tlie  Life  of  the  Community,"  Sir  George  Smith,  292;  "Inter- 
denominational Co-operation,"  N.  W.  Rowell.  Discussion — Sir  Robert  W. 
Perlvs,  300;  A.  J.  Wallace,  301;  J.  Pearce,  302;  J.  Alfred  Sharp,  302;  Bishop 
Collins  Denny,  303;  Chancellor  N.  Burwash,  304;  Wm.  Flint,  305;  T.  J. 
Moppins,  306;  George  P.  Mains,  307;  A.  B.  Leonard,  308;  Councilor  A.  Shaw, 
308;  J.  S.  Ross,  309;  Bishop  W.  A.  Candler,  310.  Announcements  by  Sec- 
retary, 311. 

SECOND  SESSION. — ^Opening  Exercises,  311.  Addresses — "International  Rela- 
tions and  Responsibilities,"  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  311;  "The  Church  and  the 
World's  Peace,"  Alderman  T.  Snape,  321.  Resolution  on  International  Arbi- 
tration, moved  by  the  Chairman,  Bishop  E.  R.  Hendrix,  324,  and  seconded  by 
Henry  Haigh,  326.  Remarks  by  Sir  R.  W.  Perks,  328;  George  Elliott,  329; 
Motion  to  Adopt,  330.  General  Remarks — Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  330;  E.  G.  B. 
Mann,  331;  Marvin  Campbell,  332;  A.  J.  Wallace,  332;  Enoch  Salt,  333. 

THIRD  SESSION. — Opening  Exercises,  334.  Essay,  "Ideal  Evangelism — Forma- 
tive and  Reformative,"  Franklin  M.  Thomas,  334.  Addresses — "Characteristics 
of  Early  Methodist  Preaching,"  Henry  T.  Smart,  341;  "Modern  Evangelistic 
Methods,"  J.  Ernest  Rattenbury,  346.  Discussion — William  E.  Skinner,  348; 
David  G.  Downey,  349;  C.  Easor  Walters,  350;  C.  G.  Clement,  350;  T.  T.  Fish- 
burne,  351;  John  H.  Goodman,  351;  Joseph  Johnson,  352;  Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss, 
353;  Edward  J.  Brailsford,  353;  Norman  T.  C.  Sargant,  354;  the  Chairman, 
354.      Announcements,    355. 

EIGHTH  DAY. 

FIRST.  SESSION. — Opening  Services,  356;  Report  from  Business  Committee,  356; 
Ecumenical  Commission  recommended,  357;  Resolution  to  create  such  Com- 
mission deferred,  357;  Remarks  on  siibject  by  Sir  R.  W.  Perks,  358,  and  by 
Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  359.  Publication  of  Proceedings  and  Papers  of  the 
Conference  considered,  and  subscriptions  for  same  taken,  after  remarks  by 
Bishop  Hamilton,  362.  Notices  given,  364.  Essay,  "Tlie  Social  Teaching  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments,"  Gross  Alexander,  364.  Addresses — "Our 
Social  Duty  as  a  People's  Church,"  W.  Hodson  Smith,  378;  "Socialism,  Chris- 
tian and  Anti-Christian,"  B.  Haddon,  381.  Discussion — Herbert  Welch,  386; 
J.  Ernest  Rattenbury,  387;  George  Elliott,  388;  Mrs.  Joseph  Johnson,  389; 
J.  E.  Radcliflfe,  390;  William  Wakinshaw,  391;  Thomas  Manning,  391;  W. 
Blackburn  FitzGerald,  392.     Notices  and  Announcements,  393. 

SECOND  SESSION. — Introductory  Services,  393;  Report  from  Editorial  Committee 
adopted,  393.  Essay,  "Readjustment  of  Church  Work  in  Cities,"  Prank  JIason 
North,  393.  Addresses — "Settlement  Work,"  George  P.  Eckman,  401;  "Re- 
lation of  Methodist  Churches — -City,  Suburban,  and  Rural,"  William  Brad- 
field,  404.  Discussion — C.  Ensor  Walters,  409 ;  J.  G.  Bickerton,  409 ;  E.  A. 
White,  410;  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  411;  Robert  Forbes,  412;  Richard  F.  Broomfield, 
412;  W.  Hodson  Smith,  413;  John  A,  Patten,  414;  Thomas  Worthington,  415; 
Mrs.  Lucy  Rider  Meyer,  415.     Announcements,  417. 

THIRD  SESSION. — Opening  Services,  417;  Reception  of  Fraternal  Delegates,  Re- 
marks by  Chairman  Maclaren,  417.  From  the  Baptist  World  Alliance,  J.  H. 
Farmer,  introduced  by  Claudius  B.  Spencer,  418;  from  the  National  Congrega- 
tional Council,  S.  P.  Cadman,  introduced  by  same,  421;  from  the  Alliance  of 
Reformed  Churches  Throughout  the  World  Holding  the  Presbyterian  System, 
John  Sommerville,  434,  and  Hamilton  Cassels,  437,  introduced  by  same.  Re- 
sponses to  Addresses — F.  L.  Wiseman,.  438 ;  H.  M.  DuBose,  442.  Benediction 
by  Dr.  Cadman,  445. 


Yi  CONTENTS. 

FOURTEENTH  DAY. 

Devotional  Exercises,  724.  Essay,  "Uuion  and  Federation — History  and  Forecast," 
W.  Redfern.  Addresses — "Co-operation  in  Missions,  Education,  etc.,"  Enoch 
Salt,  729;  "Economy  in  the  Use  of  Forces  and  Means,"  Homer  C.  Stuntz. 
Discussion — E.  D.  Cornish,  753;  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  734;  Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  735; 
G.  G.  Findlay,  736;  Andrew  Crombie,  737;  Bisliop  C.  H.  Phillips,  738; 
Thomas  Mitchell,  738;  Henry  Haigh,  740;  Supt.  A.  Carman,  741.  Items  of 
Business,  741;  Resolution  of  Thanks,  742;  Moved  by  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  744; 
Seconded  by  Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  746,  and  by  Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson,  748; 
Records  of  the  Session  read  by  John  Elsworth;  Concluding  Prayers  and  Final 
Adjournment,  749. 

APPEfNDrX— 

Ecumenical  Methodist  Statistics:   H.   K.  Carroll  and  Simpson  Johnson, 

Western  Section    753 

Eastern  Section 754 

Missionary  Statistics    755-763 

Incomes   of  Missionary  Societies 764 

Order  of  Churches,  as  shown  by  Missionary  Contributions   765 

Notes  of  Progress 766 

Wesleyan  Foreign  Missions,  1901-1910,  J.  D.  Laraont    767 

Primitive  Methodism,    1901-1910    771 

The   Methodist  New  Connexion,    1901-1907,   George  Packer    772 

United  Methodist  Free  Churches,  1901-1907,  Edward  Boaden   773 

The  Bible  Christian  Church,   1901-1907,  J.   B.   Stedeford    774 

Summary  of  Statistics,  United  Methodist  Church,   1910   776 

Wesleyan    Reform    Union    777 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  of  South  Africa,   E.   Nuttall    778 

Australasian   Methodism,    1901-1910    781 

INDEX     •.  .  .  783 


INTRODUCTION. 

Methodists  of  the  OhI  World  and  of  the  New  sat  down 
happily  together,  in  Octoher,  1911,  in  their  fourth  Conference. 
This  assemljly  was  more  truly  Ecumenical  than  any  of  its  prede- 
cessors. From  the  Ancient  East  came  a  representative  of  tlie 
newest  scion  of  Methodism,  the  Japan  Methodist  Church,  and 
from  the  far  South,  where  autonomous  Churches  are  developing, 
were  welcomed  representatives  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  New 
Zealand.  From  the  North  and  from  the  South,  from  the  East 
and  from  the  West,  the  sons  of  John  Wesley  gathered  in  Toronto, 
to  exchange  greetings,  to  confer  concerning  the  progress  and 
problems  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  to  get  inspiration  and  en- 
couragement and  wisdom  for  more  effective  effort,  to  learn  to 
know  one  another  more  intimately,  and  to  form  lasting  friend- 
ships and  juster  estimates  of  the  strength  and  weakness  of  the 
Methodist  Churches. 

The  conditions  were  all  that  could  be  desired  for  a  success- 
ful Conference.  No  atmosphere  could  have  been  clearer  or 
finer;  no  church  building  could  have  afforded  more  suitable 
and  comfortaljle  quarters;  no  hosts  could  have  been  more  gen- 
erous and  considerate  than  our  Canadian  friends,  and  no  city 
could  have  given  a  warmer  or  more  Methodist  welcome.  The 
Conference  found  everything  ready  and  adequate  to  its  purposes 
and  work ;  a  church  ample  in  capacity,  noble  in  design,  and  fitted 
to  minister  to  the  spirit  of  worship;  daily  throngs  of  intent 
listeners;  officers,  committees,  and  effective  rules  of  procedure, 
and  a  comprehensive  program  of  vital  subjects. 

The  spirit  uppermost  from  beginning  to  end  was  enthusia^stic 
loyalty  to  the  gospel  of  Christ.  Not  a  word  was  uttered  incon- 
sistent with  the  utmost  devotion  to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and 
faith  in  the  complete  salvation  provided  by  His  life,  death,  and 
resurrection.  The  spirit  of  boasting  was  by  common  consent  ex- 
cluded. There  was  a  passion  for  the  truth,  perfect  frankness 
in  dealing  with  unfavorable  conditions  and  symptoms,  and  at 
the  same  time  a  confident  belief  that  the  gospel  contains  the 
solution  of  all  the  problems  of  the  future.  The  evangelistic 
note,  sounded  in  the  opening  sermon  on  the  call  for  laborers 

vii 


Yiii  INTRODUCTION. 

for  the  white  fields  of  harvest,  was  struck  again  and  again,  and 
was  perhaps  the  dominant  note  of  the  Conference.  It  seemed 
to  harmonize  as  liappily  with  the  call  to  social  service  as  with 
the  call  to  preach  the  gospel,  and  to  he  as  nrach  a  part  of  the 
Chnrch's'  concern  for  man's  body  and  mind  as  for  his  soul. 
Foreign  missions  are  the  appropriate  expression  of  this  evan- 
gelistic ardor.  It  is  an  inspiring  thought  that  practically  all 
races  have  been  proved  to  be  accessible  to  the  gospel,  and  that 
the  lowest  and  most  degraded  respond  to  its  regenerating  power. 
p^  ((The  Churches  are  burning  with  zeal  for  the  conversion  of  the 
^.  world,  and  Methodists  are  endeavoring  to  take  their  full  share 
of  this  sublime  task.'^  It  is  the  gospel  which  brings -all  human 
thoughts  and  activities  into  glorious  harmony  with  the  divine 
plan  for  man's  regeneration  and  development;  and  the  discus- 
sions made  it  clear  that  Methodism  must  hold  the  Master's 
commission  as  a  command,  not  only  to  preach  and  teach,  but 
to  protect  the  little  ones,  heal  the  sick,  comfort  the  afflicted, 
minister  to  the  poor,  relieve  the  oppressed,  and  lift  up  the  down- 
trodden. 

How  are  the  masses  of  the  unconverted  to  be  reached  ?  The 
old  evangelistic  methods  appear  to  be  scarcely  adequate  in  the 
present  age.  Camp-meetings  and  revival  campaigns  are  not  as 
successful  as  in  the  last  century.  This  was  made  plain  in  the 
papers  and  discussions;  but  in  what  way  shall  the  gospel  call 
to  repentance  be  given  to  the  masses  outside  the  Church  and 
not  now  in  the  circle  of  Church  influence  ?  ISTo  definite  answer 
to  this  vital  question  was  given.  The  training  of  the  child 
receives  more  thought  and  care  than  ever  before.  It  is  glorious 
to  prevent  prodigal-making;  but  the  Church  must  not  abandon 
tlie  task  of  prodigal-saving.  The  difficulties  suggest  diligent 
study  of  the  problems;  but  not  any  slackening  of  zeal  or  effort 
in  saving  unconverted  adults. 

It  is  obvious  that,  as  the  Church  takes  up  the  staggering 
burden  of  the  world  problem,  and  realizes  how  inadequate  are 
the  means  and  forces  in  sight,  it  must  consider  how  every  worker, 
every  penny,  and  eveiy  effort  can  be  directed  without  loss  or 
waste,  so  as  to  secure  the  greatest  possible  result.  In  the  in- 
dustrial world  the  necessity  of  economy,  concentration,  and  con- 
solidation long   ago   compelled  recognition;   the    Church   must 


INTRODUCTION.  ix 

also  acknowledge  it  and  adjust  itself  accordingly.  Comity,  co- 
operation, federation,  commanded  the  enthusiastic  approval  of 
the  Toronto  Conference.  Those  who  followed  the  discussions 
must  have  noted  how  often  the  subject  came  into  view,  and 
how  little  of  sentiment  and  conviction  on  the  other  side  found 
expression.  ISTo  one  argued  that  thirty  or  more  branches  of 
Methodism  are  necessary  to  its  effectiveness  and  must  be  pre- 
served; no  one  suggested  that  Methodism  in  Canada,  Australia, 
or  Great  Britain  had  lost  force  in  the  process  of  union;  no  one 
seemed  to  think  it  important  to  vindicate  tlie  divisions  of  the 
past  by  their  maintenance  in  the  future.  The  logic  of  the  situ- 
ation is  apparently  all  on  one  side.<C^  more  accurate  knowledge 
of  the  spirit,  work,  and  conditions  of  the  several  Churches,  a 
closer  mutual  acquaintance  of  their  leaders,  a  study  of  the  econo- 
mies which  might  be  secured  by  co-operation  or  union  will  result 
in  saving  men,  money,  and  effort  now  mistakenly  lavished  on 
hopelessly  weak  and  unnecessary  Churches^^  This  jproblem^  so 
happily  solved  in  Canada  and  Australia,  and  partially  in  Great 
Britain,  is  yet  to  be  worked  out  in  the  IJiirfed~Sra~fes.  Previous 
Ecumenical  Conferences  have  been  followed  by  the  consolidation 
of  groups  of  Methodist  Churches ;  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  hope 
that  a  similar  result  will  follow  the  recent  Conference. 

The  international  amity,  which  has  become  so  strong  between 
the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  was  manifested  in  the 
Conference  by  the  enthusiastic  approval  of  the  pending  Treaty 
of  Arbitration  destined,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  to  be  the  forerunner 
of  similar  compacts  with  other  nations.  The  Ecumenical  Con- 
ference has  been  a  bond  of  religious  amity  between  important 
sections  of  the  two  great  English-speaking  peoples,  and  it  will 
serve  to  strengthen  the  ties  of  friendship  which  have  drawn 
the  two  governments  into  such  happy  agreement. 

The  delegates  seemed  quite  ready  for  a  forward  step  in  Ecu- 
menical relations.  If  the  Conference  is  helpful  in  bringing  tlie 
branches  of  world-wide  Methodism  into  closer  sympathy  and 
association  once  in  ten  years,  why  not  try  to  make  this  sense 
of  common  interest  and  common  purpose  continuously  active? 
The  intervals  are  long,  and  each  Church  becomes  absorbed  in 
its  own  work ;  why  lose  any  of  the  spirit,  purpose,  and  enthusiasm 
of  the  Conference  which  ad  interim  organization  miglit  pre- 
serve?    The  plan  worked  out  by  the  Business  Committee  and 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

heartily  adopted  by  the  Conference  calls  for  a  Methodist  Inter- 
national Commission  to  consist  of  an  Eastern  and  a  Western 
Section  of  fifty  members  each.  These  Sectional  Commissions, 
representing  quite  different  fields  and  having  different  problems 
to  work  out,  will  decide  each  for  itself  what  it  will  try  to  accom- 
plish, but  their  main  purpose  doubtless  will  be  to  serve  as  a 
convenient  agency  by  which  the  sentiment  and  conviction  of  the 
various  branches  on  gi-eat  moral  and  religious  questions  may  be 
expressed  most  effectively,  and  by  which  their  mutual  relations 
may  be  strengthened  and  their  common  interests  advanced. 

The  relative  importance  of  the  Toronto  Conference  must  be 
determined  in  the  future.  Those  who  took  part  in  it  are  confi- 
dent as  to  the  ultimate  verdict.  Most  of  them  found  its  discus- 
sions profitable,  its  spirit  of  hopeful  determination  encouraging, 
and  its  deep  spirituality  helpful.  Its  program  was,  however, 
most  exacting,  and  the  hours  that  could  be  given  to  social  inter- 
course and  visitation  of  local  institutions  were  all  too  few.  One 
of  tlie  most  valuable  assets  of  a  deliberative  Conference,  designed 
to  promote  fraternal  feeling  and  amity,  will  be  found  in  the 
results  of  personal  friendships  formed  and  the  free  informal 
interchange  of  opinions  on  subjects  of  mutual  interest.  It  is 
to  be  hoped  that  the  next  Conference  will  have  a  less  crowded 
program  and  more  opportunity  for  social  intercoiirse. 

This  volume  has  much  of  value  in  its  many  pages.  It  gives, 
we  believe,  a  more  complete  view  of  the  progress  of  Methodism  in 
the  j)ast  ten  years,  and  of  its  present  condition  and  prospects 
than  can  be  found  elsewhere.  One  could  draw  from  it  a  fairly 
accurate  statement  of  the  things  which  Methodism  finds  it  easy 
and  the  things  which  it  finds  it  difficult  to  do ;  of  the  discourage- 
ments which  beset  earnest  workers ;  of  the  attitude  of  the  masses 
and  classes  toward  our  Churches ;  of  the  effect  of  modern  life  on 
spirituality;  of  the  state  of  conviction  as  to  the  fundamentals 
of  Christianity;  of  the  obliteration  of  some  of  the  old  land- 
marks; and  of  the  tendencies  of  a  new  and  restless  age.  Each 
generation  has  its  own  peculiar  problems  to  face.  Whatever  may 
be  said  of  that  now  entering  the  field  of  service  it  can  not  be 
said  that  it  shrinks  from  its  responsibilities  or  shows  any  lack 
of  confidence  in  its  ability  to  discharge  them. 

H.  K.  CAEEOLL. 
JAMES  CHAPMAN. 


OFFICIAL  LIST  OF  DELEGATES. 


WESTERN  SECTION. 

APPORTIONMENT    OF    DELEGATES    TO    THE    WESTERN    SECTION. 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church 140 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South 71 

Methodist  Church  of  Canada 24 

African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 22 

African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church 20 

Methodist  Protestant  Church 9 

Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 9 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Connection 

Primitive  Methodist  Church 

Union  American  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 

British  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 

Japan  Methodist  Church 


METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH. 


Bishop  J.  M.  Walden,  D.  D 

Bishop  Earl  Cranston,  D.  D.  . . 
Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  D.  D.  . . 

Bishop  J.  F.  Berry,  D.  D.* 

Bishop  William  Burt,  D.  D  .  . . . 
Bishop  Thomas  B.  Neely,  D.  D. 
Bishop  J.  L.  Nuelsen,  D.  D  .  .  .  . 

Bishop  W.  A.  Quayle,  D.  D 

Bishop  C.  W.  Smith,  D.  D 

Bishop  Wilson  S.  Lewis,  D.  D  . . 
Bishop  F.  M.  Bristol,  D.  D  .  .  .  . 

Bishop  I.  B.  Scott,  D.  D 

Rev.  C.  B.  Allen,  D.  D 

Rev.  Alfred  Anderson 

Rev.  S.  K.  Arbuthnot,  D.  D.  .  . . 
Rev.  Purley  A.  Baker,  D.  D  .  . . 

Rev.  J.  G.  Bickerton,  C  D 

Rev.  George  H.  Bridgman,  D.  D 

Rev.  W.  W.  Bowdish,  D.  D 

Rev.  F.  D.  Bovard,  D.  D 

Rev.  J.  M.  Buckley,  D.  D 

Rev.  John  W.  Butler,  D.  D  ... 
Rev.  Henry  A.  Buttz,  D.  D  .  .  . . 

Rev.  Ernest  W.  Bysshe  

Rev.  H.  L.  Cloud 

Rev.  W.  F.  Conner,  D.  D 

Rev.  R.  J.  Cooke,  D.  D 

Rev.  a.  J.  CouLTAS,  D.  D 

Rev.  Pres.  W.  H.  Crawford,  D.  D 
Rev.  Chan.  James  R.  Day,  D.  D 
Rev.  David  G.  Downey,  D.  D.  .  . 
Rev.  George  P.  Eckalan,  D.  D.  . 
Rev.  George  Elliott.  D.  D  .  .  .  . 
Rev.  T.  E.  Fleming,  D.  D  .  . 
Rev.  Robert  Forbes,  D.  D  . 
Rev.  John  Galbraith,  D.  D 
Rev.  Levi  Gilbert,  D.  D.  . . 

Rev.  William  H.  Giles 

Rev.  C.  Colder,  D.  D 

Rev  J.  F.  Goucher,  D.  D  . . 
Rev.  Samuel  J.  Greenfield 

♦Not  present. 


.  .Cincinnati,  O. 

.  .Washington,  D.  C. 

.  .  Boston,  Mass. 

. .  Buffalo,  N.  Y 

.  .Zurich,  Switzerland. 

. .  New  Orleans,  La. 

.  .Omaha,  Neb. 

..Oklahoma  City,  Okla. 

.  .Portland,  Ore. 

.  .  Foochow,  China. 

.  .  Buenos  Ayres,  Argentina,  S.  A. 

.  .Monrovia,  Liberia. 

.  .Detroit,  Mich. 

.  .Chicago,  111. 

.  .Wheeling,  W.  Va. 

.  .Westerville,  O. 

.  .Philadelphia,  Pa. 

.  .  Minneapolis,  Minn. 

.  .New  Haven,  Conn. 

. .  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

. .  New  York  City. 

. .  Mexico  City,  Mexico. 

.  .Madison,  N.  J. 

.  .La  Tronche,  Isere,  Grenoble,  France. 

.  .Wellston,  Okla. 

.  .  Pittsburgli,  Pa. 

.  .  New  York  City. 

. .  Fall  River,  Mass. 

. .  Meadville,  Pa. 

.  .  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

.  .Chicago,  111. 

. .  New  York  City. 

. .  Bay  City,  Mich. 

.  .Marshallto.vn,  la. 

.  .Philadelphia,  Pa. 

.  .Mattapan,  Mass. 

.  .Cincinnati,  O. 

.  .Lyons,  N.  Y. 

.  .Cincinnati,  O. ' 

. .  Baltimore,  Md. 

.  .Utica,  N.  Y. 


XI 


xii  LIST  OF  DELEGATES. 

Rev.  James  C.  Hall,  D.  D Lyons,  Kan. 

Rev.  Chan.  Franklin  Hamilton,  D.  D Washington,  D.  C. 

Rev.  James  Hamilton,  D.  D Grand  Rapids,  Mich. 

Rev.  John  W.  Hancher,  S.  T.  D Mt.  Pleasant,  la. 

Rev.  William  I.  Haven,  D.  D New  York  City. 

Rev.  Stephen  J.  Herben,  D.  D Chicago,  III 

Rev.  William  Forney  Hovis,  D.  D South  Bend,  Ind. 

Rev.  Horace  Lincoln  Jacobs,  D.  D Altoona,  Pa. 

Rev.  Pres.  K.  A.  Jansson,  D.  D Stockholm,  Sweden. 

Rev.  Jesse  W.  Jennings,  D.  D Kansas,  City  Mo. 

Rev.  H.  C.  Jennings,  D.  D Cincinnati,  O. 

Rev.  Hugh  J.  Johnston,  D.  D Baltimore,  Md. 

Rev.  William  V.  Kellev,  D.  D New  York  City. 

Rev.  John  Krantz,  D.  D New  York  City. 

Rev.  a.  G.  Kynett,  D.  D Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Rev.  a.  B.  Leonard,  D.  D New  York  City. 

Rev.  Joel  Leonard,  D.  D.* Boston,  Mass. 

Rev.  N.  Luccock,  D.  D Kansas  City,  Mo. 

Rev.  George  P.  Mains,  D.  D New  York  City. 

Rev.  M.  C.  B.  Mason,  D.  D Cincinnati,  O. 

Rev.  J.  W.  Marshall,  D.  D New  Brunswick,  N.  J. 

Rev.  Charles  B.  Mitchell,  D.  D Chicago,  111. 

Rev.  Pres.  Francis  J.  McConnell,  D.  D Greencastle,  Ind. 

Rev.  Edmund  M.  Mills,  D.  D Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

Rev  John  N.  Moore,  D.  D Kansas  City,  Mo. 

Rev.  S.  M.Morgan,  D.  D Wilmington,  Del. 

Rev.  L.  C  Murdoch;,  D.  D Scranton,  Pa. 

Rev.  Pres.  L.  H.  Murlin,  LL.  D Boston,  Mass. 

Rev.  Albert  J.  Nast,  D.  D Cincinnati.  O, 

Rev.  J.  St.  Clair  Neal,  D.  D Baltimore,  Md. 

Rev.  Thomas  Nicholson,  D.  D New  York  City. 

Rev.  Pres.  E.  A.  Noble,  L.  H.  D Carlisle,  Pa. 

Rev.  Frank  Mason  North,  D.  D New  York  City. 

Rev.  J.  H.  Potts,  D.  D Detroit,  Mich. 

Rev.  Willard  T.  Perrin,  Ph.  D Newton,  Mass. 

Rev.  Pres.  John  H.  Race,  D.  D Chattanooga,  Tenn. 

Rev.  G.  L.  Powell Caldwell,  Idaho. 

Rev.  Edwin  M.  Randall,  D.  D Chicago,  111. 

Rev.  Pres.  W.  A.  Shanklin,  D.  D Middleton,  Conn. 

Rev.  Prof.  H.  C.  Sheldon,  D.  D West  Newton,  Mass. 

Rev.  W.  O.  Shepard,  D.  D Chicago,  111. 

Rev.  W.  B.  Slutz,  D.  D Wooster,  O. 

Rev.  George  B.  Smith,  D.  D Steubenville,  O. 

Rev.  Pres.  R.  P.  Smith,  D.  D Salina,  Kan. 

Rev.  Claudius  B.  Spencer,  D.  D Kansas  City,  Mo. 

Rev.  Prof.  Richard  T.  Stevenson,  D.  D Delaware,  O . 

Rev.  James  Frank  Stout,  D.  D Austin,  Minn. 

Rev.  Charles  M.  Stuart,  D.  D Chicago,  111. 

Rev.  Homer  C.  Stuntz,  D.  D New  York  City. 

Rev.  J.  W.  Slthwalt,  D.  D Washington,  D.  C 

Rev.  W.  C.  Thompson, Washington,  D.  C. 

Rev.  Prof.  Milton  S.  Terry,  S.  T.  D Evanston,  111. 

Rev.  Prof.  Ezra  S.  Tipple,  D.  D Madison,  N.  J. 

Rev.  B.  M.  Tipple,  D.  D Rome,  Italy. 

Chaplain  D.  H.  Tribou,  D.  D Bucksport,  Me. 

Rev.  Pres.  Herbert  Welch,  D.  D Delaware,  O  . 

Rev.  E.  a.  White,  D.  D Cincinnati,  O. 

Rev.  J.  E.  Williams,  D.  D Rochester,  N.  Y. 

Mr.  J.  E.  Annis Chattanooga,  Tenn. 

Mr.  Frank  A.  Arter Cleveland,  O. 

Mr.  Ernst  G.  Bek Pforsheim,  Germany. 

Mrs.  J.  F.  Berry Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

Mr.  George  Warren  Brown St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Miss  Clementina  Butler Newton  Center,  Mass. 

Mr.  Marvin  Campbell South  Bend,  Ind. 

Hon.  B.  F.  Carroll* Des  Moines,  la. 

H.  K.  Carroll,  LL.  D New  York  City. 

Mr.  George  I.  Cochran Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

Mrs.  Earl  Cranston Washington,  D.  C. 

Mr.  John  Dale Omaha,  Neb. 

Hon.  Charles  W.  Fairbanks Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Mr.  William  A.  Foote Jackson,  Mich. 

Mr.  James  N.  Gamble Cincinnati,  O. 

Mr.  E.  R.  Graham Chicago,  111. 

Mr.  D.  S.  Gray Columbus,  O. 

Mrs.  J.  W.  Hamilton Boston,  Mass. 

*Not  present. 


LIST  OF  DELEGATES.  xiii 

Hon.  J.  Frank  Hanly Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Pres.  a.  W.  Harris,  LL.  D Evanston,  I.l. 

Mrs.  W.  I.  Haven Summit,  N.  J. 

Mr.  James  E.  Ingram Baltimore,  Md. 

Pres.  Edmund  J.  James,  LL.  D Champaign,  111. 

Hon.  William  Burdette  Matthews Charleston,  VV.  V'a. 

Mrs.  Lucy  Rider  Meyer Chicago,  III. 

Mr.  R.  T.  Miller,  LL.  D* Covington,  Ky. 

Mr.  John  R.  Mott,  LL.  D New  York  City. 

Mr.  Charles  Niedringhaus St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Mr.  J.  a.  Patten Chattanooga,  Tenn. 

Mr.  T.  J.  Pitner,  M.  D Jacksonville,  111. 

Mr.  Willi.\m  Rawling New  York  City. 

Mr.  T.  J.  B.  Robinson, Hampton,  la. 

Mrs.  George  O.  Robinson Detroit,  Mich. 

Mr.  a.  M.  Schoyer Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

Mrs.  CLAtJDius  B.  Spencer Kansas  City,  Mo. 

Mrs.  Katharine  Lent  Stevenson Boston,  Mass. 

Mr.  Joseph  S.  LTlland Fergus  Falls,  Minn. 

Hon.  R.  F.  Vessey Pierre,  N.  D. 

Hon.  a.  J.  Wallace Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

Mr.  George  F.  Washburn Boston,  Mass. 

Mr.  William  H.  White Fargo,  N.  D  . 

METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH,  SOUTH. 

Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson,  D.  D Baltimore,  Md. 

Bishop  E.  R.  Hendrix,  D.  D Kansas  City,  Mo. 

Bishop  W.  A.  Candler,  D.  D Atlanta,  Ga. 

Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.  D Nashville,  Tenn. 

Bishop  Collins  Denny,  D.  D Richmond,  Va. 

Bishop  Edwin  D.  Mouzon,  D.  D.* San  Antonio,  Texas. 

Rev.  Pres.  W.  N.  Ainsworth,  D.  D Macon,  Ga. 

Rev.  Gross  Alexander,  S.  T.  D Nashv  lie,  Tenn. 

Rev.  H.  B.  Bardwell Havana,  Cuba. 

Rev.  L.  F.  Beaty,  D.  D Nashville,  Tenn. 

Rev.  H.  a.  Bo.\z,  D.  D Fort  Worth,  Tex. 

Rev.  J.  L.  Bruce Juiz  de  Fora,  Brazil. 

Rev.  D.  W.  Carter,  D.  D San  Antonio,  Tex. 

Rev.  J.  R.  Cason Tampa,  Fla. 

Rev.  I.  W.  Cooper,  D.  D Brookhaven,  Miss. 

Rev.  S.  p.  Cresap,  D.  D St.  Joseph,  Mo. 

Rev.  U.  V.  W.  Darlington,  D.  D Huntington,  W.  Va. 

Rev.  R.  E.  Dickerson Denver   Col. 

Rev.  Pres.  J.  E.  Dickey,  D.  D Oxford,  Ga. 

Rev.  H.  M.  DuBose,  D.  D Augusta,  Ga. 

Rev.  V.  A.  Godbey,  D.  D San  Antonio,  Tex. 

Rev.  S.  E.  Hager Kobe,  Japan. 

Rev.  H.  M.  Hamill,  D.  D Nashville,  Tenn. 

Rev.  S.  C.  Hatcher,  D.  D Richmond,  Va. 

Rev.  C.  M.  Hawkins,  D.  D St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Rev.  Samuel  R.  Hay,  D.  D Houston,  Tex. 

Rev.  Robert  P.  Howell Los  Angele; ,  Cal. 

Rev.  Chan.  Robert  S.  Hyer,  LL.  D Georgetown,  Tex. 

Rev.  T.  N.  Ivey,  D.  D Nashville,  Tenn. 

Rev.  N.  L.  Linebaugh,  D.  D Oklahoma  City,  Okla. 

Rev.  W.  C.  Lovett,  D.  D Atlanta,  Ga. 

Rev.  E.  G.  B.  Mann,  D.  D Lexington,  Ky. 

Rev.  I.  P.  M.\RTiN Knoxville,  Tenn. 

Rev.  John  M.  Moore.  D,  D Nashvile,  Tenn. 

Rev.  Frank  S.  Onderdonk San  Luis  Potosi,  Mexico. 

Rev.  Prof.  Franklin  N.  Parker,  D.  D.* Durham,  N.  C. 

Rev.  F.  J.  Prett\-man,  D.  D Washington,  D.  C. 

Rev.  George  C.  Rankin,  D.  D Dallas,  Tex. 

Rev.  Lawrence  Reynolds, Guadalajara.  Mexico. 

Rev.  T.  C.  Schuler Nashville,  Tenn. 

Rev.  O.  F.  Sensabaugh,  D.  D Oklahoma  City,  Okla. 

Rev.  George  S.  Sexton,  D.  D Louisville,  Ky. 

Rev.'Frank  M.  Thomas,  D.  D Louisville.  Ky. 

Rev.  a.  F.  Watkins,  D.  D Hattiesburg,  Miss. 

Rev.  John  O.  Willson,  D.  D Greenwood,  S.  C  . 

Rev.  J.  Arthur  Winn Danville,  V'a. 

Rev.  George  B.  Winton,  D.  D Nashville,  Tenn. 

Rev.  W.  J.  Young,  D.  D Danville.  Va. 

Mr.  J.  R.  Bingham CarroUton,  Miss. 

♦Not  present. 


XIV 


LIST  OF  DELEGATES. 


Mr.  Joseph  G.  Brown Raleigh,  N.  C. 

Mr.  Asa  Candler,  Sr Atlanta,  Ga. 

Mrs.  T.  J.  CoPELAND Baltimore,  Md. 

Mrs.  Collins  Denny Richmond,  Va. 

Pres.  W.  p.  Few,  Ph.  D Durham,  N.  C . 

Mr.  T.  T.  Fishburne Roanoke,  Va. 

Prof.  J.  H.  Hineman Arkadelphia,  Ark. 

Mr.  W.  C.  Ivey Lynchburg,  Va. 

Prof.  Percy  D.  Maddin Nashville,  Tenn. 

Hon.  Perry  S.  Rader Jefferson  City,  Mo. 

Mr.  E.  C.  Reeves Johnson  City,  Tenn. 

Hon.  E.  C.  O'Rear* Frankfort,  Ky. 

Mr.  John  R.  Pepper Memphis,  Tenn. 

Hon.  W.  T.  Sanders Athens,  Ala. 

Mr.  T.  D.  Samford Opelika,  Ala. 

Pres.  H.  W.  Snyder,  LL.  D Spartanburg,  S.  C . 

Prof.  John  J.  Tigert Winchester,  Ky. 

Mr.  Moty  Tiger,  Chief  of  the  Creek  Indians Muskogee,  Okla. 

Mr.  H.  H.  White Alexandria,  La. 

METHODIST  CHURCH   OF  CANADA. 

Rev.  A.  Carman,  D.  D.,  General  Supt Toronto,  Ont. 

Rev.  S.  D.  Chown,  D.  D.,  General  Supt Winnipeg,  Man. 

Rev.  George  J.  Bond,  B.  A Halifax,  N.  S. 

Rev.  William  Briggs,  D.  D Toronto,  Ont. 

Rev.  N.  Burwash,  S.  T   D Toronto,  Ont. 

Rev.  Thomas  Manning,  D.  D London,  Ont. 

Rev.  W.  H.  Elmsley,  D.  D Picton,  Can. 

Rev.  J.  S.  Ross,  D.  D Hanover,  Ont. 

Rev.  E.  B.  Ryckman,  D.  D Kingston,  Ont. 

Rev.  Wm.  Sparling,  D.  D Montreal,  Can. 

Rev.  Howard  Sprague,  D.  D Sackville,  N.  B. 

Rev.  James  Woodsworth,  D.  D Winnipeg,  Man. 

Mr.  J.  A.  M.  Aikins,  K.  C.  ,  M.  P Winnipeg,  Man. 

Hon.  R.  K.  Bishop St.  John's,  Newfoundland. 

Hon.  W.  H.  Cushing Calgar>-,  Alta. 

J.  W.  Flavelle,  LL.  D Toronto,  Ont. 

Mr.  H.  H.  Fudger Toronto,  Ont. 

Hon.  George  P.  Graham Ottawa,  Ont. 

J.  R.  Inch,  LL.  D Sackville,  N.  B. 

Hon.  Justice  J.  J.  Maclaren,  D.  C.  L Toronto,  Ont. 

Mr.  C.  D.  Massey Toronto,  Ont. 

Mr.  H.  H.  Miller Hanover,  Ont. 

Mr.  N.  W.  Rowell,  K.  C Toronto,  Ont. 

Mr.  Edmund  Sweet Brantford,  Ont. 

METHODIST  PROTESTANT  CHURCH. 

Rev.  M.  L.  Jennings,  D.  D Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

Rev.  T.  H.  Lewis,  D.  D Westminster,  Md. 

Rev.  F.  T.  Little,  D.  D Chestertown,  Md. 

Rev.  F.  T.  Tagg,  D.  D Baltimore,  Md. 

Rev.  C.  E.  Wilbur,  D.  D Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

Mr.  S.  W.  Dungan Franklin,  Ind. 

Mr.  T.  a.  Hunter Greensboro,  N.  C. 

Mr.  a.  M.  Lyons Steubenville,  O. 

Mr.  G.  T.  Marshall Pittsburgh,  Pa. 


AFRICAN  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH. 


D. 


Bishop  Wesley  J.  Gaines,  D.  D.  . 

Bishop  B.  F.  Lee,  D.  D 

Bishop  W.  B.  Derrick,  D.  D.  . 

Bishop  C.  S.  Smith,  D.  D 

Bishop  Cornelius  T.  Shaffer, 
Bishop  L.  J.  Coppin,  D.  D  .  . .  . 
Bishop  Henry  B.  Parks,  D.  D 
Rev.  a.  Henry  Ataway,  D.  D. 

Rev.  R.  L.  Beale,  D.  D 

Rev.  W.  D.  Chappelle,  D   D  . 

Rev.  J.  M.  Conner,  D.  D 

Rev.  p.  C.  Hunt,  D.  D 


.  .Atlanta,  Ga. 
.  .Wilberforce,  O  . 
.  .Flushing,  N.  Y. 
.  .Detroit,  Mich. 
.  .Chicago,  111. 
.  .  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
.  .Chicago,  111. 
.  .Jacksonville,  Fla. 
.  .Hannibal,  Mo. 
.  .Columbia,  S.  C. 
.  .Little  Rock,  Ark. 
. .  Palestine,  Tex. 


*Not  present. 


LIST  OF  DELEGATES.  Xy 

Rev.  John  Hurst,  D.  D Washington,  D.  C. 

Rev.  W.  D.  Johnson,  D.  D Columbus,  Ga. 

Rev.  Joshua  H.  Jones,  D.  D Wilberforce,  O. 

Rev.  R.  L.  Pope,  D.  D Montgomerj',  Ala. 

Rev.  George  H.  Shaffer,  D.  D Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Rev.  R.  R.  Wright,  Jr Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Mr.  Charles  Banks Mound  Bayou,  Miss. 

Mr.  J.  L.  Curtis New  York  City. 

Prof.  D.  J.  Jordan,  A.  M Kittrell,  N.  C. 

C.  T.  Roman,  M.  D Nashville,  Tena. 

AFRICAN  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  ZION  CHURCH. 

Bishop  C.  R.  Harris,  D.  D Salisbury,  N.  C. 

Bishop  A.  Walters,  D.  D New  York  City. 

Bishop  G.  W.  Clinton,  D.  D Charlotte,  N.  C. 

Bishop  J.  W.  Alstork,  D.  D Montgomery,  Ala. 

Bishop  J.  S.  Caldwell,  D.  D Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Bishop  G.  L.  Blackwell,  D.  D Philadelph-a,  Pa. 

Bishop  A.  J.  Warner,  D.  D Charlotte,  N.  C. 

Rev.  T.  a.  Auten Bath,  N.  Y. 

Rev.  R.  R.  Ball,  D.  D New  Haven,  Conn. 

Rev.  W.  a.  Blackwell,  D.  D Montgomerj',  Ala. 

Rev.  G.  C.  Clement Charlotte,  N.  C. 

Rev.  R.  F.  Fisher Waterburj',  Conn. 

Rev.  W.  H.  Goler,  D.  D Salisbury,  N.  C. 

Rev.  W.  L.  Lee Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

Rev.  S.  J.  Jackson,  D.  D Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Rev.  B.  W.  Swain Hartford,  Conn. 

Rev.  J.vmes  E.  Mason,  D.  D Rochester,  N.  Y. 

Rev.  W.  H.  Whitted Providence,  R.  I. 

Prof.  S.  G.  Atkins,  Ph.  D Winston  Salem,  S.  C. 

Hon.  J.  C.  Dancy,  LL.  D Washington,  D.  C. 

COLORED  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH. 

Bishop  C.  H.  Phillips,  D.  D Nashville,  Tenn. 

Bishop  E.  Cottrell,  D.  D Holly  Springs,  Miss. 

Rev.  C.  L.  Bonner,  D.  D Toccoa,  Ga. 

Rev.  Pres.  J.  A.  Bray,  D.  D Birmingham,  Ala. 

Rev.  J.  W.  McKinney,  D.  D Sherman,  Tex. 

Rev.  T.  J.  MoppiNS Nashville,  Tenn. 

Rev.  I.  S.  Person,  D.  D Jackson,  Tenn. 

Rev.  L.  E.  B.  Rosser,  D.  D Washington,  D.  C. 

Rev.  G.  T.  Long,  D.  D Washington,  D.  C. 

WESLEYAN  METHODIST  CONNECTION. 

Rev.  D.  S.  Bedford Houghton,  N.  Y. 

PRIMITIVE  METHODIST  CHURCH. 

Rev.  E.  Humphries,  Ph.  D Fall  River,  Mass. 

UNION   AMERICAN   METHODIST   EPISCOPAL    CHURCH. 

Bishop  J.\cob  F.  Ramsey,  D.  D Philadelphia,  Pa. 

BRITISH  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH. 

Rev.  S.  R.  Drake,  D.  D.,  General  Supt London,  Ont. 

JAPAN  METHODIST  CHURCH. 

Rev.  Sennosuke  Ogata,  D.  D Tokyo,  Japan. 


xvi  LIST  OF  DELEGATES. 


EASTERN  SECTION. 

APPORTIONMENT  OF  DELEGATES  TO  THE  EASTERN  SECTION. 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Church 100 

Primitive  Methodist  Church 34 

United  Methodist  Church 30 

Australasian  Method  st  Church 16 

Irish  Methodist  Church 10 

Wesleyan  Reform  Union 3 

Independent  Methodist  Church 3 

French  Methodist  Church 2 

South  African  Methodist  Church 2 

WESLEYAN  METHODIST  CHURCH. 

Rev.  T.  Hardy  Banks,  B.  A London. 

Rev.  Joseph  H.  Bateson,  B.  A London. 

Rev.  William  Bradfield,  B.  A Illdey. 

Rev.  Edward  J.  Brailsford Williton,  Somerset. 

Rev.  Richard  F.  Broomfield Goole. 

Rev.  James  Chapman,  D.  D Battersea,  London. 

Rev.  Edward  Davidson Harrogate. 

Rev.  J.  Cadvan  Davies Wylfa,  Oswestry. 

Rev.  John  Elsworth Edinburgh. 

Rev.  George  G.  Findlay,  D.  D Headingley,  Leeds. 

Rev.  W.  Blackburn  FitzGerald Headingley,  Leeds. 

Rev.  John  H.  Goodman London. 

Rev.  John  C.  W.  Gostick Buxton. 

Rev.  John  Gould Nottingham. 

Rev.  Henry  Haigh,  D.  D Newcastle-on-Tyne,   President   of  the 

Conference. 

Rev.  John  T.  F.  Halligey Margate. 

Rev.  T.  Galland  Hartley Preston. 

Rev.  W.  W.  Holdsworth,  M.  A Birmingham. 

Rev.  H.  Maldwyn  Hughes,  D.  D Southport. 

Rev.  George  Jackson   B.  A Toronto,  Canada. 

Rev  Simpson  Johnson London,  Secretary  of  the  Conference. 

Rev.  Evan  Isaac Llanidloes. 

Rev.  James  Lewis Cambridge. 

Rev.  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  D.  D London 

Rev.  George  H.  McNeal Sheffield. 

Rev.  George  Marris Sutton,  Surrey. 

Rev.  John  Hugh  Morgan Folkestone. 

Rev  James  H.  Moulton,  D.  D Didsbury. 

Rev.  Wilfrid  J.  Moulton,  M.  A Leeds. 

Rev.  Thos.  E.  North,  B.  A London. 

Rev.  W.  Scott  Page Alderley  Edge. 

Rev.  J.  Ernest  Rattenbury London. 

Rev.  Thomas  Rippon Leeds. 

Rev.  Enoch  Salt South  Croydon. 

Rev.  H.  Arnaud  Scott London. 

Rev.  J.  Alfred  Sharp London. 

Rev.  a.  E.  Sharpley,  B.  A.,  B.  D Beckenham. 

Rev.  Henry  T.  Smart London. 

Rev.  W.  Hodson  Smith Newquay. 

Rev.  J.  G.  Tasker,  D.  D Handsworth. 

Rev.  C.  Ensor  Walters Sheffield.  M 

Rev.  Willi.\m  Wakinshaw London. 

Rev.  Owen  S.  Watkins London. 

Rev.  Thomas  E.  Westerdale Bolton. 

Rev.  Frederick  L.  Wiseman,  B.  A Birmingham. 

Rev.  Herbert  B.  Workman,  D.  Lit* Westminster. 

Ald.  G.  A.  Baker,  J.  P Gloucester. 

Mr.  Llewellyn  E.  C.\mp,  J.  P London. 

Mr.  James  Crosby  Chapman Cambridge. 

Mr.  William  J.  Davey London. 

Sir  W.  Howell  Davies,  M.  P Bristol. 

Mr.  John  B.  Eaton Sheffield. 

Mr.  Thomas  J.  Fear Woking. 

Mr.  Thomas  R.  Ferens,  M.  P Hull. 

Mr.  T.  Albert  Gleave Liverpool. 


*Not  present. 


LIST  OF  DELEGATES.  xvii 

Mr.  Norval  W.  Helme,  M.  P Lancaster. 

Mr.  Pliny  Hepworth Leeds. 

Mr.  W.  O.  Jones Bangor. 

Mr.  W.  Machin Longton,  Staffs. 

Mrs.  Machin Longton,  Staffs. 

Mrs.  Medlock London. 

Mr.  J  JHN  Myers Leeds. 

Mr.  Ebenezer  Parkes,  M.  P Birmingham. 

Mr.  Charles  Pearson New  Brigliton,  Cheshire. 

Sir  Robert  W.  Perks  hart London. 

Mr.  Thomas  Pratt Bradford. 

Mrs.  Thomal  Pr.^tt Bradford. 

Mr.  Edward  Rees  J   P Caersws,  Mont. 

Mr  George  Royle,  J.  P Bedford. 

Mr.  Norman  T.  C.  S.\rgent London. 

Mrs  T.  J.  Sargent London. 

Mr.  William  E  Skinner London. 

Sir  George  J   Smith Truro. 

Dr.  Richard  T.  Smith London. 

Mr.  R.  E.  Starkie Head  ngley,  Leeds. 

Dr.  Arthur  Vinter Woodhouse  Grove. 

Miss  Wallis Lincoln. 

Mr.  John  W.  Wilson,  J.  P Harrogate. 

Mr  Peter  F.  Wood. Chislehurst. 

Mr.  Richard  F.  Yeo Torquay. 

PRIMITIVE  METHODIST  CHURCH. 

Rev.  G.  Armitage Liverpool. 

Rev.  Joseph  T.  Barkby Southport. 

Rev.  William  Barker Preston 

Rev.  Edw  n  Dalton,  D.  D Hull,  President  of  Conference. 

Rev.  Joseph  Dinnick London. 

Rev.  B.  Haddon Gateshead-on-Tyne. 

Rev.  S.  S.  Henshaw Leeds. 

Rev.  John  Holland Birmingham. 

Rev.  Joseph  Johnson London. 

Rev.  W.  AL\inprize Scotter,  Lincoln. 

Rev.  W.  Mincher London. 

Rev.  T.  Mitchell Southport. 

Rev.  Isaiah  Potts Sheffield. 

Ald.  J.  Brearley  J.  P Ha  ifax. 

Mr.  T.  Fletcher,  J.  P Silsden,  Yorks,  Vice-President  of  Con- 
ference. 

Mr.  W.  Gaskell Southport. 

Mr.  Corbin  Harris Bournemouth. 

Miss  Hartley Southport. 

Mr.  a.  J.^ckson Croydon. 

Mrs.  Joseph  Johnson London. 

Ald.  L.  L.  Morje,  J.  P Swindon. 

Prof.  A.  S.  Peake,  D.  D* Manchester. 

Mr.  J.  Peatfeld Retford. 

Ald.  E.  C.  Rawlings,  J.  P London. 

Mr.  T.  Robinson,  J.  P Cleethorpes. 

CouN.  A.  Shaw,  J.  P Brierley  Hills,  Staffs. 

Mr.  Wilson  Smith Hanley,  Stoke-on-Trent. 

Mr.  J.  J.  Spoor Durham. 

Mr.  W.  Tarver,  P.  J London. 

CouN.  W.  Windsor,  J   P Manchester. 

UNITED  METHODIST  CHURCH. 

Rev.  D.  Brook,  M.  A.,  D.  C.  L Southport. 

Rev.  H.  T.  Chapman Leeds. 

Rev.  J.  S.  Clemens,  B.  A.,  B.  D Sheffield. 

Rev.  E.  D.  Cornish Eccles,  Manchester. 

Rev.  Andrew  Crombie London. 

Rev.  W.  H.  Cory  Harris Rochdale. 

Rev.  D.wid  Heath Blackpool. 

Rev.  J.  H.  James,  ^L  A.,  LL.  B.,  B.  D Burnley. 

Rev.  W.  B.  Lark Bude,  Cornwall. 

Rev.  John  Luke Torrington,  Devon. 

Rev.  G.  Packer,  D.  D Leeds,  President  of  the  Conference. 

Rev.  J.  E.  Radcliffe Halifax. 


*Not  present. 
2a 


xviii  LIST  OP  DELEGATES. 

Rev.  W.  Redfern Rochdale. 

Rev.  B.  W.  Rose Huddersfield. 

Rev.  Henry  Smith London. 

Mr.  J.  K.  Baker Sheffield. 

Mr.  G.  E.  Bolshaw Southport. 

Mr.  S.  a.  Bridgewater Weston-Super-Mare. 

Mr.  J.  B.  Butler Bristol. 

Mr.  W.  H.  Butler,  J.  P Bristol. 

Mr.  R.  W.  Essex,  M.  P London. 

Mr.  J.  Godfrey.  J.  P Nottingham. 

Mr.  M.  Mordey,  J.  P Newport,  Men. 

Mr.  Walter  J.  Nicholls St.  Austell. 

Ald.  Thos.  Snape,  J.  P Liverpool. 

Mr.  Joseph  Ward Sheffield. 

Mr.  Marmaduke  Wardlow Sheffield. 

Mr.  J.  G.  Watson Newcastle-on-Tyne. 

Mr.  Thomas  Watson Leeds. 

Mr.  W.  H.  Yeo,  J.  P Camelford. 

IRISH  METHODIST  CONFERENCE. 

Rev.  S.  T.  Boyd.  B.  A Bray  Co.,  Wicklow. 

Rev.  Hugh  McKeag Dublin. 

Rev.  John  O.  Park,  D.  D.,  B.  A Wexford. 

Rev.  Randall  C.  Phillips Dublin. 

Rev.  W.  H.  Smyth,  B.  A Cork. 

Rev.  George  R.  Wedgewood Belfast. 

Mr.  R.  W.  Booth.  J.  P Dalkey,  Co.  Dublin. 

Mr.  a.  M.  Fullerton Dalkey,  Co.  Dublin. 

Mr   George  Hadden,  J.  P Wexford. 

Mr.  William  J.  Venables Cookstown,  Co.  Tyrone. 

WESLEYAN  REFORM  UNION  CHURCH. 

Rev.  Edmund  Bromage Sheffield. 

Mr.  George  Carr Sheffield. 

Mr.  J.  H.  Freeborough Sheffield. 

INDEPENDENT  METHODIST  CHURCH. 

Mr.  John  Battersby Newton-le- Willows. 

Mr.  Richard  Lee Wigan. 

Mr.  Thomas  Worthington Wigan. 

FRENCH  METHODIST  CHURCH. 

M.  LE  Pasteur  Thomas  Hocart Paris. 

M.  le  Pasteur  Theophile  Roux Saint-Brieux,  C6tes-du-Nord. 

SOUTH  AFRICAN  METHODIST  CHURCH. 

Rev.  Willlam  Flint,  D.  D Rosebank,  Capetown. 

METHODIST  CHURCHES  OF  AUSTRALIA  AND  NEW  ZEALAND. 

Rev.  C.  E.  Beecroft New  Zealand. 

Rev.  A.  J.  Burt New  South  Wales. 

Rev.  W.  H.  Fitchett,  LL.  D Victoria. 

Rev.  J.  H.  He.a.ton Queensland. 

Rev.  L.  Hudson Sydenham,  New  Zealand. 

Rev.  H.  J.  MoRELL West  Australia. 

Rev.  S.  J.  Martin South  Australia. 

Rev.  J.  Pearce Adelaide,  South  Australia. 

Rev.  Albert  Stubbs South  Australia. 

Rev.  W.  Williams,  D.  D Victoria. 

Mr.  T.  Allen New  Zealand. 

Mr.  W.  M.  Williams Tasmania. 


OFFICERS  OF  THE  CONFERENCE. 


PRESIDENTS. 

Rev.  a.  Carman,  D.  D Methodist  Church  of  Canada. 

Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson,  D.  D Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

Rev.  Henry  Haigh  D.  D Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

Bishop  Earl  Cr.\nston,  D.  D Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Rev.  Edwin  Dalton,  D.  D Primitive  Methodist  Church. 

Bishop  C.  S.  Smith,  D   D African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Rev.  George  Packer,  D.  D United  Methodist  Church. 

Sir  W.  Howell  Davies,  M.  P Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

Rev.  T.  H.  Lewis,  D.  D Methodist  Protestant  Church. 

Mr.  T.  R.  Ferens,  M.  P We  leyan  Methodist  Church. 

Rev.  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  D.  D Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

Bishop  A.  Walters,  D.  D African     Methodist     Episcopal     Zion 

Church. 

Rev.  W.  Williams,  D.  D.  .  : Method  st  Church  of  Australia. 

Bishop  E.  R.  Hendrix,  D.  D Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South 

Mr.  Norval  W.  Helme,  M.  P Wesleya.i  Methodist  Church. 

Rev.  J.  M.  Buckley,  D.  D Methodist  Epi;copal  Church. 

Rev.  J.  Oliver  Park,  D.  D Ir  sh  Method  st  Church. 

Hon.  J.  J.  Maclaren Methodist  Church  of  Canada. 

Ald.  E.  C.  Rawlings,  J.  P Primitive  Methodist  Church. 

Bishop  T.  B.  Neely,  D.  D Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Rev.  F.  L.  Wise.man,  B.  A Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

Sir  Robert  W.  Perks,  Bart Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

Mrs.  W.  I.  Haven Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Mr.  Geoege  Carr Wesleyan  Re''orm  Union. 

Hon.  J.  C.  Dancy  LL.  D African     Methodist     Episcopal     Zion 

Church. 

Bishop  C.  W.  Smith,  D.  D Methodist  Epifcopal  Church. 

Bishop  Collins  Denny,  D.  D Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

Rev.  E.  Hltviphries,  Ph.  D Primitive  Methodist  Church,  U.  S. 

Rev.  E.  J.  Brailsford Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

Rev.  H.  T.  Chapman United  Methodist  Church. 

SECRETARIES. 

H.  K.  Carroll,  LL.  D,  Chief Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Rev.  James  Chapman,  D.  D Wesleyan  Methodis'.  Church. 

Bishop  C.  H.  Phillips,  D.  D Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Ald.  Thomas  Snape,  J.  P United  Methodist  Church. 


XIX 


LIST  OF  COMMITTEES 


EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE. 


WESTERN  SECTION. 

Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  Chairman. 
H.  K.  Carroll,  LL.  D.,  Secretary: 


Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 


Bishop  Earl  Cranston,  D.  D. 
Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  D.  D. 
Rev.  W.  F.  Conner,  D.  D. 
Rev.  N.  Luccock,  D.  D. 
Rev.  T.  E.  Fleming,  D.  D. 


H.  K.  Carroll,  LL.  D. 
Mr.  George  F.  Washburn. 
Hon.  Charles  W.  Fairbanks. 
Mr.  George  Warren  Brown. 


Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.  D.  I  Rev.  B.  F.  Lipscomb,  D.  D. 

Rev.  H.  M.  DuBose.  D.  D.  Mr.  T.  T.  Fishburne. 

Mr.  John  R.  Pepper.  | 

Methodist  Church  of  Canada. 

Rev.  a.  Carman,  D.  D.'  |  Hon.  J.  J.  Maclaren. 

Methodist  Protestant  Church. 

Rev.  F.  T.  Little,  D.  D. 

African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Bishop  C.  S.  Smith,  D.  D. 
African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church. 
Bishop  A.  Walters,  D.  D. 
Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Bishop  C.  H.  Phillips,  D.  D. 


EASTERN  SECTION. 

Sir  Robert  W.  Perks,  Bart.,  Treasurer. 

Rev.  James  Chapman,  D.  D.,  Secretary. 
Ald.  Thomas  Snape,  J.  P.,  Assistant  Secretary 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

Rev.  John  Hornabrook.  1  Rev.  Willi.a.m  Butterworth. 


Rev.  Simpson  Johnson. 
Rev.  James  Chapman,  D.  D. 
Rev.  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  D.  D. 
Rev.  Enoch  Salt. 
Rev.  Thomas  E.  Westerdale. 


Lieut  -Col.  Charles  S.  Denniss. 
Mr.  William  Middlebrook,  M.  P. 
Sir  Robert  W.  Perks,  Bart. 
Mr.  Arthur  Henderson,  M.  P. 
Mr  Willl-vmson  L.\mplough. 


Primitive  Methodist  Church. 


Rev.  J.  D.  Thompson. 
Rev.  J.  Hallam. 
Rev.  a.  T.  Guttery. 


Rev.  J.  Welford. 

Mr.  E.  C.  Rawlings,  J.  P. 

Rev.  Joseph  Johnson. 


XX 


./ 


LIST  OF  COMMITTEES. 


XXI 


Rev.  H.  T.  Chapm.\n. 
Rev.  a.  Crombie. 
Rev.  S.  B.  Lane. 


United  Methodist  Church. 


Rev.  H.  Smith. 

Mr.  E.  S.  Snell. 

Mr.  W.  S.  Skelton,  J.  P. 


Wesleyan  Reform  Union. 

Mr.  W.  Marsden. 


Mr.  W.  H.  Riding. 


Independent  Methodist  Church. 

I  Mr.  W.  Brimelow. 


Rev.  R.  C.  Johnson 

Mr.  Richard  VV.  Booth,  J.  P. 


Irish  Methodist  Church. 

1  Ald.  Thom.\s  Snape,  J.  P. 


South  African  Methodist  Church. 

Rev.  Ezra  Nuttall. 

Australian  Methodist  Church. 

Rev.  J.  E.  C.\rruthers. 


BUSINESS  COMMITTEE. 
First  Division. 


Hon.  J.  J.  Maclaren. 
Rev.  J.  S.  Ross,  D.  D. 
Bishop  C.  H.  Phillips,  D.  D.,  Ex-Officio. 


Bishop  C.  S.  Smith,  D.  D. 
Rev.  F.  T.  Little,  D.  D. 


Second  Division. 


Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  D  D. 
Rev.  N.  Luccoc-,  D.  D. 
Mr.  George  F.  W.vshburx. 
Rev.  H.  M.  DuBose,  D.  D. 


Mr  T.  T.  Fishburne. 

Rev.  T.  E.  Fleming,  D.  D. 

H.  K.  Carroll,  LL.  D.,  Ex-Officio. 


Rev.  Henry  Haigh,  D.  D. 
Rev.  Simpson  Johnson. 
Rev.  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  D.  D. 


Rev.  E.  Dalton. 
Rev.  G.  Packer. 
Rev.  W.  Willlvms. 


Third  Division. 


Sir  Robert  W.  Perks,  B.\rt. 

Sir  George  Smith. 

Rev.  James  Chapman,  D.  D.,  Ex-Officio. 


Fourth  Division. 


Mr.  Wm.  J.  Venables. 

Mr.  Richard  Lee. 

Ald.  T.  Snape,  Ex-Officio. 


STATISTICAL  COMMITTEE 


H.  K.  Carroll,  LL.  D. 
Rev.  a.  F.  Watki.ns,  D.  D. 
Bishop  B.  F.  Lee,  D.  D. 
Rev.  Simpson  Johnson. 


Rev.  T.  Mitchell. 
Rev.  W.  Redfer.n. 
Rev.  J.  S.  Ross,  D.  D. 


Rev.  R.  J.  Cooke,  D.  D. 
Rev.  a.  J.  Lamar,  D.  D. 
H.  K.  Carroll,  LL.  D. 


EDITORIAL  COMMITTEE. 


Rev.  JA.MES  CHAPM.VN,  D.  D. 

Rev.  Enoch  Salt. 
Rev.  H.  Arnaud  Scott. 


COMMITTEE  ON  DIVORCE,  INTEMPERANCE,  AND  OTHER  MATTERS. 

Rev.  S.  D.  Cnowyi,  D.  D.,  Chairman. 


Bishop  C.  W.  Smith,  D.  D. 
Mr.  H.  H.  Miller. 
Rev.  H.  M.  DuBose,  D.  D. 
Bishop  A.  Walters,  D.  D. 


Rev.  F.  T.  Little,  D.  D. 
Rev.  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  D.  D. 
Rev.  J.  Alfred  Sharp. 
Sir  George  Smith. 


xxu 


LIST  OF  COMMITTEES. 


LOCAL  EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE. 

Hon.  J.  J.  Maclaren,  Chairman. 
Rev.  J.  J.  Redditt,  D.  D..  Secretary. 


Rev.  William  Briggs,  D.  D. 
Rev.  a.  Carman,  D.  D. 
Mr.  Chester  D.  Massey. 
Mr.  J.  W.  Flavelle,  LL.  D. 
Mr.  H.  H.  Fudger. 
Rev.  N.  Burwash,  S.  T.  D. 
Mr.  N.  W.  Rowell,  K.  C. 


Rev.  J.  H.  Hazlewood,  D.  D. 
Rev.  W.  H.  Hincks,  D.  D. 
Rev.  J.  F.  German,  D.  D. 

W.  E.  WiLLMOTT.  M.  D. 

Rev.  W.  B.  Creighton,  D.  D. 
Mr.  p.  G.  Price. 


DAILY  PROGRAMME. 


FIRST  DAY— WEDNESDAY,  OCTOBER  4th. 
First  Session. 

President:  Rev.  A.  Carman,  D.  D.,  General  Superintendent,  Methodist  Church  of  Canada. 

E.     10  A.  M. — Sermon.     Rev.    Henry    Haigh,    D.    D.,    President   Wesleyan    Methodist 
Conference. 
Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  Administered  by  Bishop  J.  M.  Walden,  D.  D  ,  Bishop 
A.  W.  Wilson.  D.  D.,  Bishop  B.  F.  Lee,  D.  D.,  Rev.  Henry  Haigh,  D.  D.,  Rev. 
Edwin  Dalton,  D.  D.,    Rev.  George  Packer,  D.  D.,   Rev.  S.  D.  Chown,  D.  D 
and  Rev.  T.  H.  Lewis,  D.  D. 

Second  Session. 

President:  Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

2.30  P.  M. — Devotional  Service,  etc.     Philippians  I.     Rev.  J.  E.  Dickey,  D    D. 
Election  of  Officers  on  Nomination  of  Business  Committee. 

Addresses  of  Welcome:  Rev.  Wm.  Briggs,  D.  D.,  Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  D.  D.,  Bishoo 
H.  B.  Parks.  D.  D.,  Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.  D. 

Responses:  Rev.  Henry  Haigh,  D.  D.,  Sir  Robert  W.  Perks,  Bart.,  Rev.  S.  S.  Henshaw 
Mr.  R.  W.  Essex,  M.  P. 


SECOND  DAY— THURSDAY,  OCTOBER  5th. 
First  Session. 

President:  Rev.  Henry  Haigh,  D.  D.,  President  Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference. 

TOPIC:  Ecumenical  Methodism. 

10  A.  M. — Devotional  Service,  etc.     Psalm  XCVIIL     Rev.  Thomas  Rippon. 

W.  Essay :  Methodism  in  the  Western  Section  in  the  Past  Ten  Years.     H.  K.  Carroll. 

LL.  D..  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
W.  First  .A.ddress:  Bishop  E.  R.  Hendrix,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church   South 
W.     Second  Address:  Rev.  Howard  Sprague,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Church  of  Canada 
W.   Third  Address:  Rev.  S.  Ogata,  D.  D.,  Japan  Methodist  Church. 

Second  Session. 

President:  Bishop  Earl  Cranston,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

2.30  P.  M. — Devotional  Service,  etc.     Deut.  8:  1-10.     Rev.  George  Elliott,  D.  D. 

E.     Essay:  Methodism  in  the  Eastern  Section  in  the  Past  Ten  Years.     Rev.  Simpson 

Johnson.  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 
E.     First  Address:  Rev.  T.  Mitchell,  Primitive  Methodist  Church. 
E.     Second  Address:  Rev.  Henry  Sm  th.  United  Methodist  Church. 
E.     Third  Address:  Rev.  W.  Williams,  Methodist  Church  of  Australia. 

Third  Session. 

President:  Rev.  Edwin  Dalton,  D.  D.,  President  Primitive  Methodist  Conference. 

7.30  P.  M. — Devotional  Service,  etc.     Acts  2:  41-47.     Rev.  W.  Mincher. 

E.     Essay:  Methodism:  Its  Place  in  the  Church  LTniversal.     Rev.  W.  H.  Fitchett, 

LL.  D.,  Methodist  Church  of  Australia. 
W.     First  Address:  Methodism  and  Christian  Fellowship.     Rev.  N.  Luccock,  D.  D., 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
W.     Second  Address:   Methodism  as  a  Joyous  Religion.     Rev.  J.  A.   Bray    D    D 

Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

xxiii 


xsiv  DAILY  PROGRAMME. 

THIRD  DAY— FRIDAY,  OCTOBER  6th. 
First  Session. 

President:  Bishop  C.  S.  Smith,  D.  D.,  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
TOPIC:  The  Foreign  Missionary  Enterprise. 

10  A.  M.— Devotional    Service,    etc.     Matt.    28:18-20.    Acts    28:11-31.     Bishop    C.    T. 

Shaffer,  D.  D.  ,  „         ^    ^r 

W.  Essay:   Responsibility  of  Methodism  in  World-Wide  Evangelism.     Rev.   T.   H. 

Lewis,  D.  D.,  President  Methodist  Protestant  General  Conference. 
E.     First  Address:  Mission  of  Methodism  to  the  Non-Christian  Races.     Rev.  David 

Brook,  D.  C.  L.,  United  Methodist  Church. 
W.  Second  Address:  Mission  of  Methodism  to  the  Latin  Races.     Bishop  Wm.  Burt, 

D.  D.,  Rlethodist  Episcopal  Church. 
E.     Third  Address:  Methodism  and  France.     M.  le  Pasteur  Thomas  Hocart,  French 

Methodist  Church. 

Second  Session. 

President:  Rev.  George  Packer,  D.  D.,  President  United  Methodist  Conference. 

2.30  P.  M. — Devotional  Service,  etc.  Mark  16:  15-20;  Rom.  1:  14-16.  Rev.  J.  S.  Clem- 
ens,  B.  A.,   B.   D. 

E.  Essay:  Our  Resources  in  Men  and  Means.  Rev.  James  Lewis,  Wesleyan  Metho- 
dist Church. 

W.  First  Address:  Mission  of  Methodism  to  the  Backward  Races.  Bishop  O.  W. 
Clinton,  D.  D.,  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church. 

W.  Second  Address:  Methodist  Native  Churches.  Rev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.  D., 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  ^     ^      ■»,..-  ^ 

W.  Third  Address:  Methodism  in  Korea.  Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.  D.,  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South. 

Third  Session. 

7.30  P.  M.— Missionary  Mass  Meeting.  Sir  W.  Howell  Davies,  M.  P.,  President  Wes- 
leyan Methodist  Church.  Devotional  leader,  Rev.  James  Allen,  Methodist 
Church  of  Canada.  Speakers:  Bishop  E.  R.  Hendrix,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South;  Bishop  W.  S.  Lewis,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church; 
Rev.  Joseph  Johnson,  Primitive  Methodist  Church;  Rev.  Joseph  H.  Bateson, 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 


FOURTH  DAY— SATURDAY,  OCTOBER  7th. 

President:  Rev  T.  H.  Lewis,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Protestant  Church. 

TOPIC:  Methodist  Theology. 
10  A.  M.— Devotional  Service,  etc.     1  John  1:  1-3;  Rom.  8:  14-17.     Rev.  F.  T.  Little, 

E.  Essay:  The  Theological  Heritage  of  Methodism.  Rev.  George  G.  Findlay,  D.  D., 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Church.  „,^,       T^r^Tv^..-,. 

W.  First  Address:  The  Doctrine  of  Assurance.  Rev.  R.  J.  Cooke,  D.  D.,  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church.  x  ,       „,    .  »« 

E.  Second  Address:  The  Essentials  of  Religion  According  to  John  Wesley.  Mr. 
W.  Windsor,  J.  P.,  Primitive  Methodist  Church. 


FIFTH  DAY— SUNDAY,  OCTOBER  8th. 

W.     11  A.  M. — Sermon — Rev.  James  R.  Day,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

E.  W.  3  P.  M. — Chairman:  Mr.  T.  R.  Ferens,  M.  P.,  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 
Devotional  Service:  Rev.  George  H.  McNeal.  Addresses:  Religious  Aspects 
of  Industry  and  Commerce.  Hon.  Charles  W.  Fairbanks,  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church;  Mr.  Arthur  Henderson,  M.  P.,  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church;  Mr.  R.  W. 
Esse-x,  M.  P.,  United  Methodist  Church;  Rev.  S.  S.  Henshaw,  Primitive  Metho- 
dis*-  Church. 

E.     7  P.  M. — Sermon.     Rev.  W.  H.  Fitchett,  LL.  D.,  Methodist  Church  of  Australia. 


DAILY  PROGRAMME.  xxv 

SIXTH  DAY— MONDAY,  OCTOBER  9th. 
First  Session. 

President:  Rev.  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  D.  D.,  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

TOPIC:  The  Study  of  the  Scriptures. 

10  A.  M. — Devotional  Service,  etc.  John  5:  32-39;  Isaiah  6:  1-10.  Rev.  W.  W.  Holds- 
worth,  M.  A. 

E.  Essay:  Permanent  Results  of  Biblical  Criticism.  Prof.  A.  S.  Peake,  D.  D., 
Primitive  Methodist  Cliurch;  (Read  by  Rev.  Joseph  T.  Barkby). 

\V.  First  Address:  Verification  of  Revelation  in  Experience.  Rev.  V.  A.  Godbey, 
D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

E.  Second  Address:  Methods  of  Bible  Study.  Rev.  J.  Oliver  Park,  D.  D.,  Irish 
Methodist  Church. 

Second  Session. 

President:  Bishop  A.  Walters,  D.  D.,  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church. 

TOPIC:  The  Church  and  Modern  Thought. 

2.30  P.  M. — Devotional  Service,  etc.     John  14:  1-21.     Bishop  C.  R.  Harris,  D.  D. 

W.     Essay:  The  Newer  Forms  of  Unbelief  and  How  to  Meet  Them.     I*rof.  H.  C. 

Sheldon,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
E.     First  Address:    Christianity    and    Recent    Philosophical    Tendencies.     Rev.    H. 

Maldwyn  Hughes,  D.  D.,  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 
W.     Second  Address:  Christianity  and  Modem  Ethical  Theories.     Rev.  Francis  J. 

McConnell,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 


SEVENTH  DAY— TUESDAY,  OCTOBER  10th. 
First  Session. 

President:  Rev.  W.  Williams,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Church  of  Australia. 

TOPIC:  The  Church  and  Modern  Life. 

10  A.  M. — Devotional  Service,  etc.     Rom.  12.     Rev.  Albert  Stubbs. 

W.     Essay:  Adaptation  of  the  Church  to  the  Needs  of  Modem  Life.     Rev.  S.  D. 

Chown,  D.  D.,  General  Superintendent  Methodist  Church  of  Canada. 
E.     First  Address:  Function  of  the  Church  in  the  Life  of  the  Community.     Sir  George 

Smith,  Wesleyan   Methodist  Church. 
W.     Second  Address:  Interdenominational  Co-operation.     Mr.  N.  W.  Rovvell,  K.  C, 

Methodist  Church  o"  Canada. 

Second  Session. 

President:  Bishop  E.  R.  Hendrix,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

TOPIC:  The  Church  and  the  Nation. 

2.30  P.  M. — Devotional  Service,  etc.     Isaiah  65:  17-25.     Rev.  U.  V.  W.  Darlington,  D.  D. 
E.     Essay:    International    Relations   and    Responsibilities.     Rev.    J.    Scott    Lidgett, 

D.  D.,  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 
W.     First  Address:  The  Church  and  Civic  Righteousness.     Rev.  Wm.  F.  Conner, 

D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
E.     Second  Address:  The  Church  and  the  World's  Peace.     Aid.  T.  Snape,  J.  P., 

United  Methodist  Church. 

Third  Session. 

President:  Mr.  Norval  W.  Helme,  M.  P.,  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

TOPIC:  The  Church  and  the  Message. 

7.30  P.  M. — Devotional  Service,  etc.     Acts  4:  8-14;  1  Cor.  1:  18-31.     Rev.  E.  Davidson. 
W.     Essay:    Ideal    Evanj-elism — Formative    and    Reformative.     Rev.    Franklm    N. 

Parker,   D.   D.,    Methodist    Episcopal    Church,   South;    (Read  by   Rev.  F.   M. 

Thomas,  D.  D.) 
E.     First  Address:  Characteristics  of  Early  Methodist  Preaching.     Rev.  H.  T.  Smart, 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 
E.     Second  Address:  Modern  Evangelistic  Methods.     Rev.  J.   Ernest  Rattenbury, 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 


xxvi  DAILY  PROGRAMME. 

EIGHTH  DAY— WEDNESDAY,  OCTOBER  11th. 
First  Session. 

pREsroENT:  Rev.  J.  M.  Buckley,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
TOPIC:  The  Church  and  Social  Service. 

10  A.  M. — Devotional  Service,  etc.     Isaiah  58:  1-12.     Rev.  John  F.  Goucher,  D.  D. 

W.     Essay:  The   Social   Teaching  of  the   Old   and    New   Testaments.     Rev.   Grosa 

Alexander,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 
E.     First  Address:  Our  Social  Duty  as  a  People's  Church.     Rev.  W.  Hodson  Smith, 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 
E.     Second   Address:   Sociahsm — Christian   and  Anti-Christian.     Rev.    B.   Haddon, 

Primitive  Methodist  Church. 

Second  Session. 

President:  Rev.  J.  Oliver  Park,  D.  D.,  Irish  Methodist  Church. 

2.30  P.  M. — Devotional  Service,  etc.     Matt    10:  1-15.     Rev.  S.  T.  Boyd,  B.  A. 

W.     Essay  :  Readjustment  of  Church  Work  in  Cities.     Rev.  Frank  Mason  North, 

D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
W.     First  Address:  Settlement  Work.     Rev.  George  P.  Eckman,  D.  D.,  Methodist 

Episcopal  Church. 
E.      Second  Address:   The   Relation  of  Methodist  Churches — City,   Suburban,  and 

Rural.     Rev.  W.  Bradfield,  B.  A.    Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

Tiiird  Session. 

Reception  of  Fraternal  Delegates. 

President:  Justice  J.  J.  Maclaren,  Methodist  Church  of  Canada. 

7.30  P.  M. — Devotional  Service,  etc.     Eph.  4:  1-7;  3:  14-21.     Rev.  E.  B.  Ryckman,  D.  D. 

Addresses  by   Fraternal    Delegates,   representing    Baptist   World  Alliance,   National 

Congregational  Council,  Presbyterian  Alliance,  etc.     To  be  introduced  by  Rev. 

Claudius  B.  Spencer,  D.  D. 

Responses  to  Addresses.     Rev.  F.  L.  Wiseman,  B.  A.,  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church; 

Rev.  H.  M  DuBose,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 


NINTH  DAY— THURSDAY,  OCTOBER  12th. 
First  Session. 

President:  Aid.  E.  C.  Rawlings,  J.  P.,  Primitive  Methodist  Church. 

TOPIC :  The  Church  in  the  Household. 

10  A.  M.— Devotional  Service,  etc.     Deut.  6:1-19.     Rev.  G.  Annitage.  ,„„^      , 

E.  Essay:  Home  Religion  and  Religious  Education  m  the  Home.  Rev.  W.  B.  Lark, 
United  Methodist  Church.  _...^„  t^        T^onjrj 

W.     First  Address:  Methods  of  Religious  Training  m  the  Home.     Rev.  D.  S.  Bedford, 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Church,  U.  S.  ,  ^   ^    .  ..    ,,   t^    •,,,    i  at  .u 

E.  Second  Address:  The  Family  Altar.  Richard  T.  Smith,  M.  D.,  Wesleyan  Metho- 
dist Church. 

Second  Session. 

President:  Bishop  T.  B.  Neely,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
TOPIC:  The  Chltrch  and  the  Child. 

2.30  P.  M.— Devotional  Service,  etc.     Matt.  18:  1-10      Rev.  Wm-  F-  Hovis,  D.  D. 

W.  Essav:  The  Psychology  of  Child  Training.  Rev.  H.  M.  HamiU,  D.  D.,  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church,  South.  ,_     ,      t.         r-    c-    iir-tu 

W.  First  Address:  Widening  Mission  of  the  Sunday  school.  Rev.  C.  t..  WilDur, 
D.  D.,  Methodist  Protestant  Church.  ,   ^       .  ht      t     u 

E.  Second  Address:  The  Equipment  of  the  Sunday  school  Teacher.  Mr.  J.  H. 
Freeborough,  Wesleyan  Reform  Union. 


DAILY   PROGRAMME.  xxvii 

Third   Session. 

President:  Rev.  F.  L.  Wiseman,  B.  A.,  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

TOPIC:  The  Church  and  Young  People. 

7.30  P.  M.— Devotional  Service.  Matt.  19:16-22;  1  Tim.  4:12-16.  Rev.  J.  H.  Good- 
man. 

W.  Essay :  Condition  and  Needs  of  Young  People's  Societies.  Bishop  W.  A. 
Quayle,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

W.  First  Address:  Special  Work  of  Young  People  in  the  Church.  Prof.  D.  J.  Jor- 
dan, A.  M.,  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

E.  Second  Address:  The  Church  and  the  Recreations  of  Young  People.  Rev.  L. 
Hudson,  Methodist  Church  of  New  Zealand. 


TENTH  DAY— FRIDAY,  OCTOBER  13th. 
First  Session. 

President:  Sir  Robert  W.  Perks,  Bart.,  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

TOPIC:  Larger  Use  of  Lay  Agencies. 

10  A.  M. — Devotional  Service,  etc.     Rom.  16:  1-16.     Mr.  William  J.  Davey. 

W.     Essay:  The  Laymen's  Movement.     Prof.  S.  G.  Atkins,  Ph.  D.,  African  Methodist 

Episcopal  Zion  Church. 
E.     First  Address:  La>^men  and  Home  Evangelization.     Mr.  Norman  T.  C.  Sargant, 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 
E.     Second  Address:  The  Priesthood  of  the  People.     Mr.  Richard  Lee,  Independent 

Methodist  Church. 

Second  Session. 

President:  Mrs.  W.  I.  Haven,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

TOPIC:  Woman's  Claims  and  Responsibilities. 

2.30  P.M. — Devotional  Service,  etc.  Luke  2:34-38;  Acts  9:16-41.  Mrs.  Katherine 
Lent  Stevenson. 

E.  Essay:  Methodism  and  the  Woman's  Movement.  Mrs.  Joseph  Johnson,  Primi- 
tive Methodist  Church. 

W.  First  Address:  Woman  and  Missions.  Mrs.  T.  J.  Copeland,  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South. 

W.  Second  Address:  Deaconesses  and  Sisterhoods.  Mrs.  Lucy  Rider  Meyer,  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church. 

W.  Third  Address:  W'oman's  Work  in  the  Church.  Mrs.  George  O.  Robinson, 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 


ELEVENTH  DAY— SATURDAY,  OCTOBER  14th. 

President:  Mr.  G^rge  Carr,  Wesleyan  Reform  Union. 

TOPIC:  The  Church  and  Temperance. 

10  A.  M. — Devotional  Services,  etc.     Prov.  23:29-35;  Deut.  4:5-8.     Rev.  E.  Bromage. 

E.  Essay :  Temperance  Reform.  Rev.  George  R.  Wedgwood,  Irish  Methodist 
Church. 

W.  First  Address:  Anti-Liquor  Legislation.  Rev.  P.  A.  Baker,  D.  D.,  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church. 

E.  Second  Address:  Substitutes  for  the  Liquor  Saloon.  Rev.  J.  Alfred  Sharp,  Wes- 
leyan Methodist  Church. 

W.  Third  Address:  The  Battle  Against  the  Saloon.  Rev.  H.  M.  DuBose,  D.  D., 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

7.30  P.  M. — Chairman:  Hon.  J.  C.  Dancy,"LL.  D.,  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion 

Church. 
Devotional  Service  by  Rev.  A.  J.  Burt. 
Addresses  on  Temperance.     Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 

South;  Hon.  J.  Frank  Hanly,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church;  Rev.  J.  Alfred  Sharp, 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 


xxYiii  DAILY  PROGRAMME. 

TWELFTH  DAY— SUNDAY,  OCTOBER  15th. 

W.     11  A.  M. — Sermon.     Bishop  W.  A.  Candler,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 

South. 

E.  W.  3  P.  M. — Chairman:  Bishop  C.  W.  Smith,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
Devotional  Service.  Rev.  Charles  B.  Mitchell,  D.  D.  Addresses:  Observance 
of  the  Lord's  Day,  Past  and  Present.  Rev.  W.  J.  Young,  D.  D.,  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South;  Rev.  A.  J.  Coultas,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church; 
Rev.  J.  H.  James,  B.  D.,  United  Methodist  Church. 

E.  7  P.  M. — Chairman:  Bishop  Collins  Denny,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South.  Devotional  Service  by  Rev.  I.  P.  Martin,  D.  D.  Address  on  Methodist 
Brotherhood,  by  Sir  Robert  W.  Perks,  Bart. 


THIRTEENTH  DAY,  MONDAY,  OCTOBER  15th. 
First  Session. 

President:  Rev.  E.  Humphries,  Ph.  D.,  Primitive  Methodist  Church,  U.  S. 

TOPIC:  The  Training  of  the  Ministry. 

10  A.  M. — Devotional  Service,  etc.     2  Cor.  4:  1-7;  2  Tim.  1:  6-14.     Rev.  F.  D.  Bovard, 
D.  D. 

E.     Essay:  Improvement  of  our  Theological  Colleges.     Rev.  J.  G.  Tasker,  D.  D.,  Wes- 
leyan  Methodist  Church. 
W.     First    Address:    Broader    Preparation    for   Admission   to    the    Ministry.     Rev. 

Franklin  Hamilton,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
E.     Second  Address:   The   Ministerial   Supply.     Rev.   VVilfrid   J.    Moulton,    M.   A., 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

Second  Session. 

President:  Rev.  E.  J.  Brailsford,  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

TOPIC:  Methodist  Literature. 

2.30  P.M. — Devotional  Service,   etc.     Joshua   8:30-35.     Rev.   George  Jackson,   B    A, 
W.     Essay:  Place  of  the  Religious  Press  in  Modern  Life.    Bishop  L.  J.  Coppin,  D.  D.. 

African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
W.     First  Address:  The  Church  Paper  in  Every  Methodist  Home.     Rev.  E.  G.  B. 

Mann,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 
E.     Second  Address:  The  Future  of  Methodist  Literature.     Rev.  H.  B.  Workman, 

D.  Lit.,  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

Third  Session. 

President:  Bishop  J.  L.  Nuelsen,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
TOPIC:  The  Church  and  Education. 

7.30  P.  M. — Devotional  Service,  etc.     1  Samuel  3.     Rev.  John  Galbraith,  D.  D. 

W.  Essay:  Problems  of  Church  Schools.  Rev.  Thomas  Nicholson,  D.  D.,  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church. 

E.  First  Address:  Religious  Education  in  tl>e  School.  Arthur  Vinter,  LL.  D.,  Wes- 
leyan Methodist  Church. 

E.  Second  Address:  Religious  Education  in  Public  Schools  in  South  Africa.  Rev. 
W.  Flint,  D.  D.,  South  African  Methodist  Church. 

W.  Third  Address:  Church  Control  of  Church  Schools.  Rev.  W.  J.  Young,  D.  D., 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 


FOURTEENTH  DAY— TUESDAY,  OCTOBER  17th. 

President:  Rev.  H.  T.  Chapman,  United  Methodist  Church. 

TOPIC:  The  Relations  Between  the  Methodist  Churches. 

10  A.  M. — Devotional  Services,  etc.     1  Cor.  12:  1-13,  27-31.     Rev.  David  Heath. 

E.     Essay:  Union  and  Federation — History  and  Forecast.     Rev.  W.  Redfem,  United 

Methodist  Church. 
E.     First  Address:  Co-operation    in    Missions,    Education,    etc.     Rev.    Enoch    Salt, 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 
W.     Second  Address:  Economy  in  the  Use  of  Forces  and  Means.     Rev.  Homer  C. 

StunU,  D.  D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 


RULES  AND  REGULATIONS  FOR  THE  GOV- 
ERNMENT OF  THE  CONFERENCE. 


Composition  of  the  Conference. — The  Conference  shall  be  com- 
posed of  500  members,  consisting  as  far  as  possible  of  an  equal  number 
of  ministers  and  laymen.  It  shall  be  divided  into  two  sections,  300  being 
assigned  to  the  Western  Section  and  200  to  the  Eastern  Section.  The 
Eastern  Section  shall  comprehend  the  Methodist  Churches  in  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  France,  South  Africa,  Australasia,  and  Mission  Fields; 
and  the  Western  Section,  the  Methodist  Churches  in  the  United  States, 
Canada  and  Japan,  with  their  foreign  work. 

The  Basis  of  the  Conference. — The  Conference  shall  be  held  on 
the  same  basis  and  with  the  same  limitations  as  those  adopted  in  the 
three  preceding  Conferences,  viz.:  It  shall  frankly  recognize  the  diflferences 
that  exist  among  the  various  Methodist  Churches,  and  it  shall  exclude 
from  discussion  all  points  of  doctrine,  discipline,  and  Church  government 
regarded  as  fundamental  by  any  of  the  Churches,  and  as  to  which  any 
one  of  the  Churches  differs  from  any  of  the  others.     (Rule  X.) 

RULES  AND  REGULATIONS. 

I. — For  convenience  of  organization,  and  for  the  purposes  of  equity 
and  fraternity,  the  whole  Methodist  community  shall  be  included  in  four 
general  divisions,  as  follows: — 

First  Division — Methodist  Church  of  Canada,  Methodist 
Protestant  Church,  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  African 
Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church,  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  Primitive  Methodist  Church,  Free  Methodist  Church, 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Connection,  Union  American  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  British  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Japan  Metho- 
dist Church. 

Second  Division— Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church,  South. 

Third  Division — British  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

Fourth  Division— Primitive  Methodist  Church,  United  Metho- 
dist Church,  Irish  Methodist  Church,  Wesleyan  Reform  Union 
Church,  Independent  Methodist  Church,  French  Methodist  Church, 
South  .Afriain  Methodist  Church,  Australian  Methodist  Church,  and 
Methodist  Church  of  \ew  Zealand. 

It  is  understood  that  the  several  Churches  described  are  inckIsi^•c  of 
their  respective  mission  fields  and  affiliated  Conferences. 

xyix 


XXX  RULES  AND  REGULATIONS. 

IL — There  shall  be  a  Business  Committee,  consisting  of  twenty  mem- 
bers, four  of  whom  shall  be  elected  from  the  First  Division,  six  from  the 
Second  Division,  five  from  the  Third  Division,  and  five  from  the  Fourth 
Division.  The  four  Secretaries  of  the  Conference  shall  be  members  of 
this  Committee,  Ex-Officio.  Two  from  each  Division  shall  be,  if  prac- 
ticable, laymen.  This  committee  shall  be  chosen  by  the  Eastern  and 
Western  Sections  of  the  Executive  Committee,  on  nomination  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  said  Executive  Committee  representing  respectively  the  several 
general  Divisions.  The  first  named  on  the  Business  Committee  by  the 
First  Western  Division  shall  be  the  convener;  but  the  committee  shall 
choose  by  ballot  its  own  Chairman  and  Secretary.  All  questions,  pro- 
posals, resolutions,  communications,  or  other  matters  not  included  in 
the  regular  program  of  exercises,  which  may  be  presented  to  the  Confer- 
ence, shall  be  passed  to  the  Secretary,  read  by  their  titles  only,  and  re- 
ferred without  debate  or  motion  to  the  Business  Committee.  A  period 
at  the  close  of  the  regular  program  of  the  final  session  of  each  day  shall 
be  set  apart  for  reports  from  the  Business  Committee;  but  the  reports 
of  the  Business  Committee  shall  at  all  times  be  privileged,  and  shall  take 
precedence  of  any  other  matter  which  may  be  before  the  Conference. 

III. — A  President  for  each  session  of  the  Conference  shall  be  appointed, 
the  selection  to  be  made  by  the  Western  and  Eastern  Sections  of  the 
Executive  Committee,  in  alternate  order,  as  nearly  as  possible. 

IV. — The  Western  and  Eastern  Sections  of  the  Executive  Committee 
shall  nominate  for  confirmation  by  the  Conference,  at  the  opening  of  its 
first  regular  business  session,  four  secretaries,  one  from  each  general  di- 
vision; but  if  the  nomination  thus  made  shall  fail  of  confirmation,  in  whole 
or  in  part,  then  the  Conference  shall  proceed  to  fill  the  vacant  place  or 
places  in  such  manner  as  it  may  determine,  provided  that  the  mode  of 
distribution  herein  indicated  shall  be  maintained. 

V. — Every  session  shall  be  opened  with  devotional  exercises,  to  be 
conducted  by  some  person  or  persons  selected  by  the  Executive  Committees. 

VI. — A  period,  not  exceeding  an  hour  of  each  forenoon  session,  shall 
be  set  apart  for  devotional  exercises,  reading  of  journal,  and  the  presenta- 
tion of  resolutions  or  other  papers  not  included  on  the  regular  program. 
Every  resolution  must  be  reduced  to  writing  and  signed  by  at  least  two 
names.  The  Conference  may,  at  any  time,  close  this  morning  hour  and 
proceed  to  the  regular  order,  but  the  question  must  be  taken  without 
debate  or  subsidiary  motion. 

VII. — No  essay  presented  in  the  regular  program  shall  occupy  more 
than  twenty  minutes  in  the  reading;  the  appointed  addresses  shall  be 
allowed  ten  minutes  each.  After  the  appointed  addresses,  whatever  un- 
occupied time  remains  of  any  session  shall  be  devoted  to  a  general  discus- 
sion of  the  topics  under  consideration;  but  no  member  shall  occupy  more 
than  five  minutes,  or  speak  more  than  once  on  the  same  subject.  This 
Rule  Shall  be  Strictly  Enforced  by  the  Presiding  Officer. 

The  appointed  addresses  may  not  be  read,  but  notes,  as  aids  to  memory', 
may  be  used. 

VIII.  At  the  close  of  the  regular  order,  at  the  final  session  of  each 
day,  the  President  shall  call  for  a  report  from  the  Business  Committee. 
In  debates  on  reports,  whenever  presented,  no  member  shall  occupy  more 
than  five  minutes,  nor  speak  more  than  once  on  the  same  report;  but  the 
Chairman  of  the  Committee,  or  some  one  designated  by  him,  shall  be  al- 
lowed five  minutes  in  which  to  close  the  debate. 

IX. — All  votes  taken  in  the  Conference  shall  be  by  individual  count, 
without  any  reference  to  the  particular  Church  with  which  the  voter  is 
connected. 


RULES  AND  REGULATIONS.  sxxi 

X. — No  votes  shall  be  taken  on  matters  affecting  the  internal  arrange- 
ments of  any  of  the  several  Methodist  Churches. 

XL — Any  alteration  of,  or  addition  to,  these  regulations  thought  de- 
sirable must  be  sent  to  the  Business  Committee,  and  reported  back  to 
the  Conference,  before  a  final  vote  is  taken,  and  no  rule  shall  be  suspended 
except  by  consent  of  three-fourths  of  the  Conference. 

N.  B. — The  manuscripts  of  the  essays  read  and  of  addresses  delivered, 
being  the  property  of  the  Conference,  shall  be  immediately  passed  over 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Conference,  for  publication  in  the  volume  of  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Conference.  Compliance  with  this  rule  is  absolutely 
indispensable  to  accuracy  in  the  records  of  the  Conference. 


XXX  RULES  AND  REGULATIONS. 

n. — There  shall  be  a  Business  Committee,  consisting  of  twenty  mem- 
bers, four  of  whom  shall  be  elected  from  the  First  Division,  six  from  the 
Second  Division,  five  from  the  Third  Division,  and  five  from  the  Fourth 
Division.  The  four  Secretaries  of  the  Conference  shall  be  members  of 
this  Committee,  Ex-Officio.  Two  from  each  Division  shall  be,  if  prac- 
ticable, laymen.  This  committee  shall  be  chosen  by  the  Eastern  and 
Western  Sections  of  the  Executive  Committee,  on  nomination  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  said  Executive  Committee  representing  respectiv'ely  the  several 
general  Divisions.  The  first  named  on  the  Business  Committee  by  the 
First  Western  Division  shall  be  the  convener;  but  the  committee  shall 
choose  by  ballot  its  own  Chairman  and  Secretary.  All  questions,  pro- 
posals, resolutions,  communications,  or  other  matters  not  included  in 
the  regular  program  of  exercises,  which  may  be  presented  to  the  Confer- 
ence, shall  be  passed  to  the  Secretary,  read  by  their  titles  only,  and  re- 
ferred without  debate  or  motion  to  the  Business  Committee.  A  period 
at  the  close  of  the  regular  program  of  the  final  session  of  each  day  shall 
be  set  apart  for  reports  from  the  Business  Committee;  but  the  reports 
of  the  Business  Committee  shall  at  all  times  be  privileged,  and  shall  take 
precedence  of  any  other  matter  which  may  be  before  the  Conference. 

in. — A  President  for  each  session  of  the  Conference  shall  be  appointed, 
the  selection  to  be  made  by  the  Western  and  Eastern  Sections  of  the 
Executive  Committee,  in  alternate  order,  as  nearly  as  possible. 

IV. — The  Western  and  Eastern  Sections  of  the  Executive  Committee 
shall  nominate  for  confirmation  by  the  Conference,  at  the  opening  of  its 
first  regular  business  session,  four  secretaries,  one  from  each  general  di- 
vision; but  if  the  nomination  thus  made  shall  fail  of  confirmation,  in  whole 
or  in  part,  then  the  Conference  shall  proceed  to  fill  the  vacant  place  or 
places  In  such  manner  as  it  may  determine,  provided  that  the  mode  of 
distribution  herein  indicated  shall  be  maintained. 

V. — Every  session  shall  be  opened  with  devotional  exercises,  to  be 
conducted  by  some  person  or  persons  selected  by  the  Executive  Committees. 

VI. — A  period,  not  exceeding  an  hour  of  each  forenoon  session,  shall 
be  set  apart  for  devotional  exercises,  reading  of  journal,  and  the  presenta- 
tion of  resolutions  or  other  papers  not  included  on  the  regular  program. 
Every  resolution  must  be  reduced  to  writing  and  signed  by  at  least  two 
names.  The  Conference  may,  at  any  time,  close  this  morning  hour  and 
proceed  to  the  regular  order,  but  the  question  must  be  taken  without 
debate  or  subsidiary  motion. 

VII. — No  essay  presented  In  the  regular  program  shall  occupy  more 
than  twenty  minutes  in  the  reading;  the  appointed  addresses  shall  be 
allowed  ten  minutes  each.  After  the  appointed  addresses,  whatever  un- 
occupied time  remains  of  any  session  shall  be  devoted  to  a  general  discus- 
sion of  the  topics  under  consideration;  but  no  member  shall  occupy  more 
than  five  minutes,  or  speak  more  than  once  on  the  same  subject.  This 
Rule  Shall  be  Strictly  Enforced  by  the  Presiding  Officer. 

The  appointed  addresses  may  not  be  read,  but  notes,  as  aids  to  memory, 
may  be  used. 

VIII.  At  the  close  of  the  regular  order,  at  the  final  session  of  each 
day,  the  President  shall  call  for  a  report  from  the  Business  Committee. 
In  debates  on  reports,  whenever  presented,  no  member  shall  occupy  more 
than  five  minutes,  nor  speak  more  than  once  on  the  same  report;  but  the 
Chairman  of  the  Committee,  or  some  one  designated  by  him,  shall  be  al- 
lowed five  minutes  In  which  to  close  the  debate. 

IX. — All  votes  taken  In  the  Conference  shall  be  by  Individual  count, 
without  any  reference  to  the  particular  Church  with  which  the  voter  is 
connected. 


RULES  AND  REGULATIONS.  sxxi 

X. — No  votes  shall  be  taken  on  matters  affecting  the  internal  arrange- 
ments of  any  of  the  several  Methodist  Churches. 

XL — Any  alteration  of,  or  addition  to,  these  regulations  thought  de- 
sirable must  be  sent  to  the  Business  Committee,  and  reported  back  to 
the  Conference,  before  a  final  vote  is  taken,  and  no  rule  shall  be  suspended 
except  by  consent  of  three-fourths  of  the  Conference. 

N.  B. — The  manuscripts  of  the  essays  read  and  of  addresses  delivered, 
being  the  property  of  the  Conference,  shall  be  immediately  passed  over 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Conference,  for  publication  in  the  volume  of  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Conference.  Compliance  with  this  rule  is  absolutely 
indispensable  to  accuracy  in  the  records  of  the  Conference. 


REPORT  OF  THE  PROCEEDINGS 


FOURTH   ECUMENICAL   METHODIST 
CONFERENCE. 


Fourth 
Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference. 


FIRST  DAY. 

Wednesday,  October  4,  1911. 
FIRST  SESSION. 

THE  Fourth  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference  opened  in 
the  Metropolitan  Methodist  Church,  Toronto,  Canada,  at 
10  o'clock  A.  M.,  October  4,  1911,  under  the  presidency  of  the 
Eev.  A.  Carman^  D.  D.,  General  Superintendent  of  the  Meth- 
odist Church  of  Canada.  Most  of  the  five  hundred  delegates 
sat  in  the  body  of  the  church,  while  relatives  of  the  delegates, 
hosts,  and  visitors  occupied  most  of  the  rest  of  the  church. 

The  doxology  was  sung,  and  Dr.  Carman"  offered  a  brief  in- 
vocation.   The  Conference  sang  the  first  hymn, 

"O  for  a  thousand  tongues  to  sing 
My  great  Redeemer's  praise." 

General  Superintendent  Carman  offered  prayer,  and  the  Eev. 
S.  J).  Ciiowx,  D.  D.,  General  Superintendent  of  the  Methodist 
Church  of  Canada,  led  the  congregation  in  the  responsive  read- 
ing of  the  19th  Psalm. 

Dr.  Carman  read  selections  from  the  first  two  chapters  of 
Acts ;  after  which  Hymn  739  in  the  Canadian  Methodist  Hymnal 
was  sung, 

"See  how  great  a  flame  aspires. 
Kindled  by  a  spark  of  grace." 

The  Conference  Sermon  was  preached  by  the  Eev.  Henry 

Haigh,  D.  1).,  President  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Conference. 

"But  when  He  saw  the  multitudes  He  tvas  moved  tcith  compassion 

on  them,  because  they  fainted,  and  icere  scattered  abroad,  an  sheep 

8 


4  OPENING  SERVICES. 

having  no  shepherd.  Then  saith  He  unto  His  disciples,  The  harvest 
truly  is  plenteous,  but  the  laborers  are  few;  pray  ye,  therefore,  the 
Lord  of  the  harvest,  that  He  will  send  forth  laborers  into  His  har- 
vest"—Matt.  9:  36-38. 

"The  harvest  truly  is  plenteous,  but  the  laborers  are  few."  In 
these  words  our  Liord  expresses  His  view  of  the  religious  situation 
in  His  land  and  His  time.  He  saw  a  waiting  world  and  a  reluctant 
and  inefficient  Church.  He  looked  at  the  multitude,  and  called  them 
a  "harvest" — people  ripe  for  appropriation  and  waiting  for  it.  He 
looked  at  the  Church,  with  its  temples  and  ecclesiastics,  its  elaborate 
organizations  and  abounding  wealth,  and  He  said:  "The  laborers 
are  few."  Both  these  characterizations  are  arresting,  and  perhaps 
also  a  little  puzzling. 

I.  As  to  the  world.  Our  Lord  points  to  the  multitude  and  calls 
them  a  "harvest."  Jesus  was  familiar  with  crowds.  Wherever  He 
went  people  swarmed  around  Him.  In  the  city  street,  when  He 
appeared,  traffic  was  blocked.  There  was  jostling,  shouting,  quick 
question  and  excited  answer.  And  when  He  came  to  a  village  the 
folk  ran  forth  from  their  houses,  flung  down  their  tools,  left  their 
cattle  or  their  carts,  and  forgot  all  else  in  their  desire  to  see  Him. 
Every  day  they  pressed  upon  Him  and  gave  Him  no  rest;  and  when 
He  wants  to  tell  us  His  inmost  thought  about  these  people,  these 
common  people  whom  He  is  meeting  every  day,  He  says — "There 
is  a  harvest  for  you."  Frankly,  that  is  a  singular  description.  The 
scribes,  with  a  wave  of  the  hand  and  a  curl  of  the  lip,  called  them 
"the  mob."  Little  wonder,  perhaps, — a  crowd  of  common  Jews 
sweating  in  the  hot  sun,  overlaid  with  the  unwashen  grime  of  days, 
and  unspeakably  malodorous.  There  were  other  features  about 
them,  too.  They  were  coarse-mannered,  I  have  no  ddubt,  selfish, 
probably  immoral — men  with  hardly  a  trace  of  the  ideal  or  the 
spiritual  about  th^m.  Do  you  wonder — do  you  wonder  that  well- 
bred,  good-mannered,  religious  people,  if  they  spoke  their  mind, 
called  such  crowds  "rotting  weeds,"  and  passed  them  by. in  ill-con- 
cealed disgust  or  with  pitying  despair?  But  Jesus  called  them  "the 
harvest."  The  difference  in  judgment  is  emphatic  and  startling. 
Where  others  saw  settled  blight.  He  looked  upon  golden  grain.  For 
that  which  other  men  counted  waste  and  worse,  He  saw  a  redemp- 
tion and  a  use.  Will  you  fasten  your  attention  upon  this  for  a 
moment?  Surely  it  was  a  very  remarkable  judgment  to  utter;  but 
at  any  rate  He  knew  of  whom  He  spoke.  He  was  one  with  them 
in  birth,  in  station,  and  had  been  one  with  them  all  His  life  in 
intimate  association.  He  had  heard  their  common  talk.  He  was 
familiar  with  their  habits.  He  understood  their  temper  and  their 
aims.  He  had  read  the  record  of  their  faces  close,  and  knew 
all  that  was  in  them  of  ugliness  and  foulness  and  despair.     When 


SERMON  OP  THE  REV.  HENRY  HAIGH.  5 

He  called  them  "a  harvest,"  therefore,  He  spoke,  not  as  a  senti- 
mentalist whose  feeling  takes  the  least  possible  account  of  facts, 
nor  yet  as  a  patron  whose  policy  it  is  to  make  pets  of  the  masses. 
He  regarded  them  with  no  peculiar  indulgence.  He  treated  them 
with  no  special  partiality.  It  was  not  His  way  to  call  men  victims 
when  He  should  have  called  them  criminals,  nor  to  excuse  them  on 
the  gi'ound  that  they  were  more  sinned  against  than  sinning.  He 
took  them— these  masses — just  as  He  found  them, — men  with  little 
sense  ot  God,  whose  consciousness  of  religious  capacity  was  feeble 
and  had  but  little  impulse  behind  it;  scheming,  struggling  men, 
whose  moral  vision  had  been  distorted,  whose  moral  growth  had 
been  stunted,  and  the  horizon  of  whose  hope  had  been  most  griev- 
ously narrowed.  He  took  them  as  He  found  them,  and  He  called 
them  "a  harvest." 

And  I  think  that  this  judgment  becomes  still  more  wonderful 
when  you  remember  what  His  experience  had  been  during  His  pub- 
lic ministry.  When  He  uttered  these  words.  He  had  just  concluded 
a  tour  among  them.  Always  and  everywhere  He  had  been  a  pres- 
ence of  sanity,  of  goodness  and  of  hope.  What  response  did  the 
people  make?  They  brought  their  sick  to  be  healed.  They  came 
in  crowds  on  the  chance  of  a  miraculous  meal.  They  followed  Him 
in  coarse  curiosity,  and  were  alternately  bewildered  and  awed  by 
Him.  But  tor  the  rest  there  was  no  great  result  from  His  ministry. 
At  every  turn  His  teachings  were  rendered  ineffective  by  the  preju- 
dice or  pre-occupation  of  the  people,  or  by  their  sheer  inertia.  Yet 
this  experience  created  in  Him  no  disillusionment  or  bitterness. 
There  was  never  in  Jesus  any  trace  of  the  disappointed  demagogue, 
still  less  of  the  cynic,  and  least  of  all  of  the  pessimist.  In  spite  of 
everything  He  describes  the  people  as  "a  harvest." 

Sometimes  He  used  another  word  in  speaking  about  them,  a  word 
that  at  first  sight  appears  to  contradict  this.  He  said  they  were 
"lost" — a  term  certainly  of  most  solemn  import.  But  on  His  lips 
It  meant,  not  judicial  severity  but  quivering  compassion.  It  ex- 
pressed regret,  but  not  repudiation.  It  was  a  ringing  cry  for  good 
men  to  help,  where  important  values  were  at  stake,  not  a  wail  of 
irretrievable  disaster.  It  told  of  troubled  concern,  and  pointed  to 
resolute  effort;  but  it  never  breathed  either  contempt  or  despair. 
In  that  triplet  of  parables  in  which  He  expounds  His  use  of  the 
word  "lost,"  the  sheep,  the  coin,  and  the  son  represent  people  who 
need  to  be  found,  who  desire  to  be  found,  and  who  are  well  worth 
the  finding.  Rightly  interpreted,  there  is  reverence  and  hope  in 
this  term;  and  it  is  not,  after  all,  very  far  from  the  word  of  our 
text, — "harvest." 

What,  then,  did  our  Lord  mean  by  it?  Was  it  the  rhetorical 
expression  of  a  constitutional  optimism?  For  Christ  was  great  in 
hope.    There  was  nothing  in  Him  more  divine  than  that.    He  spoke 


6  OPENING  SERVICES. 

of  getting  straightness  and  strength,  out  of  the  bruised  reed — which. 
everybody  else  believed  to  be  past  bettering.  He  looked  for  bright- 
ness and  warmth  from  the  smoking  wick — ^which.  to  everybody  else 
was  an  offense  and  an  irritation.  The  reed  and  the  wick  repre- 
sented multitudes  who  were  either  the  victims  within  of  self-con- 
tempt or  the  objects  without  of  general  disgust  and  despair.  In 
regard  to  all  such  Christ  neither  despised  nor  despaired.  He  had 
plenty  of  capacity  for  scorn,  but  He  kept  it  for  the  recreant  and 
hypocritical  religious — "sepulchres,"  "whited  sepulchres."  For  the 
multitudes,  as  He  beheld  them.  He  had  only  compassion  and  con- 
fidence. When  our  Lord  calls  the  multitudes  "a  harvest,"  He  is  not 
indulging  in  a  merely  vague  and  generous  hope.  He  is  expressing 
a  careful  judgment.  <^e  says  that  the  people,  in  spite  of  all  ap- 
pearance to  the  contrary,  are  susceptible  to  appeal  and  ready  to 
respond;  that  they  not  only  need  God  but  at  bottom  they  desire 
Him.^  Truly,  it  is  a  wonderful  word.  It  tells  us  that  even  where 
the  image  of  God  in  man  is  blurred  beyond  all  recognition  it  is 
Btill  there,  decipherable  to  patience  and  sympathetic  vision.  He 
says  there  is  a  light  in  men  which  will  leap  to  greet  the  sun  when 
it  sees  it;  that  they  are  ready  to  respond  to  any  man  who  comes 
with  an  honest  human  love  in  his  heart  and  a  veritable  gospel  on 
his  lips.  He  wants  us  to  understand  that  the  men  of  His  time  were 
outside  the  Church  not  because  they  were  religiously  intractable. 
They  were  out  for  lack  of  an  invitation,  or  because  they  had  been 
seriously  misunderstood  or  badly  mis-handled,  or  because  the  Church 
had  shown  a  temper  and  imposed  conditions  which  repelled  their 
best  judgment  rather  than  captured  it.  He  saw  them  full  of  needs 
which  they  knew  not  how  to  interpret,  torn  with  longings  which 
they  could  not  articulate,  mocked  with  hopes  which  they  knew  not 
how  to  realize.  Such  a  motley  multitude  they  were — some  of  them 
heavy,  sense-bound,  poor  in  aspiration,  content  with  cheap  satis- 
factions; others  of  them  in  social  and  political  revolt,  living  on  the 
excitement  of  secret  conspiracies  or  open  agitation.  But  below  all 
this  stolid  materialism  of  the  people,  below  all  the  seething  unrest 
and  defiant  contradiction,  our  Lord  beheld  that  which,  if  reached 
and  touched,  would  set  right  all  the  rest.  The  people  were  a  "har- 
vest." My  brethren,  Jesus  Christ  was  the  world's  supreme  opti- 
mist— He  could  not  otherwise  have  been  the  world's  Savior. 

We,  as  Methodists,  are  ready  enough  to  bring  our  confirmation, 
at  least  in  individual  cases,  of  the  startling  judgment  of  Jesus 
Christ.  I  am  speaking  to  men,  who,  out  of  their  own  experience, 
could  tell  of  those,  who,  to  outward  seeming  were  most  hopeless, 
and  yet  directly  they  were  approached  in  the  spirit  of  sympathy, 
appreciation,  and  hope,  they  responded  and  were  saved.  Ay,  even 
the  most  unlikely.  It  is  common  knowledge.  It  has  been  our  ex- 
perience through  all  our  history.    Why,  Methodism  began  that  way. 


SERMON  OP  THE  REV.  HENRY  HAIGH.  7 

What  was  England  in  the  eighteenth  century?  The  Church  had 
forgotten  its  mission.  There  were  priests,  organization,  and  patron- 
age in  plenty.  But  there  was  no  compassion  for  men,  no  deep, 
compelling  love  for  Christ.  The  people  were  "distressed  and  scat- 
tered as  sheep  having  no  shepherd."  "What  people  they  were — living 
In  foulness,  guilty  of  all  manner  of  sins!  Those  who  held  high 
places  in  the  Church  looked  out  upon  England  and  said,  "A  sinful 
and  adulterous  generation — past  praying  for,  past  hoping  for."  But 
there  was  one  man  in  that  land  who  had  seen  with  Christ's  eyes, 
who  had  felt  with  Christ's  heart,  and  who  called  around  him  three 
or  four  other  men  like-minded  and  went  forth  among  the  miners 
of  Cornwall,  and  the  colliers  of  Yorkshire,  Durham,  and  Northum- 
berland. He  spoke  to  them  as  men  born  in  the  image  of  God.  He 
believed  that  that  image  could  be  found.  You  know  the  rest  of  the 
story.  There  was  the  "harvest."  Directly  he  made  the  appeal  it 
began  to  wave  through  all  that  land.  Methodist  history  confirms 
the  judgment  of  Jesus  in  regard  to  the  masses.  And  who  is  there 
here  that  can  not  from  his  own  experience  confirm  that  judgment 
in  regard  to  individuals?  I  am  speaking  to  men  who  are  working 
in  the  slums  of  our  great  cities,  and  dealing  with  cases  that  to  the 
common  eye  are  hopeless.  You  are  moving  about  among  squalor. 
You  are  handling  people  of  low  ideals  and  poor  anticipations,  and 
to  them  make  your  appeal.     What  has  been  the  answer? 

O,  1  have  seen  it!  I  have  seen  it  for  myself.  Yonder,  out  in 
India,  where  men  seem  farthest  away  from  all  we  understand  by 
a  spiritual  harvest,  I  have  seen  it.  I  looked  upon  a  man  once,  sit- 
ting on  the  steps  of  a  temple,  smeared  from  head  to  foot  with  ashes. 
His  right  arm  was  high  in  air,  and  the  finger  nails  of  that  hand 
grown  fully  two  inches  long.  For  fourteen  years  he  had  held 
his  arm  thus,  in  contempt  of  all  laws  of  gravitation,  until  his 
body  had  become  distorted  and  he  had  lost  the  power  to  recall  the 
devoted  limb.  "A  common  beggar,"  I  said  to  myself,  "but  I  will 
speak  to  him."  And  I  said,  "Brother,  why  do  you  hold  your  arm 
like  that?  Were  you  born  so?"  He  looked  at  me  for  a  moment, 
then  his  eye  kindled  and  he  answered,  "Brother,  I  was  not  born 
so.  I  once  did  wrong  with  that  hand,  and  I  was  ashamed  of  it.  I 
did  not  know  how  to  expiate  my  sin;  so  I  vowed  to  give  it  to  God; 
and  there  it  has  been  ever  since.  Do  you  think  God  has  forgotten?" 
There  on  the  steps  of  a  heathen  temple,  in  the  midst  of  a  heathen 
crowd,  I  found  a  harvest  at  my  feet. 

"The  harvest  is  great;"  yet  there  are  signs  among  us  which  de- 
press us — signs  that  are  sinister.  We  are  being  told  on  every  hand 
that  we  have  fallen  on  evil  times — that  these  are  the  Church's  lean 
years,  and  little  success  is  to  be  expected  until  a  miraculous  change 
takes  place. 

What  are  these  signs  that  we  interpret  in  such  fashion?     Why, 


8  OPENING  SERVICES. 

we  see  men  full  of  the  spirit  of  criticism,  and  their  criticism  has 
seemed  to  be  mainly  destructive.  We  see  Christian  lands  passing 
through  a  period  of  great  social  upheaval.  On  every  hand  there  are 
manifestations  of  unrest.  The  people  are  speaking  harsh  words,  ex- 
pressing crude  and  vicious  judgments.  And  we  say,  "It  may  have 
been  true  in  the  time  of  our  Lord,  and  it  may  have  been  true  in 
many  periods  of  history  since;  but  to-day,  to-day  where  is  the  prom- 
ise of  the  harvest?"  My  brethren,  I  think  it  is  time  that  the  leaders 
of  Methodism,  at  any  rate,  represented  here  in  this  Ecumenical  Con- 
ference, should  begin  to  recognize  as  perhaps  they  have  never  done 
before,  that  in  the  signs  of  these  times  there  is  the  promise  of  a 
harvest. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  spirit  of  criticism.  It  is  unsparing.  At 
bottom  it  is  the  spirit  of  science.  But  many  of  its  expressions  have 
been  hasty,  unconsidered,  and  even  unworthy.  It  has  so  far  effected 
more  in  destruction  than  it  has  attempted  in  construction.  But  at 
bottom  what  does  it  mean?  The  spirit  that  is  abroad  will  take 
nothing  for  granted,  nothing  on  mere  authority,  and  nothing  simply 
as  the  result  of  metaphysical  deduction.  It  asks  to  be  sure.  It 
wants  to  know  what  is  meant,  and  why  it  is  meant,  and  how  it 
can  be  supported.  But  that  spirit,  which  is  the  spirit  of  science,  is 
finally  pledged  to  this, — that  when  the  truth  is  seen,  whatever  it  is, 
wherever  it  shall  lead,  it  shall  be  followed  willingly  and  unflinch- 
ingly to  the  very  end.  That  is  the  true  spirit  of  science.  In  the 
spirit  of  criticism  which  is  abroad  to-day  I  am  sure  that  we  may 
recognize  the  movement  of  the  true  spirit  of  science.  There  are 
men  who  have  been  full  of  questions,  men  who  have  seemed  to  part 
with  the  things  that  some  of  us  count  most  precious.  But  those 
men  have  said  to  themselves,  and  made  a  vow  of  it — "The  royalty 
of  truth  demands  and  shall  have  the  loyalty  of  obedience."  Are  we 
to  be  afraid  of  that  spirit?  No  doubt  it  creates  much  trouble.  It 
plunges  the  minds  of  men  into  strange  conflicts.  But  nothing  stops 
it — no  belief,  however  sacred;  no  tradition,  however  venerable;  no 
institution,  however  strong.  It  wants  the  truth.  Shall  we  be 
troubled  about  it?  Of  this  I  am  sure,  that  when  men  have  finished 
their  investigations  they  will  find  that  they  are  coming  nearer  than 
ever  they  dreamed  to  Him  who  said  "I  am  the  truth."  If  there  is 
anybody  in  this  world  that  ought  not  to  fear  this  spirit  of  criticism, 
but  ought  to  welcome  it  and  encourage  it  and  simply  seek  to  guide 
it,  it  is  the  Christian  Church.  There  is  a  harvest  there.  What  are 
we  afraid  of,  brethren?  Do  you  think  that  when  criticism  has  done 
its  worst  it  can  destroy  Jesus  Christ?  If  He  can  be  destroyed,  let 
Him  be  destroyed.  You  and  I  want  only  the  truth — only  the  truth. 
But  I  bid  you  believe  that  that  spirit  which  challenges  and  inquires 
and  can  not  rest  until  it  has  understood — that  that  is  the  very 
spirit  in  which  Jesus  would  have  found  a  harvest.  The  harvest  on 
that  side  is  great. 


SERMON  OF  THE  REV.  HENRY  HAIGH.  9 

And  then  there  is  the  other  side  of  our  times.  I  spoke  of  social 
upheaval.  That  is  much  in  evidence  in  many  lands.  We  in  England 
have  been  most  uncomfortably  and  painfully  aware  of  it  in  recent 
days.  What  a  perplexity  it  is!  On  every  hand  men  seem  to  be  in 
revolt  against  the  present  social  system.  They  are  saying  hard 
things  about  it.  They  are  trying  to  conceive  strong  measures  against 
it.  And  there  are  multitudes  of  good  people  who  sit  still  and  say, 
"Ah,  these  are  evil  times!  Where  the  promise  of  His  coming?"  Is 
it  not  here?  Or  what  does  all  that  stir  and  movement  mean?  It  is 
at  bottom,  I  venture  to  say,  an  assertion  of  the  worth  of  man  as 
man.  It  is  a  protest  against  mere  privilege — privilege,  that  is,  which 
is  separate  from  character  and  service.  It  is  a  cry,  a  bitter  cry,  if 
you  will,  for  justice.  It  is  a  crude  affirmation  of  human  brother- 
hood. But  my  brethren,  these  principles  are  fundamental  to  Chris- 
tianity. They  are  its  essence.  They  have  overflowed  beyond  the 
bounds  of  the  Church,  and  are  doing  their  inevitable  and  righteous 
work.  This  social  movement,  I  have  said,  is  bound  up  with  all  sorts 
of  things  that  are  unworthy,  and  takes  on  manifestations  that  we 
all  heartily  deplore.  Yet  the  ideal  toward  which  it  seeks  to  work 
is  brotherhood — a  brotherhood  that  finds  expression  in  co-operation. 
But,  my  brethren,  brotherhood  is  not  the  mere  sharing  of  another 
man's  possessions  or  position.  It  is  essentially  spiritual.  It  is  the 
recognition  of  common  relationship.  There  can  be  no  universal 
brotherhood  if  there  be  no  common  fatherhood.  It  is  the  spiritual 
tie  which  constitutes  the  common  obligation  and  gives  the  universal 
privilege. 

But  Jesus  Christ  is  the  very  revealer  and  expounder  of  this  sort 
of  brotherhood.  "One  is  your  Father,  and  all  ye  are  brethren." 
Wherever  Christianity  goes  faithfully  it  overleaps  barriers  of  race 
and  class,  it  reconciles  differences,  and  it  preaches  persistently  the 
doctrine  of  human  fraternity.  No  man  can  truly  accept  the  idea 
and  seek  to  realize  it  in  society  without  ultimately  recognizing  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  leadership  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  say  that 
brotherhood  seeks  to  express  itself  in  co-operation.  Competition,  the 
old  orthodox  economic  system,  which  leaves  every  man  free  to  seek 
his  own  private  interest  so  long  as  he  respects  the  freedom  of  others, 
is  to-day  widely  and  seriously  challenged.  This  is  not  the  place  in 
which  to  express  an  opinion  on  that  subject.  The  cry  is  for  co- 
operation. Co-operation?  That  surely  means  that  no  man  shall 
work  for  himself,  but  all  shall  work  their  hardest  for  the  common 
weal.  I  tell  you,  it  implies  a  state  of  good  feeling  and  a  spirit  of 
self-sacrifice  which  can  only  be  born  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  man  who 
preaches  that  honestly  must  needs  in  the  end  go  to  Him  both  for  the 
doctrine  and  for  the  example.  To  enter  into  that  with  intelligence 
and  determination  is  to  become  susceptible  to  the  gospel.  The  heart 
of  co-operation  is  in  the  cross.     Is   there  no  harvest?     Men  and 


10  OPENING  SERVICES. 

brethren,  in  face  of  the  spirit  of  criticism,  in  face  of  the  social  ap- 
peal of  our  times,  I  bid  you  lift  up  your  eyes.  The  fields  are  white 
already  unto  harvest.  Let  us  not  hang  our  hands  in  despondency. 
Let  us  not  be  forever  singing  in  the  minor  key.  The  great  days  are 
not  gone — they  are  coming!  And  if  the  Church  is  what  it  should  be 
tney  are  already  here. 

But  there  is  one  other  aspect  of  this  harvest  about  which  I  must 
surely  say  a  word.  What  about  the  great  world?  We  are  told  that 
in  these  days  there  are  three  main  notes — unity,  reality,  and  uni- 
versality. All  through  the  past  years  the  Christian  Church,  when 
at  its  best,  has  been  asking  God  to  hasten  the  time  when  the  world 
shall  be  ready  to  receive  the  gospel.  What  is  the  situation  to-day? 
That  part  of  my  subject  was  expounded  for  all  Christendom  in  the 
great  Conference  at  Edinburgh  last  year.  Since  that  time,  I  trust, 
we  are  all  looking  upon  the  world  with  new  eyes. 

The  nations  that  were  hardest  to  reach,  the  nations  that  seemed 
most  impassive,  most  irresponsive,  are  to-day  quick,  susceptible,  and 
Inquiring.  China,  Japan,  Turkey,  Persia,  and  my  own  India — they 
are  full  of  movement  to-day.  The  age  of  stupor  is  past.  The  age 
of  self-seclusion  has  gone.  They  are  coming  out  into  the  world, 
these  nations,  asking  what  civilization  they  shall  adopt,  what  new 
leader  they  shall  follow,  what  new  rules  of  life  they  must  adopt.  0, 
whatever  we  may  say  about  the  conditions  of  things  in  our  own 
lands,  let  us  make  it  quite  clear  to  ourselves,  my  brethren,  and  let 
us  ring  it  out  with  persistent  reiteration  throughout  Methodism  the 
world  over,  that  the  day  for  the  advance  of  the  Son  of  God  among 
the  non-Christian  nations  of  the  world  is  here  at  last.  If  the  Church 
is  faithful,  understands  its  responsibility,  accepts  it,  and  at  all  cost 
of  self-sacrifice  determines  to  discharge  it,  then  the  harvest  is  at  our 
feet  ready  to  be  reaped,  and  the  next  years  will  be  years  of  harvest 
home.  O,  that  this  Conference  may  hasten  it!  "The  harvest  truly 
is  plenteous." 

II.  But  when  Jesus  looked  at  the  Church  He  spoke  in  another 
tone — "The  laborers,  the  laborers  are  few."  What  an  indictment! 
Why,  in  His  day  there  were  scribes  and  Pharisees,  temples  and  rit- 
ual, zeal  and  abounding  wealth.  Everything  that  we  count  necessary 
to  a  prosperous  Church  was  the  possession  of  the  Jewish  Church. 
It  stood  in  high  regard  among  certain  classes  of  the  people.  But 
Jesus  looked  at  that  Churcn,  a  Church  with  so  great  a  histor5%  a 
Church  that  had  been  brought  into  being  to  work  out  so  great  and 
high  a  purpose.  He  looked  at  the  Church  and  said,  "Yet  the  laborers, 
the  laborers,  those  who  understand  the  times,  those  who  bend  their 
whole  energy  to  cope  with  the  situation,  such  men  are  few — few." 
There  are  leaders  who  are  unable  to  appreciate  any  outside  their 
own  sect,  who  repudiate  the  authority  and  discredit  the  work  of  all 
who  do  not  follow  them.     Was  our  Lord  one  of  these?     You  know 


SERMON  OF  THE  REV.  HENRY  HAIGH.  H 

how  the  disciples  came  and  told  Him  that  they  had  seen  others  doing 
such  work  as  He  Himself  was  doing,  and  had  forbidden  them;  and 
how  our  Lord  said,  "Forbid  them  not;  forbid  them  not."  Thus  He 
threw  His  shield  over  all  whose  aims  are  good,  even  if  their  methods 
are  eccentric.  There  is  nothing  little  in  Jesus  Christ.  Nevertheless, 
His  judgment  of  the  Church  of  that  day  was  this,  "The  laborers  are 
few."  My  brethren,  is  it  not  time  that  all  sections  of  the  Christian 
Church,  and  our  own  first  of  all,  should  solemnly  look  up  to  the 
Master  and  say  to  Him,  "Thou  seest  us,  thou  knowest  our  plans,  our 
organizations,  and  our  methods?  Is  there  anything  wrong  with  us? 
Looking  at  its  dost  Thou  say,  'The  laborers  are  few?'  "  How  can 
that  be  said  of  Methodism  with  its  numerous  ministers,  its  class- 
leaders,  its  local  preachers?  Few!  Is  it  possible?  Is  it  possible? 
My  brethren,  what  Jesus  Christ  requires  in  this  Church  is  not  a 
ministry  of  profession,  but  a  ministry  of  passion.  Not  until  we  see 
men's  needs  vividly  and  feel  them  deeply,  not  until  we  follow  Him, 
our  leader,  in  His  perfect  faith  that  men  will  certainly  respond  to 
the  gospel  faithfully  preached — not  until  then  shall  we  be  true  la- 
borers. Is  the  Church  efficient  to-day?  Why  do  congregations  dwin- 
dle? Why  are  men  turning  for  the  chief  interest  of  their  life  to 
irstitutions  outside  the  Church?  The  hour  has  struck  when  the 
Cnurch  of  Jesus  Christ  throughout  the  whole  world  must  repent 
and  offer  its  humble  confessions  and  supplications  to  God. 

What  do  we  want  that  tne  Church  may  becorde  efficient?  Surely 
we  want  a  less  divided  Christendom.  The  trouble  for  a  long  time 
past  has  been  that  each  denomination  has  been  working  for  its  own 
hand  and  all  nave  not  joined  in  working  for  the  universal  good. 
While  that  exists,  my  brethren,  the  Church  will  still  be  feeble. 

We  Methodists  are  not  without  reproach  in  this  matter.  Indeed, 
that  reproach  ought  to  appall  us.  Little  villages,  where  there  is 
only  room  for  one  Church,  have  two  or  three  Methodist  Churches — • 
and  sometimes  each  works  against  the  others!  It  is  so.  You  know 
ii  is  so.  That  is  not  the  way,  surely,  in  which  the  harvest  is  going 
to  be  reaped.  Methodism  must  see  that  something  better  than  that 
obtains  within  its  borders.     We  want  complete  unity. 

But  the  Church  wants  something  besides  unity.  It  wants  that 
touch  of  compassion  which  made  Christ  the  harvester  that  He  was. 
"He  had  compassion  upon  them."  My  brethren,  I  pray  oftentimes 
that  to  the  Church  there  may  be  given  a  larger  imagination  and  a 
wider,  tenderer  sympathy.  O,  it  is  hard  when  the  Church  becomes 
merely  an  organization  and  spends  its  time  in  sustaining  its  organi- 
zation while  largely  forgetting  the  end  for  which  the  organization 
exists.  We  raise  our  funds,  we  build  our  churches,  we  make  our 
appointments,  we  support  our  ministry;  and  if  in  the  end  we  have 
managed  to  do  all  this  without  seriously  discrediting  ourselves  or 
running  Into  debt,  we  are  well  content  and  tell  everybody  that  we 


12  OPENING  SERVICES. 

are  getting  on  comfortably.  Is  it  not  time  that  that  spirit  ended? 
Where  are  the  people  for  whom  we  exist?  Why  are  we  not  bringing 
them  in?  O,  for  compassion  for  men  and  a  sympathy  with  Christ 
which  shall  surge  through  the  whole  Church  and  surge  through  this 
Methodism  of  ours  until  at  last  our  Lord  shall  look  and  say,  "Now, 
at  last  there  are  many  real  laborers  in  my  Church." 

We  want  a  wider  catholicity.  The  Church  keeps  out  many  people 
who  at  the  bottom  have  a  right  to  come  in,  because  it  is  narrow, 
crude.  We  have  set  up  certain  standards,  and  we  say,  "These  are 
eternal,  and  any  one  who  comes  into  the  Church  must  come  over  the 
wall  of  those  standards."  Our  Master  did  not  do  that.  He  ap- 
proached men  from  another  point  of  view;  and  we  must  learn  from 
Him  to  interpret  the  best  that  is  in  men  in  order  that  sympa- 
thetically we  may  reach  them  and  win  them.  We  want  a  wider 
catholicity.  The  old  harshness,  the  old  narrowness,  will,  please  God, 
die  away.  Then,  when  we  see  men  full  of  activity  and  unrest,  we 
shall  say,  "What  does  it  mean?  What  at  bottom  are  men  seeking 
for  ?  Has  Jesus  Christ  an  answer  to  that  ?"  Thus  shall  we  begin 
to  compel  them  to  come  in.  May  the  day  hasten  when  our  Lord 
shall  be  able  to  look  at  His  Church  universal  and  at  this  Methodist 
Church  and  say,  "The  laborers  are  many."  I  call  you  in  this  Con- 
ference, brethren — you  will  suffer  me  while  I  do  it — I  call  you  in  this 
Conference  to  seek  a  new  spiritual  vision,  to  obtain  a  larger  sym- 
pathy with  humanfty,  to  enter  more  deeply  into  the  purposes  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  then  to  offer  yourself  and  all  whom  you  represent 
in  a  new  dedication  to  God. 

If  that  comes  as  a  result  of  this  Conference  it  will  be  historic; 
it  will  do  work  that  shall  abide;  it  will  send  a  note  through  the 
whole  of  Methodism  in  every  part  of  the  world  which,  I  believe,  will 
find  an  instant  response,  and  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  we  shall  go 
forward.     God  grant  it. 

Dr.  Carman  said :  "The  gavel  I  hold  in  my  hand  is  from 
the  Strawbridge  oak,  a  log  of  the  original  meeting-house,  and 
some  timbers  that  came  from  dwellings  there.  Strawbridge,  you 
remember,  was  connected  with  the  early  movement  in  Maryland, 
wlien  the  local  preachers  used  to  go  out  and  look  after  the 
harvest.  We  have  had  many  such  men,  and  it  is  because  of  their 
work  largely  that  we  live  to-day.  Dr.  Bowmaist  Stephenson 
had  this  duly  mounted,  and  through  the  kindness  of  Dr.  ISTeal 
and  Dr.  Baldwin,  it  has  now  become  the  property  of  the  Ecu- 
menical Conference.  It  was  in  the  Ecumenical  Conference  in 
Britain;  it  comes  to  the  Ecumenical  Conference  in  Toronto; 
and  we  are  appointed,  it  seems  to  me,  in  a  way  the  keepers  of 


ELECTION  OF  OFFICERS.  13 

it,  and  with  us  it  ought  to  abide  until  the  next  Ecmneuieal 
Conference." 

Dr.  S.  D.  Chown  announced  and  the  Conference  sang  Hymn 

514, 

"O,  for  a  heart  to  praise  my  God         , 
A  heart  from  sin  set  free." 

Dr.  Carman  pronounced  the  benediction. 

Bishop  John"  M.  Walden  took  charge  of  the  administration 
of  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  assisted  by  Bishop  A. 
W.  Wilson,  Bishop  B.  F.  Lee,  the  Bev.  Henry  Haigh,  D.  D., 
the  Eev.  Edwin  Dalton,  D.  D.,  the  Eev.  Geo.  Packer,  D.  D., 
the  Eev.  S.  D.  Chown,  D.  D.,  the  Eev.  T.  H.  Lewis,  D.  D. 

After  the  administration  of  the  sacrament,  Hymn  599  was 

sung : 

"Take  my  life  and  let  it  be 
Consecrated,  Lord,  to  Thee." 

The  session  closed  with  the  benediction  by  Bishop  A.  W. 
Wilson, 


SECOXD  SESSION. 

BISHOP  A.  W.  WILSON",  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  presided  at  the  afternoon  session,  begin- 
ning at  3.30  o'clock. 

Devotional  exercises  were  conducted  by  the  Eev.  J.  E. 
Dickey,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  who 
read  Philippians  1,  and  offered  prayer. 

On  the  nomination  of  the  Business  Committee,  the  follow- 
ing officers  of  the  Conference  were  elected:  Secretaries,  First 
Division,  Bishop  C.  H.  Phillips,  D.  D.,  of  the  Colored  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church;  Second  Division,  H.  K.  Carroll, 
LL.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church;  Third  Division, 
the  Eev.  James  Chapman,  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church ; 
Fourth  Division,  Aid.  Thomas  Snape^  of  the  United  Meth- 
odist Church, 

On  the  recommendation  of  the  Business  Committee,  Dr. 
Carroll  was  elected  Chief  Secretary. 

On  the  unanimous  nomination,  of  the  Business  Committee, 
Bishop  John  W.  Hamilton,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 


14  OPENING  SERVICES. 

Church,  was  elected  Chairman  of  the  Business  Committee;  and 
the  Eev.  Simpson  Johnson,  Secretary  of  the  British  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Conference,  was  chosen  as  Secretary  of  the  Business 
Committee. 

The  hours  of  sessions  were  fixed  as  follows.  Morning  -ses- 
sion to  begin  at  10  A.  M.,  and  close  at  1  P.  M.  Afternoon  ses- 
sion to  begin  at  2.30  and  continue  until  such  time  as  the  Con- 
ference itself  may  wish  to  adjourn.  Evening  session,  when  there 
is  such,  to  begin  at  7.30  and  continue  until  such  time  as  the 
Conference  may  deterinine. 

Dr.  Cakeoll  spoke  as  follows :  "Mr.  Chairman,  my  col- 
leagues wish  me  to  acknowledge  for  them  their  high  appre- 
ciation of  the  honor  conferred  in  our  election  as  Secretaries  of 
this  Conference.  We  are  aware,  sir,  that  we  are  following  in 
the  footsteps  of  illustrious  men — the  Eev.  John  Bond,  the 
Eev.  Dr.  A.  C.  George,  the  Eev.  Dr.  J.  M.  King,  the  Eev.  Dr. 
Alexander  Sutherland — all  men  of  precious  memory,  who 
have  passed  on  beyond.  We  are  aware,  sir,  that  we  come  to  a 
difficult  position ;  but  we  are  your  servants,  and  will  do  the  very 
best  we  can  to  facilitate  the  business  of  the  Conference.  We  are 
all  new  to  this  position,  except  my  friend,  Mr.  Alderman  Snape, 
who  has  served  in  this  capacity  on  previous  occasions. 

"Mr.  Chairman,  may  I  announce  that  the  Secretaries  have 
arranged  among  themselves  for  the  systematic  division  of  their 
labors?  The  Eev.  James  Chapman  and  myself  will  give  our 
attention  to  the  record.  Mr.  Alderman  Snape  is  requested  to 
take  under  his  care  all  resolutions,  papers,  and  memorials  that 
are  presented  to  go  to  the  Business  Committee.  And,  under  the 
rule,  you  will  please  pass  all  papers  up  to  him.  He  wilh  gather 
them  together,  and  in  every  session  he  will  read  the  titles  of 
these  memorials,  resolutions,  and  so  forth,  and  see  that  they  go 
to  the  Business  Committee,  In  this  connection  may  I  call 
attention  to  the  rule  that  requires  that  every  notice,  motion,  or 
resolution  sent  up  shall  be  written  and  shall  be  signed  by  at  least 
two  men  ?  Now,  if  this  rule  is  observed  it  will  greatly  facilitate 
the  business  of  this  Conference,  save  time,  and  help  us  to  make 
the  record  complete. 

"May  I  call  attention,  further,  to  the  notice  that  is  given 


BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS.  15 

in  connection  with  the  rules  in  the  handbook?  The  handbook 
is  being  printed  under  the  auspices  of  the  Local  Committee.  A 
supply  will  shortly  be  here,  and  every  delegate  is  entitled  to  a 
copy.  I  wish  to  call  attention  to  a  notice  at  the  end  of  tlie 
rules  and  regulations,  on  page  26 — 'The  manuscripts  of  the 
essays  read  and  of  addresses  delivered,  being  the  prop- 
erty of  the  Conference,  shall  be  immediately  passed  over  to 
the  Secretary  of  the  Conference  for  publication  in  the  volume 
of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Conference.  Compliance  with  this 
rule  is  absolutely  indis]3ensable  to  accuracy  in  the  records  of 
the  Conference.'  Bishop  Phillips  has  been  designated  as  the 
Secretary  who  is  to  have  charge  of  the  manuscripts,  essays,  and 
appointed  addresses.  And  after  the  essays  and  addresses  have 
been  read,  the  manuscripts  should  be  passed  over  into  his 
charge.  This  is  very  important  in  order  that  we  may  have  the 
material  for  the  volume  which  is  to  be  published. 

"I  have  one  other  request,  and  that  is  that  any  one  receiving 
the  floor  from  the  C^hairman  shall  announce  his  name  before 
beginning  his  address.  This  is  absolutely  necessary,  in  order 
that  the  Secretaries  may  have  a  complete  and  perfect  record, 
and  it  is  also  necessary  in  order  that  the  Pev.  Mr.  Herrick, 
our  official  stenographer,  shall  have  it  in  order  that  a  complete 
record  of  all  the  addresses  and  speeches  shall  be  obtained  for  the 
official  volume. 

"Mr.  Chairman,  we  have  in  this  handbook  a  list  of  delegates 
of  the  Western  and  Eastern  Sections.  It  was  complete  so  far 
as  the  Secretaries  of  the  Executive  Committees  of  the  Eastern 
and  Western  Sections  were  able  to  make  it  at  the  time  it  went 
to  press.  Some  changes  have  occurred  since.  We  offer  tliis  as 
a  provisional  list  for  the  constitution  of  this  Conference,  and 
beg  to  ask  the  indulgence  of  the  Conference  that  we  may  make 
a  more  perfect  list.  We  shall  have  it  ready  just  as  soon  as 
possible.  We  want  to  make  a  complete  list  of  delegates  both 
from  the  Western  and  Eastern  Sections,  and  we  hope  to  have  it 
ready  soon,  so  that  the  roll  can  be  called  in  the  Conference,  if 
the  Conference  so  desires. 

"I  beg  furtlier  to  make  this  request.  It  is  quite  evident  that 
there  are  a  number  of  vacancies,  particularly  in  the  delegations 


IG  OPENING  SERVICES. 

of  the  "Western  Section.  But  connected  witli  most  of  the  dele- 
gations is  some  one  or  some  Committee  who  has  power  to  make 
substitutions.  If  you  know  that  certain  members  will  not  be 
here,  you  can  appoint  substitutes  to  serve  in  their  places.  I  beg 
to  ask  that  those  in  authority  wall  send  up  such  corrections  and 
substitutions.  And  further,  that  when  you  have  received  your 
handbook  you  will  go  over  this  list  very  carefully,  and  if  you 
see  any  mistakes,  will  you  write  them  down  and  sent  them  to 
the  Secretary?'' 

The  Eev.  James  Chapman,  D.  D.  :  "I  lay  upon  the  table 
a  bell  and  a  gavel  which  have  been  used  at  the  three  previous 
Ecumenical  Conferences,  the  property  of  a  well-known  member 
of  a  well-known  Methodist  family,  the  late  Judge  Waddy.  His 
daughter,  Miss  Waddy,  has  passed  them  over  to  me ;  and  I  here 
place  them  on  the  table  of  this  Conference  for  use  at  this  Con- 
ference. When  this  Conference  is  over,  a  fit  inscription  will 
be  added  to  the  other  inscriptions  which  are  on  the  bell  and  tlie 
gavel,  and  they  will  be  passed  to  the  official  who  shall  prepare 
for  the  next  Conference,  on  behalf  of  the  Eastern  Section. 

Addresses  of  Welcome  were  delivered  by  the  Eev.  William 
Briggs,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada;  Bishop 
J.  W.  Hamilton,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church; 
Bishop  Henry  B.  Parks,  D.  D.,  of  the  African  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church ;  and  Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South. 

ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME  BY  DR.  BRIGGS. 

Mr.  President:  — 

It  is  my  pleasant  duty  to  convey  representatively,  at  this  time, 
the  welcome  of  Toronto  Methodism,  and  I  may  add  our  whole 
General  Conference  Methodism,  to  our  dear  friends,  our  guests, 
the  members  of  the  Eastern  Section  of  this  Ecumenical  Conference. 

Distinguished  delegates,  representing  American  Methodism,  will 
most  worthily  tender  the  greetings  of  their  own  great  Church  and 
Country. 

Twenty-four  members  constitute  the  Canadian  contingent  in 
this  great  gathering,  any  one  of  whom  could  speak  the  welcome 
word  as  heartily  as  I  can  or  could,  but  not  one  with  a  fuller  fra- 
ternal feeling.  And  why?  Because  many — may  I  say,  most  of  our 
guests  are  from  the  Old  Land.     But  let  me  use  a  fonder  name,  and 


ADDRESS  OF  DR.  BRIGGS.  17 

say  the  "Home  Land" — the  land  we  still  call  home.     Home,  from 
which  the  feet  may  wander  but  never  the  heart. 

"Be  it  a  weakness, 
It  deserves  some  praise; 
We  love  the  play-place  of  our  early  days, 
And  we  call  that   place  our  home." 

And  a  true  man  in  the  thought  of  it  has  a  feeling  towards  it 
that  he  has  towards  no  other  place;  for  there  the  beginnings  of 
his  life  were  laid,  and  there  in  after  years,  in  thoughtful  hours, 
when  he  unbraids  his  manhood  he  will  find  chiefest,  and  most 
central,  among  the   threads  the  filaments  spun   in  the  early  time. 

Our  welcoming  city  is  named  Toronto,  an  Indian  name  sig- 
nifying "meeting  place,"  and  from  the  time  when  Indian  tribes 
gathered  on  the  banks  of  nearby  rivers  to  the  present  period  it  has 
been  a  popular  place  for  people  to  meet  in  large  assemblies  to 
discuss  questions  of  mutual  interest. 

The  site  on  which  Toronto  now  stands  was  part  of  a  large 
area,  sold  by  the  Mississaga  Indians  in  1787  to  the  Crown,  at  the 
rate  of  4c  or  2d  per  acre;  the  payment  to  be  made,  to  give  the 
exact  words  in  the  agreement,  "in  money  and  divers  goods."  In 
the  "divers  goods"  in  the  then  universal  custom,  some  "firewater" 
was  doubtless  thrown  in  which  would  have  been  better  thrown  out. 
<^ut  the  city  in  its  wise  Government  has  kept  out  a  good  deal,  for 
while  the  churches  and  missions  in  this  city  number  268,  the 
licensed  liquor  places  number  I8I77  This  may  be  one  of  the  reasons 
why  Toronto  has  been  termed  "Toronto  the  Good,"  but  a  writer  in 
the  Daily  Mail  of  London  calls  it  "Canada's  comeliest  city,"  and 
we  say  concerning  this  beautiful  city  of  the  north  what  Doctor 
Buckley  said  or  allowed  to  be  said  in  his  great  paper  of  a  beautiful 
city  of  the  south: 

"Who  tarry  there 
Breathe  balmy  air; 
Feel  free  from  care; 
Find  welcome  everywhere.' 

I  do  not  know  when  or  by  whom  the  first  sermon  was  preached 
in  this  place,  but  we  do  know  that  in  the  year  1818  the  first 
Methodist  church  was  erected.  The  entire  cost  of  the  building  was 
about  $250.00,  and  it  is  said  the  congregation  were  three  years  in 
raising  this  amount.  We  now  have  forty-one  churches  in  the 
city  proper,  not  including  missions,  to  the  value  of  two  and  a  half 
million  dollars.  Other  church  property  in  this  city,  as  our  College 
property,  our  Fred  Victor  Mission,  our  Deaconess  Home,  and  last, 
but  not  least,  our  Book-room,  would  sum  up  to  fully  two  million 
dollars  in  addition  to  the  figures  of  our  church  wealth. 
2 


18  OPENING  SERVICES. 

And  now  from  the  first  Methodist  church  I  come  to  the  first 
Methodist  Conference  held  in  this  place,  in  the  year  1831,  chiefly 
noticeable  from  the  fact  that  the  ministers  present,  who  by  an 
Act  of  Parliament  then  lately  passed,  had  obtained  the  right  to 
celebrate  marriages,  pledged  themselves  to  devote  their  wedding 
fees  towards  the  erection  of  the  Upper  Canada  Academy,  now  Victoria 
University,  which  has  the  first  royal  charter  granted  to  a  Non- 
conformist educational  institution  in  the  British  Empire.  That 
one  Conference  has  grown  to  twelve  Conferences,  with  a  grand 
total  of  ministers,  members  and  adherents  of  about  one  million, 
one  hundred  thousand,  and  a  church  property  value  of  about 
twenty-eight  million  dollars.  I  am  keeping  within  the  decennial 
years,  and  the  latest  General  Conference  figures.  Itemized  and 
aggregate  figures  of  our  work  and  workers  are  in  to-day's  Christian 
Guardian,  so  I  need  go  no  further  than  totals  in  this  address. 

The  itinerants  of  those  early  days  counted  not  their  lives  dear 
unto  themselves  "that  they  might  finish  their  course  with  joy, 
and  the  ministry  which  they  have  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  to 
testify  the  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God."  And  we  have  men  and 
women  to-day  like-hearted  and  like-minded,  and  equally  consecrated, 
who, 

"Would  the  precious   time   redeem, 
And  longer  live  for  this  alone. 
To  spend,  and  to  be  spent,  for  them 
Who  have  not  yet  their  Saviour  known." 

Take  China.  "Why  do  they  go  to  China,  running  risks  which 
bravest  soldiers  might  well  fear  to  face?"  Why?  Because  the 
Christ  is  in  them.  We  have  them  in  our  home  fields;  in  the 
flowery  island  of  Bermuda;  in  Newfoundland,  England's  ancient 
colony  and  Methodism's  first  mission  field.  We  have  them  in  this 
Canada  of  ours;  this  land  that  takes  daylight  four  hours  to  cross; 
that  has  three  oceans  to  wash  its  shores;  that  has  a  Bible  name 
and  a  Scriptural  boundary,  "A  Dominion  from  sea  to  sea,  and 
from  the  river  unto  the  ends  of  the  earth."  And  the  representa- 
tives of  our  Church  in  all  these  lands  are  in  spirit  with  us  in 
this  acclaim  of  welcome,  for  they  are  one  in  nature,  and  one  in 
name,  for  the  welcome  which  I  am  empowered  to  present  to-day 
is  the  welcome  of  a  united  Methodism,  a  one-name  Methodism. 
In  our  organic  unity  we  need  no  such  auxiliary  phrases  as 
Wesleyan,  Episcopal,  New  Connexion,  Primitive,  or  Bible  Christian 
as  local  definers.  The  grand  old  generic  word  "Methodist"  names 
us  all  with  sufficient  definiteness,  and  is  a  worthy  appellation, 
for  in  all  the  essentials  of  belief  we  were  one;  in  all  best  things 
one;  in  highest  thoughts  and  deepest  feelings  a  unit.  And  we 
might  have  echoed  the  figurative  language  of  Owen  and  Goodwin,  at 


ADDRESS  OF  BISHOP  HAMILTON.  19 

the  Savoy  Synod,  that  though  we  had  been  launched  singly  we  had 
been  steering  our  course  by  the  same  chart,  and  the  same  holy 
blessed  truths  had  been  our  lading. 

Now  I  believe  this  welcome  which  I  am  giving,  and  which 
will  be  followed  by  my  brethren  from  across  the  line,  will  be  as 
heartily  received  as  it  is  and  will  be  given,  for  "we  be  brethren." 
But  let  me,  in  my  closing  words,  put  a  military  meaning  into  the 
word  "brethren"  and  say  "brethren  in  arms,"  linked  battalions 
in  the  sacred  soldiership  of  the  mighty  army  of  the  living  God. 
tAnd  I  hope,  yea  I  am  sure,  that  you  all  will  join  with  me  in  the 
prayerful  purpose  that  this  great  representation  of  world-wide 
Methodism  will  not  be  an  adorning  for  di-es^  parade,  but  a 
reenlisting  for  more  active  service.     And  thus  equipped 

"To  battle  all  proceed, 
But  arm  ourselves  with  all  the  mind. 
That    was    in    Christ,    our    Head." 

BISHOP  HAMILTON'S  ADDRESS   OP  WELCOME. 
Fathers,  Sisters,  Brothers: 

I  have  been  selected  by  my  associates  of  the  Program  Com- 
mittee, since  the  death  of  my  esteemed  and  honored  brother, 
the  chairman  of  the  Commission  of  the  Western  Section,  to  bring 
to  you  that  part  of  the  welcome  which  comes  so  heartily  from 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  It  wpuld  have  been  much  more 
fitting  if  my  colleague  and  senior  Bishop,  Rev.  Dr.  Daniel  A. 
Goodsell,  could  have  spoken  these  warm  words  of  welcome.  His 
noble  presence  and  felicitous  speech  would  have  reflected  worthily 
upon  this  World  Conference  and  given  equal  honor  to  our  great 
Church. 

But  the  vacancies  created  by  the  absence  of  the  strong  men 
who  have  gone  from  us  since  the  Ecumenical  Conference  was  held 
in  London  ten  years  ago  are  many,  and  the  great  tasks  which  have 
thus  fallen  to  us  are  all  the  more  difficult  because  of  the  distin- 
guished ability  and  skill  with  which  those  men  did  their  work. 

We  shall  hear  no  more  among  us  the  eloquence  of  the  preacher, 
Bishop  Galloway,  who  introduced  the  proceedings  of  the  last  Con- 
ference with  his  memorable  sermon.  The  industrious,  scholarly, 
and  forceful  chairman  of  the  executive  committee  of  the  Western 
Section,  Bishop  Hurst,  and  the  tireless  and  devoted  secretaries, 
Drs.  Bond  and  King,  are  not  here.  Our  Afro-American  brothers 
miss  their  most  representative  leader.  Bishop  Arnett;  and  here  in 
the  home  for  so  many  years  of  that  stalwart  Roman —  no,  Metho- 
dist —  whom  shall  we  miss  more  than  Dr.  Potts,  the  man  of 
splendid  physique,  with  soul  as  big  as  his  body,  and  excellent  spirit, 
who  would  have  welcomed  us  so  royally,  and  brought  stentorian 


20  OPENING  SERVICES. 

echoes  from  every  corner  of  Canada?  But  we  are  here,  the  living 
among  the  dead,  and  our  business  is  less  with  necrologies  than 
ontologies. 

There  are  two  parties  to  every  welcome — the  guest  of  the  first 
party,  and  the  host  of  the  second  party.  It  is  a  saying,  taken  from 
one  of  the  sacred  books  of  the  East,  "Of  all  men  thy  guest  is 
superior;"  and  one  of  our  courtly  Americans  has  added;  "A  host 
is  as  truly  called  to  his  place  as  the  preacher  is  called  to  preach." 
It  is  no  trifling  undertaking,  therefore,  to  be  either  guest  or  host. 
Hospitality  came  down  from  heaven  as  one  of  the  birthrights  of 
the  oldest  of  the  Oriental  peoples.  When  they  had  but  little  to 
offer  save  some  straw,  a  room  and  water,  they  added  gentle  words, 
saying,  "These  things  are  never  to  be  refused  in  good  men's 
houses."  In  this  instance,  Canadian  Methodism  has  so  generously 
provided  the  room,  straw,  and  water,  that  there  is  little  left  for 
the  rest  of  us  to  bring  but  gentle  words.  Some  emphasis  of  the 
hospitality  must  of  necessity  be  found  in  the  bed  and  board;  but 
we  intend  that  our  guests  shall  find  truth  and  love  and  honor  and 
courtesy  flowing  in  all  our  deeds. 

We  all  know  "there  is  an  emanation  from  the  heart  in  genuine 
hospitality  which  can  not  be  described,  but  is  immediately  felt  and 
puts  the  stranger  at  once  at  his  ease."  The  guest  at  least  ought 
to  get  enough  out  of  his  welcome  to  pay  for  his  coming  a  short  or 
long  journey;  and  the  host  should  expect  to  get  as  much  joy  out 
of  his  keeping  open  house  as  his  guest  can  find  within  his  gates. 
"I  never  knew  any  man,  great  or  small,"  said  one  of  our  best  judges 
of  social  courtesies,  "grow  poor  by  keeping  an  orderly  table." 

There  is  always  some  wise  purpose  on  both  sides  of  the  gen- 
uine house  besides  the  joys  of  the  welcome.  We  are  not  here  by 
accident  or  merely  to  entertain  or  be  entertained  as  hosts  and 
guests.  There  is  great  significance  in  the  coming  here  of  five  hun- 
dred chosen  men  and  women  from  over  all  the  earth.  To  those 
guests  who  never  visited  America  before,  there  will  be  much  to 
entrance  their  vision  and  stir  all  the  faculties  and  emotions  of  their 
nature. 

Every  traveler  who  comes  to  the  New  World  for  the  first  time 
is  to  himself  as  much  of  a  discoverer  as  Columbus,  Cabot,  or  any 
one  of  all  the  rest  of  the  first-comers.  There  is  joy  awaiting  the 
sight-seer  who  is  here  to  see  only  our  material  wonders  and  re- 
sources. We  can  awaken  all  the  soul  within  him  with  the  broad 
area  of  our  wind-  and  fire-swept  prairies  of  the  West;  miles  wide 
and  deep  cut,  guttural  sounding  canyons,  like  that  of  the  Colorado; 
vast  inland  seas  which  roll  together  in  roaring  cataract  at  Niagara; 
boiling  lakes  and  burning  springs  with  spouting  geysers  in  the 
Yellowstone  Park;  the  lofty  mountains  dotted  with  open  and  dense 
primeval  forests,  whose  interruptions  by  awful  upheavals  have  left 


ADDRESS  OF  BISHOP  HAMILTON.  21 

world  attractive  openings  scenic  with  grandeur  and  sublimity  in  the 
Yosemite,  such  as  Zechariah  saw  cleft  in  the  midst  thereof  toward 
the  east  and  toward  the  west,  and  there  a  very  great  valley,  half 
of  the  mountain  removed  toward  the  north  and  half  of  it  toward 
the  south.  And  if  the  visitor  will  stay  long  enough  he  may  see 
one  of  our  heaven-sent  cyclones  coming  with  thrones  of  judgment 
in  its  arms.  All  these  and  more  —  we  have  captured  the  North 
Pole  recently  —  can  be  found  here  for  the  mere  going  about  and 
the  money  to  pay  for  it. 

We  are  new,  but  not  poor.  We  are  making  many  rich.  We 
have  only  had  the  hemisphere  under  our  feet  a  little  time.  Long 
after  the  feudal  castles  had  crowned  the  crags  and  lined  the  em- 
bankments of  the  lakes  and  rivers  of  Europe  and  their  lords  and 
ladies  had  given  to  the  world  their  legendary  literature,  we  were 
living  in  cabins  and  writing  the  story  of  capture  by  the  Indians 
on  bark  torn  from  the  trees.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  our  people 
are  living  in  cabins  still.  Thence  came  the  Methodist  preachers, 
whom  no  labor  tires,  no  dangers  frighten,  and  no  scenes  disgust. 
Some  of  the  most  scholarly  men  named  on  our  program  were  born 
in  the  log  cabins.  We  have  had  many  chivalrous  knights  of  the 
forest  living  in  kingly  contentment  in  these  one  room  castles  of  un- 
hewn trees  and  writing  down  a  royal  history  of  the  Western  World. 
We  have  had  honored  Presidents,  great  statesmen  and  eloquent 
bishops,  who  were  born  and  trained  up  in  these  humble  homes. 
In  our  days  of  old, — 

"They  say  he  lived  in  a  cabin, 

And  lived  on  old,  hard  cider,  too. 
Well,  what  if  he  did?     I  am  certain 

He  is  the  hero  of   Tippecanoe — 

He  is  the  hero  of  Tippecanoe." 

Mr.  Webster,  in  one  of  his  great  orations,  inarticulate  from 
emotion,  said:  "That  cabin  I  annually  visit,  and  thither  I  carry 
my  children  that  they  may  learn  to  emulate  the  stern  and  simple 
virtues  that  there  found  their  abode;  and  when  I  forget  that  cabin 
and  what  it  teaches  and  recalls,  may  my  name  and  their  names 
perish  from  among  men  forever! " 

We  have  a  legendary  lore  of  the  frontier  rich  in  flights  of  the 
imagination  and  captivating  story.  Have  you  never  heard  of  the 
sweet  and  gentle  murmurs  of  the  Minnehaha?    Come  away  with  me 

"To  the  land  of  the  Ojibways, 
To  the  land  of  the  Dacotahs," 
and 

"Listen  to  these  wild  traditions.     *     *     * 
"There  the  wrinkled  old  Nokomis 
Nursed  the  little  Hiawatha." 


22  OPENING  SERVICES. 

All  this  and  still  more  has  its  enlivening  interest,  instruction, 
and  entertainment.  But  we  are  here  as  the  embassadors  of  two 
worlds.  We  are  given  the  one  with  which  to  serve  the  other.  We 
are  acquainted  with  the  literature  of  Canaan  and  that  which  has 
come  from  above.  We  are  come  to  Toronto  as  the  angels  came  to 
the  shepherds  in  the  hill  country  of  Judea,  to  bring  good  tidings 
of  great  joy  which  shall  be  to  all  the  people;  and  as  the  Son  of  Man 
Himself  came  to  seek  and  save  the  lost,  we  are  here  to  preach  and 
teach,  pray  and  sing,  as  when  the  first  sons  of  God  were  met  to- 
gether in  holy  convocation.  We  are  joined  in  a  heavenly  fellow- 
ship by  a  covenant  of  peace.  We  may  not  invoke  many  heavy  head 
lines  in  the  boisterous  periodicals  of  the  great  cities,  but  we  may 
leave  and  carry  away  another  world-wide  endorsement  of  our  com- 
mission and  a  fresh  and  abiding  stimulus  for  our  world  work. 

There  are  some  men  and  newspapers  who  at  the  approach  of 
a  dispute  "neigh  like  horses.  Unless  there  is  an  argument  going 
on  they  thlnlv  nothing  is  doing."  Let  there  be  no  such  argument 
heard  among  us;  rather,  let  there  be  an  old  time  Wesleyan  Con- 
ference, with  its  questions  and  answers  and  with  its  old  time  love- 
feast  among  the  sons  of  the  prophets,  with  or  without  tickets  of 
membership,  and  with  the  fervent  prayer  and  testimony  of  an  old- 
time  watch  night  meeting.x  We  are  here  to  face  more  a  frivolous 
than  a  frov/ning  world,  full  of  all  subtlety,.,  the  enemy  of  all  right- 
eousness, determined  to  make  sin  as  fascinating  and  polite  as  mod- 
^n  society,  and  all  penalties  of  the  law  as  little  to  be  dreaded  as 
its~disruption  of  the  family  and  the  church  —  to  rob  the  world  of 
all  serious  import,  and  make  all  life  the  mere  pastime  of  a  nerveless 
and  ease-loving  conscience.  The  great  sin  of  our  time  is  the  in- 
difference of  the  multitude  in  all  matters  of  responsibility,  obli- 
gation and  duty.^ 

Wealth  and  health,  worldly  independence  and  indulgence,  laugh 
at  the  restraint  of  the  orderly  family  and  the  Christian  Church, 
and  mock  the  authority  of  even  the  Word  of  God.  The  limp  and 
lavender  "goodness"  of  so  many  professionally  upright  persons 
weakens  all  their  influence  and  usefulness.  "Some  people,"  says 
one  of  the  early  English  writers,  "pass  through  life  soberly  and 
religiously  enough  without  knowing  why  or  reasoning  about  it,  but 
from  force  of  habit  merely  go  to  heaven  like  fools." 

We  are  here  to  emphasize  the  two  irresistible  forces  of  Metho- 
dism which  have  given  us  our  great  numbers  and  influence  in  Can- 
ada, one-third  of  the  entire  population  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  and  forty  millions  of  communicants,  adherents,  and  such 
Methodists  as  have  gone  from  us  into  other  denominations. 

We  are  here  to  preach  that  there  is  still  sin  in  the  heart  and 
in  the  street,  and  that  the  only  —  I  say  only  —  salvation  from 
sin  is  in  Jesus  Christ.  He  is  more  the  issue  now,  as  well  of  the  in- 
different as  of  all  thinking  men,  than  in  any  other  period  of  His 


ADDRESS  OF  BISHOP  PARKS.  23 

history  on  the  earth.  The  Sanhedrin,  Herod  and  Pilate,  still  pur- 
sue Him,  and  cry:  "Prophesy  who  is  he  that  struck  Thee."  The 
modern  Josephus,  Pliny,  Tacitus,  know  little  of  Him.  Neverthe- 
less there  comes  occasionallj^  a  Nicodemus  by  night,  an  Agrippa 
almost  persuaded;  while  out  on  the  highway  and  desert  places 
catechumens  like  Philip  continue  to  crowd  about  the  chariots  (open 
air  wagons)  of  our  preachers  —  men  who,  like  their  Master,  see 
in  the  multitudes  in  the  market  places  and  about  the  shambles  grain 
ripe  for  the  harvest.  The  Son  of  Man  still  sees  a  son  of  God  in  the 
sinner,  as  Michel  Angelo  saw  his  immortal  statue  of  Moses  in  the 
unchiseled  stone.  And  "towering  o'er  the  wrecks  of  time"  the 
name  of  Jesus  is  high  over  all  and  still  blessed. 
"Angels  and  men  before  it  fall, 
And  devils  fear  and  fly." 

We  must  insist  on  the  Wesleyan  doctrine  of  the  witness  of  the 
Spirit.  And  let  us  hold  fast  the  good  confession  —  our  boldness 
and  the  glorying  of  our  hope  firm  unto  the  end. 

"What   we   have   felt   and   seen 
With   confidence  we  tell. 
And  publish  to  the  Sons  of  Men 
The  signs  infallible." 

"Testimony   is  like   an   arrow   shot  from   a   long  bow."     John 
saw  the  deceiver  of  the  whole  world  overcome  by  the  word  of  testi- 
mony.    The  testimony  of  Jesus  is  the  spirit  of  prophecy. 
^<[Thus,  and   thus   only,   shall   we   realize   the    fulfilment   of   our 
prophetic  mission  to  go  with  Jesus  and  John  Wesley  to  the  last  man."^ 

To  this  end,  that  your  coming  here  may  hasten  our  going 
everywhere,  with  all  our  hearts  we  open  wide  our  welcome.  "Even 
so.  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly!  "i/ 

BISHOP  PARKS'  ADDRESS   OP  WELCOME. 
Mr.   President,   General  Superintendents,  Bishops  and  Memhers  of 
the  Ecumenical   Conference   of  Methodism.     Ladies    and   Gen- 
tlemen : 

It  is  with  no  small  degree  of  pleasure,  I  arise  in  this  presence 
to  extend  to  you  a  most  cordial  and  hearty  welcome.  I  could  wish 
some  other  one,  by  virtue  of  his  superior  ability  to  do  justice  to  the 
occasion,  had  been  chosen  to  perform  this  task,  nevertheless  my  ap- 
preciation of  the  honor  done  me  by  the  Committee  on  Program 
is  profound.  In  accepting  the  task,  I  am  not  unmindful  of  the  fact 
that  it  is  very  meet  and  right,  at  this  particular  time  in  the  epoch- 
making  of  Methodism,  world-wide,  that  African  Methodism  stand- 
ing as  she  does  as  the  ultimate  result  of  a  resistless  necessity, 
should  be  present  upon  this  august  occasion  to  sound  her  voice 
of  welcome  to  you  and  contribute  her  quota  toward  the  futherance 
of  the  great  and  glorious  principles  of  Methodism,  for  which  you 


24  OPENING  SERVICES. 

have  contended  with  undaunted  courage  through  all  the  years  gone 
by,  and  until  the  present  moment. 

In  welcoming  you  here  to  the  Western  World,  I  could  wish 
for  you  a  place  in  some  one  of  the  Metropolitan  centers  of  the 
United  States  beneath  the  silken  folds  and  illustrious  stars  and 
stripes  of  "Old  Glory,"  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the 
brave  where,  since  the  days  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  Methodism 
together  with  other  Churches,  has  been  struggling  to  build  a  civili- 
zation and  a  republic  purified  in  the  blood  of  Christ;  controlled  by 
the  sanctifying  influences  of  Him  who  died  to  make  men  free,  — 
but  such  is  not  my  privilege. 

We  meet  within  the  domain  of  the  mighty  Empire  of  His 
Majesty, .King  George  the  Fifth,  —  an  empire  made  world-wide  by 
his  grandmother,  the  most  excellent  and  profound  of  all  rulers  of 
modern  times.  Queen  Victoria.  Her  name  is  a  household  word  upon 
the  lips  of  every  member  of  my  race  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  ocean-bound  Republic  from  which  I  hail,  because  no 
slave  was  permitted  to  drag  a  chain  in  all  her  dominion.  After 
all,  I  am  persuaded  that  it  is  quite  fitting  that  the  Ecumenical 
Conference  of  Methodism  should  be  called  to  meet  and  hold  her 
fourth  session  within  the  confines  of  such  an  empire. 

Governments  emanate  from  social  influences.  The  social  rule 
of  England's  Elizabeth  had  its  result  in  the  brilliant  entertainment 
of  the  great  men  who  crowded  her  court.  The  social  rule  of 
Victoria,  before  the  death  of  the  Prince  Consort,  bred  gentle  women 
and  chivalrous  men.  Indeed  the  social  status  of  England,  from  the 
rise  of  the  Tudor  period,  began  to  take  upward  move  the  moment 
the  purity  of  the  church  life  was  recognized  by  the  state.  It 
reached  its  climax  perhaps  in  the  Victorian  age,  when  no  man  nor 
woman  was  admitted  into  the  Queen's  court  against  whom  public 
scandal  had  been  proved.  The  church  made  social  purity  the  sine 
qua  non  of  Christ's  undeflled  religion,  the  ruling  Monarch  setting 
the  pace. 

Recognizing,  as  we  do,  that  the  church  should  set  the  standard 
of  life  and  society,  should  convert  and  control  the  heads  of  Gov- 
ernments and  permeate  the  lives  of  its  humblest  subjects,  we  wel- 
come Methodism  into  the  domains  of  such  a  government  whose 
ruler  was  swayed  by  the  doctrine  of  such  principles,  whose  life 
was  an  attestation  of  the  same. 

As  potent  as  is  civilization  in  the  makeup  of  the  world  to-day, 
without  the  higher  reaches  of  religious  enlightenment,  it  is  en- 
tirely inadequate  to  meet  the  demands  of  a  virile  manhood  and  a 
vigorous  soul-life.  With  all  the  magical  power  of  transformative, 
educative  principles,  Socratic,  Platonic  or  Lucretian, — education 
will  only  play  upon  the  exterior  window  shutters  of  the  mind  un- 
less the  God-blest  principles  of  interior  religion  lift  up  the  latch 
and  open  wide   the   inmost  apertures   of   the  soul   and   let   in  the; 


ADDRESS  OF  BISHOP  PARKS.  25 

flood-light  of  God's  eternal  graciousness  within  its  habitat.  In 
vain  do  you  search  for  the  broadway  of  genuine  religious  life  in 
the  outer  byways  of  mere  intellectuality.  "There  is  a  river,  the 
streams  whereof  make  glad  the  city  of  God,  the  holy  tabernacle 
of  the  Most  High."  That  river  is  revealed  truth  ultimating  itself 
in  the  lives  of  men  and  women  this  side  of  the  Jordan.  The  true 
grandeur  of  life  is  not  found  in  logical  disquisitions  concerning 
truth,  nor  yet  in  mathematical  formulas  concerning  the  longi- 
tude and  latitude  of  the  love  of  the  Divine,  but  in  the  quiet,  un- 
obtrusive, life-giving  truth  in  all  the  nakedness  of  its  simplicity. 

You  stand  for  the  propagation  of  these  fundamental  principles 
of  the  Christ-life,  being  commissioned  of  God  fearlessly,  deter- 
minedly, and  enthusiastically  to  proclaim  them  to  the  children  of 
men  and  cease  not  until  they  shall  have  permeated  the  entire  world 
and  the  dawn  of  the  blessed  Millennium  shall  have  come.  There- 
fore it  affords  Methodism  of  the  Western  World  unmeasured  pleas- 
ure to  welcome  you. 

As  I  welcome  you  to-day  under  our  common  flag  of  Methodism, 
I  would  not  have  you  unmindful  of  the  fact  that  we  stand  upon  a 
great  transitional  period,  a  period  when  religion,  religious  thought, 
destinies  and  empires  are  changing  hands;  new  thought,  new  the- 
ology, new  cults, — a  veritable  new  school  of  education,  civil,  politi- 
cal and  religious,  is  revolutionizing  human  nature.  May  we  not 
look  around  us  and  examine  and  read  well  the  signs  of  the  times? 
There  is  a  restlessness  in  human  nature  like  unto  Rachel  weeping 
for  her  children  because  they  were  not.  Restraint  will  only  make 
the  tension  greater.  It  will  awaken  the  drowsy,  sleeping  deni- 
zens of  the  soul  and  stir  them  to  acts  of  freedom  in  the  life  of  him 
who  is  seeking  for  truth,  the  Pearl  of  Greatest  Price.  This  yearning 
after  that  freedom  which  the  light  of  truth  alone  can  bestow, 
stirred  the  breast  of  France  and  gave  birth  to  the  Republic;  and 
the  self-same  animating  spirit  warmed  the  breast  of  John  Huss  of 
Bohemia,  Martin  Luther  of  Germany,  John  Wesley  of  England  and 
Richard  Allen  of  America,  making  loud  protestations  against  error, 
superstition,  ungodliness  and  prejudice,  such  as  are  heard  athwart 
the  sky  of  Christendom  today.  This  truth  is  cosmopolitan  in  its 
operation,  humanitarian  in  its  spirit  and  must  break  the  barrier  of 
natural  prejudices.  It  contends  for  and  demands  a  full  and  com- 
plete assertion  of  that  democracy  of  spirit  which  demands  the  right 
to  share  political  power  with  the  humblest  member  of  its  common- 
wealth. It  is  the  essential  spirit  of  Christianity  in  human  life;  it 
is  the  basic  principle  of  our  beloved  Methodism. 

We  recognize  and  hail  with  delight  the  tenacity  with  which 
you  who  stand  in  the  van-guard  of  Methodism  across  the  waters,  in 
the  islands  of  the  sea  as  well  as  in  non-Christian  lands,  have  emu- 
lated the  lives  of  your  illustrious  ancestors  In  holding  fast  to  the 
great  principles   for  which  they  stood.     Those  of  us  on  this  side 


26  •  OPENING  SERVICES. 

of  the  water  are  determined  that  the  ever  blessed  flag  transmitted 
to  us  by  an  unbroken  line  of  world-famed  worthies  shall  never 
touch  the  ground. 

African  Methodism  is  not  the  least  of  the  daughters  in  this 
great  sisterhood  of  Methodism  of  the  Western  World,  who  have 
sworn  eternal  allegiance  to  all  the  doctrines  and  tenets  of  Method- 
ism; laying  special  stress  upon  redemption,  regeneration,  justifi- 
cation, sanctification  and  holiness  of  life.  We  have  not  forgotten 
the  prayer-meeting,  the  class-room,  the  love-feast,  and  ever  blessed 
sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  We  regard  them  as  fixtures  in  the 
fabric  of  this  great  institution,  without  which  the  church  is  in- 
complete. Right  well  have  our  fathers  burned  upon  the  altars  of 
our  hearts  that  without  these  essentials  our  blessed  heritage  can 
never  be  preserved. 

Our  ship  of  church  was  launched  in  Philadelphia,  1816.  At  that 
time  her  communicants  numbered  less  than  fifty;  to-day  we  claim 
six  hundred  thousand.  At  that  time  her  membership  was  confined 
to  Pennsylvania;  to-day  in  every  state  in  the  United  States  and 
every  territory,  in  the  isles  of  the  sea,  in  West  and  South  Africa, 
her  banner  is  unfurled.  She  has  not  failed  to  profit  by  the  whole- 
some example  and  splendid  lesson  taught  by  the  Mother  Church 
and  has  striven  to  adhere  to  the  teachings  of  the  Illustrious  Founder 
of  Methodism,  John  Wesley ;  to-wit,  the  church  is  called  to  make 
well  rounded  men  and  women,  whose  master-minds  are  capable  of 
exerting  an  influence  for  good  in  the  world  that  will  compel  a 
following  of  the  meek  and  lowly  Jesus. 

For  we  believe  that  Methodism,  whether  Wesleyan  or  Luth- 
eran, Primitive  or  Freewill,  Congregational  or  Presbyterian,  African 
or  Zion,  Methodism,  North  or  South,  Japanese  or  Korean,  is  none 
other  than  a  corrollary  to  truth.  These  rays  of  divine  light  are 
diffused  and  focused  so  that  the  retina  of  the  eye  seeking  for 
truth  absorbs  the  rays  of  light  and  transmits  them  to  the  choroid 
of  the  soul,  whence  they  are  diffused  through  every  ramification  of 
the  mind  and  enlighten  the  whole  being  of  them  who  sat  in  dark- 
ness and  the  shadow  of  death. 

Indeed,  she  is  like  unto  the  trunk  and  branches  and  leaves 
of  a  great  ti-ee,  whose  roots  and  tendrils  are  planted  deep  down  in 
the  love  of  God.  The  dynamic  influence  of  this  love  sends  the  sap 
of  the  Divine  truth  through  every  vein  of  this  tree  until  it  sends 
forth  its  shoots  into  the  air  and  until  the  birds  nestle  in  its  foliage 
and  sing  their  sonnets  to  the  delight  of  the  way-worn,  storm-beaten 
and  foot-sore  traveler,  who  leans  against  its  massive  trunk  sheltered 
from  the  sun  and  fanned  into  somnolence  by  the  sweet  zephyrs. 

'  With  an  abiding  faith  in  the  ultimate  and  triumphant  success 
of  this  thrice  glorious  Cause,  we  welcome  you  as  Sires  and  Heralds 
of  our  beloved  Methodism  to  the  Western  World. 


ADDRESS  OF  BISHOP  HOSS.  27 

ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME  BY  BISHOP  HOSS. 
My  Methodist  Brethren  From  Beyond  All  Seas: 

The  greetings  that  you  have  already  received  have  been  both 
so  numerous  and  so  cordial  that  it  would  surely  be  a  work  of  super- 
erogation for  me  to  add  many  words.  But  as  the  special  represen- 
tative of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  with  its  nearly 
2,000,000  members,  I  must  stand  up  and  salute  you. 

There  is  at  least  one  good  reason  why  I  should  have  been 
chosen  to  discharge  this  pleasant  duty,  for  I  am  a  man  with  lines 
of  racial  and  ecclesiastical  heredity  reaching  outwards  and  back- 
wards into  many  lands.  Of  my  four  great-grandfathers  one  was 
an  unmixed  German,  with  the  touch  of  Martin  Luther  in  him;  one 
was  an  unmixed  Frenchman,  well-drilled  in  the  decrees  of  the 
Council  of  Trent,  and  obedient  to  them;  one  was  an  unmixed 
Englishman,  and  a  most  stubborn  Baptist;  and  one  was  of  mixed 
breed,  with  the  blood  of  Huguenot  refugees  and  English  Church- 
men flowing  in  equal  currents  through  his  veins.  As  for  myself, 
I  am  a  perfectly  homogeneous  product  of  all  these  mingled  elements, 
an  American  from  the  top  of  my  head  to  the  soles  of  my  feet,  and  a 
Methodist  twenty-four  hours  out  of  every  day  from  my  heart's  core 
to  my  finger  tips.     As  such,  I  greet  you  to-day. 

You  are  welcome,  brethren  beloved,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord. 
We  are  devotedly  thankful  for  the  good  Providence  that  has  been 
over  you  since  you  left  your  distant  homes,  and  that  has  brought 
you  safe  over  so  many  weary  leagues  of  land  and  water  to  our 
great  decennial  gathering;  and  we  earnestly  pray  that  the  same 
kindly  Providence  may  be  over  the  households  and  the  Churches 
that  you  have  left  behind  you. 

It  is  our  ardent  hope  that  while  we  are  here  we  may  all  "sit 
together  in  heavenly  places  in  Christ  Jesus,"  and  get  a  fresh  sense 
of  what  is  meant  by  the  communion  of  saints.  And  why  should  there 
not  come  to  us  again  and  again  during  these  days  of  Conference 
that  blessed  experience  which  came  to  John  Wesley  in  Aldersgate 
Street  on  the  evening  of  May  24,  1738,  enabling  him  to  say:  "I 
felt  my  heart  strangely  warmed;  I  felt  I  did  trust  Christ — Christ 
alone — for  my  salvation;  and  an  assurance  was  given  me  that  He 
had  taken  away  my  sins,  even  mine,  and  had  saved  me  from  the 
law  of  sin  and  death."  For,  O  brethren,  while  we  need  intellectual 
enlargement,  and  social  stimulus,  and  many  other  blessings;  we 
need,  most  of  all,  the  direct  touch  of  God  upon  us,  the  vision  of 
his  uplifted  face,  and  the  sound  of  his  sweet,  forgiving  voice.  If 
this  experience  should  ever  become  wanting  or  scarce  among  us, 
then  we  should  have  no  further  justification  for  our  existence  as  an 
organized  body  of  Christians. 

Our  sole  stock  in  trade  is  our  religion.     When  that  goes,  we 


28  OPENING  SERVICES. 

shall  be  the  most  poverty-stricken  people  on  the  face  of  the  earth, 
for  we  shall  have  nothing  left  to  fall  back  upon — no  long-stretch- 
ing centuries  of  history,  no  moss-covered  cathedrals,  no  monu- 
mental volumes  of  theology,  no  elaborate  ritual  of  worship.  God 
Himself,  consciously  known,  worshiped,  adored  and  loved  through 
Jesus   Christ,    is    our    only   and    our   everlasting   portion. 

If,  after  the  Conference  is  over,  you  should  wish  to  travel,  the 
continent  is  open  before  you,  free,  thank  God,  every  foot  of  it. 
Nor  is  there  a  region  on  all  its  ample  face,  from  the  outermost 
rim  of  settlements  in  the  far  North  to  the  remotest  village  along 
the  Southern  Coasts,  and  from  the  Atlantic  shores  to  the  Pacific 
where  you  will  not  find  a  company  of  the  spiritual  children  of 
John  Wesley  ready  to  give  you  a  warm  and  generous  reception. 
Individually  we  may  not  be  as  good  as  we  ought  to  be — I  have  a 
grave  fear  that  we  are  not — but  there  are  lots  of  us,  and  more 
a-coming. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  you  will  feel  at  home — those  of  you 
who  are  English  at  any  rate — in  Canada,  this  beautiful  land  of  the 
Snows  and  the  Aui'ora  Borealis,  for  here  therei  is  blent  and  fused 
with  the  sturdiest  Americanism  an  undying  love  for  the  crown  and 
kingdom  of  old  England.  And,  of  course,  you  will  also  feel  at  home 
in  the  United  States  also;  for  it  has  been  a  full  hundred  years, 
lacking  only  three,  since  Andrew  Jackson  and  his  Tennessee  Vol- 
unteers went  to  New  Orleans,  and  put  an  emphatic  period  to  our 
last  unbrotherly  war.  God  grant  that  in  all  the  ages  to  come  there 
may  never  be  another  muster  of  opposing  armies  between  these 
two  branches  of  our  mighty  English-speaking  race — Amen  and 
Amen! 

"We  are  your  brothers.  Our  fathers  marched  together  with 
yours  out  of  the  forests  of  North  Germany,  and  threw  aside  their 
heathen  gods  to  accept  the  White  Christ.  There  is  nothing  great  in 
your  history  that  does  not  equally  belong  to  us.  Your  ancient 
hereditaments  of  language,  literature,  liberty,  law,  and  faith  we  share 
in  common  with  you.  In  the  course  of  three  hundred  years,  we  have 
picked  up  some  new  things  on  our  own  account.  Look  around  you, 
and,  if  you  see  anything  that  you  want,  take  it  and  welcome.  Be- 
tween us — and  not  to  be  told  in  Gath  nor  published  in  the  streets 
of  Aslvelon — we  have  some  things  that  I  wish  you  would  take — 
and  keep — or,  better  still,  drop  into  the  sea  as  j^ou  go  home. 

You  need  have  no  fear  that  we  shall  seek  to  annex  you.  All 
that  we  desire  is  -to  enmesh  you  in  that  mystic  web  of  Christian 
love,  which  stretches,  stronger  than  steel  cables,  through  all  lands 
and  all  countries,  and  holds  together  in  a  glorious  unity  the  hearts 
of  those  who  can  truly  say  that  Jesus  is  Lord. 

Once  more,  and  with  added  emphasis,  welcome,  welcome,  wel- 
come. 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  HENRY  HAIGH  29 

Responses  to  the  addresses  of  welcome  were  made  by  the 
Rev.  Henry  Haigh^  D.  D.,  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church ; 
Sir  Egbert  W.  Perks^  Bart.,  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church ; 
the  Rev.  S.  S.  Henshaw,  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church; 
and  Mr.  E.  W.  Essex,  of  the  United  Methodist  Church. 

Dr.  Henry  Haigh's  RESPONSE. 

Bishop  Wilson  and  my  bretliren,  it  is  very  pleasant  to  be  wel- 
comed in  tills  cordial  and  eloquent  farhion.  I  am  bound  to  say  that 
it  is  difficult  and  embarrassing  to  have  to  respond  to  it.  The 
brethren  on  this  side  of  the  ocean  have  some  gifts,  which,  however 
much  we  from  England  may  envy,  we  can  not  quite .  equal.  I 
listened  to  the  large  language,  so  fittingly  characteristic  of  a  large 
continent,  with  a  feeling  almost  akin  to  despair.  What  are  we  to 
say,  coming  from  such  a  little  land,  living  within  such  narrow 
bounds,  bounds  so  narrow  indeed  that  when  you  do  us  the  honor 
to  come  and  visit  us  you  feel  that  if  you  travel  a  little  faster  or  a 
little  further  you  will  probably  topple  into  the  sea?  Wliat  can  we 
do  in  the  way  of  expansive  speech,  belonging  to  so  small  a  land 
and  having  so  small  an  outlook? 

I  will  say  this,  that  though  we  can  not  phrase  our  thanks  in  quite 
the  same  fashion  as  that  in  which  you  have  expressed  your  welcome, 
we  are  nevertheless  thankful.  "We  heartily  appreciate  the  warmth 
and  good  feeling  and  generosity  of  the  words  which  you  have  spoken 
to  us  to-day;  and  I  feel  that  if  nothing  else  were  to  happen  during 
the  Conference,  some  of  the  breezy  words  which  have  been  spoken 
to  us  this  afternoon  will  live  gratefully  in  our  recollection.  We 
know  that  we  have  come  to  a  big  land.  Every  day  makes  us  more 
conscious  of  it.  We  have  not  quite  taken  the  measure.  We  are  not 
swift  at  that  kind  of  arithmetic;  but  we  appreciate  you — appreciate 
you  in  your  present  greatness  and,  I  think  I  may  say  quite  sincerely 
and  quite  reverently,  we  appreciate  you  in  your  potential  greatness. 
We  have  seen  what  the  United  States  has  already  become.  We  can 
dream  in  part  what  Canada,  our  own  Canada,  may  I  say  [applause] 
what  Canada,  our  Canada,  is  going  to  become.  The  centre  of  gravi- 
tation is,  I  fear — you  can  understand  we  hardly  like  to  say  this — ■ 
but  the  centre  of  gravity  seems  to  be  shifting  westward;  and  by- 
and-by  we  in  Great  Britain  may  recognize  our  comparative,  and  I 
had  almost  said  our  essential,  littleness.  Let  the  proof  dawn  upon 
us  gently.  [Applause.]  We  have  done  some  great  things,  I  hope, 
in  the  past.  We  are  not  an  exhausted  people,  [Hear,  hear]  and 
Canada,  at  any  rate,  is  owing  a  good  deal  to-day  to  the  men  that  we 
have  been  sending  over  in  such  unstinted  measure.  We  hope  to  do 
some  great  things  in  the  future.  We  shall  do  them  better  because 
we  know  that  here  in  the  west,  from  the  beginning,  you  are  com- 


30  OPENING  SERVICES. 

mitted  to  the  biggest  things;  and  in  the  main  I  believe  you  are  com- 
mitted to  the  best.  Your  example  will  be  our  stimulus.  May  I 
say — we  are  not  here  to  speak  words  of  flattery — but  may  I  say  that 
we  admire  the  capacity  which  has  been  shown  in  the  Western  hem- 
isphere? And  we  quite  appreciate  the  confidence  with  which  you 
expect  to  meet  the  years  to  come. 

There  is  not  quite  that  confidence  in  our  eastern  land.  We  have 
been  chastened  through  long  years.  We  speak  almost  habitually  now 
with  bated  breath.  John  Bull  has  almost  forgotten  to  brag.  But 
you  here — you  car  say  great  things  about  yourselves,  and  do,  and 
say  them  quite  honestly;  and  we  heartily  believe  you.  There  are 
some  things  which  we  greatly  envy.  I  think  I  speak  for  all  of  us 
when  I  say  that  we  envy  your  unconventionality.  You  are  not  tied 
and  bound  as  we  are  by  ancient  tradition.  If  you  think  a  thing  to 
be  good,  even  though  no  precedent  can  be  quoted,  you  forthwith  go 
and  do  it.  In  the  old  country  we  venture  sometimes.  We  know  that 
we  are  taking  risks.  But  still  I  hope  that  the  spirit  which  has  been 
so  pre-eminently  manifest  in  you  will  begin  to  develop  in  measure  in 
us.  You  are  an  unconventional  people.  That  ought  to  mean  that 
you  are  a  very  real  people.  We  are  delighted  that  you  have  laid 
such  a  hand  on  liquor,  for  instance.  [Applause.]  We  wish  we  could 
do  the  same.  And  if  I  may  speak  for  myself  in  this  matter,  I  think 
that  the  Methodists  on  this  side  of  the  water  have  something  to 
teach  us  on  the  other  side  in  regard,  not  only  to  drinking,  but  smok- 
ing. [Applause.]  You  observe  that  I  am  speaking  strictly  for  my- 
self.    I  am  not  rash  enough  to  commit  my  brethren. 

But,  now,  frankly,  we  appreciate  your  welcome.  In  one  word  let 
me  say  that  I  think  we  from  the  east  have  come  to  this  Conference 
meaning  business.  A  great  Conference  like  this  gathered  from  the 
ends  of  the  earth  should  not  meet  and  mean  nothing.  That  should 
be  said  and  done  which  shall  affect  the  course  of  Christian  religious 
history  greatly  during  the  next  few  years.  And  I  hope,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, if  I  may  be  allowed  to  say  so,  I  hope  that  we  shall  make  a  busi- 
ness of  it,  and  give  ourselves  to  this  business  while  we  are  here. 
It  is  delightful  to  picnic,  but  we  have  got  something  even  greater 
to  do  than  to  picnic;  and  I  hope  there  will  be  frank  talk  that  shall 
be  followed  by  great  deeds  in  the  days  to  come. 

RESPONSE  BY  Sir  Robert  W.  Perks,  Bart. 
Mr.  Chairman,  brethren,  I  do  not  know  whether  in  the  few  mo- 
ments that  I  have  to  speak  I  am  expected  to  emulate  the  humility 
of  the  President  of  the  British  Conference.  He  has  spent  a  great 
many  of  his  years  in  the  east,  not  in  Great  Britian  but  in  the  Orient, 
and  there  tney  draw  upon  their  imagination.  And  when  he  drew 
a  picture  of  the  decadence  of  the  Old  Country  and  spoke  of  it  as 
being   in   a   state  bordering   on   trepidation   and   tear,   I   wondered 


ADDRESS  OF  SIR  ROBERT  W.  PERKS.  31 

whettier  he  was  speaking  literally.  But,  Sir,  I  join  with  him  in 
thanking  the  brethren  who  have  read  so  rapidly  and  spoken  so  well 
in  thanking  you  most  sincerely  from  this  old,  decadent,  used-up  land. 
Sir,  reference  was  made  by  one  of  the  brethren  to  the  great  memory 
of  the  beloved  Queen  Victoria.  But  I  should  like  to  say  that  we  have 
upon  the  throne  of  the  empire  to-day  a  king  who,  in  the  love  of  his 
British  home,  and  in  his  devotion  to  the  interests  of  the  empire,  and 
the  inheritance  of  his  father's  love  of  peace  will,  I  believe,  by  the 
grace  of  God,  be  able  to  guide  its  destinies  through  its  most  troublous 
days.  Sir,  we  have  been  reminded  this  morning  in  the  sermon  and 
by  the  speeches  just  made,  that  we  are  face  to  face  with  new  religious 
and  new  political  and  new  social  problems  in  all  quarters  of  the 
earth.  Methodism  has  always  had  to  face  these  problems  from  her 
earliest  days.  And  one  of  the  glorious  tributes  of  this  great  relig- 
ious federation  is  that  we  are  not  swathed  or  bound  around  by  cast- 
iron  regulations  fixed  by  acts  of  parliament,  that  we  are  as  free  as 
the  air,  and  we  are  able  to  adapt  our  organization  to  the  rapidly 
changing  phases  of  society  and  the  dictates  of  the  age.  Sir,  we  have, 
as  you  may  have  observed  in  corners  of  the  empire  and  in  the  states, 
had  a  bill  passed  through  parliament  for  re-adjustment  of  the  rela- 
tions between  the  two  branches  of  the  legislature;  and  whatever  you 
may  think  of  that  measure,  it  is  manifest  to  most  of  us  that  it  must 
have  an  important  effect  upon  the  religious  life  and  educational  life 
of  England.  And,  Sir,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  although  there  may 
be  brethren  from  the  Old  Country  who  may  not,  perhaps,  altogether 
agree  with  me,  yet  I  say,  I  trust  that  this  great  legislative  change 
Is  soon  to  bring  the  dawn  upon  the  Old  Country  of  that  religious 
freedom  and  equal  religious  liberty  which  ought  to  exist,  and  which 
you  have  so  long  enjoyed  in  this  great  Dominion  of  Canada,  and 
which,  when  Mr.  Wesley  first  sent  his  ministers  across  the  sea  to 
America,  he  told  them  never  to  surrender. 

Methodism  has  gone,  perhaps,  backward  in  her  method  of  work, 
rather  than  forward.  She  has  harked  back  to  the  Methodism  of 
Mr.  Wesley.  He  was  not  only  a  great  evangelist,  but  he  was  an  ac- 
complished and  up-to-date  and  bold  social  reformer.  He  went  to  the 
masses  of  the  people,  it  is  quite  true,  as  we  haye  been  reminded 
this  morning,  and  as  he  preached  the  gospel  the  tears  rolled  down 
the  rugged  faces  of  those  mechanics  to  whom  he  spoke.  But  let  us 
never  forget  that  Methodism  never  has  been  and  is  not  to-day  and 
ought  not  to  be  to-day  a  mere  mission  to  the  masses  of  the  people. 
Wesley  was  a  scholar  and  a  writer  and,  perhaps,  as  preachers  are 
not  to-day  and  ought  not  to  be  in  the  pulpit,  he  was  a  politician;  but 
he  went  not  only  for  the  masses  but  for  the  wealthy  and  cultured 
people  of  our  country.  And  we  shall  be  making  a  great  blunder  in 
our  Methodist  Churches  if  we  forget  to  follow  Wesley's  example  in 
this  respect.     We  fight  with  the  old  weapons.     They  can  not  be 


32  OPENING  SERVICES. 

better.  What  were  they?  The  preaching  of  the  gospel,  the  Bible  in 
the  hands  of  the  people,  the  lay  evangelist  everywhere,  literature 
made  subject  to  the  interests  of  religion,  law  and  order  preached 
alongside  of  religion.  I  should  like  to  see  a  great  central  interna- 
tional commission  or  committee  for  consultation,  a  sort  of  standing 
committee  for  advice  to  Methodism  to  all  parts  of  the  world,  so  that 
the  power  of  this  great  religious  organization  may  be  used  for  fur- 
thering in  all  corners  of  the  world,  in  every  state,  and  bringing  to 
bear  upon  politicians  that  power  which  a  federated  Church  can  exert 
in  the  interests  of  great  social  and  humanitarian  movements  which 
loom  immediately  before  us.  London  at  this  moment  by  joint  action 
has  stopped  a  prize  fight.  That  was  a  little  thing  to  do;  but  we  are 
anxious  to  use  the  forces  of  our  Church  to  further  this  great  arbi- 
tration business  so  that  something  practical  can  be  done  in  the  direc- 
tion of  stopping  the  wicked  outlay  upon  war. 

Sir,  we  have  passed  through  thirty  years  of  momentous  change. 
What  is  the  next  thirty  years  going  to  bring  about?  Greater  popu- 
lation, greater  power,  greater  wealth,  greater  learning,  marvellous 
invention,  the  development  of  industrial  resources  of  this  and  other 
dominions  of  the  British  crown  and  corners  of  the  earth.  But  what 
are  all  these  unless  beyond  is  a  religious  and  godly  and  moral 
opinion?  And  it  is,  I  believe,  by  this  test,  and  this  alone,  that  this 
Conference  shall  be  tried. 

RESPONSE  OF  THE  Rev.  S.  S.  Henshaw. 

I  have  been  asked  to  join  in  this  gracious  office  and  function 
of  presenting  to  the  local  committees  that  have  prepared  the  way 
for  this  conference,  and  to  the  churches  and  people  of  the  city  of 
Toronto,  the  profound  gratitude  of  the  Eastern  delegation,  for  the 
warmth  and  heartiness  of  our  reception,  for  the  cordial  words  and 
impressive  eloquence  in  which  that  welcome  has  been  expressed,  for 
the  beautiful  hospitality  that  has  been  extended  to  us  in  the  homes 
where  we  are  staying  and  for  the  completeness  of  the  arrangements 
that  have  been  made  for  our  comfort.  We  have  been  treated,  not 
as  ordinary  guests,  but  as  real  personal  friends. 

Many  of  us  came  here  as  absolute  strangers  but  under  the 
spell  of  magnificent  courtesy  and  kindness,  the  charm  of  delightful 
intercourse,  the  influence  of  a  genial  and  generous  atmosphere,  the 
sense  of  strangeness  is  passing  away  and  we  are  beginning  to  feel 
already  very  much  at  home.  Probably  in  a  few  days  we  may  be 
requesting  the  friends  to  build  tabernacles,  that  we  may  take  up 
permanent  residence  among  them,  and  if  they  will  build  them  large 
and  spacious  enough,  we  may  send  for  our  families  to  come. 

In  the  old  country,  we  have  often  heard  of  the  glories  of  the 
Golden  West  and  of  these  mighty  lands  this  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
with  their   teeming   wealth,   vast   possibilities,    increasing   popula- 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  S.  S.  HENSHAW  33 

tions  and  growing  importance,  and  we  have  been  anxious  to  visit 
and  see  them  for  ourselves. 

We  are  proud  to  come  to  this  great  Dominion  of  Canada,  one 
of  the  most  exalted  and  influential,  promising  and  powerful  por- 
tions of  the  British  Empire.  The  intelligence  of  its  people  and  the 
capacity  of  its  statesmen  have  been  proved  over  and  over  again  in 
the  course  of  its  history.  It  has  shown  marvelous  capacity  for  self 
government,  for  composing  the  difficulties  of  a  critical  situation, 
for  resting  its  laws  and  administration  upon  the  sure  basis  of 
peaceful  justice,  freedom  and  equality  and  for  aiming  at  the  high 
and  honorable  destiny  to  which  the  providence  of  God  is  so  clearly 
calling  it.  Canada  is  an  example  to  all  our  commonwealths  of  the 
miracles,  which  brain  and  energy,  patriotism  and  piety  and  stern 
unselfish  devotion  to  duty  can  accomplish. 

We  are  glad  to  meet  in  this  lovely  and  cultured  city  of  Toronto, 
the  symbol  of  commercial  enterprise  and  integrity,  intellectual  and 
social  distinction  and  progress,  religious  activities,  missionary  zeal 
and  evangelical  fervor.  A  more  suitable  and  attractive  center  for 
our  conference  could  not  have  been  chosen. 

We  have  been  looking  forward  with  great  anticipations  to  this 
conference,  for  the  opportunity  it  affords  of  meeting  the  represen- 
tatives of  Methodism  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  It  is  good  for 
us  to  meet  in  such  an  assembly  to  demonstrate  our  strength,  examine 
our  positions,  review  our  forces,  compare  our  methods  and  teach 
one  another  the  wisdom  we  may  have  learned  and  the  useful  ex- 
periences we  may  have  gathered  in  our  several  countries  and 
spheres,  especially  in  the  work  we  are  doing  among  the  young  and 
the  unredeemed  masses  of  Christendom  and  of  heathen  climes  and 
to  see  how  we  stand  in  relation  to  the  great  world  movements  of 
science  and  labor  and  theological  thought  and  Biblical  criticism 
and  how  they  affect  the  life,  character  and  mission  of  our  churches. 

We  expect  as  the  result  of  the  Conference  to  have  our  faith  con- 
siderably strengthened  in  our  common  Christianity  and  common 
Methodism,  in  the  beneficial  institutions  and  ideals  of  our  civiliza- 
tion and  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  our  Lord  and  King  throughout 
the  nations  of  the  earth. 

The  Conference  will,  we  believe,  do  much  to  stimulate  the 
progress  of  spiritual  religion.  Our  fathers  enriched  their  minds 
directly  from  the  mines  of  Truth.  They  explored  the  mountains 
of  God — dug  deep  to  find  their  secret  treasures.  They  loved  the 
Bible — it  was  the  book  of  their  hearts  and  lives.  While  they  did 
not  neglect  the  literature  of  their  times,  they  pondered  diligently 
the  sacred  libraries.  In  their%pages  they  found  the  revelation  of  the 
divine  will,  the  word  of  the  divine  power.  They  lived  in  conscious, 
happy  fellowship  with  the  Heavenly  Father.  Christ  thrilled  their 
souls  with  His  precious  presence.     They  walked  and  talked  under 

S 


34  OPENING  SERVICES. 

the  energy  and  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  mystery  of  god- 
liness gave  them  majesty  of  manhood,  sweetness  and  serenity  of 
being.  It  made  them  anxious  for  the  salvation  of  their  neighbors. 
Down  in  these  elements  of  spiritual  and  personal  religion  are  the 
sources  of  moral  force  and  fruitfulness.  As  the  life  of  our  churches 
becomes  complete  and  perfect  our  feebleness  and  ineptitudes  and 
indifferences  will  disappear. 

We  have  excellent  and  elaborate  machinery,  splendid  and 
scientific  equipment  as  regards  organization;  what  we  need  is  more 
life  and  power  to  make  the  machinery  and  organization  effective. 
A  popular  divine  of  Boston  is  reported  to  have  been  on  a  journey 
when  the  train  came  to  a  dead  standstill.  He  inquired  of  a  railway 
porter  whether  there  was  no  water  in  the  boiler.  "Yes,"  was  the 
reply,  "there  is  water  but  it's  not  boiling."  Fervent  in  spirit, 
literally  boiling  in  spirit,  that  is  the  condition  of  success. 

The  Conference  will  perhaps  stimulate  the  growth  of  Methodist 
union.  It  is  an  exhibition  of  our  essential  union  to  the  world,  and 
even  of  organic  union  we  have  a  number  of  striking  and  glorious 
examples.  We  have  one  Methodist  Church  of  Canada  composed  of 
what  used  to  be  several  sectional  churches,  Wesleyan,  Primitive, 
and  so  on.  The  same  is  true,  thank  God,  of  Australia.  They  are 
negotiating  union  in  New  Zealand  and  I  understand,  with  every  hope 
of  success.  By  the  wisdom,  patience  and  statesmanship  of  the 
leaders  and  friends  of  the  late  United  Methodist  Free  Church,  the 
Methodist  New  Connexion  and  the  Bible  Christians  we  have  a 
United  Methodist  Church  in  England.  I  wish  with  all  my  heart 
the  union  were  wider  in  its  sweep  and  included  us  all.  We  shall 
hasten  ecclesiastical  union  by  a  careful  culture  of  Christian  unity, 
by  emphasizing  less  and  less  our  denominational  preferences,  and 
more  and  more  the  general  and  vital  interests  of  the  kingdom  of 
God. ^' Charles  Reade  says  that  on  a  blank  leaf  of  his  grandmother's 
Bible  was  drawn  a  circle  with  several  radii  converging  to  the 
center,  which  was  named  Christ,  while  on  the  radii  were  written 
the  names  of  different  denominations  of  Christians.  Underneath 
the  circle  was  written  the  legend:  "The  nearer  to  the  center,  the 
nearer  to  one  another.">  Christ  prayed  that  His  people  might  be 
one  and  the  nearer  we  are  to  Him  the  nearer  shall  we  be  to  one 
another. 

And  then  this  conference  may  help  us  to  realize  more  vividly 
and  proclaim  more  faithfully  the  sovereign  evangel  of  redeeming 
grace.  ^To  preach  the  gospel  of  the  Christ  we  must  preach  the 
Christ  of  the  gospel"./  We  have  no  other  message  except  that  which 
radiates  from  His  heart  and  revolves  about  His  cross.  He  is  our 
theme,  our  only  theme.  "We  preach  Christ,  the  regnant,  reigning, 
glorious,  manifold  Christ,  Christ  the  Savior  and  the  friend  of  men 
who  came  to  seek  and  save  that  which  was  lost"     That  evangel 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  R.  W.  ESSEX.  36 

made  Methodism  mighty  in  its  first  daj's,  it  makes  it  mighty  in 
these  days.  It  has  kindled  the  flame  of  holy  revivals  and  it  has 
brought  multitudes  who  dwelt  in  darkness  to  the  light  of  day  and 
the  hope  of  heaven.  Dean  Stanley  at  one  of  his  famous  breakfasts 
proposed  this  question  as  the  topic  for  conversation :  "To  whom 
does  the  futui-e  belong?"  Professor  Huxley  commenced  with  the 
observation  that  the  future  belongs  to  those  who  can  recognize 
the  force  of  facts  and  yield  to  them.  The  impressive  utterance 
was  succeeded  by  a  long  pause.  This,  at  length,  was  terminated 
by  Ed_war4,Miall,  who  said,  "I  agree  with  the  Professor,  but  I  take 
Jesus  Christ  to  be  the  greatest  fact  in  histoi-y,  and  the  future  be- 
longs to  those  who  will  recognize  that  fact  and  yield  to  it."  As 
our  churches  recognize  Christ  and  yield  themselves  in  loving  service 
and  sacrifice  to  Him  they  will  prosper./ 

RESPONSE   OF  Mr.  R.  W.  Essex,  M.  P. 

Mr.  President,  Brothers,  and  Sisters:  You  have  extended  to-day  in 
the  kindliest  phraseology  the  assurance  of  the  welcome  Canada  gives 
to  the  Methodists  of  the  world.  I,  at  least,  wanted  no  assurance 
on  that  head,  since  in  this  building  I  met  with  other  Methodists 
to  listen  to  Sam  Jones.  And  in  my  visits  from  time  to  time  to  this 
city  I  have  never  found  the  Methodist  welcome  wanting  in  warmth. 
But  I  did  not  come  over  this  way  to  experience  hospitality.  Thank 
God,  we  can  get  that  at  home,  as  some  of  you  know  and,  I  hope,  will 
know  again.  The  pleasures  of  the  homes  into  which  you  have  put 
us  as  guests  for  a  time  are  delightful,  and  we  are  grateful  to  you 
lor  the  kindness  you  have  shown.  But  these  things,  let  me  say 
without  the  least  lack  of  generosity  or  gratitude,  are  not  all.  I  have 
had  pumpkin  pie — but  not  for  that  did  I  come. 

Sir,  from  my  childhood  I  have  looked  out  upon  this  western  world 
with  a  keen  zest  and  earnestness,  wondering  what  it  would  mean  for 
the  future  of  our  race  and  for  the  saving  of  the  peoples  of  the  world. 
And  shall  I  be  thought  unkind  if  for  a  minute  I  say  that,  in  listening 
to  the  splendid  oratory  just  given  from  this  platform  this  afternoon, 
I  have  been  tempted  to  believe  that  the  note  was  perhaps  a  little 
bit  materialistic — the  gloating  upon  the  money  and  the  golden  west 
and  the  rest  of  it?  I  look  out  upon  this  west,  and  I  see  the  seething 
o*'  it  like  a  great  cauldron  into  which  the  divine  hand  has  thrown 
something  which  is  to  make  a  great  future;  and  I  ask  myself  what 
is  that  mighty  brew  going  to  be  when  the  stir  is  completed.  You 
have  told  us  to-day,  in  the  words  in  which  you  have  framed  your 
welcome,  that  you  are  a  great  people.  Well,  all  races  are  coming  to 
help  you  in  making  such.  The  people  are  streaming  into  your  ports. 
You  are  fusing  together  folk.s  of  different  speech,  racial  ideals,  aspira- 
tions. They  will  never  leave  you  wholly  what  your  Anglo-Saxon  fore- 
fathers were,  wheu  the  brew  is  finished.     What  will  you  be?     In 


36  OPENING  SERVICES. 

the  name  of  the  love  of  God  let  it  not  be  a  materialistic  people. 
Christ  said,  (and  He  was  not  a  great,  rich,  wealthy  person),  He  said 
to  His  disciples,  who  were  so  intimate  with  Him  that  they  might 
feel  His  pulsing,  "I  have  many  things  to  say  to  you,  but  you  can 
not  bear  them  now."  And  I  have  been  watching  through  the  years 
to  see  if  some  of  those  wondrous  things  might  come  to  bless  the 
world.  And  I  have  been  wondering,  is  the  great  golden  West  to  tell 
us  of  some  of  these  things?  You  share  our  common  Methodism  and 
our  common  English  tongue.  We  sometimes  hear  from  you  a  strange 
and  not  altogether  unpleasant  brogue,  and  sometimes  the  English 
language  gets  with  you  a  strange  accent.  Yet  we  have  a  literature 
and  a  view  of  life  which  you  have  held  as  firmly  as  we  have.  You 
will  change  that  speech  and  it  will  become  possibly  something  differ- 
ent in  the  centuries  to  come,  but  it  will  be  of  the  same  sterling 
quality.  I  want  to  know  what  you  are  going  to  do  with  Christ's 
religion.  Is  there  something  that  has  come  to  be  one  of  those  world- 
shaking  ideas — let  it  come  to  our  Methodism.  If  that  idea  comes  and 
your  lips  may  be  its  trumpet  of  God  to  speak  out  the  new  evangel 
of  God  to  the  world,  it  will  be  a  high  privilege  to  which  you  will  be 
called.  And  so  I  would  like  to  ask  that  that  side,  the  mystical  side, 
of  our  faith  and  our  religion  may  have  emphasis. 

But,  brethren,  a  Church  does  not  exist  even  for  the  rearing  of  a 
mighty  structure  or  the  piling  up  of  numbers.  If  it  be  not  as  the 
leaven  that  Christ  said  is  so  simple  that  it  is  like  the  leaven  which 
a  woman  took  and  hid  in  three  measures  of  meal  until  all  was 
leavened — if  it  be  not  a  leaven  like  that  it  is  but  a  marching  up  and 
down,  a  going  to  and  fro,  a  waste  of  strength  and  a  wearying  of 
spirit.  I  fling  out  this  thought  before  you  professional  speakers  in 
timidity,  and  would  say  the  world  will  know  the  difference  between 
us  who  are  Christians  and  are  wholly  Christ's  and  those  who  are  not. 
There  is  a  story  told  of  a  war  correspondent  in  a  far  eastern  land 
at  the  time  of  the  Russo-Japanese  war.  Devastation  had  already 
spread  over  the  country,  and  when  the  war  correspondent  and  his 
one  or  two  companions  came  over  the  hills,  the  people  scattered 
and  hid  themselves.  By  and  by,  as  he  marched  on  and  seemed  to 
be  a  man  of  pacific  bearing,  one  bolder  than  the  rest,  haggard  and 
worn  and  wan,  somewhat  timorously  crept  up  behind  the  correspond- 
ent and  said  to  him,  "Are  you  a  Jesus  man?"  Amid  all  the  bloody 
work  of  that  awful  war  there  lay  undisturbed  and  unbroken  the 
legend  that  the  Jesus  man  was  a  man  of  mercy  and  of  love,  who  gave 
himself  for  people.  When  he  was  told  that  the  correspondent  was 
a  Jesus  man,  the  whole  village  population  that  was  left  came  to  him 
for  medicine  and  loving  comfort.  And  he  said  that  as  he  left  them 
for  the  bloody  shambles  of  war  further  on  the  thought  of  that  strange 
weird  question  in  that  far  off  land,  "Are  you  a  Jesus  man?"  was  with 
him.    But  he  did  not  mind  whether  they  called  him  a  Methodist,  or 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  R.  W.  ESSEX.  37 

a  Congregationalist,  or  a  Baptist,  or  not.  I  should  be  more  grateful 
if  those  who  measure  up  my  life  called  me  a  Jesus  man.  That  would 
be  enough  for  me.  That  will  mean  that  there  will  have  come  into 
my  life  and  my  character  something  which  will  have  changed  it  to 
make  it  infinitely  different  from  what  it  otherwise  would  have  been. 
Brethren,  may  the  love  of  God  dwell  in  you  and  teach  you  here  in 
your  western  home  what  is  the  underlying  fundamental  spirit  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Not  what  the  millions  of  the  Church's  people  may  be, 
or  the  form  of  the  ritual,  or  the  Church  polity  with  which  they  amuse 
themselves;  but  whether  in  the  sacred  chamber,  or  on  the  King's 
highway,  or  in  the  marts  of  commerce,  they  who  look  upon  us  will 
feel  a  strange  emotion  in  their  souls  and  a  holy  influence  as  they 
say,  "He  was  a  Jesus  man." 

Conference  adjourned  at  4.45,  with  the  benediction  by  Bishop 

"WiLSOX. 


SECOND  DAY. 

Thursday,    October   5th. 


Topic:     ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 


FIRST  SESSION". 


THE  Conference  met  at  10  A.  M.,  the  Rev.  Hekrt  Haigh^ 
D.   D.,    President   Wesleyan   Methodist    Conference,   pre- 
siding. 

The  devotional  services  were  conducted  hy  the  Rev.  Thomas 
RippoN,    of   the   AVesleyan    Methodist    Church,   who   read   the 
Ninety-eighth  Psalm  and  offered  prayer. 
The  hymn  sung  was  No.  123 : 

"My  heart  and  voice  I  raise. 
To  spread  Messiah's  praise." 

The  Peesident  :  "The  morning  session  has  begun.  I  am 
very  sorry  for  those  who  have  not  been  able  to  be  present  at  the 
opening  devotions.  May  I  say  that  it  will  help  the  spirit  of 
the  Conference  unspeakably  if  we  can  all  make  it  a  matter  of 
conscience  so  far  as  possible  to  be  present  at  the  very  beginning 
and  take  our  share  in  the  exercises  of  devotion?  Notliing  helps 
to  demoralize  a  Conference  more  than  slackness  in  that  par- 
ticular; and  I  venture,  therefore,  to  make  that  suggestion  to 
the  Conference.  Now,  if  you  please,  we  will  turn  to  business. 
Business  is  the  order  of  the  whole  morning.  Dr.  Carroll  will 
read  the  record." 

Secretary  Carroll:  "Mr.  Chairman,  in  reading  the  record 
daily,  we  will  observe  the  custom  that  has  been  established  in 
previous  Conferences  and  omit  academic  titles  in  connection 
with  the  names." 

Dr.  Carroll  read  the  record  of  yesterday's  sessions;  and, 
on  motion,  they  were  approved. 

38 


ESSAY  OP  DR.  H.  K.  CARROLL.  39 

A  delegate  suggested  that  in  future  the  record  should  he 
printed  and  then  received  as  printed. 

The  Peesident  :  "That  is  really  a  matter  for  the  Business 
Committee  to  consider." 

Secretary  CHArMAX  :    "It  goes  there  pro  forma." 

The  President:  "The  Eev.  Simpson  Johnson  will  read 
the  report  of  the  Business  Committee." 

The  Eev,  Simpson  Johnson  :  "Mr.  President,  the  Business 
Committee  met  on  these  premises  last  evening.  Bishop  Hamil- 
ton presided,  and  there  were  sixteen  members  of  the  Committee 
present.  Much  of  the  business  we  transacted  or  considered 
simply  involved  correspondence;  and  that  has  been  attended  to. 
I  have  to  report,  however,  that  Bishop  Kilgo^  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  is  unable  to  attend  the  Conference, 
and  that,  with  the  concurrence  of  the  Business  Committee,  his 
place  will  be  taken  in  this  morning's  session  by  Bishop  Hendrix. 
I  have  also  to  report  that  the  Business  Committee  will  next  meet 
to-morrow  evening  at  7.30,  when  at  least  two  matters  of  gre.at 
importance  will  come  before  it  for  consideration." 

A  Delegate  :  "Mr.  President,  might  I  ask  if  we  are  to 
wait  until  to-morrow  evening  to  have  it  settled  whether  this 
daily  record  is  to  be  printed  or  otherwise?  If  so,  we  shall  be 
half  way  through  the  Conference  before  the  Business  Com- 
mittee shall  settle  the  matter." 

The  President:  "That  can  easily  be  settled  in  an  emer- 
gency meeting  of  the  Business  Committee." 

A  delegate  suggested  that  different  postoffice  arrangemeiits 
be  made. 

The  regular  order  of  the  day  was  taken  up. 

H.  K.  Carroll,  LL.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
presented  an  essay:  "Methodism  in  the  Western  Section  in 
the  Past  Ten  Years  :" 

Methodism  is  a  life,  therefore  Methodist  growth  is  both  natural 
and  necessary.  And  growth  it  has  had — continuous,  abundant, 
wide-spread,  healthy  growth.  From  the  time  the  first  seeds  of  this 
remarkable  movement  were  planted  in  American  soil,  vigorous 
growth  has  been  its  most  characteristic  feature.  All  the  years  have 
been  years  of  sowing  and  cultivating  and  harvesting.  In  the  in- 
crease of  its  numbers,  it  is  without  a  parallel   in  the  history   of 


40  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

Christianity.  From  the  smallest  it  has  become  the  largest  body 
of  Evangelical  Christian  communicants  in  the  Western  woi'ld,  and 
that,  too,  in  less  than  fourteen  decades.  In  each  of  the  three 
Ecumenical  Conferences  preceding  this,  the  story  of  American 
Methodism  was  a  story  of  growth.  In  every  gathering,  great  or 
small,  in  which  Methodism  has  been  reviewed,  the  miracle  of  its 
growth  has  been  told,  and  to-day  growth  is  the  one  thing  about 
it  which  is  most  familiar  to  those  who  bear  its  name.  We  have 
been  accused,  and  we  have  accused  ourselves,  of  glorying  in  our 
great  numbers  and  in  our  wonderful  history;  but  ought  we  not  to 
be  glad  that  God  has  so  blessed  us  that  we  have  whereof  to  glory? 

Two  centuries  ago  there  were  no  Methodists  in  any  counti-y 
in  the  world;  to-day  there  is  no  country  in  the  world  in  which  there 
are  no  Methodists.  How  does  it  happen  that,  in  less  than  eighteen 
decades,  such  a  fruitful  body  of  Christians  has  come  into  existence, 
and  spread  over  the  world?  It  is  not  that  Methodists  have  any  other 
gospel  than  that  of  which  Paul  speaks  as  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation  to  everyone  that  believeth,  or  any  other  Commission  than 
that  which  Christ  gave  at  the  time  of  His  ascension.  It  is  simply 
a  renewal  of  the  faith  and  spirit  of  Apostolic  Christianity.  Wesley's 
object  was  a  revival  of  primitive  Christianity,  free  from  formalism, 
ritualism,  sacerdotalism  and  the  doctrine  that  the  Holy  Ghost  can 
work  only  through  ecclesiastical  machinery.  The  power  of  a 
spiritual  life  in  individuals  who  have  a  conscious  communion  with 
God,  and  who  work  with  Him  for  the  salvation  of  others  from  sin 
and  eternal  death,  is  the  main  thing,  particular  forms  and  cere- 
monies, methods  and  machinery,  depending  on  centuries  and  cir- 
cumstances, useful  and  necessary,  but  not  of  divine  decree. 

^  If  this  rough  statement  is  correct,  changes  in  polity  and  disci- 
pline are  of  little  moment,  comparatively,  and  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel  in  its  purity,  power  and  fullness,  of  supreme  importance. 
Every  sermon,  according  to  this  conception,  should  be  a  witnessing 
sermon.  Intellectual  statements  of  the  truth,  though  they  be  clear 
as  polar  ice,  have  little  power  in  sermons,  unless  warmed  by  heart 
experience,  to  wake  the  spirit  from  the  dead.  Men  and  women  are 
in  danger  of  eternal  loss,  and  are  to  be  invited,  entreated,  urged, 
warned,  persuaded  to  accept  the  new  life  in  Jesus  Christ.  Knowing 
the  gospel  to  be  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation,  we  invite  in  per- 
fect confidence,  and  knowing  the  terror  of  the  Lord  we  persuade, 
using  all  methods  to  all  men  if  by  any  means  we  may  save  some. 
And  next  is  the  nourishing  and  training  of  the  converts  so  that 
they  may  grow  in  grace  and  take  upon  themselves  the  full  service 
of  soldiers  of  Christ."> 

If  this  is  the  genius  of  Methodism,  it  is  the  explanation  of  its 
power  of  growth,  and  it  becomes  important  to  ascertain  whether 
growth  is  still  as  remarkable  as  of  old,  or  whether  there  is  a  de- 


ESsAr  OF  DR.  H.  K.  CARROLL.  41 

cline  in  the  rate  of  increase.  In  the  first  decade  of  this  series  of 
Ecumenical  Conferences,  the  increase  in  members,  (including  all 
branches  of  the  Western  Section),  as  reported  in  1890,  was  1,261,- 
709;  in  the  next  ten  years,  ending  in  1900,  it  was  1,411,602,  and  in 
the  last  ten  j^ears,  now  under  review,  it  was  972,275.  Here  is  an 
absolute  decline  in  decennial  growth  of  439,327  in  the  last  decade. 
It  is  so  large  that  it  startles  us,  and  the  decline  in  percentages  is 
even  more  marked.  The  percentage  of  increase  in  the  first  decade, 
ending  in  1890,  was  nearly  33i/^;  in  the  second  decade  it  was  28; 
but  in  the  last  decade  only  15.  We  must  expect  the  rate  of  growth 
to  vary;  biit  the  falling  off  in  the  last  decade  is  too  heavy  to  be 
dismissed  as  an  ordinary  or  insignificant  variation.  Admitting,  as 
we  must,  that  no  severer  test  could  be  applied  than  comparison  of 
Methodist  growth  with  Methodist  ^growth,  still  the  fact  that  10,000 
more  preachers,  14,000  more  pulpits,  and  two  and  a  quarter  million 
more  members,  produced  a  smaller  increase  by  440,000  in  the  last 
ten  years  than  in  the  decade  ending  in  1890  is  of  momentous  con- 
cern. 

It  should  be  noted  that  we  are  not  dealing  with  an  absolute 
decline,  but  with  declines  in  the  rate  of  increase.  We  are  not 
dwindling  in  numbers,  but  we  are  not  adding  to  them  as  rapidly  as 
we  used  to  do,  and  it  is  this  that  should  challenge  our  consideration, 
for  not  half  of  the  world  is  yet  won  to  Christ,  and  everywhere 
there  are  multitudes  of  the  unconverted.  We  must  assume  that 
God's  purpose  has  not  changed;  that  the  world  is  to  be  saved  by 
His  grace;  that  it  is  to  be  done  by  human  agency;  and  that  it  is 
to  be  done  as  quickly  as  possible.  He  may  change  His  instruments, 
but  not  His  object;  His  methods,  but  not  His  aims;  His  ways  of 
working,  but  not  His  grand  design.  He  is  constant  in  His  purpose 
of  following  mankind  through  all  its  wanderings,  in  all  its  devious 
and  foolish  ways,  in  all  the  centuries,  with  the  offer  of  salvation 
and  eternal  life.  He  would  accomplish  it  all  quickly  through  His 
infinite  grace,  but  He  has  infinite  patience,  and  will  wait  and  wait 
and  wait,  through  cycles  of  years  and  innumerable  delays,  persist- 
ing against  indifference  in  His  Church,  obstinate  obstructiveness 
among  His  people,  and  the  foolish  waywardness  of  the  world,  until 
the  gospel  is  given  to  all  men.  He  is  no  respecter  of  persons  or  of 
denominations,  but  will  choose  those  for  the  chief  honor  who  are 
the  most  willing  and  effective  in  His  service. 

If  I  might  venture  to  characterize  the  prevailing  spirit  of  IVFoth- 
odism  in  the  Western  Section  it  is  still  Christianity  in  earnest,  hut 
with  less  emphasis  on  earnest.  It  seems  to  have  lost  in  simplicity 
and~direct:ness  and  enthusiasm'.  Our  pulpit  is  not  less  desirous  of 
ESSSMSSt^^^-i'i'^^^^fi^-^'-^di—J^lliS^'^'"^^'  '^1  heatlien  lauds;  luil  it 
seems  to  be  less  burdened  with  anxiety  for  the  uucouverted  in 
Christian  lands.     We  preach  the  gospel   of  salvation,   but  we   are 


[SM. 


4^  ECUMENICAL  METHQDII 

not  quite  so  positive  that  all  have  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God 
and  need  to  be  regenerated.^  "We  offer  eternal  life  to  those  who 
accept  Christ;  hut  we  hesitate  to  say  that  those  who  refuse  to  accept 
Him  and  to  have  Him  rule  over  them  are  in  danger  of  eternal 
death.<^^In  other  words,  our  preaching  is  unconsciously  conforming 
somewhat  to  the  spirit  of  the  age  which  carelessly  says  that  God 
will  not  condemn  those  who  do  the  best  they  can,  forgetting  that 
sln_  is  self-condemnatory,  that  without  repentance  and  faith  there 
is  JQO  remission  of  sin,  and  that  without  remission  of  sin  no  soul* 
can  see  God./ 

The  revival,  as  it  was  known  to  our  fathers,  is  no  longer  known 
to  us.  There  are  still  Moodys,  but  no  Moody  successes;  there  are 
still  evangelists  and  evangelistic  campaigns,  but  no  mighty  in- 
gatherings, and  it  is  significant  that  few  regrets  are  uttered.  Some 
say  that  it  is  not  necessary  or  desirable  to  get  up  campaigns  of 
excitement  and  excesses,  to  be  followed  by  reaction  and  relapse; 
that  there  are  better  and  more  rational  ways  to  recruit  the  Church, 
pointing  to  the  quiet  work  of  the  Sunday  school,  which  was  never 
more  effective.  Children  come  into  the  Church  through  the  Sunday 
school,  which  is  undoubtedly  the  widest  door  into  the  Church. 
But  what  about  the  unconverted  adult?  The  Sunday  school  and 
the  Epworth  League  do  not  reach  him,  and  the  church  is  reaching 
him  less  and  less  effectively.  How  shall  we  bring  the  grown  sinner 
to  the  point  of  decision?  He  comes  but  seldom  to  church  service. 
He  is  indifferent,  unconcerned.  He  says  he  is  no  worse  than  the 
average  church  member.  He  sees  them  taking  Sunday  for  recrea- 
tion; neglecting  the  prayer-meeting  and  other  means  of  grace. 
What  is  the  method  of  appeal  to  the  churchless?  Christ  took  little 
children  into  His  arms  and  blessed  them,  and  said  suffer  them  to 
come  unto  Me  and  forbid  them  not  for  of  such  is  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven;  nevertheless,  day  and  night  He  went  about  preaching 
repentance  to  men  and  women,  v' 

This  is  not  the  voice  of  pessimism.  It  is  uoi  a  railing  ac- 
cusation, nor  a  lugubrious  complaint;  it  is  simply  a  statement  of 
fact,  widely  prevalent  and  well  known.  It  is  not,  I  admit,  the 
whole  case.  The  rapid  increase  of  a  foreign  immigration,  peculiarly 
difRcult  of  access;  the  tides  of  migration  draining  the  country  and 
flooding  the  city;  the  fact  that  the  world  has  in  a  real  sense  be- 
come a  Methodist  parish,  with  its  hundreds  of  millions  bound  by 
almost  unbreakable  ties  to  hoary  systems  of  superstition;  the  rapid, 
marvellous  widening  of  humanitarian  effort,  and  the  intensely 
practical  spirit  of  the  age  must  powerfully  affect  the  character 
and  method  of  our  appeal  and  the  response  thereto.  The  sons  of 
John  Wesley  were  never  so  active,  never  so  well  organized,  never 
had  so  wide  a  vision,  never  did  so  much  for  education  and  charity, 
never  had  so  fine   an   equipment   of   churches,    colleges,   hospitals, 


ESSAY  OF  DR.  H.  K.  CARROLL.  43 

orphanages,  printing  houses,  and  never  such  Immense  resources  in 
wealth — do  they  need  a  fresh  baptism  of  spiritual  power  for  per- 
sonal service  in  the  salvation  of  souls? 

If  we  forget  the  pit  whence  we  were  digged,  take  to  ourselves 
credit  for  what  God  has  done  through  us,  put  our  trust  in  our  vast 
resources  in  numbers,  wealth,  institutions,  machinery — if  we  see 
only  the  human  side  and  think  we  must  continue  to  succeed  because 
of  past  success  and  because  of  our  splendidly  organized  forces,  God 
will  surely  leave  us  to  our  own  devices.  The  human  side  in  or- 
ganization, machinery,  appliances,  we  have  developed  to  a  high 
degree  of  perfection.  We  have  built  into  our  practical  system, 
with  the  wisdom  of  the  fathers,  the  scientific  precision  and  com- 
pleteness of  the  age.  What  is  most  needed  is  not  so  much  addi- 
tional legislation,  institutions,  equipment;    but  more  spiritual  life. 

There  can  be  no  growth  where  there  is  no  life;  and  there  can 
be  no  life  where  there  is  no  growth.  All  our  cultivating  machinery, 
however  perfect,  will  be  useless,  and  all  our  efforts  vain,  if  there 
be  no  life.  Life,  abundant  life,  is  ours  for  the  asking.  Whatever 
else  we  may  have  or  fail  to  have,  let  us  not  fail  of  our  privilege  of 
vital  union  with  Jesus  Christ.  With  all  else'  and  without  this  we 
can  not  succeed;  with  this,  though  without  much  else,  we  shall 
succeed. 

An  important  element  in  Church  prosperity  is  its  ministry. 
Referring  again  to  Ecumenical  statistics,  we  find  that  the  increase 
of  itinerant  ministers  in  the  Western  Section  in  the  first  decade 
of  the  period  was  12,410,  or  more  than  50  per  cent;  in  the  second 
5,695,  or  less  than  16  per  cent;  and  in  the  last  6,531,  or  about 
15  per  cent.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  increase  in  the  first 
decade  was  abnormal.  The  three  leading  colored  bodies  reported 
nearly  half  of  it,  each  considerably  more  than  doubling  its  list, 
and  one  almost  multiplying  it  by  three — the  result,  probably,  of 
reorganization  after  the  Civil  War.  For  the  whole  period  of  thirty 
years,  the  gain  was  22,067,  or  91  per  cent.,  which  can  not  be  re- 
garded as  unsatisfactory.  Our  host  evidently  has  a  good  supply  of 
captains. 

The  Ecumenical  statistics  of  churches  or  church  buildings  go 
back  only  to  1891.  In  the  Western  Section,  there  were  then  52,790; 
now  there  are  67,438,  an  increase  in  twenty  years  of  14,492,  or  28 
per  cent.  The  increase  in  the  first  of  the  two  decades  was  9,331;  in 
the  second,  it  was  5,161.  In  general,  it  may  be  said  that  there  has 
been  improvement  in  church  architecture,  the  buildings  are  of  a 
more  durable  character,  have  more  conveniences  for  church  work, 
and  are  much  more  costly.  The  increase  in  the  value  of  church 
property  is  enormous.  According  to  the  National  Census  of  1906, 
the  aggregate  value  of  church  property  belonging  to  Methodist 
bodies  in  the  United  States  alone  was  $229,451,000,  an  increase  of 


44  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

$97,311,000,  or  more  than  73  per  cent  in  sixteen  years.  The  people 
called  Methodists  appear  to  be  rapidly  accumulating  this  world's 
goods. 

The  Ecumenical  period,  covering  nearly  a  generation,  has  been 
a  period  of  systematic  organization  and  of  great  movements,  in 
which  Methodism  has  had  its  full  share.  Among  these  are  Church 
Federation,  expressing  the  unity  of  Evangelical  Churches  and  es- 
tablishing a  fuller  comity  and  cooperation;  Laymen's  Missionary 
and  Young  People's  Missionary  Movements,  in  which  all  denomina- 
tions work  harmoniously  to  induce  the  vast  body  of  laymen  to 
become  intelligent  students  and  systematic  supporters  of  missions; 
tne  Epworth  League,  for  the  training  of  young  people  in  religious 
work;  the  order  of  deaconesses,  for  patient  ministration  to  the  sick 
and  afflicted  and  those  needing  encouragement,  guidance  and  help; 
the  Brotherhood,  intended  to  interest  men  in  evangelistic,  also  in 
social,  civic  and  industrial  work  on  the  religious  side;  the  Federa- 
tion for  Social  service,  whose  purpose  is  to  promote  the  study  and 
application  of  Christian  sociology;  and  the  Men  and  Religion  Move- 
ment, in  which  the  Brotherhood,  the  International  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations  and  the  Men's  Department  of  the  Inter- 
national Sunday  School  Association  are  cooperating  for  the  fuller 
enlistment  of  the  interest  and  effort  of  the  millions  of  laj'men.  It 
seems  as  though  every  phase  of  Church  activity  must  have  some 
particular  form  of  organization  to  look  after  its  interests,  v  The 
only  field  unoccupied  seems  to  be  that  of  attendance  at  church  and 
prayer  meeting.  A  League  of  church-goers  of  all  ages  and  classes 
has  yet  to  be  organized.  Something  needs  to  be  done  to  revive  this 
old-fashioned  habit,  either  through  an  organized  movement,  or  by 
a  deeper  work  of  grace,  so  that  interest  and  inclination  will  run 
with  duty^ 

We  are  living  in  times  of  great  activity,  intellectual,  moral, 
political,  commercial  and  industrial.  Competition  was  never  so 
fierce  and  universal;  organization  never  so  wide-spread  and  com- 
plete; new  things  never  so  warmly  welcomed,  old  things  never  so 
critically  questioned.  Appeals  to  the  past  are  little  heeded.  Yes- 
terday is  a  year  old  and  last  year  a  century.  Faces  are  set  toward 
the  fviture.  Creeds  are  old  anfi  therefore  suspect.  The  Bible  comes 
from  the  dim  distance  of  many  centuries  and  must  be  recon- 
structed. The  matchless  character  of  Christ  must  pass  under  the 
critical  X-ray.  Almighty  God  himself  is  curiously  questioned,  and 
not  a  thing  He  has  made  or  a  word  He  has  said  escapes  investiga- 
tion. 

What  shall  be  the  attitude  of  the  Church  toward  this  hurrying, 
worrying,  irreverent  and  curiously  critical  generation?  Shall  its 
whims  be  recognized  and  the  Church  adjust  itself  to  its  demands? 
Or  shall  it  continue  in  its  God-given  mission  to  shine,  giving  light 


ADDRESS  BY  BISHOP  EUGENE  R.  HENDRIX.  45 

and  warmth  and  developing  life  in  all?  The  sun  is  old,  very  old; 
but  it  does  not  hesitate  to  diffuse  its  blessings  impartially  round 
the  whole  earth,  even  though  men  may  question  its  composition,  its 
origin,  its  sources  of  supply,  its  lease  of  life.  Would  it  change  its 
character  or  ministrations  in  response  to  human  clamor  for  re- 
adjustment? Or  would  it  go  on  its  appointed  way,  leaving  it  to 
men  to  adjust  themselves  to  its  operations?  We  have  the  answer 
in  our  experience.  The  Church  can  not  change  the  truth;  it  may 
only  change  the  expression  of  it.  Its  light  is  the  divine  light,  and 
it  is  its  function  faithfully  to  reflect  it,  remembering  that  when 
there  is  obscuration  it  is  due,  not  to  the  divine  luminary,  but  to 
the  clouds  of  human  sin  and  doubt. 

As  we  face  the  uncertain  future,  we  are  conscious  of  great 
problems,  great  opportunities,  great  needs.  Old  methods,  old 
policies,  honored  in  the  past,  seem  no  longer  workable.  What 
ought  we  to  do?-<irro  me  the  answer  is  plain:  Obey  the  Master's 
command  and  tarry  in  some  modern  Jerusalem  until  we  be  endued 
with  power  from  on  high,  the  power  which  distinguished  Pentecost, 
the  power  which  Paul  had;  the  power  which  brings  life  to  the 
dead,  holiness  to  the  sinful,  faith  to  the  helpless,  and  hope  to  the 
lost.  Our  dependence  on  the  Holy  Ghost  has  built  universal 
Methodism  a  hundred  thousand  pulpits,  fitted  and  commissioned 
sixty  thousand  preachers,  and  brought  it  out  of  every  nation  kin- 
dred and  tribe  well  nigh  nine  million  members.  The  power  that 
did  this  can  do  more  than  this;  it  can  double  and  treble  our  num- 
bers and  make  us  the  mightiest  force  on  earth  for  righteousness."^ 

Bishop  Eugene  R.  Hendrtx,  D.  J).,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South,  gave  the  first  appointed  address,  as  follows : 

Mr,  President  and  brethren  of  the  Methodist  Ecumenical  Confer- 
ence: Methodism  has  not  been  uniformly  succesful.  Mr.  Wesley's 
great  success  in  England  was  due  largely  to  a  few  places  like  Bristol, 
London,  Yorkshire,  and  Newcastle.  The  story  of  his  wonderful  jour- 
nal is  marked  with  the  story  of  his  itineration  between  these  central 
points,  and  his  ministry  there.  From  them  was  developed  the  seed 
corn  with  which  the  Kingdom  was  sowed  down.  And  sometimes  he 
left  a  place  feeling  that  his  mission  in  that  place  was  not  a  success. 

Whitetield  says:  "The  work  that  that  good  man  did  in  America 
eternity  alone  can  reveal."  The  fact  was  Mr.  Wesley  established  or 
started  the  greatest  seed-plot  of  Methodism  in  the  world  in  that  sec- 
tion of  our  country  covered  mostly  by  the  work  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South.  On  the  shores  of  these  commonwealths  he 
landed.  There  he  lived.  In  the  capital  of  the  commonwealth  of 
Georgia  rises  the  great  Wesleyan  Memorial  built  by  his  faithful  fol- 
lowers.    And  in  the  territory  of  that  Church  he  wrought  out  his 


46  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

his  first  hymns.  Here,  he  said,  was  the  second  rise  of  Methodism. 
Here  he  became  the  singer;  for  to  him  God  gave  the  songs  in  the 
night.  And  within  that  territory  particularly  covered  by  that 
Church  occurred  the  great  historic  elevation  of  Methodism  in  this 
country.  In  Delaware  Francis  Asbury  and  Thomas  Coke  found 
each  other,  and  fell  into  each  other's  arms.  In  Maryland  was  Free- 
born Garrettson  ready  to  speed  like  an  arrow  to  Canada  or  Nova 
Scotia,  and  at  his  own  expense,  never  drawing  in  all  his  wonderful 
ministry  a  dollar  of  salary  or  stipend.  There  was  Jesse  Lee,  who 
was  to  carry  this  great  Methodist  gospel  to  New  England,  and  under 
the  trees  of  Boston  Common  plant  a  new  religious  life,  and  develop 
a  new  religious  atmosphere. 

From  our  Southern  territory  came  forth  the  finest  type  of  Metho- 
dism that  this  world  has  yet  seen,  for  reasons  which  I  shall  pres- 
ently in'dicate.  From  it  came  forth  the  missionaries  to  the  great 
Northwest  Territory.  For  Methodism  was  planted  among  a  homo- 
geneous people.  It  was  the  English-speaking  people,  and  those 
alone,  for  the  most  part,  with  which  Methodism  had  to  do.  And 
there  is  nothing  that  will  so  remind  you  of  the  Old  England  homes 
with  their  large  families  and  happy  home  life  and  devoted  religious 
spirit  as  tne  Methodists  of  the  South.  The  eastern  shore  of  Mary- 
land, a  favorite  field  of  operation  of  Asbury,  has  been  sending 
forth  from  tnat  time  until  now  the  devoutest  spirits  the  world  has 
known.  <The  first  missionary  to  Africa,  Melville  B.  Cox,  came  from 
the  South;  and  when  he  died  he  said,  "Let  them  come  over  and 
write  my  epitaph,  'Let  a  thousand  fall  before  Africa  be  given  up!'T 

Now  the  great  Church  to  which  I  refer  this  morning  (for  Metho- 
dism deserves  to  be  judged  by  its  best)  has  had  to  do  with  two 
very  unique  and  interesting  problems.  One  I  shall  speak  of  later — 
the  great  philanthropic  and  religious  problem  of  the  Negro.  The 
other  is  tne  maintenance  of  a  pure  home  in  the  midst  of  adverse 
conditions.  The  other  day  a  jury  met  in  Virginia  on  a  case  of 
wife  murder.  They  were  dismissed  for  their  verdict,  and  the  first 
thing  they  did  was  to  fall  on  their  knees  in  prayer.  Before  they 
rendered  their  verdict  they  prayed  again.  When  the  judge  called 
for  the  verdict,  not  one  voice  alone,  but  twelve  voices  said,  "Guilty!" 
The  twelve  men  in  the  fear  of  God  refused  to  recommend  any  com- 
mutation of  the  sentence.  That  is  in  the  land  where  no  woman 
attended  that  murder  trial.  That  is  in  the  land  where  the  home  is 
beautifully  safeguarded.  That  is  where  all  the  Astor  millions  could 
not  get  a  Methodist  preacher  to  bind  in  matrimony  the  man  whom 
the  statutes  of  New  York  forbade  to  be  married.  Now,  gentlemen, 
if  that  had  been  a  Negro  who  had  been  tried  before  his  peers  among 
the  Negroes,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  it  would  have  been  the  same 
verdict,  rendered  by  men  who  would  have  reached  it  on  their  knees, 
and  by  men  who  would  have  presented  it,  after  prayer,  to  the  court. 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  HOWARD  SPRAGUE.  47 

I'here  is  a  beautiful  effect  of  this  type  of  Christianity  in  the  South. 
It  gives  you  a  secretary  to  your  Ecumenical  Conference.  [Here, 
amid  great  applause,  the  spealver  placed  his  hand  on  the  head  of 
Bishop  Phillips,  who  sat  close  by.  Great  applause.]  I  honor 
George  V,  now  on  the  throne  of  England,  as  I  honored  his  father 
and  that  grandmother,  who  was  the  queenliest  of  women  and  the 
womanliest  of  queens.  Away  back  there  were  some  Georges  that 
foisted  American  slavery  upon  the  American  people.  The  problem 
came  to  us  in  the  South.  We  have  made  them  bishops  in  the 
Church.  It  is  a  glory  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 
that  2U0,000  Negroes  bowed  at  her  altars  before  the  Civil  War  came 
on.  There  was  never  such  a  missionary  record  since  God  made  the 
world.  One  has  well  said,  "Methodism  best  expresses  the  religious 
consciousness  of  this  Nation." 

We  have  been  giving  out  Methodism.  In  four  years  we  have 
a  net  increase  of  200,000  souls,  enough  to  constitute  mo^t  of  the 
Churches  in  this  country.  We  have  furnished  preachers  to  all  the 
Churches  of  this  country.  We  took  a  local  preacher  down  South,  a 
son  of  one  of  our  bishops,  and  made  him  a  bishop  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church.  In  Virginia  we  have  so  touched  lives  that  the 
great  Episcopal  Church,  long  the  established  Church  of  that  coun- 
try, is  glad  to  exchange  pulpits  with  us.  I  venture  to  say  that 
that  jury  to  which  I  referred  a  moment  ago  was  composed  of  a 
majority  of  Methodists,  the  rest  being  Presbyterians  and  Baptists. 
We  have  given  wives  to  bishops  of  the  other  Churches,  and  they 
make  excellent  ones.  Blessed  be  God  for  our  Southern  women — 
their  piety,  culture,  devotion  to  home,  modesty,  loyalty  to  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  They  are  our  vestal  virgins  that  make  sacred  our 
temples.  And  by  virtue  of  their  loyal  and  beautiful  service  God  is 
using  us  to  bless  all  the  Churches.  And  we  bless  God  for  all  the 
Churches,  living  in  harmony  with  others,  having  learned  the  secret 
of  beautiful  catholicity. 

The  second  address  was  delivered  by  the  Eev.  Howard 
Sprague,  D.  D.,  of  the  Metliodist  Church  of  Canada : 

The  Methodist  Church  of  Canada,  so-called  for  convenience,  but 
legally  simply  "The  Methodist  Church,"  is  also  the  Methodist  Church 
of  Newfoundland  and  Bermuda.  Excepting  the  African  Methodist 
Churches,  this  Church  includes  practically  all  the  Methodism  and 
Methodists  between  St.  Johns  and  Vancouver  and  north  of  latitude 
forty-nine. 

The  history  of  this  Church  in  the  last  ten  years  has  been  in  great 
part  determined  by  the  history  of  Canada  in  that  time.  It  has  been 
a  period  of  great  national  prosperity  and  progress,  of  rapid  increase 
of  population  and   wealth.     The  tide   of  European   emigration   has 


48  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

been  flowing  to  our  shores  in  increasing  volume.  Large  foreign  com- 
munities have  been  formed  in  our  cities.  From  the  British  Isles, 
from  nearly  all  the  countries  of  Europe,  from  the  north-western 
States  of  America,  by  hundreds  of  thousands,  people  have  been  mov- 
ing into  the  great  wheat-growing  areas  of  our  western  land.  Within 
Canada  there  has  been  a  steady  movement  of  the  East  to  the  West. 
Two  new  Provinces,  equal  in  area,  and  soon  to  be  more  than  equal 
in  population,  to  all  the  Provinces  of  the  original  Dominion,  have 
come  into  being  in  the  decade. 

Thus  new  problems  have  been  presented  to  Canadian  churches, 
and  new  and  testing  demands  made  on  their  faith  and  their 
resources.  Our  Church  has  met  them  with  a  hearty  and  not 
unworthy  response.  We  have  greeted  the  immigrant  at  the  port 
of  arrival  with  such  welcome  as  befits  a  Christian  Church,  have 
accompanied  him  to  his  chosen  home  in  the  East,  in  Ontario,  in 
Manitoba,  and  have  given  him,  in  his  far-flung  and  widely  separated 
hamlets   in  the  West,   the  ministry   and   ordinances   of  our   Faith. 

In  several  respects  the  life  and  work  of  our  Church  have  been, 
notably  affected  by  the  new  conditions  and  their  call  for  extended, 
service. 

First,  and  in  general,  there  has  been  a  great  increase,  i.  e. 
relatively  great,  of  our  ministry,  our  membership,  and  our  flnancial 
outlay. 

Oup  ministry,  including  probationers,  has  increased  from  1,994 
in  1900  to  2,666  in  the  year  1910-1911;   about  33  per  cent. 

Our  members  at  the  beginning  of  the  decade  were  282,436,  at 
its  end,  340,091.  In  our  Asiatic  Missions  the  increase  has  been 
100   per  cent— from   2,465   to  4,728. 

Our  missionary  work,  home  and  foreign,  divided  into  the  two 
departments — but  supported  from  a  common  fund,  has  rapidly  ex- 
panded, and  the  income  of  the  General  Society  has  advanced  from 
$306,000  in  1900  to  almost  $649,000  in  the  year  just  closed.  So  that, 
while  our  membership  is  but  25  per  cent  more  now  than  then,  our 
missionary  givings  are  greater  by  112  per  cent.  This  means  either 
greater  health,  or  greater  liberality  —  or  a  better  appreciation  of 
the  missionary  appeal  —  probably  all  of  these. 

We  were  sadly  bereaved  as  a  Church  in  the  last  two  years  of 
the  decade.  Our  great  leaders,  in  quick  succession,  were  called 
to  an  ampler  sphere.  One  of  these  was  the  statesman-Secretary 
who  was  the  head  of  our  missionary  work  for  thirty  years,  to 
whose  far-seeing  policies,  wise  and  masterful  direction,  and  eloquent 
advocacy,  our  Church  and  our  country  owe  more  than  can  be  told. 
We  have  few,  if  any  greater  or  more  shining  names  on  our  roll 
of  honor  than  Alexander  Sutherland. 

A  reference  to  our  missionary  work  would  be  very  defective 
that   said   nothing    of    the    Woman's    Missionary    Society.      It    was 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  HOWARD  SPRAGUE.  49 

organized  thirty  years  ago.  It  has  grown  through  the  three  decades. 
It  has  now  a  branch  in  every  conference  and  an  auxiliary  in 
almost  every  cii'cuit.  Its  income  in  1900-01  was  $50,000;  in  1910-11 
it  was  $136,000,  an  increase  in  ten  years  of  172  per  cent.  Ten 
years  ago  it  had  thirty-nine  missionaries — last  year  nearly  twice 
the  number.  It  has  schools,  orphanages,  hospitals  in  Canada,  China, 
and  Japan.  Its  work  has  been  graciously  and  richly  blessed.  It 
has  been  a  blessing  to  our  whole  Church.  Its  management  and  suc- 
cess give  eloquent  testimony  to  the  consecrated  intelligence,  the 
administrative  capacity,  the  heroic  and  self-denying  faith  of 
Canadian  Methodist  Womanhood. 

Another  response  to  our  country's  call  was  the  organization, 
in  1902,  of  the  "Department  of  Temperance  and  Moral  Reform,"  the 
first  action  of  the  kind  by  a  church  in  Canada,  perhaps  in  this 
continent,  but  taken  by  other  churches  since.  Dr.  Chown,  the  first 
Secretary,  held  the  office  eight  years.  During  his  tenure  —  his 
successor  is  worthily  walking  in  the  same  path  —  the  sentiment 
of  our  people  regarding  the  matters  with  which  his  department 
had  to  do  was  instructed  and  deepened  and  concentrated  upon 
specific  works  of  reform  and  organized  for  their  achievement. 
Intemperance,  impurity,  the  social  evil,  gambling.  Sabbath  dese- 
cration, have  been  decreased,  some  of  these  more  than  others,  by 
the  educative  work  of  the  department,  and  by  enactments  of 
Parliament,  to  the  securing  of  which  the  department,  with  the 
weight  of  the  Church  behind  it,  materially  contributed,  and  that 
quietly,  without  ostentation,  without  assumption  of  ecclesiastical 
authority  or  parade  of  political  power. 

Yet  another  direct  result  of  national  growth  and  the  new 
demands  is  the  Church  Union  movement.  The  consideration  of 
the  question  has  covered  the  decade. 

It  had  its  formal  beginning  in  our  General  Conference  in  Winni- 
peg, in  September,  1902,  but  that  beginning  was  made  momen- 
tous, if  not  occasioned,  by  the  address  of  a  Presbyterian  delegate. 
Principal  Patrick  of  that  city.  He  expressed  his  conviction  that 
the  conditions  and  prospects  of  Canada  demanded  a  union  of 
Christian  forces,  and  that  the  two  largest  Protestant  bodies  in  the 
country  were  able,  if  they  tried  and  therefore  ought  to  try,  to  join 
in  the  closest  organic  bond,  excluding  all  rivalry  in  the  fast  peopling 
West,  and  making  waste  of  men  and  means  impossible.  He  did 
it  in  so  thoroughly  Christian  a  spirit,  and  with  such  moving  elo- 
quence, that  the  Conference  appointed  a  committee  of  seventeen  to 
consider  the  question  of  union  with  committees  from  the  Presby- 
terian and  Congregational  Churches. 

These  Churches  appointed  committees  —  the  united  committee 
numbering  about  one  hundred  and  fifty.  It  met  five  times  with 
intervals  of  a  year,  and  considered  the  question  from  every  point 
4 


60  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

of  view.  The  spirit  of  unity  and  tiie  desire  for  union  deepened  in 
the  fellowship  of  those  meetings.  The  fire  of  holy  feeling  of  Love 
Divine  dissipated  difficulties  and  melted  barriers.  Hearts  were 
fused  and  became  as  one.  Men  who  entered  the  committee  room 
with  adverse  convictions  came  to  believe  that  the  movement  was  of 
God.  When  the  final  vote  was  taken  on  the  adoption  of  the  Basis 
of  Union  as  a  whole,  Friday  evening,  December  11,  1908,  six  years 
after  the  action  of  our  General  Conference,  only  one  voice  said 
"nay." 

The  movement  has  not  been  hurried,  and  it  may  not  reach  its 
purposed  goal.  It  has  yet  to  be  approved  or  rejected  by  Kirk 
Sessions  and  Quarterly  Boards.  Annual  Conferences  have  affirmed 
it  by  large  majorities,  and  the  General  Conference  in  Victoria  last 
summer  adopted  the  basis  by  a  vote  of  220  to  35. 

Those  among  us  who  favour  union  prize  the  Methodist  name, 
history,  sentiment,  and  associations.  To  abandon  them,  so  far 
as  union  involves  abandonment,  is  to  make  the  only  sacrifice  worth 
naming.  It  is  only  for  the  sake  of  a  greater  good,  the  greater 
power  when  the  three  move  as  really  "one  army  of  the  Living  God," 
for  the  sake  of  the  Kingdom  and  of  the  Name  that  is  above  every 
name,  that  the  question  is  entertained  and  the  sacrifice  may  be 
made.  The  problem  of  the  West,  of  the  polyglot  multitudes  coming 
into  our  land,  of  our  Country's  future,  its  religious  life  and 
Christian  citizenship,  this  and  the  problem  of  Union  can  not  be 
divided.  The  tremendous  insistence  of  the  one,  makes  it  a  duty 
to  consider  the  other. 

If  the  Union  takes  place  we  shall  feel  the  loss  of  some  things 
we  can  not  take  with  us,  and  our  severance  in  name  and  organiza- 
tion —  though  never  in  heart  —  from  the  fellowship  of  Methodist 
Communions  represented  here  to-day.  But  we  shall  by  God's  grace 
carry  into  the  Union  all  the  Methodism  we  have,  except  the  name 
and  the  forms,  our  working  theology,  our  evangelistic  spirit,  our 
type  of  experimental  religion. 

If  Union  does  not  come,  we  shall  be  blest  all  round  by  the 
communion  we  have  had,  by  the  discovery  of  our  oneness  in  all 
that  really  matters,  by  our  seasons  of  grace  and  sweet  delights. 
And  we  shall  go  forward  as  if  nothing  had  happened;  nay,  rather, 
more  zealously  and  more  faithfully,  more  lovingly  and  helpfully 
toward  each  other  for  what  has  happened,  allies  in  a  common  war- 
fare for  a  common  cause,  Congregationalists  in  the  open  order  so 
dear  to  them,  Presbyterians  moving  mightily  in  compact  formation 
under  the  blue  banner  of  which  we  have  lately  heard  so  often,  and  we 
as  great  a  host  as  they,  in  organization  as  solid  as  theirs,  and  with 
a  discipline  that  improves  every  four  years,  our  name  "Methodist," 
our  standard  the  cross,  our  motto  "In  Hoc  Signo,"  our  only  rivalry 
to  do  the  most  and  the  best  to  win  and  keep  Canada  for  Christ,  and 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  S.  OGATA.  51 

to  spread  in  the  earth  the  glory  and  empire  of  His  name.     Union, 
no  union — 

"I\Iay  our  hands  perform  His  bidding, 
May  our  feet  run  in  His  ways. 
May  our  eyes  see  Jesus  only, 

May  our  lips  speak  forth  His  praise." 

The  third  address  was  hy  the  Eev.  S.  Ogata,  D.  D.,  of  tlie 
Japan  Methodist  Church: 

I  bring  to  you  the  wannest  and  heartiest  greeting  of  the 
youngest  body  of  Methodism,  namely,  the  Methodist  Church  of 
Japan,  the  Church  that  is  only  four  years  old. 

In  1874  Dr.  R.  S.  Maclay  and  four  other  missionaries  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  were  sent  to  Japan  and  started  work 
in  Tokyo,  Yokohama,  Hakodate  and  Nagasaki.  A  few  months  later 
Drs.  George  Cochran  and  D.  Macdonald  of  the  Methodist  Church 
of  Canada,  arrived  and  started  their  work  in  Tokyo,  Shizuoka, 
Kofu  and  Kanazawa.  In  1SS6  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  sent  Dr.  J.  W.  Lambuth  and  two  other  missionaries  and  they 
started  work  in  Kobe,  Hiroshima  and  other  strategic  points.  These 
had  not  yet  been  occupied  by  the  other  two  sister  Churches,  and 
each  Church  pressed  forward  her  work  separately. 

The  desire  of  union  of  the  three  Methodist  bodies  working  in 
Japan  was  early  manifested  among  the  missionaries,  native  min- 
isters and  members  generally.  Many  general  meetings  and  com- 
mittee meetings  were  held  from  time  to  time  to  consult  as  to  the 
way  to  consummate  this  unanimous  desire. 

In  1887  the  union  theological  school  of  the  three  Churches 
was  formed  and  it  promised  to  be  a  powerful  organ  for  Methodism 
in  Japan,  but  it  was  dissolved  after  a  few  years'  existence;  however, 
neither  discord  nor  dispute  was  the  cause  of  its  dissolution.  Since 
then  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  has  been  carrying  on 
its  educational  work  at  Kobe.  The  Methodist  Church  of  Canada 
a  few  years  later  again  united  with  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  theological  work  at  Aoyama,  Tokyo,  which  has  continued  up  to 
the  present  time.  Nearly  all  the  prominent  native  ministers  of  our 
Church  to-day  are  the  men  who  were  trained  in  that  union  theo- 
logical school. 

The  reasons  for  the  desire  of  imion  were:  1st.  The  Congrega- 
tional Church  and  the  Nippon  Kirisuto  Kyokwai,  (The  United 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Japan),  each  having  more  than  ten  thousand 
members,  were  the  two  strongest  Churches  in  Japan.  It  seemed  that 
it  would  take  any  one  of  the  Methodist  Churches  a  long  time  to 
grow  as  large  as  either  the  Congregational  or  the  Presbyterian 
Church;    but  if  the  three  bodies  united,  the   Methodists  would   at 


52  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

once  become  as  large  and  strong  as  either  of  the  other  two  Churches 
and  hence  become  one  of  the  leading  Chui'ches  in  the  Empire. 

2nd.  It  is  perplexing  to  the  ordinary  Japanese  mind  that  there 
are  so  many  different  denominations  of  the  Christian  Church  when 
all  Christians  believe  in  the  same  God  and  same  Savior ;  it  is 
still  more  perplexing  that  there  is  more  than  one  kind  of  Method- 
ist Church.  Certainly  it  would  appeal  more  strongly  to  an 
ordinary  Japanese  mind  when  we  present  one  Methodist  Church 
instead  of  three,  or  it  would  still  more  strongly  appeal  to  him  if 
we  could  present  one  Christian  Church  instead  of  twenty-five  or 
thirty  different  denominations. 

3d.  It  is  not  comprehensible  to  an  ordinary  Japanese  mind 
why  the  Church  has  to  have  her  chief  officer  in  a  foreign  land  and 
obey  the  rules  and  regulations,  although  good  in  themselves, 
adapted  to  the  people  of  another  more  advanced  nation.  So  the 
Church  in  Japan  seemed  a  branch  of  another  Church  in  a  foreign 
land  and  not  Japan's  own.  Hence  we  believed  that  the  union  of 
Methodism  in  Japan  would  commend  itself  to  the  people  at  large 
having  its  autonomy,  size  and  strength  equal  to  any  of  the  leading 
Churches  in  the  Empire. 

4th.  Each  of  the  three  Methodist  bodies  having  a  small  num- 
ber of  churches  and  a  limited  number  of  preachers,  the  appoint- 
ments became  more  and  more  a  difficult  task  every  year.  By 
uniting  the  churches  and  intermingling  the  preachers  we  believed 
we  could  facilitate  the  appointment  of  preachers,  and  we  were  not 
mistaken  in  this. 

Three  mother  Churches  in  America  and  Canada  seeing  the  wis- 
dom and  feasibility  of  the  union,  granted  us  tJie  privilege  of  or- 
ganizing the  Methodist  Church  of  Japan  on  an  autonomic  basis, 
and  in  the  Spring  of  1907,  the  three  mother  Churches  sent  us 
commissioners  invested  with  discretionary  power  to  organize  a 
Methodist  Church  in  Japan  in  concurrence  with  the  lay  and  clerical 
representatives  of  the  Japanese  churches. 

Thus  the  first  general  conference  was  held  at  Aoyama,  Tokyo, 
from  May  22  to  June  7,  1907,  during  which  the  Methodist  Church 
of  Japan  was  organized.  The  Rev.  Yoitsu  Honda  was  elected  Bishop 
and  the  discipline  of  the  new  Church  was  formed. 

At  the  time  of  the  union  the  three  uniting  bodies  had  the  fol- 
lowing statistical  figures: 

The   Methodist   Episcopal   Church. 

Churches     57 

Self-supporting    churches    6 

Membership     6060 

Ordained   preachers 73 

Unordained  preachers   39 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  S.  OGATA.  53 

Sunday  Schools   57 

Sunday  School  teachers  and  oflBcers   511 

Sunday  School  scholars  9512 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

Churches     15 

Self-supporting    churches    2 

Membership     1573 

Ordained  ministers   12 

Unordained  ministers    13 

Sunday   Schools    63 

Sunday  School  teachers  and  officers   248 

Sunday  School  scholars    : 5546 

The  Methodist  Church  of  Canada. 

Churches    25 

Self-supporting  churches  4 

Membership     2105 

Ordained   ministers    21 

Unordained   ministers    19 

Sunday    Schools    55 

Sunday  School  teachers  and  officers   144 

Sunday  School  scholars    3948 

Total  Number. 

Churches 97 

Self-supporting    churches    12 

Membership     9738 

Ordained    ministers    106 

Unordained   ministers    71 

Sunday    Schools     251 

Sunday  School  teachers  and  officers  903 

Sunday    School    scholars    19,006 

After  the  first   quadrennium  the   report   shows: 

Total   Number. 

Churches,  107;   increase  of  10. 
Self-supporting  churches,  18;    increase  of  6. 
Membership,  12,322;    increase  of  2,584, 
Ordained  ministers,  138;  increase  of  32. 
Unordained  ministers,  55;   decrease  of  16. 
Local  preachers,  81. 
Sunday  Schools,  300;  increase  of  49. 

Sunday  School  teachers  and  officers,  1150;    increase  of  247. 
Sunday  school  scholars,  5,994;   increase  of  2,500. 
The  giving  power  of  the  members  of  the  three  Churches  before 

union  was  on  an  average  three  yen  per  capita  per  annum ;  after  the 


54  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

first  quadrennium  it  has  increased  to  seven  yen  and  a  half  per 
capita  per  annum. 

The  reason  for  such  a  small  increase  in  membership  is  owing 
to  the  pruning  of  those  whose  whereabouts  became  unknown.  The 
members  now  reported  are  alive,  active,  and  can  be  depended  on  as 
members  of  our  church.  Among  them  are  diplomatists,  judges, 
lawyers,  doctors,  members  of  the  Imperial  Diet,  officials,  professors, 
editors  and  prominent  business  men. 

The  Methodist  Church  of  Japan  has  the  characteristics  of  true 
Methodism,  She  is  the  leader  in  revival,  temperance  and  Sunday 
school  work.  The  two  sweeping  revivals  within  my  memory  had 
their  origin  in  a  Methodist  Church  in  Tokyo.  The  famous  Tobacco 
Prohibition  Bill  was  introduced  into  the  Diet  by  a  Methodist  and  it 
became  a  law  twelve  years  ago,  so  that  everybody  under  twenty-one 
years  of  age  is  protected  against  nicotine  poison  in  Japan.  The 
same  man  has  been  introducing  the  temperance  bill  in  the  Diet  for 
the  past  ten  years.  It  has  not  become  a  law,  but  we  pray  by  the 
help  of  God  it  may  become  a  law  in  the  near  future. 

The  president  of  the  National  Temperance  League  of  Japan 
is  also  a  Methodist  and  prominent  citizen.  The  Methodist  Church 
has  a  larger  number  of  Sunday  school  scholars  than  any  other 
denomination  in  Japan. 

The  missions  of  the  three  Churches  are  carrying  on  school  work 
at  Nagasaki,  Kobe  and  Tokyo  for  1,000  young  men  and  boys.  The 
ladies  of  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Societies  of  the  three 
Churches  have  schools  for  girls  in  thirteen  important  cities  of  the 
Empire,  with  a  total  of  2,200  students. 

The  union  of  Methodist  bodies  in  Japan  has  proven  a  success. 
"We  have  raised  more  money  per  capita,  and  taken  in  more  mem- 
bers during  the  last  four  years  than  in  any  other  similar  period  in 
the  past.  If  it  had  not  been  for  the  pruning  the  membership  would 
have  swollen  to  20,000. 

But,  brethren,  please  remember  the  Methodist  Church  of  Japan 
is  a  child  of  only  four  years  old  and  she  looks  up  to  her  three 
mothers  for'  help  and  care,  one  loving,  affectionate  mother  in 
Canada,  and  two  in  the  United  States.  I  plead  for  the  child,  and 
ask  the  mothers  to  continue  to  care  for  her  until  she  becomes  a 
mighty  power  in  the  upbuilding  of  God's  Kingdom  in  the  Orient. 

The  President:  "The  time  has  come  for  discussion.  The 
conditions  of  discussion,  I  think,  are  clearly  understood.  Those 
who  wish  to  speak  will  arise  in  their  seats,  and  when  the  Presi- 
dent points  one  out  or  names  him,  he  will  announce  his  name 
and  country  and  the  Church  to  which  he  belongs,  before  he 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  55 

begins  to  speak.  I  have  received  notice,  however,  of  a  question 
to  be  asked;  and  perhaps  it  would  be  for  the  convenience  of 
the  Conference  if  tliat  question  were  asked  at  this  point.  It 
is  a  question  arising  out  of  one  of  the  addresses  we  have  heard. 
Mr.  Alderman  Snape  will  ask  the  question." 

Alderman  Snape:  "Mr.  President:  In  reference  to  the 
interesting  address  of  Bishop  Hendrix,  there  is  one  point  upon 
which  I  would  wish  to  ask  a  question.  Referring  to  the  inci- 
dent of  which  we  have  probably  all  read,  he  said  that  the  verdict 
was  unanimous ;  but  he  did  not  say  what  was  the  sentence  of  the 
judge.  I  wish  to  know  what  it  was.  Was  it  a  sentence  of 
death?  If  it  had  been  a  white  man,  would  the  sentence  have 
been  death?" 

Voices:    "It  was  a  white  man." 

Bishop  Wilson,  being  called  upon,  said:  "The  sentence 
was  death  by  electrocution.  The  date,  I  think,  was  November 
loth.  A  petition  was  gotten  up  by  friends  of  the  condemned 
man  for  commutation  of  his  sentence  to  imprisonment  for  life. 
The  jury  was  interviewed,  and  every  man  on  the  jury  positively 
and  emphatically  refused  to  sign  the  petition.  So  the  sentence 
stands,  and  it  is  not  likely  to  be  reversed." 

The  President:  "If  there  is  anything  to  be  said  on  this 
question,  or  any  other  question  that  has  been  raised  this  morn- 
ing, either  in  supplement  or  modification  or  by  way  of  question, 
this  is  the  time." 

Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss: 

I  ask  for  permission  to  speak.  My  object  is  to  make  a  protest 
against  the  asking  of  any  other  such  questions.  We  are  met  here 
as  brethren,  on  terms  of  absohite  equality,  and  I  object  to  any  ques- 
tion that  carries  with  it  the  implication  of  an  inferior  Christianity 
or  an  inferior  civilization  in  any  part  of  the  Methodist  world.  This 
man  was  a  white  man  of  high  social  standing.  He  belongs  to  a 
family  of  great  wealth.  He  had  everything  that  a  man  could  have 
in  order  to  secure  an  ample  and  a  full  defense.  He  was  condemned 
by  due  process  of  law.  The  jury  refused  to  sign  the  petition  for  the 
commutation  of  his  sentence  to  imprisonment  for  life.  And  there  is 
not  the  slightest  probability  that  the  governor  of  old  Virginia,  who 
is  a  stout  Presbyterian  of  the  very  best  quality,  will  pay  the  slightest 
attention  to  the  petition.  And  I  repeat  that  my  object  in  getting 
the  floor  is  to  protest  against  the  asking  of  any  questions  that  carry 
insinuations  against  any  pai't  of  the  land. 


56  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

The  liev.  Geo.  Elliott,  D,  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church : 

I  wish  to  make  a  remark  in  regard  to  the  conditions  of  work  in 
the  Western  Section,  especially  in  the  Northern  States  of  the  Union, 
based  upon  social,  industrial,  and  economic  conditions,  which  greatly 
affect  our  estimate  of  the  progress  of  the  last  decade.  In  the  last 
generation  the  type  of  immigration  coming  from  foreign  countries, 
especially  to  the  Northern  States  of  the  Union,  has  changed  abso- 
lutely. Formerly  our  candidates  and  raw  material  for  citizenship 
came  from  Northern  and  Western  Europe.  To-day  in  largest  meas- 
ure they  come  from  Southern,  Central  and  Eastern  Europe.  For- 
merly they  were  Teutons  and  Celts;  to-day  they  are  Latins  and 
Slavs.  The  normal  increase  by  immigration  during  the  last  decade 
has  been  in  round  numbers  about  one  million  a  year.  We  are  work- 
ing out  in  the  Northern  States  of  the  Union  the  most  tremendous 
synthesis  of  race  ever  attempted  in  human  history,  and  all  judg- 
ments and  estimates  of  the  success  of  our  work  during  that  time 
must  take  into  account  the  tremendous  problem  raised  by  these  new 
conditions.  Unrestricted  immigration  is  for  us  either  a  tremendous 
peril  or  a  glorious  opportunity.  No  statesmanship  has  yet  been  able 
to  solve  the  problem  of  the  peril.  The  Christian  Church  must  enter 
the  open  gateway  of  opportunity.  God  is  giving  us  the  nations  that 
we  may  give  them  God.  God  is  repeating  on  American  soil  the 
confusion  of  Babel,  that  we  may  in  God's  name  repeat  here  the 
miracle  of  Pentecost.  And  so,  while  there  is  much  to  regret  in  the 
lack  of  growth,  in  the  lessening  perhaps  of  spiritual  power,  and  in- 
tensity of  purpose,  we  must  remember  that  it  is  with  this  problem 
that  the  most  densely  populated  portion  of  the  Western  world  has 
had  to  contend.  It  calls  for  the  largest  Christian  statesmanship,  the 
most  glorious  prophetic  vision,  and  the  most  tremendous  evangelis- 
tic fervor.  Our  English  brethren  who  sometimes  wonder  why  we 
can  not  repeat  in  some  American  cities  certain  types  of  evangelistic 
moments  forget  that  some  things  are  not  possible  in  a  heterogeneous 
population  that  are  possible  in  communities  made  up  of  people  of 
one  race  and  one  tongue  and  centuries  of  a  common  tradition.  We 
were  all  delighted  and  we  all  felt  sympathetic  with  the  address  of 
Bishop  Hendrix  calling  attention  to  the  religious  conditions  in  the 
South.  There  is  there  no  similar  religious  problem  in  equal  meas- 
ure. There  we  have  people  of  English  speech  who  have  received  the 
common  tradition  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  religion  and  faith  and  culture 
and  society.  But  here  in  these  Northern  States  of  the  Union  we 
are  meeting  new  problems  and  new  conditions.  And  on  this  new 
soil  the  last  standing  ground  of  the  white  man  in  his  Western 
march,  we  believe,  shall  be  answered  the  last  questions  of  the  hu- 
man spirit.  The  last  problems  of  civilization  are  here  to  be  solved, 
and  here  are  to  be  fulfilled  the  final  purposes  of  Almighty  God. 

The  Eev.  Henri  Aenaud  Scott,  of  the  British  Wesleyan 
Church : 

I  would  like  to  make  an  observation  in  relation  to  the  address 
delivered  to  us  by  Dr.  Sprague.  I  am  sorry  that  the  time  limit 
was  called  when  he  came  to  deal  with  a  question  which,  it  seems 
to  me,  is  one  of  the  greatest  questions  we  could  possibly  deal  with 
in  this  Conference.     I  mean  the  coming  together  of  the  Methodists 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  67 

of  Canada  with  the  Presbyterian  and  the  Congregational  Churches 
of  Canada.  We  have  watched  tliat  from  the  other  side  of  the  sea 
with  the  deepest  possible  interest;  and  I  should  like  to  know  a  little 
more  as  to  how  far  this  matter  has  gone  with  regard  to  the  Metho- 
dist family  and  our  association  together  in  subsequent  years.  If 
it  should  come  about,  does  it  mean  that  this  is  the  last  occasion 
when  the  Methodist  Ecumenical  Conference  could  be  held  in  the 
Dominion  of  Canada?  Of  course,  one  knows  perfectly  well  that  the 
brethren  in  Canada  of  both  Churches  would  face  an  issue  of  that 
kind  with  a  sense  of  responsibility  and  with  the  full  realization  of 
all  that  it  really  involves.  And  as  far  as  the  spirit  of  our  Master 
is  concerned,  I  hope  the  time  will  come  when  we  shall  come  to- 
gether far  more  closely  than  we  are  now.  But  I  should  like  to  know 
a  little  more  from  those  who  have  been  face  to  face  with  this  great 
question  as  to  what  its  present  position  is,  and  what  is  the  signifi- 
cance of  a  movement  of  this  kind  in  relation  to  the  old  Presbyterian 
Churches  of  Great  Britain  on  the  one  hand  and  also  to  the  Metho- 
dist Churches  of  Great  Britain  and  the  Protestant  world.  I  can  not 
conceive  of  any  question  of  deeper  moment  to  us  as  a  great  Prot- 
estant community,  a  world-wide  Methodism.  It  may  be  the  begin- 
ning of  the  breaking-up;  and  we  here,  ecumenical  Methodists,  ought 
to  face  that.  It  is  a  matter  that  does  not  concern  us  alone.  It  con- 
cerns the  States  and  Great  Britain  and  Japan  and  the  whole  world 
of  us.  And  I  really  think  that  as  a  Conference  gathered  together 
from  the  whole  Protestant  world  we  might  have  an  opportunity  to 
look  a  little  more  fully  at  this  question.  I  should  be  exceedingly 
glad  if  Dr.  Sprague  be  permitted  at  some  time  to  finish  his  address 
on  that  great  subject. 

The  President  :  "In  this  matter,  of  course,  j'our  President 
is  for  the  time  being  tlie  servant  of  the  Conference,  and  must 
be  the  first  to  obey  the  rules.  I  was  perhaps  more  sorr}''  than 
any  one  in  this  Conference  to  have  interrupted  Dr.  Sprague  at 
that  particular  moment  of  his  address;  but  there  was  no  other 
course  to  be  taken  just  then." 

The  Eev.  J.  AV.  Marshall,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church : 

Mr.  President  and  brethren,  I  wish  to  call  attention  to  two  par- 
ticular points.  First,  in  the  matter  of  growth  allusion  was  made  in 
Dr.  Carroll's  address  to  what  might  involve  a  steady  and  yet  some- 
what too  slow  growth,  and  Bishop  Hendrix  said  that  that  had  al- 
ways been  characteristic  of  our  Methodism.  I  took  the  trouble  to 
go  to  the  Book  Concern  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  to  get 
some  figures  for  myself  the  other  day,  and  happen  to  have  them 
within  my  pocket.  We  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  before  it  makes  any  growth  whatsoever,  must  sup- 
ply two  great  losses  every  year:  first,  the  loss  of  40,000  people  by 
death;  secondly,  a  loss  which  was  spoken  of  by  our  brother  from 
Japan,  namely,  the  loss  of  a  number  of  people  who  move  around  in 
various  places  and  a  great  many  of  whom  come  over  here  to  Canada 
and  do  not  take  certificates  of  membership.  Then  we  have  to  write 
them   in  our  books,   "Removed   without  certificate,"   and   they   are 


58  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

not  counted  with  us  next  year.  Notwithstanding  these  two  facts, 
which  are  two  very  important  facts,  I  have  the  figures  before  me 
of  the  growth  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  for  the  last  dec- 
ade, viz.:  No  growth  in  1900;  in  1901,  23,051;  in  1902,  48,061;  in 
1903,  31,623;  in  1904,  38,203;  in  1905,  78,171;  in  1906,  86,232;  in  1907, 
72,751;  in  1908,  72,309;  in  1909,  63,047;  in  1910,  47,065;  making  a 
growth  during  the  ten  years  of  560,815.  Now,  that  shows,  I  think, 
very  steady  growth  going  through  the  decade;  and  that  is  the  only 
practical  way  to  estimate  the  statistics  of  our  Church.  We  must 
remember,  however,  that  this  growth  was  made,  up  to  80%,  from  our 
Sunday  school  growth.  That  is,  80%  of  our  growth  comes  through 
our  Sunday  schools.  That  is  the  first  fact  to  which  I  call  attention. 
The  second  is  this  that  there  is  a  very  delightful  spirit  growing 
in  the  States  through  what  is  known  as  the  Inter-Church  Federation, 
and  the  Churches  of  all  denominations — Episcopal,  Presbyterian, 
Congregational,  Baptist,  Methodist — are  growing  largely,  through 
the  States,  into  a  spirit  of  federation  for  service.  I  received  from 
our  secretary  just  before  I  came  to  Toronto  the  statement  that  every 
county  in  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  excepting  two,  had  completed  a 
federation,  and  hence  practically  the  whole  State  was  federated  for 
social  service  and  for  work.  As  an  illustration  of  this  I  might  say 
that  a  little  while  ago  it  was  necessary  for  us  to  go  to  the  Legisla- 
ture of  our  State  to  try  to  have  appointed  a  censorship  over  the 
moving  pictures  which  are  so  common  among  us.  When  we  went 
in  to  the  committee,  the  chairman  of  the  committee  said,  "And  who 
are  you,  sir?"  I  said,  "I  am  the  president  of  the  Inter-Church  Fed- 
eration of  the  State  of  New  Jersey."  "Then,"  said  he,  "we  are  ready 
to  listen  to  you."  And  immediately  after  the  presentation  of  the 
facts  they  changed  the  age  of  boys  and  girls  being  permitted  to 
see  the  pictures  without  parental  supervision  from  twelve  years  old 
to  fourteen  years  old,  and  said  that  if  we  had  asked  them  for  six- 
teen years  old  they  would  have  done  that.  There  is  a  mighty  power 
in  this  federation  of  the  Churches. 

The  Rev.  J.  W.  Jennings,  D.  D.,  of  tlie  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Churcli :  "I  understand  I  have  five  minutes.  I  ask 
common  consent  to  waive  my  five  minutes  for  Dr.  Carroll  to 
finish  his  report  of  the  Western   Section." 

The  President:  "Dr.  Carroll  does  not  desire  to  accept 
that  proposition.    Does  Dr.  Jennings  wish  to  speak?" 

Dr.  Jennings:  "I  think  that  we  as  an  entire  body  of 
Methodists  representing  all  parts  of  the  world  ought  to  hear  it, 
and  I  trust  we  will  be  favored  with  the  finishing  of  that  report." 

Dr.  Carroll  :  "Mr.  Chairman,  the  paper  has  passed  beyond 
my  control.  There  was  only  about  one  page  of  it  to  read,  and 
I  think  we  had  better  go  on  with  the  general  discussion." 

Bishop  A.  Walters,  D.  D.,  of  the  African  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Zion  Church: 

I  think  it  is  hut  just  to  the  members  of  the  Conference  that  I 
should  make  a  statement  regarding  the  falling  off  in  the  colored 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  59 

Churches.  Really  it  has  not  been  a  falling  off.  There  were  about 
400,000  who  have  been  cut  off.  It  came  about  in  this  way:  Of 
course,  immediately  after  the  war  a  number  came  into  our  Churches 
from  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  and  we  made  up  our  statistical  report  as  best  we 
could;  but  at  no  time  did  we  think  that  that  report  was  accurate. 
So  it  went  on  for  a  number  of  years.  We  would  make  a  statement 
that  we  had  so  many,  and  so  many,  and  so  many  members;  and 
we  did  not  feel  that  it  would  be  safe  along  some  lines,  after  it  had 
been  stated  that  we  had  so  many  members,  to  say  that  we  did  not 
have  quite  as  many  as  had  been  stated;  because  we  remembered 
that  there  were  other  denominations  around  us  that  would  take 
advantage  of  it  to  make  incorrect  statements.  But  at  last  the  sta- 
tistics had  to  be  corrected.  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  when  Dr.  Car- 
roll gave  up  the  census  for  the  Churches,  the  man  who  took  charge 
of  the  census  did  not  do  us  quite  justice.  I  am  sure  there  was  a 
falling  off  of  at  least  150,000  or  200,000.  I  did  not  want  to 
have  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  and  the  other  bodies,  think  that  there  had  been  a 
I'eal  falling  off.     We  had  simply  been  adjusting  matters. 

Mr.  E.  G.  Bek,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church:  ''I 
move  that  Dr.  Howard  SrRxVauE  be  given  time  at  this  time  to 
finish  his  address  on  the  question  spoken  of  a  little  time  ago." 

The  President:  "Of  course  the  Conference  is  master  of 
its  own  procedure.  It  is  contrary  to  the  regulation  we  have 
here.  I  can  not  accept  a  motion  of  that  sort  unless  it  is  freely 
seconded  and  supported  with  practical  unanimity.'' 

The  motion  did  not  prevail. 

The  Rev.  E.  M.  Eandall,  D.  D.,  of  the  Metliodist  Epis- 
copal Church : 

I  wish  to  call  attention  to  one  difficutly  we  have  found  in  the 
newness  of  conditions  that  we  meet  with  in  the  vast  immigration 
that  is  coming  into  the  United  States  from  new  sections  of  Europe, 
and  similar  conditions.  They  ai^e  expressed  by  a  series  of  terms 
that  are  used  in  our  land.  We  know  certain  people  down  there 
commonly  as  "dagoes,"  other  as  "chinks,"  and  some  who  dwell  in 
our  land  as  "niggers,"  and  some  others  as  "sheenies" — terms  that 
are  born  of  a  race  prejudice  that  makes  us  unkind  to  our  fellow 
men,  because  he  speaks  a  strange  tongue  or  has  a  skin  that  God 
has  given  a  different  color  than  that  with  which  we  are  clothed. 
These  terms  express  a  prejudice  from  which  we  in  our  Churches 
are  not  entirely  free.  And  it  is  easier  for  us  to  give  our  money 
to  pay  the  expense  of  others  who  will  go  to  the  other  side  of  the 
world  and  minister  to  a  race  than  it  is  for  us  ourselves  to  get 
down  by  the  member  of  that  race  who  resides  by  our  own  door. 
And,  beloved,  I  am  satisfied  that  before  we  settle  the  problems  that 
are  upon  us  because  of  this  immigration,  before  we  are  able  ade- 
quately to  take  our  own  land  for  Jesus  Christ,  before  in  the  con- 
fusion of  tongues  in  America  we  can  repeat  the  miracle  of  Pente- 
cost and  send  the  gospel  forth  in  all  the  languages  of  earth,  we 
must    first    acquaint    ourselves   with   those  other   races   and   know 


60  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

them  better  that  we  may  appreciate  them  more.  The  despised  dago 
can  give  the  world  a  list  of  great  statesmen  and  men  of  literature 
and  artists  such  as  any  race  might  be  proud  of.  And  so  as  we 
hnow  our  fellow  men  better  we  come  to  learn  that  God  has  created 
no  man  of  any  language  or  any  color  or  any  race  that  is  not  splen- 
did material  with  which  to  build  up  the  Kingdom  of  God.  If  there 
ig  one  lesson  that  the  proud,  imperious  Anglo-Saxon,  in  his  mag- 
nificent unparalleled  progress  in  this  world,  needs  to  leECrn  it  is 
the  lesson  of  humility.  If  there  is  one  gift  of  grace  we  need  it 
is  of  the  spirit  that  brought  the  Lord  Jesus  down  from  the  heights 
of  Heaven  to  the  abysmal  depths  where  He  found  us  Anglo-Saxons 
in  the  days  of  our  forefathers,  and  that  He  so  fill  us  with  that 
spirit  that  we  shall  be  able,  as  He  puts  His  almighty  arm  under- 
neath us,  to  go  the  little  distance  that  separates  us  from  our  less 
fortunate  brother  and  give  him  our  Christian  hand  and  lift  him  up 
to  the  highest  plane  upon  which  he  is  privileged  to  stand  in  Christ 
Jesus. 

The  Eev.  W.  M.  Ainsworth,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South: 

Mr.  President,  brethren,  I  have  but  the  briefest  word  to  say,  and 
it  is  this:  The  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  as  preached  according  to 
the  interpretation  of  the  Methodists  is  still  triumphant  in  the  parts 
from  which  we  come.  We  do  not  share  altogether  the  note  that 
was  sounded  in  the  essay  read  by  Dr.  Cakroll  this  morning.  Meth- 
odism in  the  south  is  not  moving  with  any  uncertain  tread.  We 
are  moving  with  an  assured  tread,  and  we  are  a  conquering  force. 
While  the  growth  of  Methodism  in  the  Western  Section  for  the 
last  ten  years  has  marked  an  advance  of  about  15%,  there  has  been 
an  advance  of  35%  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  The 
population  of  the  country  has  increased  during  that  period  not 
quite  20%,  but  the  growth  of  the  Church  has  been  nearly  double 
the  growth  of  the  population  of  the  country.  The  growth  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  in  the  last  ten  years  has  been 
half  the  growth  of  the  entire  Western  section  of  Methodism  in  this 
period.  Four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  has  been  the  growth  dur- 
ing this  ten  year  period,  while  in  the  entire  Western  section  there 
has  been  an  increase  of  but  a  little  more  than  900,000  souls. 
Mr.  President,  there  is  an  explanation  of  this  very  important  fact 
for  which  we  are  devoutly  grateful  to  God.  In  the  South  the  Meth- 
odists still  believe  in  and  have  the  revival  spirit.  We  would  be  glad 
to  have  larger  revivals.  On  our  faces  before  God  in  the  dust  we  are 
pleading  for  a  larger  enduement.  But  I  think  I  speak  well  within 
the  bounds  of  conservatism  and  truth  when  I  say  this  morning 
that  the  evangelistic  note  is  still  the  dominant  note  in  all  the 
pulpits  of  the  Methodist  Church,  South.  We  depend  upon  no  social 
movements,  upon  no  alliance  with  political  power;  but  with  an  un- 
shaken belief  in  the  integrity  and  the  inspiration  of  the  Word  of 
God  and  in  the  divine  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  giving  life  and 
salvation,  we  are  a  conquering  Church  and  a  revivalistic  Church. 
We  are  not  singing  in  any  minor  key.  We  are  moving  steadily 
toward  the  future,  expecting  to  have  greater  victory  in  the  next 
decade  than  in  the  one  that  has  just  come  to  a  close. 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  61 

The  Eev.  AYm.  Bradfield,  of  the  British  "Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church: 

In  my  stay  in  the  United  States  I  have  received  the  utmosf 
courtesy  from  the  Methodist  people.  I  want  to  speak  to  my  brethren 
of  the  Eastern  Section.  We  have  burdens  enough  and  troubles 
enough,  but  it  seems  to  me  we  have  nothing  compared  with  what 
rests  upon  our  brethren  on  this  side  of  the  water  from  this  foreign 
Immigration.  I  have  never  realized  anything  like  the  immensity 
of  this  problem.  It  has  been  a  very  precious  part  of  my  Anglo- 
Saxon  heritage  to  read  the  writings  of  the  great  men  whose  names 
are  associated  with  the  city  of  Boston.  It  was  no  pleasure  to  me 
to  find  that  Boston  is  not  governed  by  men  of  this  stamp  or  of 
the  stamp  of  the  men  of  Lexington. 

They  used  to  tell  us  that  in  this  country  they  were  free  from 
the  effete  conditions  of  Europe.  The  most  effete  conditions  of  Eu- 
rope, it  seems  to  me,  have  almost  got  this  country  by  the  throat 
to-day.  I  found  not  the  New  England  factory  girls  of  whom  I  had 
read,  but  Greek  girls.  A  Pole  shined  my  shoes.  I  found  900,000 
Jews  in  New  York  City.  That  problem  is  a  vital  one.  If  you  can 
not  make  this  country,  somehow  or  other,  to-day  the  city  of  God, 
it  will  be  something  very  different. 

Brethren,  united  Methodism  the  whole  world  over  ought  to  give 
its  sympathy  and  its  prayers  to  our  brethren  here  who  have  the 
task  of  winning  these  people  to  Jesus  Christ.  When  this  Confer- 
ence is  over,  keep  your  eyes  open  in  the  railroad  stations.  You 
will  find  there  deaconesses  ready  to  help  the  people  of  all  languages. 
They  are  Methodist  deaconesses.  There  is  a  very  real,  earnest  at- 
tempt to  grapple  this  great  problem.  But  it  is  a  problem  the  seri- 
ousness of  which  some  of  us  on  the  other  side  of  the  water  never 
realized  for  a  moment. 

What  impresses  me  is  this — if  He  must  reign  we  must  win.  For 
this  great  United  States  of  America  will  be  the  most  deadly  hin- 
drance to  the  Kingdom  of  God  or  the  most  glorious  help  to  it,  and 
that  within  a  short  time. 

The  Eev.  D.  G.  Dowxey,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church : 

Mr.  President  and  brethren,  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  is 
not  here  singing  in  any  minor  key.  I  very  greatly  regret  that  there 
have  been  comparisons  drawn  that  seemed  to  me  to  be  entirely 
needless.  We  be  brethren.  If  our  brethren  in  the  South  have  had 
an  increase  of  population  of  only  20%  and  then  can  point  to  a 
large  increase  of  membership,  let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  the  total 
increase  in  the  population  of  the  United  States  in  the  period  under 
consideration  is  not  20%,  but  35%;  and  there  is  the  great  difference 
and  the  great  difficulty  that  come  to  us  who  have  to  live  and  labor 
in  an  entirely  different  part  of  this  great  nation.  But  the  work 
of  God  under  the  guidance  of  His  servants  in  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  is  not  retrograding. 

I  wish  to  call  attention  to  two  or  three  things  that  it  may  be 
well  noticed  in  the  way  of  constructive  policy  for  the  doing  of 
richer  and  better  work  in  the  days  to  come.  We  ought  to  make 
a  constructive  policy  that  will  help  us  to  take  hold  of  this  work 
and  accomplish  in  the  next  ten  years  under  the  influence  of  the 


62  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

Spirit  of  God  more  than  we  have  been  able  to  accomplish  in  the 
last  ten  years.  It  was  stated  here  that  80%  of  the  growth  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  came  out  of  the  Sunday  schools. 
That  is  true;  and  it  is  also  true  that  we  are  allowing  50%  of  our 
Sunday  school  membership  to  get  away  from  us.  Now  if  80%  of  our 
Church  membership  comes  out  of  50%  of  our  Sunday  school  mem- 
bership what  a  marvellous  opportunity  there  is  in  the  Sunday 
schools  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church!  We  have  the  best  and 
the  brightest  young  people,  who  are  ours  for  the  asking.  They  are 
ours  in  the  most  impressionable  period  of  life;  and  if  the  genius 
and  evangelistic  power  of  the  Methodist  ministry  and  laity  shall 
be  focused  upon  these  young  people  in  the  morning  of  their  days, 
it  is  perfectly  possible  for  us  to  double  the  membership  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  course  of  the  next  ten  years. 
God  help  us  to  see  the  opportunity  that  is  ours,  and  to  have  a 
mighty  faith,  not  only  in  the  ability  of  God  to  go  down  into  the 
mire  and  the  clay  and  take  a  poor  moral,  mental,  and  physical 
wreck  and  lift  him  up  and  put  his  feet  on  the  rock  and  a  new  song 
in  his  mouth,  but  also  in  his  ability  under  the  encompassing  and 
all-embracing  grace  of  the  eternal  Christ,  the  Lamb  slain  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world,  to  take  a  little  child  fresh  and  sweet  and 
clean  in  his  mother's  arms  and  keep  him  sweet  and  clean. 

Another  thing,  it  seems  to  me,  we  must  do  if  we  are  to  carry 
forward  the  work  of  God.  We  must  cease  harking  back  to  the 
fathers,  and  saying  "this  is  how  the  fathers  would  do  it  and  this 
is  the  way  it  was  done  by  the  grandfathers."  God  is  with  us  now 
as  then.  We  are  the  fathers  of  to-day;  and  the  supreme  atheism 
is  that  which  says  "God  used  to  be  with  Simpson  and  Wesley,  but 
He  is  not  with  us  to-day.  If  so,  the  fault  is  not  with  God,  but  with 
us.  The  time  has  come  for  us  to  understand  that  we  are  the 
fathers  of  to-day,  and  that  God  calls  upon  us  to  do  our  work  with 
the  spirit  and  passion  and  initiative  that  were  characteristic  of  the 
fathers  in  the  days  past  and  gone.  Let  it  be  borne  in  mind  that 
the  men  that  are  nearest  to  Asbury,  Simpson,  and  Wesley  are  not 
the  men  who  slavishly  follow  in  their  footsteps,  but  the  men  who 
have  the  spirit  of  Asbury  and  Simpson  and  Wesley,  which  is  the 
spirit  of  spiritual  pioneering.  What  we  need  to  do  to-day  is  some- 
how or  other  to  take  hold  of  our  problem  with  a  faith  and  spirit 
and  courage  and  initiative  that  were  characteristic  of  the  men  and 
women  of  the  days  past  and  gone. 

The  Eev.  H.  M.  DuBose,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South : 

I  have  no  desii-e  to  detain  the  Conference,  except  to  call  atten- 
tion to  a  most  important  subject  which  has  emerged  during  the 
reading  of  these  papers  and  the  pronouncing  of  these  extempore 
addresses.  It  is  true  that  we  received  into  the  texture  of  our  in- 
dustrial and  political  life  an  alien  race,  a  race  from  practical  bar- 
barism. It  is  also  true  that  we  in  the  United  States  have  been 
able  to  shape  and  develop  this  race  until  there  are  among  them 
bishops,  as  there  once  were  senators  of  the  United  States,  and 
holders  of  civic  and  civil  offices.  It  is  true  that  we  have  been  able 
to  assimilate  great  masses  of  the  foreign  population  of  continental 
Europe  and  are  still  assimilating  them.  This,  we  have  demon- 
strated, is  possible.    No  doubt  we  shall  continue  to  be  able  so  to  do. 

But  the  subject  to  which  reference  has  been  made  in  the  course 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  63 

of  these  discussions  is  one  which  is  now  more  important,  if  possi- 
ble, than  the  possibility  demonstrated,  of  reducing  to  our  quality, 
in  some  sort,  these  foreign  populations,  I  was  most  deeply  inter- 
ested in  the  statement  made  by  the  representative  of  the  Japanese 
Church  concerning  the  efforts  being  made  in  the  imperial  Diet  to 
deal  with  the  liquor  question  and  related  questions.  And  that  is 
the  issue  to  which  I  made  reference  at  the  beginning.  It  is  con- 
nected in  a  most  significant  way  with  the  industrial  growth  of 
several  parts  of  the  American  continent,  and  particularly  within 
the  circle  of  the  States.  It  is  equally  connected  with  the  growth, 
of  the  Churches. 

I  recall  that  a  few  years  ago  we  suffered  a  loss  in  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  Sovith,  and,  I  believe  at  the  same  time,  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  It  was  at  the  time  when  we  were 
dealing  with  the  beginning  of  the  liquor  problem,  when  we  en- 
tered upon  the  campaign  which  eventually  resulted  in  the  putting 
of  five  or  six  States  into  the  confederacy  of  prohibition.  During 
those  years  we  lost  in  our  membership.  I  may  not  be  accurate  in 
thinking  that  the  discussions  in  our  Churches  had  somewhat,  per- 
haps much,  to  do  with  that  loss  in  membership.  But  I  am  able  to 
affirm  that  immediately  upon  the  settlement  of  that  question  and 
its  taking  the  shape  of  statutory  and  constitutional  prohibition  in 
five  States  of  the  Southern  half  of  the  union  we  began  immediately 
to  see  a  rapid  increase  in  our  membership,  and  we  observed  enlarge- 
ment also  in  the  size  of  our  congregations.  When  we  had  a  crucial 
issue  on  hand  and  were  discussing  the  means  and  ways,  it  produced 
friction  and  resulted  in  loss.  I  recall  also  that  the  cry  went  out 
that  the  Wesleyan  Churches  were  losing  their  people  on  account 
of  a  similar  discussion  in  England.  When  you  have  put  your 
thoughts  and  ideals  of  reform  into  operation  you  will  find  the 
hearts  and  thoughts  of  people  coming  to  you.  When  we  have  put 
our  land  under  prohibition  we  have  been  able  to  say  to  men:  "Come 
to  our  help."  Now  we  have  this  foreign  population  and  the  issue 
is  as  to  how  we  shall  deal  with  these  questions  of  reform.  Two 
matters  are  pre-eminent  in  this  realm  of  action.  One  is  the  defense 
of  what  we  call  the  American  Sabbath,  which  means  the  Canadian 
Sabbath  as  well;  and  the  other  is  the  matter  of  the  great  liquor 
curse. 

The  Eev.  S.  D.  Chown,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Clmrch  of 

Canada : 

Mr.  Chairman,  a  question  has  been  raised  as  to  union  between 
the  Presbyterian,  Congregational,  and  Methodist  Churches  of  Can- 
ada. As  one  who  has  been  a  member  of  the  Church  Union  Com- 
mittee, and  has  had  a  part  in  the  debates  during  the  six  years 
that  the  subject  has  been  under  consideration,  perhaps  I  may  speak 
with  as  clear  knowledge  of  the  subject  as  any  one.  The  present 
position  of  the  movement  is  that  after  large  negotiation  as  to  the 
basis  of  union,  this  basis  has  been  adopted  by  the  General  Con- 
ference of  the  Methodist  Church,  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  and  the  ruling  body  of  the  Congregationalists. 
Preparations  have  been  made  for  sending  the  subject  down  for  the 
vote  by  the  people  of  the  respective  Churches.  How  long  it  will 
take  to  secure  returns  and  what  the  effect  of  those  may  be,  it  is 
now  impossible  to  tell.  Our  position  as  a  Church  should  be  under- 
stood as  a  Conference.    There  is  no  Church  in  all  the  brotherhood 


64  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

of  Methodism  that  is  under  such  pressure  to  do  the  work  of  God 
in  a  large  way  as  the  Canadian  Methodist  Church.  Mention  has 
been  made  of  the  vast  problem  that  is  forced  upon  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  by  the  incoming  of  foi-eign  population.  But  it 
should  be  remembered  that  while  the  Church  has  a  population  of 
eighty  to  do  the  work  of  assimilating  one  immigrant,  in  Canada 
we  have  but  a  population  of  thirty  to  do  the  same  work.  So  that 
our  problem  is  three  times  more  difficult  than  the  one  found  in  the 
union  to  the  south  of  us.  In  British  Columbia  we  are  now  engaged 
in  raising  $300,000  to  build  and  provide  a  nucleus  for  the  endow- 
ment of  a  theological  college.  At  Calgary  we  are  raising  half  a 
million  to  be  applied  to  a  secondary  school,  and  in  a  short  time 
will  be  looking  to  the  completion  of  a  million  dollars  for  that  pur- 
pose. At  Regina,  not  very  far  east  of  that,  we  are  investing  in  an 
Institution,  which,  when  its  buildings  are  completed  and  its  en- 
dowment is  on  hand  will  represent  donations  to  the  extent  of  a 
million  and  a  half  dollars.  I  do  not  mention  these  things  because 
the  men  of  Canadian  Methodism  shrink  from  financial  burdens. 
They  are  prepared  to  put  up  dollar  per  dollar  according  to  the 
need  of  our  expanding  work.  But  we  all  know  that  amalgamation 
is  the  watchword  of  the  age;  that  in  business  life  duplication  is 
abhorred  as  a  vacuum  is  said  to  be  abhorred  in  nature.  And  it  is 
the  duty  of  our  people  to  see  that  the  Lord's  money  is  well  spent. 
The  economic  consideration,  though  it  is  of  vast  importance,  we 
would  not  permit  to  be  decisive  in  settling  the  question  of  union. 
Nor  would  we  allow  that  shrinking  instinct  which  draws  back  from 
the  sense  of  division  to  govern  us  in  this  matter.  We  recognize 
that  the  various  parts  of  the  body  of  Christ  are  bleeding  because 
of  their  separateness  one  from  the  other.  People  are  refusing  to 
join  any  Church  because  the  Churches  are  not  united.  We  are  pre- 
pared to  let  the  bleeding  go  on  rather  than  jeopardize  the  life  of 
the  Spirit.  We  recognize  that  the  spiritual  function  of  the  Church 
is  supreme.  And  that  must  not  be  subordinate  to  any  other  con- 
sideration. Yet  some  of  us  have  come  to  feel  that  by  the  blending 
of  the  theologies  of  the  different  uniting  Churches  we  may  come 
nearer  to  the  pure  essence  of  the  teaching  of  Christianity,  that  we 
may  be  inspired  by  a  larger  vision  of  truth,  and  that  the  reaction 
of  that  vision  will  be  felt  in  an  enriched  spiritual  life.  We  are 
waiting  for  this  spiritual  enrichment  as  a  nation  prepared  for  the 
consummation  of  union. 

The  Eev.  Enoch  Salt,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Church : 

Mr.  President  and  brethren,  I  do  not  wish  to  enter  into  any  dis- 
cussion of  the  Canadian  union  question.  It  would  be  presumption 
on  my  part  to  do  so.  But  I  wish  to  give  expression  to  a  thought  that 
has  possession  of  my  mind,  and  which  I  feel  concerns  the  Eastern 
and  the  Western  Sections  alike.  We  are  all  agreed,  I  believe,  that 
we  need  a  revival;  and  we  are  agreed,  I  hope,  that  the  revival  we 
need  is  a  revival  of  faith.  I  confess  that  I  am  weary  of  statistics. 
I  confess  that  I  am  largely  unmoved  by  statistical  arguments.  I 
believe  that  the  problems  which  confront  us  and  which  confront  you 
in  the  West,  are  to  be  solved  by  our  relying  upon  the  Spirit  of  God 
as  I  am  afraid  we  do  not  now  rely  upon  Him.  Let  me  attempt  an 
illustration  of  what  I  mean  by  a  revival  of  faith.  I  will  take  you 
to  what  seems  to  me  to  be  the  very  center  of  all,  faith  in  the  real 
presence  of  the  living  Christ  with  His  people  and  in  the  midst  of 


BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS.  65 

His  Church,  We  all  believe  the  word  that  He  left,  that  where 
two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  His  name  He  is  there  in 
the  midst  of  them.  But  suppose  that  when  we  go  into  the  pulpit 
we  went  into  it  with  the  vision  of  Christ  present  in  the  assembly, 
present  to  our  spiritual  vision  as  the  people  are  to  our  physical 
vision.  Suppose  tuat  the  members  of  the  congregation  when  they 
came  into  the  Church  felt  that  they  were  coming  into  the  presence 
not  only  of  each  other  and  of  the  preacher  but  of  the  Master  Him- 
self. Suppose  that  were  so.  Do  you  not  think  that  the  whole  ser- 
vice would  be  transformed,  that  the  preaching  would  be  different? 
Do  you  think  that  the  prayers  would  be  made  up  just  as  many  of 
our  prayers  are?  Would  there  not  be  a  directness  and  a  simplicity 
and  a  sense  of  life  and  of  truth  and  of  glory  that  would  make  the 
house  of  God  the  very  gate  of  heaven,  and  would  induce  people  to 
come  and  fill  the  seats  provided  for  them?  t  believe  that  nothing 
would  so  conduce  to  the  improvement  of  our  congregations,  to  the 
success  even  numerically  of  our  services,  as  the  revival  of  this 
faith  which  we  are  supposed  to  have,  that  the  living  Christ  is  pres- 
ent in  the  service  to-day  and  is  as  powerful  as  ever,  and  is  able  to 
do  far  more  for  us  than  we  are  able  to  ask  or  think. 

Secretary  Carroll  moved  that  the  Conference  adjourn  after 
the  reading  of  the  notices,  and  this  motion  prevailed. 

A  delegate  suggested  the  building  of  a  small  platform  in 
front  of  the  altar  rail,  to  which  speakers  should  come.  The 
matter  was  referred  to  the  Business  Committee. 

Secretary  Carroll  gave  various  notices,  and  the  Confer- 
ence adjourned  with  the  benediction. 


SECOND  SESSION. 

THE  afternoon  session  of  the  second  day  opened  at  2.30 
P.  M.,  Bishop  Earl  Cranston^  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  presiding. 

The  r?ev.  George  Elliott,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  in  the  absence  of  Dr.  F.  D.  Bovard,  conducted 
the  devotional  services,  reading  a  portion  of  the  eighth  chapter 
of  Deuteronomy,  and  offering  prayer. 

Secretary  Carroll  gave  certain  notices,  and  read  a  telegram, 
as  follows: 

"The  West  Virginia  Annual  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  sends  greetings,  and  respectfully  salutes  the  greatest 
Conference  of  world-wide  Methodism.    May  the  deliberations  of  your 
notable  body  enrich  and  inspire  Methodism  everywhere." 
5 


66  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

Tlie  report  of  the  Business  Committee  was  presented  by  its 
Secretary,  as  follows : 

The  Business  Committee  met  during  the  hour  of  adjournment. 
Bishop  Hamilton  presided,  and  there  were  fourteen  members  pres- 
ent. I  have  to  report  that  they  request  the  Arrangement  Commit- 
tee to  provide  a  small  platform  for  the  central  aisle  of  this  church, 
in  order  that  those  who  wish  to  address  the  Conference  may  be 
both  seen  and  heard.  Also,  that  the  Corporation  of  this  city  offers 
to  give  to  all  delegates  a  pass  that  will  enable  them  to  ride  free  on 
the  street  cars  and  city  railways  of  this  city.  This  is  a  spontaneous 
offer  on  their  part;  and  1  move  that  the  best  thanks  of  this  Con- 
ference be  presented  to  the  corporation.  (The  motion  prevailed.) 
We  also  considered  the  reading  of  the  daily  record.  I  have  to  move 
on  behalf  of  the  Business  Committee  that  the  daily  record  be 
printed,  and  be  distributed  during  the  morning  session,  and  then 
at  the  afternoon  session  the  secretary  shall  move  that  it  be  taken 
as  read. 

Tliis  motion  prevailed. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Business  Committee  further  stated 
that  inconvenience  having  been  caused  by  the  brevity  of  the 
interval  between  the  morning  and  tlie  afternoon  sessions,  the 
Committee  had  carefully  considered  that  matter;  and  on  their 
behalf,  he  moved  that  the  action  of  yesterday,  relating  to  the 
closing  of  the  morning  session,  be  rescinded,  and  that  the 
morning  session  extend  from  10  to  12.30  o'clock. 
This  motion  prevailed. 

On  motion  of  a  delegate,  a  telegram  was  ordered  to  be  sent 
in  response  to  the   one  from  the   West   Virginia   Conference, 
and  was  sent,  as  follows : 
Rev.  J.  B.  Workman, 

Secretary  West  Virginia  Methodist  Conference, 
Charleston,  W.  Va. : 
Ecumenical  Conference  accepts  greetings  and  good  wishes  with 
hearty  appreciation,  and  responds  in  the  spirit  of  reciprocity. 

H.  K.  Carroll, 

Chief  Secretary. 

The  essay  on  "Methodism  in  tlie  Eastern  Section  in  the 
Past  Ten  Years"  was  presented  by  the  Rev.  Simpson  Johnsox, 
of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist  Clnirch : 

Twenty  years  ago  at  the  Ecumenical  Conference  held  in  Wash- 
ington, the  late  Rev,  William   Arthur,  M.  A.,  stated  that  the  ere- 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  SIMPSON  JOHNSON.  67 

dentials  of  a  Church,  and  the  permanent  strength  of  that  Church, 
were  to  be  found  in  three  things — (1)  the  presence  of  the  Lord  in 
"the  midst  of  her,  (2)  the  image  of  the  Lord  in  her  children,  (3) 
the  power  of  God  in  her  mission.  These  three  great  characteristics 
will  remain  to  all  time  the  true  tests,  both  of  the  validity  and  the 

We  can  And  these  three  features  in  a  greater  or  lesser  degree 
throughout  Eastern  Methodism  in  the  past  decade.  In  every  part 
of  our  Church  the  Glory  of  the  Lord  has  been  revealed,  both  in  the 
spiritual  beauty  and  strength  of  our  people,  and  in  the  mighty  in- 
fluence which  our  Church  has  exercised  upon  others. 

It  is  a  family  characteristic  with  us  that  when  we  estimate  the 
progress  of  the  Methodist  Church  we  begin  by  numbering  up  the 
people.  A  complete  tabular  view  of  the  position  of  each  branch  of 
our  Eastern  Church  is  given  in  the  appendix.  The  following  sum- 
mary will  suflBce  for  our  present  purpose: 

Members     Members  Increase 
1901  1910 

Wesleyan  Methodists  in  Great 
Britain  and  in  Foreign  Mis- 
sion Stations  under  British  Con- 
ference 

Primitive  Methodists,  Home  and 
Foreign 

United    Methodists,    Home    and 
Foreign 
Wesleyan    Reform    Union 

The  result  of  our  ten  years'  work  and  witness-bearing,  judged 
in  the  light  of  this  summary,  has  some  gratifying  features,  and  5'et 
a  careful  analysis  of  our  returns  year  by  year  affords  abundant 
cause  for  heart-searching  inquiry.  In  relation  to  each  branch  of 
our  Church  in  the  Eastern  Section,  nearly  all  the  increases  have 
been  won  during  the  first  half  of  the  decade.  During  the  second 
half  there  has  been  marked  and  serious  decrease.  There  are  many 
bright  features  in  the  life  of  our  Church  during  this  latter  period, 
and  keen  observers  can,  with  perfect  fairness,  contend  that  there 
is  more  real,  practical,  applied  Christianity  in  Great  Britain  to-day 
than  at  any  former  period  of  our  history,  but  the  plain  fact  remains 
that  during  the  past  five  years  our  actual  church  members  have 
been  declining.  In  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  alone  our  in- 
creases in  Great  Britain  during  the  first  five  years  reached  the 
total  of  44,000  members,  but  during  the  last  five  years  we  have  lost 


554,267 

664,958 

*110,691 

198,874 

211,691 

+12,817 

146,388 

165,502 

19,114 

7,000 

8,000 

1,000 

*Thls  Includes  42,000  members  transferred  from  the  West  Indian  Con- 
ference In  15*05. 

+  In  addition  to  this.  6,.SW  members  were  Incorporated  In  the  union  of 
Australasian  Methodism  In  1902, 


68  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

13,000  members.     The  other  branches  of  Methodism  reveal  the  same 
tendency.     These  are  startling  facts  for  the  Methodist  people. 

The  first  thing  that  gives  promise  of  a  brighter  future  is  the  ■ 
fact  that  our  people  are  not  in  a  self-complacent  spirit.  All  the 
Methodist  Churches  are  facing  the  facts,  not  in  a  spirit  of  cowardice, 
but  in  the  spirit  of  power,  of  love,  and  of  sound  judgment.  We 
are  not  endeavoring  to  find  excuses  that  will  act  as  a  soothing 
cordial  to  our  minds;  we  are  not  disposed  to  attribute  these  results 
to  a  bad  system  of  enumeration.  The  controversies  in  one  Church 
respecting  the  basis  of  membership,  and  the  controversies  and  re- 
adjustment in  the  other  three  Churches  that  have  been  uniting  their 
forces  during  this  period,  may  have  affected  us  to  some  extent,  but 
our  people  are  not  taking  shelter  under  explanations  like  these. 
During  the  past  few  months  we  have  been  bringing  ourselves 
under  the  searchlight.  There  are  many  among  us  who  can  not  bear 
that  this  state  of  things  shall  continue  and  they  are  giving  them- 
selves earnestly  to  real  heart  searching  and  to  wrestling  prayer. 

There  are  undoubtedly  changed  conditions  of  a  very  marked 
and  unusual  character  outside  the  Church,  but  there  is  also  an  ap- 
parent weakening  of  our  forces  to  meet  those  conditions.  There  is 
undoubtedly  such  a  thing  as  "periodicity"  in  spiritual  revival.  The 
history  of  our  Church  shows  that  there  are  "Tides  of  the  Spirit," 
but  these  periods  or  tides  of  revival  depend  not  only  upon  God  but 
to  some  extent  on  man.  We  can  not  organize  revivals,  but  we  can 
help  them. 

Man's  attitude  towards  spiritual  powers  and  presences,  and 
the  capacity  of  the  Church  to  receive  those  powers,  are  among  the 
laws  that  determine  spiritual  revival.  There  is  evidence  in  all  the 
Churches  that  ministers  and  people  are  determined  to  put  "first 
things  first."  They  are  realizing  that  sociables,  social  reforms  and 
even  institutional  methods,  with  all  their  excellences,  must  be  kept 
in  their  proper  place.  The  Throne  must  be  occupied  by  Jesus  Christ 
of  Nazareth,  whom  the  world  crucified,  but  whom  God  raised  from 
the  dead.  In  proportion  as  we  put  Him  at  the  head  and  in  the  cen- 
ter of  every  thing,  we  shall  continue  to  be  pioneering  evangelists; 
we  shall  keep  the  ideal  of  Methodist  churchmanship  high,  spiritual, 
holy;  we  shall  be  as  holy  enthusiasts  or  Christians  at  white  heat, 
flinging  ourselves  with  a  glorious  self-abandon  against  current 
modes  of  life  and  thought;  a  great  tide  of  the  Spirit  will  rush  in 
and  we  shall  have  an  extended  Pentecost. 

An  analysis  of  the  printed  tables  which  will  be  issued  reveals 
the  number  of  cases  of  chapel  building,  alterations,  etc.,  that  have 
been  actually  completed  within  the  last  ten  years.  They  represent 
an  outlay  of  more  than  £5,000,000.  The  Twentieth  Century  Fund 
had  commenced  its  operations  before  1901,  and  was  a  great  stimu- 
lus to   our  people   in  building  chapels,   schools,  ministers'   houses, 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  SIMPSON  JOHNSON.  GO 

organs,  and  in  altering  and  modernizing  many  of  our  existing 
sanctuaries.  Tlie  Metliodist  people,  who  raised  more  than  a  million 
guineas,  responded  nobly  to  the  schemes  to  which  the  Century  Fund 
gave  birth.  It  is  gratifying  to  know  that  already  1176  Century 
Fund  cases  have  been  finally  completed,  involving  an  outlay  of 
£3,116,063,  and  the  debt  remaining  on  these  properties  is  only  about 
17  ^  per  cent.  The  effect  of  these  enterprises  has  been  great  and 
abiding.  In  many  cases  village  and  town  Methodism  has  got  a 
new  lease  of  life;  hundreds  of  commodious  and  beautiful  sanctu- 
aries have  been  erected,  sometimes  to  replace  old  ones,  and  in  other 
cases  to  meet  the  needs  of  new  populations,  while  the  large  Central 
Halls,  some  forty  of  which  have  been  erected  at  a  cost  approaching 
one  million  sterling,  have  not  only  saved  Methodism  in  the  great 
cities,  but  have  put  new  courage  and  heart  into  our  world-wide 
Church. 

The  reports  from  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church  and  the 
United  Methodist  Church  are  equally  gratifying,  and  bear  abundant 
testimony  to  the  material  progress  which  has  been  made  during 
the  past  ten  years. 

The  completion  of  our  financial  schemes  during  this  decade 
has  demonstrated  in  a  marvelous  manner  the  generosity  of  our 
people.  We  have  already  made  incidental  reference  to  the  striking 
success  and  far-reaching  influence  of  the  Twentieth  Century  Fund. 
The  Methodist  Free  Church,  at  the  beginning  of  the  decade,  resolved 
to  raise  £100,000,  and  exceeded  that  amount  by  £8,000.  The  Bible 
Christians  raised  their  £25,000,  and  in  1909  the  United  Methodist 
Church  resolved  to  celebrate  the  union  of  the  three  sister  churches 
by  starting  a  thanksgiving  fund  of  £100,000,  and  has  already 
raised  more  than  half  that  amount.  The  Primitive  Methodists  have 
with  marvelous  generosity  maintained  all  their  ordinary  work, 
and  in  addition  to  this,  as  a  commemoration  of  their  Centenary,  are 
raising  £250,000,  three-fifths  of  which  is  allocated  to  chapel  build- 
ings, sites  and  manses,  and  two-fifths  to  connexional  objects. 
When  we  remember  that  while  these  noble  enterprises  have  been 
carried  to  success  our  Churches  have  maintained  all  their  work 
at  home  and  abroad,  we  shall  see  that  they  present  an  example  of 
devotion  and  self-sacrificing  benevolence  never  paralleled  in  the 
history  of  Christendom. 

The  union  of  the  Methodist  Churches  has  been  another  marked 
leature  of  the  past  ten  years.  The  subject  of  Methodist  union  will 
be  more  fully  discussed  in  another  session  of  the  Conference,  and 
therefore  our  reference  to  it  at  this  point  must  be  brief.  It  is  well 
known  that  in  this,  as  in  many  other  things,  Ireland  was  well  in  ad- 
vance. In  recent  years  Canada  led  the  way,  New  Zealand  followed, 
and  then  came  the  union  of  Methodist  forces  in  the  great  Common- 
wealth of  Australia.     Since  our  last  Ecumenical   Conference,  and 


70  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

largely  througli  its  influence  the  Methodist  Free  Church,  the  Meth- 
odist New  Connexion  and  the  Bible  Christians  have  come  together. 
It  may  be  too  soon  to  spealc  at  large  of  the  results  that  will  follow 
this  latter  union,  but  we  can  say  with  confidence  that  the  people 
are  loyal  to  the  union  and  are  responding  nobly  to  its  obligations. 
The  echoes  of  the  past  have  died  away.  Hard  words  and  hard 
thoughts  no  longer  exist.  A  healthy  sentiment  has  been  created 
against  overlapping,  and  the  people  everywhere  are  seeking  oppor- 
tunities of  working  together,  and  praying  together,  for  the  exten- 
sion of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ. 

The  centenary  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church  is  another 
of  the  great  events  which  have  been  celebrated  during  the  last 
few  years.  The  celebration  began  in  1907  with  a  huge  camp 
meeting  at  Mow  Cop,  in  Staffordshire,  at  which  it  was  esti- 
mated that  100,000  persons  were  present.  This  great  spiritual 
event  was  directed  to  practical  issues,  for,  as  already  stated,  that 
Church  has  resolved  to  commence  the  second  century  of  its  exist- 
ence by  raising  a  quarter-of-a-million  sterling.  It  ought  to  be  said 
that  our  friends  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church  have  done  a 
hundred  years  of  noble  work.  They  have  stood  for  the  power  of  the 
people  in  the  government  of  the  Church ;  they  have  been  true  to  the 
great  features  of  Methodism,  which  are  lay  preaching,  fellowship, 
evangelism;  they  have  been  a  great  power  in  the  villages  of  our 
land,  and  are  playing  a  great  part  in  the  evangelization  of  rural 
England.  Many  a  wilderness  and  solitary  place  has  been  made 
glad  for  them.  As  they  enter  upon  their  new  century,  all  the 
Churches  will  unite  in  the  fervent  prayer  that  God,  even  our  own 
God,  will  richly  bless  them. 

A  great  revival  of  foreign  missionary  interest  has  taken  place 
in  all  the  Churches.  The  Primitive  Methodist  Church  confines  its 
Foreign  Missionary  operations  to  Africa.  On  the  West  Coast,  and  in 
South  Central  Africa,  it  is  boldly  extending  its  work.  The  Meth- 
odist Free  Church  is  bearing  its  share  of  the  great  task  of  world 
evangelism,  and  is  devoting  attention  both  to  medical  and  educa- 
tional work.  The  Methodist  New  Connexion  in  1901  suffered  the 
wholesale  destruction  of  chapels,  hospitals,  schools,  etc.,  in  North 
China  during  the  Boxer  movement.  More  than  one  hundred  of  their 
ministers  and  people  suffered  martyrdom  for  the  Kingdom  of  Christ 
in  China.  Ten  years  ago  the  Wesleyan  Reform  Union  had  no  For- 
eign Missionary  enterprises — now  they  have  stations  in  China,  Af- 
rica, and  India,  and  at  the  close  of  the  decade  the  United  Methodist 
Church  can  rejoice  in  successful  missionary  operations  in  China, 
East  Africa,  West  Africa,  Jamaica  and  other  places. 

In  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  there  has  been  a  steady 
maintenance  of  all  its  missionary  operations.  There  may  have 
been  arrested  progress  in  our  work  at  home  during  recent  years, 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  SIMPSON  JOHNSON.  71 

but  during  the  whole  period  there  have  been  glorious  successes  on 
the  mission  field.  In  the  home  Church  a  mighty  revival  of  mis- 
sionary interest  occurred  in  1906  at  the  Nottingham  Conference, 
when  old  debtsi  were  wiped  out, and  new  enterprises  begun.  That 
great  revival,  which  has  been  sustained  and  extended  by  the  recent 
Edinburgh  Conference,  has  undoubtedly  led  to  a  more  intelligent 
study  of  missionary  pi'oblems,  to  the  more  complete  consecration 
of  the  youth  of  British  Methodism  to  the  work  of  God  abroad,  and 
thousands  of  our  people  are  quietly  waiting  upon  God  in  holy  con- 
fidence. We  are  approaching  the  day  when  world  evangelization 
will  take  its  proper  place  in  the  very  front  rank  of  the  enterprises 
of  our  Church. 

England  is  fast  becoming  a  nation  of  cities  and  vast  urban 
populations.  In  Wesley's  day  it  is  computed  that  28  per  cent  of 
the  people  lived  in  cities  or  large  towns,  while  72  per  cent  were 
found  in  the  rural  areas.  Now  the  distribution  of  the  population 
is  so  changed  that  about  72  per  cent  are  in  crowded  cities  and  28 
per  cent  in  country  districts.  This  change,  together  with  the  al- 
tered habits  of  the  people,  has  brought  the  Christian  Churches,  and 
especially  voluntary  Churches  like  our  own,  face  to  face  with  tasks 
and  problems  appalling  in  their  magnitude.  These  problems  have 
been  dealt  with,  especially  in  the  Wesleyan  Church,  through  its 
large  central  halls  and  missions,  with  amazing  courage  and  success. 
Ten  years  ago  about  ten  of  these  large  mission  centers  had  been 
commenced,  and  they  have  developed  into  large  mission  circuits, 
throbbing  with  life  and  winning  victories  for  Christ  where  poverty 
and  vice  abound.  During  the  decade  large  halls  have  been  built  in 
London  and  in  every  city  and  large  town  throughout  Great  Britain. 
It  would  be  easy  to  speak  in  this  connection  of  the  vast  congrega- 
tions and  of  the  large  numbers  of  people  enrolled  in  church  mem- 
bership in  these  various  places,  but  there  are  greater  and  more 
abiding  results  than  numbers.  They  have  helped  in  every  case  to 
make  city  life  cleaner  that  it  was.  A  mighty  voice  has  been  lifted 
up  in  every  city  against  intemperance,  immorality,  and  all  forms  of 
ungodliness,  and  watch  committees  and  other  public  authorities 
have  everywhere  acknowledged  the  beneficent  influence  of  our  work. 
A  real  refuge  and  a  home  has  been  brought  within  reach,  night  and 
day,  of  the  most  abandoned  of  our  fellow  men.  Long  before  labor 
exchanges  were  established  by  the  Government  our  central  mis- 
sions were  doing  that  kind  of  work  to  the  best  of  their  ability. 
A  continuous  evangelism,  and  the  divine  power  of  Christianity 
have  been  vindicated  by  the  salvation  of  the  worst.  "VNTiilst  other 
Christian  Churches  have  been  compelled  to  abandon  some  of  these 
needy  populations,  Methodism  has  remained  in  their  midst  in  order 
that,  by  the  help  of  God,  it  may  continue  to  be  the  helper  of  the 
helpless. 


72  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

The  formation  of  great  Brotherhoods  has  been  largely  due 
to  the  enterprise  and  resource  of  our  workers  in  these  great 
missions.  These  Brotherhoods  are  not  being  carried  on  as  sepa- 
rate organizations  outside  and  distinct  from  the  ordinary  life  of 
our  missions  or  chapels.  It  has  been  said  that  only  three  or  four 
per  cent  of  the  working  men  of  our  country  are  in  churches  or 
chapels.  Working  men  themselves  have  said  that  the  Church  is 
organized  for  the  wealthy,  that  the  Church  is  too  ecclesiastical 
and  not  social  enough,  that  the  Church  has  not  championed  the 
causes  that  touch  the  lives  of  working  men,  and  that  the  world  is 
waiting  for  a  better  type  of  Christianity.  If  there  is  a  modicum 
of  truth  in  these  charges,  then  we  rejoice  that  our  great  Brother- 
hoods are  doing  something  to  wipe  out  the  reproach.  They  have 
gathered  together  large  numbers  of  working  men,  who  are  more 
easily  accessible  on  Sunday  afternoon  than  at  any  other  time. 
They  have  not  bribed  working  men,  they  have  not  secularized  the 
Gospel,  but  they  have  associated  these  men  together  in  public 
worship,  have  set  before  them  lofty  ideals  of  life  and  conduct,  and 
have  secured  their  help  in  efforts  for  the  improvement  of  them- 
selves, their  families,  and  the  social  order  to  which  they  belong. 

The  last,  and  perhaps  the  greatest,  of  these  central  movements 
is  to  be  found  in  the  erection  of  our  premises  at  Westminster,  right 
in  the  center  of  London,  and  therefore  in  the  center  of  the  world. 
These  fine  buildings  will  not  only  be  a  fitting  memorial  of  our 
Twentieth  Century  movement,  but  they  are  being  so  arranged  as 
to  become  a  centre  of  mighty  evangelism,  a  church  house  in  which 
many  of  our  connexional  departments  will  be  located,  and  a  real 
home  for  all  the  Methodist  people.  This  building,  which  will  be 
completed  and  opened  during  the  coming  year,  is  not  for  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  alone,  but  for  all  Methodists  in  every 
part  of  the  world.  The  Mother  Church  is  erecting,  in  a  spirit  of 
thanksgiving  to  God,  a  fitting  home  for  all  her  daughters,  and  it  is 
our  earnest  hope  that  in  the  centuries  to  come  it  will  prove  a 
source  of  strength  and  benediction  to  all  our  people. 

Our  campaign  for  Christ  in  the  villages  and  small  towns  of  the 
country  becomes  more  perplexing  as  the  years  roll  by,  but  it  is 
being  prosecuted  in  the  old  strenuous  and  determined  spirit.  The 
crowding  of  the  people  into  great  cities  has  created  a  problem  in  the 
villages  that  is  just  as  difficult,  and  probably  more  exacting,  than 
the  problem  that  faces  us  in  the  cities  themselves.  Methodism, 
with  its  connexional  system,  and  its  splendid  army  of  voluntary 
lay  preachers,  is  peculiarly  the  Church  of  the  villages.  It  has 
created  high  character,  for  the  village  Methodist  has  always  stood 
for  kindness,  integrity,  and  simplicity  of  life.  Moreover,  such  has 
been  the  spread  of  sacerdotalism,  that  we  have  wide  areas  in  Great 
Britain  where   the   Methodist   village   chapel   and   school   are   the 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  SIMPSON  JOHNSON.  73 

only  institutions  that  keep  the  Protestant  light  burning.  Rural 
missions  have  been  formed  by  the  union  of  circuits  that  have  sunk 
into  feebleness  and  depression.  In  many  places  circuit  administra- 
tion had  broken  down,  quarterly  meetings  were  small  and  dis- 
couraged, and  in  vast  numbers  of  country  circuits  the  outlook  was 
dark  indeed.  Occasional  seasons  of  revival  kept  them  going  for 
awhile,  but  very  soon  things  settled  down  into  their  former  con- 
dition. It  became  abundantly  necessary  that  a  new  local  govern- 
ing authority  should  be  devised.  The  cii'cuits  needed  to  be  "born 
again"  or  re-created.  Such  renewal  has  been  patiently  and  per- 
sistently carried  out  during  the  past  decade,  with  the  result  that 
small  areas  have  been  joined  together  into  larger  ones,  resembling 
somewhat  the  circuits  of  former  days.  It  is  impossible  to  say  what 
the  position  of  Methodism  in  many  of  these  areas  would  have  been 
if  a  new  policy  had  not  been  adopted  and  a  new  spirit  of  work  and 
prayer  originated. 

Our  work  among  the  soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  King  has 
made  great  advance  in  recent  times.  It  has  enabled  our  Church 
to  bring  untold  blessing,  not  only  to  the  men  who  are  enlisted 
in  His  Majesty's  forces,  but  also  to  the  Empire  at  large.  This 
part  of  our  work  not  only  influences  the  garrisons  and  naval 
ports  in  our  country,  but  it  reaches  to  the  Mediterranean  stations, 
and  also  to  the  mission  field  in  India,  China  and  Africa.  At  the 
present  time  there  are  about  220,000  men  in  the  two  branches  of 
the  service,  and  of  these  about  25,000  are  declared  Wesleyans. 
This  means  that  one  man  in  every  nine  in  the  service  of  the  King 
is  brought  more  or  less  directly  under  the  Christian  and  social 
ministration   which  Methodism  provides. 

All  branches  of  the  Methodist  Church  have  been  making  great 
advance  in  their  influence  upon  children  and  young  people.  The 
Primitive  Methodist  Church  shows  a  large  increase  in  Sunday 
schools.  There  is  greater  efficiency,  and  our  workers  are  availing 
themselves  of  modern  methods;  78,225  of  their  scholars  are  in 
church  membership,  and  they  are  increasing  their  hold  upon  the 
young  life  of  their  church  and  of  the  nation  by  means  of  the 
Christian  Endeavor  movement.  The  re-adjustment  caused  by  the 
union  of  the  other  Churches  during  the  past  ten  years  has  slightly 
affected  their  numerical  returns,  but  the  printed  statistics  will 
show  that  these  churches  are  prosecuting  a  noble  work  among  the 
young. 

In  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  a  great  work  is  being  done 
both  for  elementary  and  secondary  education.  Our  day  school 
system  is  still  maintained,  and  during  the  past  ten  years  an  average 
of  120,000  boys  and  girls  per  year  have  been  under  its  influence. 
In  some  localities  where  these  schools  exist,  the  children  of  Method- 
ist  people    would   be    subjected    entirely    to    the    influence   of    High 


74  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

Anglicanism  but  for  tlie  worlt  of  our  schools.  "We  have  helped 
to  keep  the  Bible  in  the  schools,  and  in  some  places  our  chapels 
and  our  day  schools  have  held  the  fort  for  Protestantism.  During 
the  ten  years  1,300  teachers  have  passed  through  our  Westminster 
and  training  colleges.  They  have  gone  out,  not  only  to  our  Method- 
ist schools,  but  into  public  schools,  and  their  high  average  in 
teaching  power,  and  their  Christian  influence,  have  enriched  the 
life  of  the  nation.  Middle  class,  or  secondary  schools  have  greatly 
increased  during  recent  years.  In  all  parts  of  the  country  we  have 
highly  efficient  schools  and  colleges  which  are  settled  on  a  con- 
nexional  basis,  and  are  under  the  direction  of  the  Conference. 
Then  our  Sunday  schools  and  Wesley  Guilds  have  made  great 
progress  during  these  years.  We  bear  ungrudging  testimony  to 
the  fact  that  many  of  our  best  lessons  in  dealing  with  the  young 
have  been  derived  from  the  study  of  American  and  Canadian 
methods.  There  are  more  than  270,000  teachers  in  our  Methodist 
Sunday  schools.  A  very  large  proportion  of  our  church  member- 
ship is  gathered  from  these  schools,  and  probably  in  no  period  of 
the  history  of  our  Church  have  we  exercised  a  more  mighty  and 
blessed  influence  upon  the  young  life  of,  the  nation. 

During  the  past  year  or  two  the  Wesleyan  Church  has  been 
initiating  a  great  world-wide  Brotherhood.  This  step  has  been 
taken  under  the  wise  and  enthusiastic  leadership  of  Sir  Robert 
Perks,  Baronet.  Thousands  of  our  people  leave  our  shores  every 
year  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  new  homes  in  the  new  countries 
of  the  world.  Hitherto  we  have,  alas!  paid  little  heed  to  this  im- 
portant matter,  but  now  we  are  seeking  to  assist  these  emigrants 
by  sending  them  out  with  proper  credentials,  and  by  securing  for 
them  an  introduction  to  Christian  ministers  and  people  in  other 
lands.  We  are  deeply  grateful  to  our  friends  in  all  parts  of  the 
world  who  have  responded  so  heartily,  and  with  such  efficiency,  to 
our  efforts.  In  Canada,  America,  Australia,  their  organizations 
for  welcoming  these  emigrants,  and  giving  them  a  start  in  their 
new  homes,  are  splendid,  and  we  hope  that  the  time  will  come 
when  no  family,  and,  indeed,  when  no  single  person,  will  leave  our 
shores  without  having  secured  to  them  the  watchful  sympathy  and 
practical  help  of  the  churches  to  which  they  belong.  The  basis  of 
church  government  in  Wesleyan  Methodism  has  broadened  out  con- 
siderably in  our  Church  during  the  period  that  is  under  review. 
The  mother  Church  is  still  young  and  as  prosperous  as  her  daugh- 
ters. In  rural  areas,  where  quarterly  meetings  had  almost  died 
out,  they  have  been  re-created  and  greatly  strengthened,  so  that 
instead  of  having  our  Church  in  feeble  circuits  managed  by  a  few 
discouraged  people,  we  have  now  quarterly  meetings  which  are 
regularly  attended  by  sixty,  eighty,  100  and  sometimes  160  people. 
Our  societies,  large  and  small,  have  now  the  privilege  of  electing 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  SIMPSON  JOHNSON.  75 

members  of  the  Church  who  shall  become  members  of  our  leaders' 
meetings  and  of  our  quarterly  meetings.  Sunday  schools  also  have 
the  privilege  of  electing  representatives  to  our  quarterly  meetings, 
and  duly  qualified  women  have  been  admitted  as  members  of  our 
Conference.  Our  Church  courts  and  our  governing  authorities 
are  no  longer  composed  of  persons  who  are  entirely  nominated  by 
ministers.  The  right  of  representation  and  of  free  election  has, 
with  great  advantage,  been  accorded  to  our  people. 

The  training  of  the  Christian  ministry  is  receiving  greater 
attention  than  ever  in  all  branches  of  the  Methodist  Church 
throughout  the  Eastern  Section.  Our  Primitive  Methodist  friends 
are  attempting  noble  things  in  this  direction.  The  times  in 
which  we  live  demand  a  ministry  that  lives  and  works  on  the 
highest  possible  levels  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  power.  Wher- 
ever there  is  a  strong  man  with  a  strong  message  in  the  pulpit 
there  are  plenty  of  hearers,  and  all  sections  of  the  Church  in 
Great  Britain  are  earnestly  seeking  for,  and  endeavoring  to  use, 
the  very  best  methods  that  are  available  for  the  preparation  of 
their  ministers  tor  the  great  work  to  which  they  have  committed 
their  lives.  Lay  evangelists  are  also  being  trained  for  their  work 
at  Cliff  College,  and  women  workers,  who  are  in  very  deed  "Sisters 
of  the  People,"  are  passing,  in  ever  increasing  numbers,  through  the 
Wesley  Deaconess  Institution,  to  their  spheres  of  holy  toil  at  home 
and  abroad.  Evangelism  of  all  kinds  is  being  prosecuted  by  our 
churches  with  increasing  vigor.  We  have  not  only  the  Revivalists 
— so  called — who  have  been  a  mighty  power  throughout  our  history, 
but  we  have  also  Christian  Evidence  Evangelists,  who  endeavor 
to  meet  the  intellectual  and  moral  difficulties  of  the  age  by  the 
proclamation  of  that  great  evangel  which  provides  the  solution  for 
all  our  personal  and  social  problems.  There  may  be  new  and  ever 
changing  difBculties,  but  the  living  Christ  is  undoubtedly  present 
with  us  in  the  power  of  His  Spirit.  He  is  producing  glorious  results 
in  all  the  ministries  that  we  are  employing  in  His  Name.  It  is 
being  proven  on  every  hand  that  men  can  be  born  a  second  time, 
and  that  this  new  life  may  be  clothed  with  the  spirit  of  holiness. 

We  are  resolved,  yea,  on  our  knees  before  God  we  are  resolved, 
that  externalism  shall  not  take  the  place  of  experience,  that  our 
membership  shall  not  be  negative  and  nominal,  but  it  shall  be  the 
result  of  deep  conviction  and  a  changed  heart.  Just  in  proportion 
as  the  whole  Church  continues  in  prayer  will  the  fires  upon  her 
altars  burn  brightly,  the  vision  of  God  become  clearer,  her  power  of 
attack  be  unshaken,  and  her  songs  of  conquest  be  more  triumphant. 

The  chief  power  of  Christianity  is  its  spiritual  freshness.  In 
contact  with  God  there  will  be  sublime  originality  in  all  our  work. 
If  we  retain  this  freshness  we  shall  be  continually  on  the  look-out 
for  new  ways  to  translate  our  Christianity  into  practical  usefulness. 


76  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

Methodism  must  have  a  forward  look,  a  backward  look,  an  inward 
look  and  an  upward  look.  In  the  book  of  Revelation  there  are 
messengers  of  God  described  who  had  "eyes  behind  and  before  and 
within,  and  who  rested  not  day  nor  night  in  their  services,  but  who 
in  all  things  cast  their  crowns  at  the  feet  of  the  King  of  Kings." 
Methodism  must  answer  somewhat  to  this  description.  In  its 
ceaseless  activity  it  must  gather  up  all  that  it  has  gained  in  the 
past;  it  must  look  out  upon  the  new  and  ever  changing  needs 
of  the  community;  it  must  look  within,  and  with  a  searching  gaze, 
on  what  is  defective  or  outworn;  but,  above  all,  it  must  lift  up  its 
eyes  to  the  heavens.  The  evangelism  that  honors  Jesus  Christ  and 
obeys  His  commands  is  the  true  conquering  force,  "for  the  Lord 
God  Omnipotent  reigneth." 

The  Eev.  T.  Mitchell,  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Clmrch, 
presented  the  first  appointed  address,  as  follows : 

The  one  outstanding  event  in  Primitive  Methodism  during  the 
last  decade  is  the  centenary  celebration  of  its  history  and  work. 
American  Methodism  had  something  to  do,  a  hundred  years  ago, 
with  the  creation  of  this  new  branch  of  the  great  Methodist  family. 

The  visit  of  a  devoted  but  somewhat  eccentric  evangelist  from 
this  continent  to  the  potteries  of  Staffordshire  greatly  stirred  the 
evangelistic  zeal  of  Hugh  Bourne  and  others  and  by  his  vivid 
descriptions  of  camp  meeting  services  in  America,  created  an  ardent 
desire  for  similar  meetings  and  successes  in  England.  A  camp  meet- 
ing was  therefore  arranged  and  was  held  on  May  31,  1807.  It  was 
attended  by  large  crowds  and  much  spiritual  power  and  success. 
At  this  meeting  were  originated  the  great  spiritual  forces  which 
brought  Primitive  Methodism  into  being. 

For  some  time  afterwards  individual  evangelistic  effort  was 
pursued  by  Bourne  and  his  friends.  In  1810  a  separate  religious 
community  was  formed;  in  1811  its  designation  was  determined,  and 
from  that  date  onward  it  has  prosecuted  its  career  of  intense,  en- 
thusiastic, wide-spread  and  successful  evangelism  among  the  masses 
of  the  people  of  England. 

All  impartial  historians  bear  ungrudging  testimony  to  the  zeal, 
devotion  and  self-sacrifice  of  the  pioneers  of  the  Primitive  Metho- 
dist Church,  and  to  the  apostolic  success  with  which  their  labors 
were  crowned.  To  a  careful  student  of  history,  points  of  striking 
similarity,  as  of  striking  contrast,  emerge  in  any  comparison  of 
their  work  with  that  of  their  great  predecessors  as  Methodist  evan- 
gelists, Wesley  and  his  coadjutors.  Tyerman  in  his  "Wesley  and 
His  Times"  deals  with  such  a  comparison,  greatly  to  the  advantage 
of  the  Primitive  Methodist  leaders. 

And  what  is  Primitive  Methodism  to-day?  It  has  211,000 
members  on   its  Church  roll,  besides  those  who  went  to   join  the 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  T.  MITCHELL.  77 

united  Methodist  Church  of  Canada,  and  those  who  helped  to  form 
the  united  Methodist  Church  of  Australia;  it  has  about  half  a 
million  young  people  in  its  Sunday  schools,  with  a  large  represen- 
tation of  its  young  people  in  Christian  Endeavor  societies;  it  has 
Church  property  which  has  cost  over  £5,000,000;  it  has  two  pros- 
perous Middle  Class  Schools  and  the  largest  denominational  theo- 
logical colleges  among  the  Free  Churches  of  England;  and  it  has 
most  of  the  institutions  of  an  orderly  and  progressive  Church. 

It  was  naturally  and  properly  felt  that  a  hundred  years  of  such 
history  deserved  some  fitting  celebration — a  celebration  which 
should  include  review  and  anticipation,  an  examination  of  work 
already  done  in  order  to  render  a  fuller  equipment  for  the  work 
that  waits  to  be  done.  We  proposed  that  this  celebration  should 
take  three  forms.  (1)  The  holding  of  a  great  camp  meeting  on 
Mow  Cop,  the  very  spot  where  the  first  camp  meeting  had  been 
held  a  hundred  years  before,  and,  in  connection  with  this,  to  re- 
awaken and  intensify  the  old  evangelistic  spirit  throughout  the 
church.  (2)  The  wide  distribution  of  literature  dealing  with  the 
history,  principles,  objects  and  success  of  the  community,  especially 
among  our  young  people.  (3)  The  raising  of  a  Thanksgiving 
Fund  of  £250,000,  which  should  at  once  express  our  gratitude  to 
God  for  the  Church's  history  and  work,  and  more  completely  qualify 
it  for  future  service.  These  were  our  proposals.  We  can  not 
claim  that  they  have  been  fully  realized,  but  we  have  every  con- 
fidence that  they  have  kindled  aspirations  and  inspired  effort  which 
will  tell  beneficially  on  the  Church's  life  in  coming  years. 

It  is  not  easy  for  Churches  which  possess  pious  ancestors, 
ancient  history,  or  illustrious  lineage,  to  conceive  the  difficulties 
such  a  Church  as  this,  which  began  with  nothing,  must  surmount 
before  it  can  reach  a  position  of  recognition  and  independence. 
There  is  the  provision  of  suitable  places  of  worship.  Evangelism, 
even  the  must  successful,  creates  needs  that  mere  evangelism  can 
not  supply.  Converts  won  to  Christ  must  be  housed,  cultivated, 
trained  for  service;  and  buildings  are  necessary.  During  the  first 
sixty  years  of  our  history  we  spent  £1,000,000  on  our  chapels  and 
schools,  and  we  raised  one-half,  leaving  £500,000  as  debt;  during 
the  last  forty  years  we  have  spent  £4,000,000,  a  rate  of  progress 
six  times  as  great  as  in  the  former  period,  and  of  this  entire  out- 
lay the  remaining  debt  is  less  than  a  million  and  a  quarter.  Of 
every  pound  spent  in  the  history  of  the  Church,  fifteen  shillings  and 
six  pence  has  been  raised  and  paid.  And  of  the  remaining  balance 
the  debt  is  being  annually  reduced  at  the  rate  of  from  £50,000  to 
£75,000. 

In  a  Church  organized,  as  is  Methodism,  on  the  connectional 
principle,  it  is  extremely  important  that  the  centre  of  authority  and 
control  should  be  also  a  source  of  help  and  guidance.     And  this  is 


78  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

specially  so  in  financial  matters.  If  the  circumference  helps  the 
centre,  the  centre  can  effectually  help  the  circumference.  And  hence 
the  creation  of  Central  Chapel  funds  to  assist  local  individual  cases; 
and  Methodism  has  been  greatly  helped  by  this  feature  in  its 
administration  in  all  its  branches.  The  Primitive  Methodist  Church 
has,  however,  one  institution  of  this  order  peculiar  to  itself.  It  is 
a  fund  that  borrows  money  at  3i^  per  cent,  lends  to  trustees  at 
S%  per  cent,  reduces  legal  costs  to  a  minimum,  and  requires  a 
regular  annual  repayment  of  a  specified  portion  of  the  principal 
debt.  It  is  the  application  of  the  principles  of  successful  finance 
on  a  large  scale  to  the  needs  of  Church  life;  and  it  has  been  remark- 
ably successful.  Nearly  £600,000  have  been  deposited  with  the 
directors  of  this  institution,  and  by  them  lent  to  borrowing  trustees. 
About  half  the  entire  indebtedness  of  the  Church  is  wath  this  insti- 
tution, which  commands  the  entire  confidence  of  the  community 
it  serves.  It  is  largely  the  product  of  the  financial  genius  of  Supt. 
P.  Hartley;  and  it  is  well  for  the  churches  not  only  to  have  the  help 
of  their  successful  men  in  the  maintenance  of  funds,  but  the  use 
of  their  brains  to  create  and  administer  its  institutions. 

Then  there  was  the  training  of  candidates  for  the  ministry. 
For  many  years  in  our  early  history  anything  like  systematic  min- 
isterial training  was  out  of  the  question.  Men  went  direct  from 
secular  pursuits  into  the  ministry.  Forty-five  years  ago  a  tentative 
attempt  was  made  to  do  this,  and  the  Rev.  E.  Dalton,  the  president  of 
our  Conference  this  year,  and  myself,  were  among  the  first  students 
of  our  Church  to  whom  even  a  short  term  of  training  was  given. 
But  we  had  one  inestimable  advantage,  we  were  placed  under  the 
influence  and  tuition  of  one  of  the  saintliest  men  Methodism  has 
ever  had — the  Rev.  John  Petty.  No  man  passed  out  of  his  charge 
without  a  greatly  enriched  personal  character  and  a  loftier  con- 
ception of  the  mental  and  spiritual  qualifications  required  by  a 
Methodist  minister. 

During  the  last  ten  years  we  have  become  possessors  of  a 
Ministerial  Training  College,  splendidly  equipped,  capable  of  receiv- 
ing 105  students,  with  bedroom  and  study  for  each,  and  with  all 
needful  tutorial  accommodation,  largely  through  the  generosity  of 
one  of  our  own  members.  I  do  not  know  what  the  future  may 
disclose  of  a  federation  of  Methodism,  but  probably  a  better  begin- 
ning could  not  be  made  than  by  a  common  college  system;  and 
when  that  beginning  is  possible,  it  may  be  that  the  Hartley  College, 
at  Manchester,  may  play  an  important  part. 

Our  missionary  work,  too,  has  received  considerable  impetus 
during  the  last  decade.  "We  began  as  a  home  missionary  people; 
but  early  in  our  history  missionaries  were  sent  to  Canada,  Australia, 
and  New  Zealand — the  colonies,  it  was  thought,  offering  the  readiest 
and   most   promising  spheres   of   work.     More    recently   we    have 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  T.  MITCHELL.  79 

added  Africa — "West,  South,  and  Central — to  our  spheres  of  mission- 
ary labor.  Other  depai-tments  of  our  organization  liave  consider- 
ably developed  in  recent  years. 

Special  attention  has  been  given  to  our  Sunday  schools,  and  with 
satisfactory  results.  By  the  provision  of  better  buildings,  modern 
in  structure,  and  adapted  to  the  ends  they  are  intended  to  serve, 
by  periodical  examination  of  the  scholars,  and  by  teachers'  study 
circles,  an  energetic  and  "widespread  effort  is  being  made*  to  raise 
the  qualification  of  our  Sunday  school  workers. 

Of  the  five  thousand  congregations  of  Primitive  Methodism, 
three  thousand  five  hundred  are  in  villages,  and  as  the  pulpits  of 
these  churches  must  necessarily  be  largely  supplied  by  lay  preach- 
ers, the  question  of  their  training  for  their  work,  and  some  provision 
for  them  when  aged  and  necessitous  are  receiving  some  atten- 
tion. Social  work  in  the  slums  of  our  large  cities,  to  a  limited 
extent,  is  being  done.  It  is  excellent  in  quality,  but  unfortunately 
there  is  not  enough  of  it.  And,  as  a  democratic  Church,  sprung 
from  the  people,  of  the  people,  and  aiming  to  uplift  the  people,  any 
rational  schemes  of  social  reform  have  our  warmest  sympathy  and 
enthusiastic  support;  and  none  rejoice  more  than  our  Church  at 
the  more  humanitarian  spirit  that  now  permeates  the  British  House 
of  Commons,  as  is  shown  by  the  granting  of  old  age  pensions,  and 
the  present  proposal  of  Mr.  Lloyd  George's  Insurance  Bill. 

The  Primitive  Methodist  Church  enters  upon  its  second  century 
full  of  hope.  It  never  had  larger  resources  or  finer  opportunity; 
and  it  is  determined  by  the  help  of  God  to  make  its  future  a  worthy 
.sequel  of  its  devoted  and  laborious  past.  If  one  may  enter  for  one 
moment  the  domain  of  criticism  it  would  be  to  urge  two  things: 

1.  An  intenser  spirituality.  This  is  our  most  urgent  need.  We 
have  elaborate  machinery,  we  need  more  power.  All  our  churches 
are  slow  fully  to  learn  that  spiritual  work  must  have  spiritual  men 
to  do  it,  and  be  done  by  spiritual  means.  We  need  an  intenser 
spirituality  in  our  worship  and  our  work,  in  the  Church  and  in  the 
ministry,  in  our  character  and  fellowship.  Nothing  can  compensate 
for  the  want  of  this,  and  nothing  can  entirely  fail  where  it  is 
present.  It  is  the  dynamic  that  alone  can  vitalize  the  mechanism 
of  the  Church,  the  one  prime  and  universal  condition  of  its  power 
and  progress. 

2.  A  larger  and  freer  consecration  of  wealth  to  God.  We  greatly 
rejoice  over  the  support  that  so  many  of  our  churches  give  to 
Christian  objects,  but  among  the  best  of  them,  there  is  yet  much  to 
be  learnt  on  the  systematic,  proportionate,  and  religious  dedication 
of  a  fair  portion  of  our  income  to  the  cause  of  God  and  humanity. 
How  difficult  it  is  for  us  to  learn  that  a  man's  life  consisteth  not 
in  the  abundance  of  the  things  that  he  possesseth!  How  few  of 
us  realize  the  real  joy  of  "giving;"  "God  loveth  a  cheerful  giver" — 


80  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

that  is  a  hilarious  giver,  one  in  whose  giving  there  is  the  spring 
and  joy  of  exultant  devotion.  Let  us  have  this,  and  it  will  replenish 
all  our  church  funds,  enrich  our  own  character,  swell  the  strains 
of  philanthropy  with  the  flood-tide  of  abounding  life,  and  herald 
the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  everywhere.  We  need  an 
imperialistic  denominationalism,  an  unquenchable  conviction  that 
the  Methodist  interpretation  of  the  teaching  and  mission  of  Christ 
is  what  the  world  most  needs^  and  an  invincible  determination 
to  supply  it. 

The  second  appointed  address  was  given  by  the  Eev.  Henry 
Smith,  of  the  United  Methodist  Church: 

I  am  to  speak  to  you  to-day  regarding  the  three  Churches  of 
British  Methodism  which  were  known  in  the  last  Ecumenical  Con- 
ference as  the  Methodist  New  Connexion,  the  Bible  Christian 
Methodists  and  the  United  Methodist  Free  Churches.  These  three 
are  now  one;  a  trinity  has  passed  into  a  growing  unity,  known  as 
the  United  Methodist  Church.  That  has  been  the  outstanding 
event  in  our  history  during  the  last  ten  years;  so  attention  may 
rightly  be  concentrated  upon  it  in  these   few  minutes. 

The  happy  consummation  of  which  I  speak  is  due,  first  of  all 
and  supremely,  to  the  gracious  inspiration  and  ministries  of  the 
unifying  Spirit  of  God.  But  instrumentally  it  is  largely  due  to  the 
influence  of  the  last  Ecumenical  Conference  and  to  the  opportune 
leadership  of  one  who  is  present  in  this  Conference,  the  Rev. 
William  Redfern.  Neither  in  interest,  enthusiasm,  nor  high  spiritual 
tone  did  the  last  Ecumenical  Conference  fall  behind  its  predeces- 
sors, but,  says  one  who  was  present,  "in  the  absorbing  subject  of 
union  it  excelled  them  all." 

During  the  preceding  ten  years  the  Australasian  Methodist 
Churches,  following  the  stimulating  and  fascinating  example  of  the 
Canadian  Churches,  had  become  united.  This  fact,  and  the  Con- 
ference discussions,  particularly  during  its  third  day's  sessions, 
so  fired  the  heart  of  the  Conference  that  on  the  fifth  day  it  unani- 
mously passed  a  resolution  anticipating  that  the  Methodist  Churches 
would,  when  they  saw  such  was  the  Divine  will,  follow  the  example 
set  by  the  Methodist  Churches  in  Canada  and  Australia. 

When  this  resolution  was  read  in  the  Methodist  New  Connexion 
and  Bible  Christian  Conferences  they  reaffirmed  their  desire  for 
Methodist  Union  and  expressed  willingness  to  receive  any  com- 
munications that  might  be  addressed  to  them  from  other  Methodist 
Conferejices  in  futherance  of  union.  The  United  Methodist  Free 
Church  Assembly  went  further,  and  empowered  its  Connexional 
Committee  to  se^id  communications  regarding  union  to,  as  well  as 
to  receive  them  from^  other  Methodist  Conferences  or  committees. 

There  the  matter  might  have  ended  but  for  the  action  of  the 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  HENRY  SMITH.  81 

Rev.  William  Redfern,  who  was  President  of  the  Assembly  of  the 
Methodist  Free  Churches  that  year.  Mainly  ou  his  initiative,  the 
executives  of  the  three  denominations  appointed  a  tentative  com- 
mittee to  consider  the  possibility  of  union.  The  findings  of  that 
committee  so  impressed  the  1903  annual  gatherings  that  they 
resolved  to  ask  their  quarterly  meetings  two  questions: 

(1)  Did  they  approve  of  the  union  of  the  three  Churches,  or 
other  Methodist  Churches? 

(2)  Did  they  approve  of  an  effort  being  made  by  duly  appointed 
representatives,  with  representatives  of  other  Churches,  to  draft 
a  constitution,  such  constitution  to  be  afterwards  submitted  to  the 
quarterly  meetings  and  the  Conference? 

By  majorities  ranging  from  92  to  97  per  cent  the  quarterly  meet- 
ings said  "Yes"  to  both  questions  and  a  large  committee,  consist- 
ing of  an  equal  number  from  each  Church,  was  thereupon  appointed 
to  begin  negotiations  for  union.  When,  eighteen  months  after,  the 
constitutional  and  financial  proposals  of  this  committee  were  sub- 
mitted to  the  quarterly  meetings  of  the  respective  Churches  the 
constitutional  proposals  were  approved  by  90  per  cent  of  those 
voting,  and  the  more  thorny  and  difficult  financial  proposals  by  87 
per  cent. 

On  September  17th,  1907,  the  members  of  the  three  separate 
1907  Conferences  and  Assembly  met  in  joint  session  in  Wesley's 
Chapel,  London,  and,  first  voting  separately  and  then  as  one  body, 
unanimously  resolved  to  become  one.  With  only  one  dissentient, 
they  also  settled  the  adoption  of  the  Deed  Poll  of  Foundation  which 
declares  and  defines  the  constitution  and  the  doctrinal  tenets  of  the 
United  Methodist  Church,  and  the  terms  and  conditions  of  the  union 
of  the  three  denominations.  The  great  assembly  was  swept  by 
tides  of  holy  emotion  which  culminated  in  devout  ejaculations,  fer- 
vent prayers  and  the  singing  of  the  Doxology.  It  was  undoubtedly 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  Conferences  ever  held  in  connection 
with  British  Methodism. 

In  the  few  minutes  that  remain  something  may  be  said  on 
the  meaning  of  our  union. 

The  closest  investigation  of  the  constitutions  of  the  three 
Churches  showed  that  fundamentally  and  in  principle  they  were 
one,  and  differed  only  in  methods  of  applying  and  emphasizing  the 
principle.  ,  In  becoming  part  of  the  United  Church  not  one  of  the 
three  has  turned  its  back  upon  its  history  nor  entered  into  any 
compromise  bearing  the  slightest  taint  of  dishonor. 

The  new  constitution  differs  from  the  old  ones,  but  it  still  sets 
forth  no  less  effectively  the  right  of  representative  government, 
the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  church  members  in  regard  to 
legislation,  doctrine,  discipline,  and  administration,  and  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  ministers  and  laymen  alike. 


82  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

The  United  Church  enjoys  a  completeness  of  self-government 
which  is  unique  among  the  British  Churches.  Certain  regulative 
parts  of  its  constitution  can  be  altered  from  year  to  year  by  the 
vote  of  the  Conference,  and  any  part  of  its  constitution  can  be 
altered  in  1914,  and  every  ten  years  after  that,  by  the  vote  of  the 
circuit  quarterly  meetings  and  the  Conference.  The  United  Church 
can  also  at  these  stated  periods  alter  and  reformulate  its  doctrinal 
tenets.  It  can,  if  it  wishes,  alter,  amend  or  repeal  any  of  the  pro- 
visions of  its  Deed  Poll  of  Foundation,  which  settles  its  constitu- 
tion for  the  time  being,  or  of  its  Model  Deed,  which  settles  the 
trusts  of  its  estates,  and  adopt  any  nev/  provisions  with  respect 
to  any  matters  to  which  these  deeds  relate.  It  can,  by  resolution 
of  its  annual  conference,  unite  or  amalgamate  with  any  Church  or 
religious  body  or  association,  upon  such  terms  and  conditions  as 
it  may  determine.  And  it  can  do  all  this  of  its  own  initiative, 
and  absolutely  without  the  necessity  of  seeking  the  sanction  of 
legislation  by  the  civic  power.  On  the  other  hand,  it  can  do  none 
of  these  things  without  such  continuous  consideration  and  such 
consecutive  and  substantial  majorities  as  will  render  abuse  of  its 
power  practically  impossible. 

Perhaps  the  thorniest  and  most  difficult  problem  in  effecting 
union  was  presented  by  finance.  The  difficulties  were  neither  few 
nor  small  nor  easy  of  solution.  But,  mainly  under  the  guidance 
of  a  man  of  superb  financial  genius,  the  Rev.  George  Parker,  these 
difficulties  are  well  on  the  way  to  a  happy  and  complete  solution, 
and  within  very  few  years  from  now  all  the  ministers  will  be  on 
an  absolute  equality  as  regards  minimum  salary,  supernumerary 
allowances  and  allowances  from  the  Children's  Fund. 

In  other  directions  the  union  is  proving  financially  fruitful. 
By  means  of  circuit  and  church  amalgamations,  and  consequent 
economies  in  working,  the  Home  Mission  Fund  is  already  saving 
at  the  rate  of  £3,000  per  year,  as  compared  with  the  ordinary 
expenditure  before  union,  without  sacrificing  efficiency;  and  on  the 
other  hand,  for  the  same  reasons,  individual  circuits  and. churches 
are  being  worked  with  increased  economy  and  not  less  efficiency. 

Lastly,  the  sectional  sentiments  and  loyalties  which  were  such 
priceless  assets  in  the  separate  Churches  are,  if  slowly,  yet  surely 
and  permanently,  being  transferred  to  the  United  Church.  A 
remarkable  illustration  of  this  has  been  given  during  the  Con- 
nexional  year  just  closed.  The  1910  Conference  passed  resolutions 
as  to  assessment^  for  Connexional  Funds  which  meant  that  quite 
half  the  circuits  of  the  United  Church  were  asked  to  pay  nearly 
double  the  amount  they  had  previously  paid.  They  nobly 
responded.  In  the  four  hundred  circuits  comprised  in  the  United 
Church  there  has  not  been  one  defaulter.  In  churches,  circuits 
and  district  meetings  there  is  a  growing  sense  of  unity  and  oneness 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  W.  WILLIAMS.  8^ 

which  promises  to  weld  the  United  Methodist  Church  into  an 
instrument  more  mighty  and  effective  for  the  setting  up  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  than  ever  the  three  separate  denominations  were 
or  could  become. 

The  Kev.  W.  AVilliajis,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Church 
of  Australia,  gave  the  third  appointed  address : 

Since  the  present  may  be  regarded  as  the  product  of  the  past, 
it  is  not  irrelevant  to  preface  my  report  with  a  brief  statement  of 
the  position  Methodism  holds  in  Australasia.  The  census  taken  this 
year  showed  that  the  population  of  the  Commonwealth  is  4,466,750. 
These  figures  include  Tasmania,  and  exclude  both  New  Zealand,  and 
the  groups  of  islands  in  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Within  the  same  terri- 
tory our  Church  numbers  455,402  souls,  so  that  every  tenth  person 
is  a  Methodist.  Invariably  the  census  has  given  us  more  people 
than  our  Church  schedules  claim,  and  we  are  probably  near  the 
mark  in  saying  that  Australasian  Methodism,  in  the  countries 
represented  in  our  General  Conference,  taking  in  Australia,  Tas- 
mania, New  Zealand,  and  the  islands  of  the  Pacific,  includes  about 
700,000  people. 

Reviewing  our  history  during  the  ten  years  immediately  past, 
the  fact  which  arrests  us  first,  both  in  the  order  of  time,  and  in 
relative  value,  is  the  organic  union  of  the  four  branches  of  Metho- 
dism that  were  at  work  within  our  bounds.  They  were  the  Wesleyan 
Methodist,  the  Bible  Christian,  the  Primitive  Methodist,  and  the 
United  Methodist  Free  Churches.  Their  activities  were  often 
characterized  more  by  competition  than  by  co-operation.  After 
many  councils  and  conferences  had  devoted  much  thought  and 
speech  to  the  question,  the  governing  assemblies  controlling  the 
separate  Churches  agreed  to  unite  on  January  1,  1902.  In  New 
Zealand,  however,  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church  refused  to  accept 
the  overtures  submitted,  and  it  stands  apart  to  this  day.  With  this 
exception,  all  the  sections  of  Methodism  in  Australasia  were,  on 
that  date,  gathered  into  one  under  the  name  of  the  Methodist 
Church  of  Australasia.  The  union  is  vital  and  organic.  Its  com- 
ponents are  not  united  by  external  pressure,  nor  are  they  simply 
placed  in  contact  like  beads  upon  a  string;  they  are  fused  into 
unity,  and  the  lines  which  separated  them  are  steadily  disappearing. 

Now  we  are  working  towards  a  union  yet  larger.  Quite 
seriously  we  are  considering  the  possibility  of  welding  into  one  the 
Presbyterian,  Congregational  and  Methodist  Churches.  The  Anglican 
Church  is  unwilling,  perhaps  unable,  to  join  in  the  movement,  the 
Baptist  Church,  for  obvious  reasons,  stands  aside.  The  attitude 
of  the  Congregational  Church,  as  declared  by  its  representatives,  is 
doubtful.  The  leaders  of  the  movement  in  the  Presbyterian  and 
Methodist  Churches  are,  however,  earnest  in   its  support.     Bases 


81  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

of  doctrine  and  polity  have  been  formulated  in  broad  outline,  and 
have  met  with  much  favor  in  the  joint  committees.  These  com- 
mittees are  to  continue  their  work,  and  to  apply  in  greater  detail 
the  principles  on  which  we  have  reached  so  close  an  agreement. 

Figures  are  worth  exactly  what  stands  behind  them,  and  no 
more.  They  are  but  a  crude  method  of  valuing  classes  of  facts,  and 
there  are  no  facts  concerning  the  value  of  which  they  are  more 
crude  and  inadequate  than  those  which  are  spiritual  in  their  scope. 
Still  they  have  worth,  and  are  sometimes  significant  and  suggestive. 
I  regret  that  figures  of  the  decennium  under  review  are  not  avail- 
able, as  I  am  away  from  documents,  but  for  the  period  from  1907 
to  1910  I  can  offer  some  statistics. 

In  1907  our  Churches  numbered  3,847,  in  1910  there  were  3,992, 
an  increase  of  145,  that  is,  a  percentage  increase  of  3%. 

Our  ministry  shows  growth.  Of  ministers  and  preachers  on 
trial,  in  1907  we  had  959;  in  1910  there  were  1,042.  It  should  be 
said  that  at  the  date  of  the  union  we  had  a  relatively  large  number 
of  ministers,  and  were  overmanned,  owing  to  competing  congrega- 
tions having  amalgamated,  and  surplus  churches  closed.  But  we 
have  recently  felt  justified  in  calling  into  our  work  new  men  in  such 
numbers  as  to  cover  our  decrement  by  death  and  retirement,  and  to 
give  us  an  average  increase  of  27  per  annum. 

Keener  attention  is  being  paid  to  our  methods  of  training 
candidates  for  the  ministry.  Our  General  Conference  has  affirmed 
its  judgment  that  they  should  spend  at  least  three  years  under 
training.  This  ideal  is,  in  practice,  only  partly  realized,  but  at  any 
rate  it  is  accepted  as  an  ideal  and  is  influencing  our  action.  Our 
Central  Theological  Institution,  at  Queen's  College,  in  the  University 
of  Melbourne,  is  now  better  equipped,  and  in  New  South  Wales 
money  is  being  raised  to  found  a  similar  institution.  Some  of  our 
students  have  to  travel  3,800  miles  to  reach  the  College  and  retui'n 
to  their  conference,  a  fact  which  complicates  the  difficulty  of  giving 
to  all  our  men  an  adequate  training. 

During  the  triennium  indicated,  our  membership  has  risen  from 
137,410  to  147,981,  an  increase  of  10,571,  equal  to  7%  per  cent. 
We  had,  in  1910,  11,235  on  probation  for  membership.  The  priv- 
ileges of  our  members  have  been  enlarged  by  conferring  upon  them 
power  to  elect  to  the  leaders'  meetings  and  quarterly  meetings, 
direct  representatives.  It  appears  that  our  legislation  is  in  advance 
of  the  demands  of  our  people,  as  this  privilege  is  not  yet  widely 
appreciated. 

In  the  same  period  the  adherents  of  our  Church  increased  by 
more  than  38,000,  a  rate  of  about  51^  per  cent. 

The  disappointment  of  our  figures  lies  in  those  relating  to  our 
Sunday  schools.  The  number  of  schools  increased  by  150,  the 
scholars  decreased  by  2,495.     Some  regard  this  as  a  result  of  "race 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  85 

suicide,"  others  explain  it  by  what  we  inelegantly  call  "week- 
ending," spending  the  Sunday  away  from  home.  But  many  of  us 
think  that  our  schools  do  not  now  attract  young  people  as  they  once 
drew  them.  The  better  qualification  of  teachers,  the  deeper  study 
of  child  nature,  the  more  perfect  methods  of  teaching  and  forms 
of  apparatus,  which  have  marked  the  work  of  our  secular  schools 
and  colleges,  have  left  our  Sunday  schools  distanced  and  belated. 
We  are  interpreting  our  statistics  as  a  demand  for  better  qualities 
in  our  teaching,  improved  equipment,  and  more  scientific  manage- 
ment, and  adjustment  in  our  schools.  We  are  growing  stricter  as 
to  flaws,  and  rnore  suggestive  as  to  improvements.  We  are  forming 
school  departments,  officered  by  men  of  knowledge  and  enthusiasm. 
Some  of  our  candidates  doing  university  courses  are  taking  diplomas 
in  teaching,  that  they  may  more  efficiently  handle  this  problem. 
The  tide  seems  to  be  turning,  as  our  later  figures  show  a  promising 
increase  of  scholars. 

The  great  missionary  thought — Christ  for  the  world  and  the 
world  for  Christ — deepens.  The  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement 
has  touched  us.  At  our  late  General  Conference  we  decided  to  ask 
our  people  to  increase  their  annual  contributions  to  our  foreign 
missions  by  50  per  cent.  The  response  to  that  request  encourages 
a  confident  hope  that  this  large  advance  will  be  reached,  and  that 
the  bolder  policy  initiated  will  be  justified. 

At  the  Conference  of  1910  we  decided  to  permit  New  Zealand 
to  become  independent  of  our  authority,  and  to  exercise  supreme 
jurisdiction,  both  legislative  and  administrative,  over  its  own  busi- 
ness. Such  powers  were  earnestly  desired  by  that  Conference,  and 
it  seemed  to  us  wise  to  confer  them.  In  the  unanimous  judgment 
of  our  legal  advisers,  we  have  no  power  to  divide  the  General  Con- 
ference in  this  way.  It  is  therefore  necessary  that  every  annual 
conference  should,  by  formal  resolution,  express  its  consent  to  the 
separation,  and  that  each  local  legislature  within  our  bounds  should 
pass  a  bill,  vesting  the  necessary  powers,  and  the  possession  of  our 
church  property,  in  the  New  Zealand  Conference.  The  annual 
conferences  have  consented,  and  the  bills  have  been  drafted. 

We  are  impressed  with  the  gravity  and  urgency  of  the  problems 
which  face  us  in  our  work  among  the  people.  Our  sufficiency  is  of 
God. 

Tlie   Rev.    C.    Exsor   AA'alters,    of   the    Britisli   Wesleyan 

Methodist  Cluirch,  opened  the  general  discussion: 

I  want  to  call  the  attention  of  this  Conference  to  one  thing  per- 
taining to  Great  Britain.  Mr.  Haich  said  there  is  much  social  un- 
rest. So  far  as  I  can  judge,  it  is  more  characteristic  of  the  old 
country  than  of  the  newer  country,  and  perhaps  it  is  an  indication 
that  in  following  years  Great  Britain  will  be  a  pioneer  in  social 
reform  and  social  justice.     But  the  fact  remains  that  this  social 


86  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

unrest  has  greatly  affected  the  life  of  our  Churches.  And  a  sig- 
nificant fact  in  Great  Britain  is  that  in  our  centers  every  Lord's 
Day  there  are  mass  meetings  of  men,  not  meeting  so  much  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  as  often  in  His  spirit,  to  discuss  social 
movements  and  social  affairs.  We  rejoice  in  this,  that  during  the 
last  ten  years,  in  our  great  brotherhood  movement,  we  have  demon- 
strated that  masses  of  artisans  can  be  gathered  into  Methodist 
churches  and  Methodist  halls  in  the  interest  of  Jesus  Christ.  I 
know  no  more  hopeful  feature  of  Great  Britain  to-day  than  that 
in  any  city  on  any  Sunday  afternoon  you  can  face  keen  and  intel- 
ligent workmen  who  are  passionately  interested  in  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  When  the  Trades  Union  Congress  assembled  in  Sheffield, 
a  representative  of  Germany  privately  expressed  his  surprise  that 
the  Methodist  mission  and  Methodist  minister  should  be  officially 
associated  with  religious  services  at  a  Trades  Union  Congress.  He 
said  that  that  was  not  possible  on  the  Continent.  And  while  on 
the  Continent  of  Europe  you  see  the  forces  of  democracy  largely 
opposed  to  Christianity,  the  remarkable  fact  in  Great  Britain  is 
this,  that  there  is  no  alienation;  and  we  are  increasingly  realizing 
that  if  we  present  the  full  gospel  of  Christ  we  may  capture  the 
artisan.  And  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  our  statistics  give  an 
inadequate  idea  of  what  British  Methodism  is.  I  see  nothing  in 
your  great  Methodism  here  which  is  more  hopeful  than  the  fact 
that  in  the  great  country  which  you  love  the  artisan  classes  are 
interested  in  Methodism,  and  are  associating  themselves  with  the 
cause  of  Jesus  Christ;  and  I  want  to  pay  tribute  to  the  movement 
which,  I  believe,  is  making  for  social  reform  and  international 
peace  and,  above  all,  the  Kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  Eev.  Wm.  Wakinshaw,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Metli- 

odist  Church : 

Mr.  President,  we  are  all  very  greatly  indebted  to  Mr.  Smith 
for  his  most  seasonable  and  luminous  paper  on  Methodist  union. 
I  had  not  the  idea  that  he  was  going  to  make  that  his  theme.  But 
from  the  very  core  of  my  heart  I  thank  him  for  bringing  before  us 
in  such  a  forceful  way  such  a  vitally  important  subject.  I  was  one 
of  the  minor  oflScials  at  the  last  Ecumenical  Conference,  and  my  duty 
bi'ought  me  into  close  and  constant  contact  with  the  members  of 
the  three  Churches  that  have  now  so  happily  joined  their  forces. 
Long  before  those  negotiations  came  to  a  successful  issue  I  was 
a  convinced  and  ardent  advocate  for  Methodist  union.  Now,  it  is 
very  well  known  among  us  Wesleyans  that  if  only  Hugh  Price 
Hughes  had  been  spared  to  us  a  few  more  years  he  meant,  at  the 
psychological  moment,  to  put  all  his  marvelous  power  into  this 
movement  to  bring  to  a  perpetual  end  the  scandal  of  severed  Meth- 
odist Churches  in  England.  We  Wesleyans  ought  to  be  the  first 
to  stretch  out,  so  far  as  we  can,  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  to 
our  brothers.  No  one  can  read  that  book,  "Sidelights  on  Metho- 
dism," by  Benjamin  Gregory,  one  of  our  own  ex-presidents,  without 
being  convinced  that  the  argument  for  these  divisions  is  by  no  means 
on  the  side  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church.  And  because  our 
fathers  unhappily  did  so  much  to  repel,  we  ought  to  do  our  utmost 
to  bring  them  home.  Go  among  the  Primitive  Methodists  and  the 
United  Methodist  Church,  and  you  will  discover  that  the  differences 
that  separate  us  are  infinitesimal  compared  with  the  great  and 
glorious  principles  that  unite  us.     One  of  the  best  results  of  the 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  87 

last  Ecumenical  Conference  was  the  bringing  together  of  three 
branches  of  British  Methodism.  And  we  shall  have  crossed  the 
ocean  not  in  vain  if,  as  the  result  of  this  Conference,  we  can  bring 
together  the  Methodists  of  America,  as  well  as  the  Methodists  of 
Great  Britain. 

The   Rev.    C.   E.   Beeckoft^   of  the   Methodist  Church  of 

New  Zealand: 

Mr.  President,  we  have  had  it  stated  that  the  Primitive  Meth- 
odist Church  in  New  Zealand  had  not  yet  seen  its  way  to  become  one 
with  the  United  Church,  but  now  the  last  barrier  in  the  way  of 
union  between  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church  of  New  Zealand  and 
the  other  Churches  has  been  removed.  A  meeting  has  been  held 
of  the  leaders  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church  and  the  United 
Methodist  Free  Church,  and  at  the  next  quarterly  meetings  through- 
out our  New  Zealand  Methodism  the  basis  of  union  will  be  sub- 
mitted. And  I  have  a  letter,  received  since  I  came  to  this  country, 
from  the  secretary  of  our  Conference,  in  which  he  told  me  the  most 
optimistic  news.     The  prospect  for  a  united  Methodism  is  bright. 

Tlie  Eev.  John  Hugh  Morgan",  of  the  British  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church : 

Mr.  JoHXSox's  survey  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  in  the 
old  country  was  well-balanced  and  accurate.  But  as  a  minister 
who  has  had  long  experience  I  may  add  a  few  observations  as  to 
the  quality  and  tone  of  its  inner  life.  In  that  respect  has  it  ad- 
vanced or  receded?  What  are  the  gains  and  losses  during  the  last 
genei'ation? 

1.  There  is  more  interest  taken  in  the  young.  The  child  and 
the  youth  have  never  before  occupied  such  space  in  the  thought 
and  program  of  the  Church.  Literature  for  the  young  has  greatly 
improved  in  quality  and  increased  in  quantity.  Usually  a  hymn 
and  address  are  devoted  to  the  children  in  the  morning  public 
woi'ship.  Junior  Society  classes  and  Wesley  Guilds  have  been 
formed  for  their  instruction  and  safeguarding.  A  great  effort  is 
being  made  at  the  present  time  to  organize  Sunday  school  work 
on  a  more  scientific  basis. 

2.  There  is  greater  interest  taken  in  the  destitute  and  outcast. 
The  submerged  tenth  is  a  burden  on  the  heart  of  the  Church.  Take 
the  memoir  of  a  saintly  woman  fifty  years  ago;  the  staple  of  the 
extracts  from  her  diary  is  composed  of  entries  that  tell  of  heart- 
conflicts  and  triumphs,  the  edifying  perusal  of  devotional  books, 
serene  meditations,  and  holy  ecstasies.  I  pick  up  the  memoir  of 
a  saintly  lady  in  this  generation;  the  extracts  tell  of  mothers'  meet- 
ings, district  visitation,  Prison-gate  work,  etc. 

3.  The  claims  of  religion  are  more  emphasized  as  covering  every 
department  of  life.  Stress  is  laid  on  the  solidarity  of  life.  Chris- 
tianity is  set  forth  as  hallowing  the  realm  of  toll  and  traffic,  and 
even  the  turbulent  realm  of  politics. 

4.  Sectarian  bigotry  is  a  diminishing  quantity.  There  is  a  hope- 
ful movement  towards  comity,  federation,  co-operation.  Formerly 
Arminians  and  Calvinists  quarrelled  about  the  "five  points;;"  now 
the  "five  points"  are  the  five  fingers  clasped  in  friendly  greeting. 

5.  There  is  a  larger  and  more  vigorous  conception  of  the  foreign 
miicionary  question.    In  some  quarters  missionary  enthusiasm  may 


88  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

have  declined,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  other  financial  ap- 
peals have  greatly  multiplied,  and  that  interest  now,  where  it  does 
exist,  is  founded  more  on  conviction  and  less  on  novelty  and  ro- 
tnance.  In  the  Centenary  Celebration  of  our  missionary  society  a 
great  effort  will  be  put  forth  to  equip  and  inspire  the  Church  for 
more  vigorous,  aggressive,  and  larger  conquests.  These  are  the 
lights;   what  of  the  shadows? 

Secretary  Sxape  moved  to  adjourn. 

A  Delegate:  "May  I  ask  whether  adjournment  is  an 
adjournment  of  the  subject,  or  an  adjournment  of  the  house? 
I  submit  tliat  we  ought  to  have  more  time  than  is  now  given 
us  on  such  an  important  matter." 

The  President  :  "The  meeting  to-night  can  doubtless  take 
up  the  subject,  if  desired." 

On  motion,  it  was  voted  to  adjourn. 

Tlie  doxology  was  sung,  and  the  session  closed  at  4  P.  M., 
with  the  benediction  by  Bishop  Cranston. 


THIRD  SESSION. 

THE  evening  session  opened  at  7.30  o'clock,  Eev.  Edwin 
Dalton,  D.  D.,  President  of  the  Primitive  Methodist 
Conference,  in  the  chair. 

The  Piev.  AV.  Mincher,  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church, 
conducted  the  devotional  services,  reading  Acts  11:41-47,  and 
offering  prayer. 

The  Eev.  J.  J.  Eedditt,  of  the  Local  Committee,  made  a 
statement  concerning  an  o^er  of  free  transportation  by  the 
Toronto  Street  Eailway  Company  to  delegates  and  their  fami- 
lies. 

The  essay  of  the  evening,  on  "Methodism — Its  Place  in 
the  Church  Universal,"  was  presented  by  the  Eev.  W.  H. 
Fitchett,  LL.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Australia: 

We  must  begin  by  defining  our  terms.  If  by  the  Church 
Universal  is  meant  the  ideal  Church,  the  Church  holy,  catholic, 
undivided,  as  God  means  it  to  be,  the  Church  of  which  our  hymns 
sing,  for  which  our  hearts  pray,  and  for  which  the  world  waits  and 
dreams,  the  plain  fact  is  that  in  historic  terms  this  Church  does 
not  yet  exist.  Towards  its  evolution  God  in  history  by  His 
providence,  and  in  the  hearts  of  all  good  men  and  women  by  His 
Spirit,    is    working.      Its   symbol    is    the    City    John    saw    in   vision 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  W.  II.  FITCHETT.  89 

descending  from  God  out  of  heaven.  But  it  has  not  yet  been  built 
on  earthly  soil.  Dreamed  of,  sung  of*  prayed  for,  suffered  and  toiled 
for,  that  Church  still  stands  in  the  realm  of  faith;  it  has  not  yet 
emerged  in  terms  of  history. 

The  world,  it  may  be  said,  has  never  yet  seen  the  Church  of 
Christ  as  it  is  planned  in  the  mind  of  God  and  is  being  slowly 
shaped  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  At  some  unguessed  date  in  the  future, 
and  in  some  as  yet  undreamed  of  form,  it  will  emerge.  To  doubt 
that  is  to  doubt  whether  Christianity  itself  may  not  end  in  fail- 
ure. When  that  vision  does  break  on  the  world  it  will  be  the  final 
and  overwhelming  proof  of  Christian  faith.  For  do  we  realize  that 
historic  Christianity  is  yet  waiting  for  its  final  credentials,  for 
the  one  unanswerable  proof  of  its  divine  origin?  There  is  a 
familiar  verse  which,  ninety-nine  times  out  of  a  hundred,  is  quoted 
in  a  mutilated  form.  "That  they  may  all  be  one;  as  thou  Father 
art  in  Me  and  I  in  Thee,  that  they  may  be  one  in  Us,"  and  there  we 
stop.  But  Christ's  words  run  on;  they  tell  us  ichy  Christ  prayed 
for  an  undivided  Church:  "That  the  world  may  know  that  Thou 
hast  sent  me."  An  unconvinced  world  is  the  price  we  pay  for  a 
divi<ied  Christianity. 

For  the  Universal  Church  we  to-night  have  the  actual  Church 
as  the  world  sees  it,  under  all  its  names;  struggling  and  imperfect, 
strangely  divided  in  name  and  form,  with  strange  ebb  and  flow  of 
victory  and  defeat,  of  growth  and  arrest  of  growth  in  its  history; 
but  yet  the  Church  of  the  living  God,  the  Church  of  all  the  centuries 
and  of  all  the  saints;  and  also,  by  all  the  schisms,  the  instruments 
by  which  God  is  carrying  out  His  plans  for  the  salvation  of  the  race. 

Christ  did  not  give  His  Church  a  constitution  or  a  name;  He 
left  them  to  be  evolved  in  history,  and  by  the  processes  of  history. 
But  He  did  once  define  the  Church.  "Wherever  two  or  three  are 
gathered  together  in  My  name,"  He  said,  "there  am  I  in  the  midst," 
and  for  a  time  that  sufficed.  A  company  of  believing  men  and 
women,  with  Christ's  name  as  the  rock  on  which  they  stand  all 
alike,  and  Christ's  presence  as  the  atmosphere  in  which  they  all 
alike  live;  this  anywhere,  and  under  any  name,  is  the  true  Church 
of  God.  The  "Ubi  Christus  it>i  ecclesia"  of  Ignatius^ — whose  writ- 
ings are  oddly  enough  the  joy  of  all  sacerdotalists — is  the  echo  of 
the  great  saying  of  the  master — "Ubi  spiritus  Dei  illic  ecclesia" 
again,  is  the  definition  of  another  of  the  early  fathers  of  the  church 
Irenaeus,  still  ringing  loyal  to  Christ's  words.  Then  the  evolution 
of  history  runs  on.  Nicea  added  a  theological  test  to  the  definition 
of  a  Church.  Only  that  was  part  of  the  Universal  Church  in  which 
the  Nicene  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  was  held.  Later  came  a  fatal 
divergence  in  the  deforming  touch  of  Rome,  in  the  famous  defini- 
tion of  Hildebrand,  which  narrowed  the  frontiers  of  the  Church 
Universal   to   the   strangling   limits   of   Rome.      "Let  no   man,"   he 


90  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

said,  "be  accounted  a  Catholic  who  is  not  in  agreement  with  the 
Roman  Church."  "A  great  Elnpire  and  small  minds,"  said  Burke 
of  things  political,  "go  ill  together;"  and  certainly  the  conception 
of  the  Universal  Church  of  Christ  goes  ill  with  the  parochial 
narrowness,  the  ecclesiastical  rigidity  of  Rome. 

Now  the  Reformation,  in  addition  to  its  other  magnificent 
services  to  the  Christian  faith,  recovered,  in  part  at  least,  the  true 
conception  of  the  Universal  Church.  It  is  finely  expressed  in  what 
is  called  the  "Bidding  Prayer  of  Anglicanism."  "Ye  shall  'pray  for 
the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  that  is  for  the  whole  congregation  of 
Christ's  people  dispersed  throughout  the  world."  Not  many  Ang- 
licans, it  may  be  suspected,  remember,  or  perhaps  even  care  to 
remember  that  the  definition  of  the  visible  Church  of  God,  the 
thirty-nine  articles  offer: — "A  congregation  of  faithful  men  in  which 
the  pure  word  of  God  is  preached  and  the  sacraments  duly  admin- 
istered according  to  Christ's  ordinance  in  all  things  of  necessity 
and  requisite  to  the  same" — came  into  the  Articles  from  the  historic 
Confession  of  Augsburg,  and  is  of  purely  Lutheran  stock. 

Certainly  that  is  the  conception  of  "the  Universal  Church"  which 
we  Methodists  hold.  No  one  section  of  the  visible  Church  embodies 
or  exhausts  the  whole  Divine  ideal.  God,  whose  patience  has  not 
only  the  majestic  scale  but  the  unhastening  calm  of  eternity,  moves 
towards  His  ideal  through  centuries  of  confusion  and  apparent 
failure  calling  into  existence  now  one  ecclesiastical  type,  now 
another,  and  making  each  contribute  toward  that  "far  off  divine 
event"  for  which  all  history  is  working  and  waiting — the  appear- 
ance of  the  undivided  universal  Church.  And  each  section  of  the 
visible  Church  is  but  a  fragmentary  and  unfulfilled  prophecy  of  that 
as  yet  uncompleted  Church.  The  cynic  dwells  on  the  interval  which 
in  each  case,  separates  the  Church  as  known  to  history  from  the 
Divine  ideal  as  it  must  stand  before  the  mind  of  God;  the  mechan- 
ical uniformity  of  Rome's  ideal,  a  uniformity  in  quarrel  with  free- 
dom and  striven  for  by  methods  abhorrent  to  the  conscience.  Or 
the  diversities  of  Protestantism  with  its  tangle  of  names,,  and  of 
conflicting  ideals. 

But  some  day  a  great  historian  will  emerge  with  some  sense  of 
spiritual  perspective,  some  adequate  vision  of  the  contribution  each 
separate  ecclesiastical  form  makes  to  the  whole;  some  penetrating 
sympathy  with  the  truths  each  fragment  holds  in  trust  for  the 
whole;  then  we  shall  have  an  adequate  interpretation  of  the  phi- 
losophy of  Church  history.  And  as  such  a  historian  writes  that 
history  he  will  show  that  the  separate  Churches  bear  to  the  Church 
universal  the  relation  the  seven  color-rays  bear  to  light.  No  one 
color  ray  is  the  complete  light,  but  each  is  a  true  constituent  of 
the  light.  Each  holds  something  which  is  necessary  to  the  perfect 
light.     And  when  in  that  great  and  coming  hour,  towards  which 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  W.  H.  FITCHETT.  91 

God  in  history  is  working,  all  tlie  separate  color-rays  blend  and 
flow  together,  then  we  shall  have  the  white,  perfect,  unshadowed 
light  of  an  undivided  Church. 

But  the  historian,  who  can  adequately  write  the  story  of  this 
Church  has  not  yet  emerged,  and  that  great  interpreting  history 
is  still  unwritten.  And  certainly  any  Church  that  to-day  mistakes 
itself  for  the  whole  Divine  ideal — the  whole  in  the  sense  of  denying 
the  right  of  any  other  forms  to  exist,  as  the  Romanist  and  Sacer- 
dotalist  do,  the  Church  which  imagines  itself  to  be  not  only  God's 
greatest  word,  but  His  last,  forgets  history,  misreads  Providence, 
and  is  guilty  of  that  worst  of  blunders,  mistaking  a  part  for  the 
whole. 

We  Methodists  are  sure  of  our  place  in  God's  plan;  but  we 
certainly  do  not  imagine  that  we  represent  God's  last  word  in  the 
development  of  His  Church,  the  final  and  consummated  realization 
of  His  ideal.  We  are  only  a  stage  in  the  process;  a  spiritual  organ- 
ization raised  up  by  God  at  a  given  moment  of  time,  to  make  a 
certain  specific  contribution  to  the  final  realization  of  the  Divine 
plan.  And  our  business,  just  now,  is  to  consider  what  is  the  specific 
contribution  to  the  good  estate  of  the  Catholic  Church  of  all  time, 
we  are  called  by  God  to  make. 

To  answer  the  question  we  must,  of  course,  know  Methodist 
history,  and  we  must  see  the  Church  to  which  we  belong  in  the  per- 
spective of  history.  It  is  inadequate  to  say  that  many  Methodists 
have  forgotten  the  history  of  their  Church.  They  are  unconscious 
of  the  fact  that  it  has  any  history.  And  of  these  it  may  be  said  that 
they  are  Methodists  by  accident  to-day,  and  may  become  anything 
else  by  accident  to-morrow — and  that  without  any  particular  reason. 
Not  merely  the  explanation,  but  the  justification,  of  Methodism,  let 
us  never  forget,  lies  in  the  realm  of  history.  To  understand  the 
origin  of  Methodism  you  have  to  know  the  England  of  the  early 
years  of  the  eighteenth  century,  with  a  frostbitten  Deism  chilling 
its  very  blood;  with  Christ's  Divine  nature  denied,  Christ's  redeem- 
ing offices  forgotten,  and  His  whole  Gospel  transformed  from  "Good 
News"  to  mere  good  advice.  Then  you  must  see  the  great  re-birth  of 
living  evangelical  Christianity  wrought  by  God  through  the  agency 
of  the  Wesleys  and  their  associates;  a  re-birth  which  changed  Eng- 
lish history,  and  gave  new  impulse  to  the  Christian  faith  and  new 
ideals  to  view  civilization  under  every  skj'.  But  of  the  historical 
justification  of  Methodism  I  have  no  space  in  this  brief  paper  to 
speak. 

Methodism  holds,  as  do  all  the  main  forms  of  Protestantism, 
the  faith  of  the  first  six  Ecumenical  Councils.  She  can  recite  with 
entire  conviction  the  three  great  historic  creeds;  and  we  do  well 
to  rejoice  in  the  community  of  belief  which  links  us  to  the  general 
body  of  its  Churches.     But  to  ascertain  our  special  contribution  to 


92  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

the  development  of  the  Universal  Church  we  have  to  consider  and 
assess  what  may  be  called  our  diiferentia.  We  are  one  of  a  great 
group  of  British  and  Protestant  Churches,  Anglican,  Presbyterian, 
Congregational,  Baptist,  all  having  relation  with  us.  We  are  the 
direct  offspring  of  the  Anglican  Church,  and  we  have  closest  points 
of  kindredship  with  Presbyterian,  Congregational,  and  Baptist  alike. 

Of  these  Churches  we  may  say  that  each  makes  some  separate 
and  special  contribution  to  the  well-being  of  the  general  Church  of 
Christ.  The  Presbyterian  theory  of  the  ministry,  for  example,  is  an 
effective  protest  against  the  central  conception  of  the  whole  sacer- 
dotal wing,  the  notion  that  the  great  spiritual  forces  of  religion 
flow  solely  through  the  "wretched  scrannel  pipe" — to  use  a  Miltonic 
phrase — of  a  single  line  of  human  "priests."  A  notion  abhorrent  to 
reason,  rejected  by  history,  and  in  quarrel  with  the  whole  spiritual 
genius  of  the  unity.  Congregationalism,  again,  is  an  assertion  of 
what  may  be  called  the  spiritualized  democracy  of  the  Christian 
Church.  The  Baptist  Church,  again,  is  a  powerful  and  much  needed 
protest  against  the  folly  which  turns  one  of  the  two  great  sacra- 
ments of  the  Christian  Church  into  a  form  of  ecclesiastical  magic, 
and  makes  regeneration,  that  mightiest  of  spiritual  miracles,  depend 
not  on  the  faith  of  the  soul  regenerated,  but  on  the  fingers  of  the 
priest   that   touch   with   water   the  flesh   of   the   unconscious   child. 

Now  these  contributions  are  of  great  and  enduring  value;  and 
Methodism  shares  them,  and  repeats  them  in  its  own  characteristic 
terms;  terms,  it  may  be  added,  which  are,  in  some  respects,  more 
courageous  and  practical  than  in  the  case  of  any  of  these  Churches. 
Presbyterianism  for  example  protests  against  the  sacerdotal  theory 
of  the  ministry  by  affirming  the  identity  of  the  Presbyter  with  the 
Bishop.  Methodism  agrees  in  that  protest;  but  makes  it  more 
effective  by  the  fact  that  it  makes  use  of  either  the  Presbyterian 
or  Episcopal  form  of  government  indifferently.  There  are  forty 
Bishops,  black  and  white,  in  this  Conference.  Like  Congregation- 
alism, Methodism  is  democratic — how  democratic  we  ourselves 
perhaps  hardly  realize,  until  we  remember  that  not  only  do  we  give 
laymen  partnership  with  ministers,  on  equal  terms,  in  the  secular 
business  of  all  our  church  courts,  but  we  share  our  preaching  oflBce 
with  the  local  preachers  and  our  pastoral  office  with  the  leaders. 
Yet  we  escape  the  characteristic  peril  of  Congregationalism — the 
lack  of  a  central  unifying  and  governing  force,  by  the  agency  of 
our  conferences,  which  knit  the  scattered  congregations  into  a 
living  organism,  and  are  centres  of  rulmg  force,  and  of  administra- 
tive energy,  which  have  no  parallel  anywhere  else  in  the  general 
Christian  Church.  In  the  matter  of  baptism  again,  we  escape  the 
peril  of  undue  emphasis  on  any  particular  form  of  the  rite  by  the 
circumstance  that  we  use  either  form  indifferently. 

But  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  special  and  characteristic  con- 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  W.  H.  FITCHETT.  03 

tributions  of  these  Churches  belong,  after  all,  as  their  names  show, 
to  what  we  may  call  the  secondary  order.  They  relate  to  the  theory 
of  the  ministry,  or  to  the  form,  of  Church  government,  or  to  the 
manner  of  a  particular  rite,  and  these  questions — though  their 
Importance  is  not  to  be  denied — are  not  of  the  first  rank.  They 
touch  the  "bene"  but  not  the  "esse"  of  the  church.  But  the  special 
contribution  of  Methodism  to  the  development  of  the  Universal 
Church  are  to  be  sought  not  in  the  ecclesiastical  but  in  the  spiritual 
order,  and  in  the  very  highest  things  in  that  order,  and  this  explains 
their  enduring  value. 

Methodism  may  be  said  to  have  contributed  to  the  Universal 
Church  a  new  and  revised  scheme  of  spiritual  values.  It  found,  for 
example,  a  new  answer — or  revived  a  forgotten  answer— to  the  ques- 
tion, "What  is  the  end  for  which  the  Church  exists?"  The  Church 
is  not  an  end  in  itself;  it  exists  to  achieve  an  end  beyond  itself. 
It  does  not  exist  for  the  purpose  of  serving  a  class,  or  of  expressing 
a  creed,  or  for  carrying  out  some  ecclesiastical  theory.  It  exists 
to  save  man,  and  to  carry  out  God's  ideals  of  a  saved  race.  To  say 
that  its  value  is  determined  by  the  degi'ee  in  which  it  attains  this 
end  is  inadequate.  Its  very  right  to  exist  is  to  be  measured  by  the 
degree  in  which  it  accepts  His  purpose  and  seeks  to  fulfill  it.  It 
perishes — it  deserves  to  per.ish,  it  is  certain  to  perisli — if  it  fails  to 
contribute  towards  this  end. 

And  Methodism  from  its  very  birth  has  stood  for  exactly  this 
reading  of  the  end  for  which  a  Church  exists.  This  explains  the 
aggressive  note  so  characteristic  of  Methodism;  the  impulse  to 
attack  which  is  in  its  very  blood;  the  impossibility  of  resting  con- 
tent with  multiplied  church  buildings  or  with  ever  more  perfect 
church  machinery.     It  must  save  men,  if  itself  is  to  be  saved. 

Methodism,  again,  stands  In  the  Universal  Church  for  a  special 
reading  of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  and  their  value.  It  is 
usual  to  say — and  it  is  quite  true  to  say — that  Methodism  rendered 
one  magnificent  service  to  the  Christian  theology.  It  delivered 
Protestantism  from  the  nightmare  of  a  harsh  and  extreme  Calvin- 
ism. Calvinism,  of  course,  does  express  one  aspect  of  truth; 
and  by  the  writers  of  history,  it  has,  in  some  qualities  of  character, 
borne  noble  fruit.  It  gave  us  the  Puritans.  It  had  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  the  office  as  of  iron  in  the  blood  for  the  Churches  and 
races  that  accepted  it;  and  it  yielded  men  of  iron.  The  political 
debt  not  only  of  the  English-speaking  race,  but  of  European  civil- 
ization to  Calvinism  every  competent  historian  knows  and  rejoices 
to  admit. 

Some  theological  wit  has  said  "Good  Calvinists  preach  like 
Methodists,  as  if  everything  depended  on  man;  and  good  Methodists 
pray  like  Calvinists,  as  if  everything  depended  on  God,"  and  both 
these,  in  their  respective  realms  are  right.     That  may  be  wit;  it  is 


94  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

hardly  sober  truth.  Carlyle,  speaking  of  the  Athanasian  controversy 
of  the  sixth  century  said,  in  his  blunt  strong  fashion,  that  "if  the 
Arian  had  won,  Christianity  would  have  shrunk  into  a  legend." 
And  of  the  one  great  and  purely  doctrinal  controversy  of  Wesley's 
life  we  may  say,  with  perfect  confidence,  that  if  Toplady  and  White- 
field  had  triumphed,  and  their  triumph  had  been  enduring,  on  the 
whole  landscape  of  Christian  faith  to-day  would  lie  an  eclipse 
which  would  darken  the  sky  of  the  race.  How  impossible  to  the 
conscience  and  reason  of  the  twentieth  century  the  whole  Christian 
scheme  would  be  if  its  doctrines  were  still  taught  in  the  accents  of 
Calvin  and  Geneva!  But  modern  Christianity  if  not  everywhere  by 
formal  and  open  confession,  in  all  its  forms  by  energy  of  conviction, 
is  essentially  Arminian,  and  that  good  fact   is   due   to   Methodism. 

Methodism,  of  course,  did  not  invent  Arminianism.  The  Synod 
of  Dort  met  in  161S,  nearly  100  years  before  Wesley  was  born.  And 
it  may  be  asked  how  can  Methodism  claim  the  glory  of  having 
stamped  on  the  belief  of  the  world  in  imperishable  characters  an  in- 
terpretation of  Christianity  which,  formulated  as  a  question  of  logic, 
was  triumphant  a  century  before  the  founder  of  Methodism  was 
born?  The  answer  is  that  Arminianism,  as  shaped  by  the  remon- 
strants at  the  Synod  of  Dort,  was  a  mere  bit  of  metaphysical 
theology.  All  that  the  remonstrants  tried  to  do  was  to  prove  their 
creed.  They  made  no  serious  attempt  to  apply  it.  They  aimed  at  a 
controversial  victory,  and  were  content  with  a  triumph  which  was 
as  barren  as  all  merely  controversial  victories  must  be. 

But  theology,  as  Wesley  saw  it,  and  as  he  taught  his  Church  to 
see  it,  is  something  not  only  to  be  proved  but  to  be  lived.  Life  is 
to  be  tried  by  its  test,  and  shaped  to  its  image.  The  demonstrations 
of  Euclid  are,  in  the  field  of  logic  irresistible,  there  is  no  answer  to 
them.  But  what  would  they  be  worth  if  they  remained  shut  up  in 
the  cover  of  a  book?  It  is  when  we  take  them  out  into  the  foundry 
and  the  shipyard,  when  we  build  our  bridges  and  houses  by  them 
we  know  their  practical  worth.  Creeds  are  often  discredited — not  to 
say  suspected  things — because  they  are  not  applied.  And  they 
deserve  to  be  discredited,  and  suspected,  if  they  are  mere  abstract 
and  unapplied  formula.  The  chemical  formula  H,0  will  quench 
no  thirst;  but  translate  those  symbols  into  facts,  and  do  you  want 
to  know  their  value?  You  must  ask  the  falling  rain,  under  whose 
kiss  the  earth  grows  green;  the  singing  brook  by  which  the  deep- 
rooted  trees  grow;  the  great  rivers  that  are  highways  of  traffic  for 
a  continent. 

Now  the  Arminianism  of  Wesley  was  theology  applied.  It  was 
the  Gospel  message  translated  into  New  Testament  terms,  preached 
with  New  Testament  authority,  and  attended,  in  the  spiritual  order, 
by  New  Testament  miracles. 

But   Methodism   is   not  only   Arminian;    it   is   intensely,   obsti- 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  W.  H.  FITCHETT.  95 

nately,  victoriously  evangelical;  it  may  be  said  to  have  been  raised 
up  by  God,  at  a  dark  and  perilous  moment  in  religious  history,  to 
restore  to  their  just  authority  in  Christ's  Church  all  the  evangelical 
ideals  of  true  Christianity,  and  the  scale  of  spiritual  values  which 
goes  with  them.  Christianity  began  with  an  infinitely  sublime 
evangel:  Beloved,  I  bring  you  glad  tidings  of  great  joy,  sang  the 
angels;  an  evangel  which  does  not  consist  of  good  advice  no  matter 
how  nobly  ethical,  but  of  good  news,  glad  tidings.  And  it  is  the 
business  of  the  Church  to  keep  the  music  of  that  song  in  Church 
Christianity;  everybody  singing  in  the  world  news  of  the  entrance 
into  human  life  of  the  eternal  Son  of  God  for  our  salvation;  tidings 
of  an  infinite  Love  that  does  not  wait  to  be  sought,  but  that  seeks; 
Love  that  gives  its  hands  to  the  nails  that  it  may  save  the  men  that 
are  driving  the  nails;  tidings  of  a  restored  sonshlp;  of  a  forgiveness 
that  cancels  sin's  penalty;  of  a  grace  that  breaks  sin's  power  and  of 
eternal  life  in  a  heaven  where  sin  can  not  come.  And  if  Methodism 
has  helped  to  make  the  general  theology  of  the  Christian  Church 
Arminian  it  has  certainly  helped  to  keep  its  whole  spirit  evangelical. 

Methodism,  only,  if  its  history  is  rightly  interpreted,  is  in  a 
unique  sense  a  witnessing  Church.  It  stands'  to  declare,  and  guard, 
certain  truths  always  in  peril  of  being  forgotten,  and  certain 
spiritual  hopes  forever  in  danger  of  slipping  out  of  the  Christian 
scheme,  and  these  facts  and  hopes  are  all  in  the  evango^lical  order. 
And  a  sustained,  unfaltering,  arresting  witness  in  regard  to  them 
is  the  service  Methodism  has  rendered  to  the  Universal  Church. 
So  first  and  last — in  spirit,  in  method,  in  ideals,  in  every  detail 
of  our  organization,  in  all  the  ends  we  seek,  in  all  the  enterprises 
we  undertake,  we  have  been,  and  must  be  not  only  evangelical  but 
evangelistic. 

If  I  had  to  quote  a  fact  which  proves  how  rich  in  evangelical 
power  Methodism  is,  by  inheritance  and  training,  I  would  quote 
that  latest  offspring  of  Methodism,  the  Salvation  Army.  It  is  its 
child,  a  by-product  of  its  life  and  teaching.  That  it  should  have 
been  let  slip  from  us  or  left  to  become  an  organization  outside  our 
bounds,  and  not  a  force  within  them,  is  a  disquieting  suggestion 
of  the  degree  in  which  Methodism  has  sometimes  failed  to  find  a 
channel,  and  a  use  for  the  very  spiritual  forces  to  which  it  has 
given  birth. 

In  any  reading  of  our  history  as  a  witnessing  Church  we  must 
put  in  the  forefront  our  witness  to  the  need,  and  the  possibility  of 
that  great  spiritual  change  in  the  relation  between  the  personal  soul 
and  God,  which  we  call  conversion.  The  Church  of  Christ,  in  all  its 
forms,  is  perpetually  tempted  if  not  to  drop  conversion  from  its 
spiritual  scheme,  yet  to  seek  some  easy  human  substitute  for  it. 
It  is  a  test  of  our  ministry  so  crucial  and  penetrating  that  anything 
that  will  serve  as  an  excuse  for  leaving  it  out  is  welcomed.     But 


96  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

I  will  quote  what  is  said,  not  by  a  theologian  with  a  brief  for  the 
evangelical  theory  of  Christianity,  but  by  a  philosophical  historian 
not  at  all  of  our  school.  Seeley,  in  his  "Ecce  Homo"  putting  himself 
beside  Luther,  though  with  a  change  of  phrase,  says  that  conversion 
is  the  articulus  stantis  aut  cadentis  ecclesiae.  While  the  convert- 
ing power  remains  in  a  Church — whatever  else  may  be  wanting 
there  it  still  may  be  said  that  the  Tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men. 
But  when  the  power  of  reclaiming  the  lost — the  passion  for  seeking 
the  lost — dies  out  of  a  Church  it  may  remain  a  useful  institution^ 
a  respectable  institution — though,  says  Seeley,  "it  is  most  likely  to 
become  an  immoral  and  mischievous  one."  And  there  are  wide,  sad 
spaces  in  ecclesiastical  history  which  supply  a  tragical  commentary 
to  these  pregnant  and  disquieting  words. 

Methodism,  again,  as  part  of  its  service  to  the  universal 
Church  stands  as  a  witness  to  the  value  and  office  of  Christian 
experience.  It  did  not  invent  that  experience;  but  it  discovered 
its  value;  it  gave  to  it  a  new  office;  an  office,  and  a  value,  which  the 
Methodism  of  to-day,  and  of  all  days,  must  in  one  form  or  another, 
in  no  matter  what  new  terms  still  preserve  if  it  would  keep  its 
commission.  "Science,"  says  Huxley,  "has  learned  to  believe  in 
justification,  not  by  faith,  but  by  verification."  And  what  is  Chris- 
tian experience  but  the  verification  in  terms  of  human  consciousness, 
and  of  human  life,  of  Christian  faith?  It  is  the  logic  of  the  man 
whose  eyes  Christ  opened:  "One  thing  I  know,  that  whereas  I  was 
blind  now  I  see."  So  Christian  experience  is  the  final  evidence  of 
reality  of  the  Christian  faith. 

And  now,  in  the  fire  and  glow  of  Christian  experience  Wesley 
taught  us  to  find  the  shaping  matrix  of  church  membership.  And 
in  this,  let  us  never  forget,  he  was  simply — though  unconsciously — 
reverting  to  New  Testament  methods..  Christian  experience,  as 
depicted  in  the  New  Testament,  preceded  the  Christian  Church  and 
gave  birth  to  it.  A  common  experience  of  the  saving  grace  of 
Christ  was  the  starting  point  of  the  New  Testament  Church.  The 
Church  as  yet  had  no  definition;  it  had  no  name,  no  organized  plan, 
no  theory  of  ecclesiastical  government,  or  of  ministerial  order. 
Men  gave  themselves  to  Christ,  and  found  they  were  members  of 
a  great  and  ever-expanding  company  who  shared  a  common  and 
amazing  experience.  They  thrilled  with  the  same  spiritual  emotions; 
they  spoke  the  same  spiritual  tongue.  And  Methodism  became  a 
Church,  exactly  as  the  first  diciples  did,  by  virtue  of  a  community 
of  spiritual  emotion  and  experience.  Wesley  gave  a  particular 
shape  and  use  to  that  fellowship  in  the  form  of  the  class  meeting; 
and  the  form,  like  all  external  things,  has  suffered  by  the  attrition — 
the  inevitable  changes  of  time.  And  if  I  were  asked  to  name  the 
point  at  which  the  churches  of  Wesley  under  every  sky  have  failed 
in  statesmanship,  with  a  tragical  loss  of  spriritual  strength,  I  would 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  W.  H.  FITCHETT.  9? 

say  it  has  been  in  their  failure  to  find  a  new  channel  and  expression 
for  the  community  of  spiritual  experience  on  which  the  Church  is 
built.  But  it  remains  the  great  and  historic  contribution  of  Method- 
ism to  the  good  estate  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church  that  in  its  early 
days,  at  least,  it  found  a  channel,  and  a  use  for  Christian  fellow- 
ship in  advance  of  anything  the  Christian  Church  since  New  Testa- 
ment times  has  known. 

May  we  not  claim,  too,  that  Methodism,  at  its  birth  at  least, 
served  the  Universal  Church,  by  teaching  it  a  new  and  larger  read- 
ing of  the  offices  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  a  lesson  that  we  Methodists  of 
the  twentieth  century  perhaps  need  to  relearn?  "I  believe  in  the 
Holy  Ghost"  says  the  oldest  of  all  creeds;  but  what  exactly  does 
the  Church  believe  about  the  Holy  Ghost?  A  dispute  as  to  the  met- 
aphysics of  the  Holy  Spirit  rent  Eastern  and  Western  Christianity 
asunder.  But  there  is  a  deadlier  heresy  than  that;  it  strikes  the 
filioque  from  an  ancient  creed.  Many  branches  of  the  Christian 
Churches  seem  to  hold  that  Pentecost  is  a  mere  date  in  ecclesias- 
tical history,  twenty  centuries  distant;  and  since  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  has  emigrated  and  left  the  Church  without  guidance  or  in- 
spiration. Methodism,  in  its  origin,  certainly  represented  the  fuller 
and  newer  recognition  of  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  souls 
of  men.  Religion,  it  taught,  began  in  a  new  birth  the  work  of  that 
Divine  Spirit.  It  was  attested  to  the  consciousness  of  the  believing 
soul  by  the  witness  of  the  Spirit.  It  found  its  consummation  in  V 
the  sanctifying  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  So  a  nev/,  strange  re- 
joicing certainly  crept  into  the  very  spirit  of  religion.  A  new  joy 
was  found  to  be  its  very  birthright.  There  was  a  new  authority  in 
all  Christian  truth,  a  nev/  sweetness  in  all  Christian  fellowship. 

Now  there  is  one  challenging  question  which  this  Ecumenical 
Conference  may  fitly  ask:  Is  Methodism  loyal  to  the  divine  ideals 
God  has  called  it  into  existence  to  serve?  "We  are  in  a  unique 
sense  raised  up  to  bear  witness  to  certain  great  truths.  Is  our 
witness  clear,  intelligent,  courageous,  arresting;  the  witness  to 
the  high  spiritual  purpose  of  Christianity;  the  witness  to  the  fact, 
the  certainty,  the  necessity  of  conversion;  the  witness  to  the  con- 
ception of  religion  not  as  a  theology,  or  a  ritual,  or  an  ecclesias- 
tical system,  but  as  an  experience,  and  having  the  verification  of 
experience;  the  witness  to  the  presence  and  office  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
in  the  Church  of  the  twentieth  century  as  surely  as,  and — unless 
the  training  of  twenty  Christian  centuries  has  failed — even  more 
richly  and  fully  than  in  the  Church  of  the  first  century? 

There  is,  and  ought  to  be,  let  me  say  in  closing,  a  prophetic 
strain  in  our  witness.  We  are  raised  up  by  God,  not  only  to  re- 
affirm, for  the  Church  Universal  some  truths  that  had  grown  dim, 
and  to  recover  some  forces  that  had  fallen  into  disuse:  we  stand 
as  God's  witness  to  hopes  as  yet  unrealized,  to  victories  not  yet 
7 


98  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

•won,  but  sure  to  be  won.  Of  all  Christ's  Churches,  Methodism  is 
the  one  that  can  not  be  pessimistic.  It  would  be  easy  to  name  some 
Churches  that  have  good  reason  for  pessimism.  The  Church  of 
Rome,  if  it  could  see  the  facts,  might  well  be  as  pessimistic  as  an 
iceberg  that  found  itself  adrift  in  the  Gulf  Stream.  It  is  not  only 
being  carried  into  an  undesired  direction;  it  is  melting  in  the  process. 
But  Methodism  has  forgotten  its  history,  and  is  false  to  its  origin, 
if  it  loses  hope.  "The  Lord  hath  done  great  things  for  us;"  that  is 
history.  And  what  God  has  done  is  the  pledge  given  to  faith  of 
what  He  will  do.  Faith  in  the  unexhausted  purpose  of  God  as  to 
our  future  is  what  we  need.  God  will  not  unwrite  the  centuries, 
and  give  us  back  another  Wesley.  But  He  will  give  us  new  leaders 
suited  to  the  strange  and  perplexing  problems  of  our  own  age;  new 
saints,  new  evangelists,  new  missionaries.  For  the  word  stands 
true  to-day:  "Instead  of  thy  fathers  shall  be  thy  children,  whom 
thou  mayest  make  princes  in  all  the  earth." 

"Thy   fathers,   they  are   history;    thy   children,   they   are   hope — 
our  prophecy." 

The  Eev.  N".  Luccock,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  gave  the  first  appointed  address,  on  "Methodism  and 
Christian  Fellowship :" 

"I  desire  to  form  a  league,  offensive  and  defensive,  with  every 
soldier  of  Jesus  Christ."  Thus  the  founder  of  Methodism  sounded 
its  true  note  of  sympathy  and  co-operation  with  all  redemptive 
agencies. 

Methodism  has  been  called  a  movement;  so  it  is, — the  move- 
ment of  a  mighty  sea  that  touches  and  blesses  all  lands.  It  has 
been  called  a  fire;  so  it  is — light  and  heat  from  the  Sun  of  Right- 
eousness, lifting  the  whole  earth  into  beauty  and  fruitfulness.  It 
has  been  called  Christianity  in  Earnest;  so  it  is — from  the  begin- 
ning Methodism  has  been  vital,  earnest,  dynamic.  Sometimes  it 
drives  furiously,  like  the  driving  of  Jehu,  but  it  is  on  the  King's 
business  all  the  while,  and  is  hospitable  to  every  truth  and  to  all 
forces  that  make  for  righteousness.  It  is  a  common  denominator 
among  all  Churches,  responding  with  a  grand  amen  to  whatever 
of  Gospel  truth  each  may  hold.  Its  hail  and  greeting  to  each  is, 
"If  thy  heart  be  as  my  heart,  give  me  thy  hand." 

Methodism  is  a  fellowship  of  experience. 

The  saving  truths  of  the  Gospel  become  luminous  and  poten- 
tial through  life  alone.  "The  spirit  of  man  is  the  candle  of  the 
Lord."  "Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world."  That  "Jesus  Christ  is  the 
same  yesterday,  to-day  and  forever"  is  a  fact  of  experience,  as  well 
as  of  history  and  logic.  If  alongside  a  wire,  through  which  a  cur- 
rent  of    electricity    is    flowing,    another   wire   be    stretched,    empty, 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  N.  LUCCOCK.  99 

close  and  parallel,  the  current  from  the  first  wire  will  leap  to  the 
second,  filling  it  with  its  own  life  and  power.  There  is  such  an 
inductive  current  in  spiritual  forces.  Every  life  that  is  brought 
empty,  close  and  parallel  with  our  living  Lord,  receives  from  him 
new  life  and  becomes  aflame  with  holiness  and  love.  This  life  is 
the  same  in  all  ages.  What  Abraham  found  under  the  stars;  what 
Jacob  found  at  Luz,  where  God  Almighty  appeared  unto  him  and 
blessed  him;  what  Isaiah  found  in  the  temple;  what  Paul  found  on 
the  highway;  that  Wesley  found  in  the  Aldersgate  Chapel;  that 
millions  have  found  at  Methodist  altars,  around  the  world,  bring- 
ing their  lives  empty,  close  and  parallel  to  the  living  Lord — this 
fellowship  of  experience,  the  goodly  fellowship  of  patriarchs,  proph- 
ets, apostles,  martyrs,  saints,  is  the  heritage  of  Methodism;  its 
bond  and  unity  with  the  past. 

Methodism  is  a  fellowship  of  service. 

It  has  been  said  that  Methodism  is  a  religion  of  rapture,  that 
it  places  too  much  emphasis  upon  other-worldliness,  but  Methodism 
serves  as  well  as  sings,  and  serves  in  the  largest  way  because  it 
begins  with  the  cross.  The  earthlies  and  the  heavenlies  must  be 
held  together  in  our  hearts  and  lives.  The  earth  has  a  twofold 
motion,  one  on  its  own  axis,  and  that  gives  us  day  and  night,  and 
another  in  a  celestial  orbit,  around  the  sun,  among  the  heavenlies, 
and  that  gives  us  seasons  and  harvests.  The  two  forces  must  work 
together.  William  Pitt  and  John  Wesley  were  the  two  foremost 
Englishmen  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Pitt  was  tremendously  busy 
with  the  earthlies,  and  Wesley  was  equally  busy  with  the  heaven- 
lies— together  they  made  a  new  England  and  reshaped  the  history 
of  the  world.  It  is  equally  true  of  this  country.  Many  ties  unite 
us  to  England.  Our  great  inheritance  through  her,  places  us  under 
everlasting  obligations  of  affection  and  loyalty.  We  are  united  by 
laws,  by  customs  and  by  literature. 

"We  must  be  free  or  die  who  speak   the   tongue 
That  Shakespeare  spake;  the  faith  and  morals  hold 
Which  Milton  held." 

But  the  most  intimate  and  vital  bond  of  all  is  religion,  and 
that  through  Methodism.  While  William  Pitt,  by  the  sword  of 
Wolfe  at  Quebec,  was  wresting  this  continent  from  Medevialism, 
John  Wesley,  at  Bristol,  was  making  his  way  among  the  multi- 
tudes with  a  great  message  from  God,  and  was  raising  up  a  host 
of  itinerants  who  were  to  carry  the  Gospel  and  civilization  through 
the  wilderness.  Quebec  and  Bristol  were  the  poles  on  which  the 
American  Continent  turned  into  a  great  orbit  of  freedom  and  holi- 
ness. Methodism  in  fellowship  with  other  Churches  has  put  its 
life  into  all  upward  and  forward  movements  of  the  race,  making  the 
program  of  Christ  its  own,  drawing  the  heart  ache  of  mankind  to 


100  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

itself  and  girding  itself  with  a  towel,  stooping  to  serve  the 
lowliest. 

Methodism  is  a  fellowship  of  glory. 

"The  glory  that  thou  gavest  me,  have  I  given  them,  that  they 
may  be  one  as  we  are  one."  That  is  the  glory  of  transmission, 
carrying  the  gift  of  God  to  the  whole  world,  and  the  glory  of  fellow- 
ship uniting  the  human  family  into  a  fellowship  of  love.  There  is 
a  difference  between  a  terminal  and  a  transmitter.  Plant  a  stone, 
and  it  is  stone  forever,  it  is  a  terminal,  no  gift  of  earth  or  sky  can 
change  it.  Plant  a  seed  and  it  grows  into  a  tree,  it  transmits  sun- 
light and  rain  into  fruit.  Judaism  became  a  terminal,  breaking 
away  from  human  fellowship  and  God  cast  it  aside.  Roman  Cathol- 
icism became  a  terminal,  aiming  only  at  its  own  aggrandizement, 
and  through  Luther  the  Gospel  was  transmitted  to  the  world. 
When  the  Church  of  England  was  fast  becoming  a  terminal,  new 
life  through  Wesley  was  transmitted  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  The 
twenty  millions  of  Methodists  throughout  the  world  speak  all  lan- 
guages and  the  scattered  races  of  men  hear  the  Gospel  preached, 
"in  the  language  wherein  they  were  born." 

The  glory  of  Christian  fellowship,  how  great  it  is! 

When  the  Church  on  earth  is  of  one  accord,  heaven  answers  in 
a  Pentecost.  The  burden  of  our  Lord's  prayer  before  his  death  was 
for  Christian  fellowship.  Divisions  and  jealousies  within  the 
Church  mar  its  witness  before  the  world,  halt  the  triumph  of  our 
Lord  and  delay  his  coming.  When  the  branch  is  magnified  above 
the  vine,  and  denominational  progress  above  the  kingdom,  the 
wounds  of  Christ  bleed  again.  The  greatest  advance  the  Church 
can  make  in  this  generation  for  herself  and  for  the  world,  is  in 
the  direction  of  Christ-like  fellowship.  The  scene  witnessed  yes- 
terday, I  believe,  is  prophetic  of  the  glorious  days  just  ahead  of  us. 
The  goodly  fellowship  of  Methodism  throughout  the  world  met  and 
communed  in  the  unity  of  love.  Brethren,  let  us  magnify  our  Lord 
by  loving  one  another  until  every  barrier  to  perfect  fellowship  dis- 
appears. Let  us  begin  the  forward  movement  within  our  own 
family  circle,  and  carry  it  forward  until  every  branch  of  the 
Christian  Church  shall  be  drawn  with  us  into  the  perfect  fellow- 
ship of  Christ  to  which  we  have  been  called,  that  together  we  may 
prepare  new  triumphal  entries  for  our  Lord  into  the  waiting  king- 
doms of  this  world. 

Walking  down  beautiful  George  Street,  in  this  city,  under  the 
trees  planted  by  that  Methodist  Saint,  Nathaniel  Dickey,  the  gift  of 
Ireland  to  Canada,  and  of  Canada  to  the  United  States,  and  who  but 
recently  entered  the  courts  above,  I  thought  of  our  fellowship  with 
other  lands,  through  choice  spirits  who  have  come  to  us,  and  who 
have  enriched  the  new  world  with  the  beauty  of  holiness.  I  thought 
also  of  that  "great  multitude"  beyond  our  ken,  "which  no  man  can 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  J.  A.  BRAY.  101 

number,  of  all  nations  and  kindreds  and  people  before  the  throne 
of  God  and  before  the  lamb"  and  felt  the  thrill  of  our  fellowship 
with  the  redeemed  in  heaven.  "Ye  are  come  to  Mt.  Zion,  the  city  of 
the  living  God." 

"One  army  of  the  living  God 
To  his  command  we  bow; 
Part  of  His  host  have  crossed  the  flood 
And  part  are  crossing  now." 

Through  fellowship  in  Christ  humanity  will  yet  be  one  in  holi- 
ness and  love  throughout  the  world,  and  the  will  of  God  be  done 
on  earth  as  in  heaven. 

The  second  appointed  address,  on  "Methodism  as  a  J03'- 
ous  Eeligion,"  was  given  by  the  Rev.  J.  A.  Bray^  D.  D.,  of  the 
Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church: 

In  the  unfolding  of  human  history  celebrated  men,  remark- 
able events  and  great  institutions  that  mark  their  period  or  cen- 
tury with  a  peculiar  distinction,  have  been  presented  from  Divinfe 
Truth.  From  the  beginning  here  and  there  the  scroll  is  made 
radiant  with  spots  that  glow  where  stands  or  has  stood  a  distin- 
guished man  or  a  human  institution,  the  lengthened  shadow  of  a 
great  man.  This  is  true  whether  we  contemplate  sacred  or  profane 
history.  In  truth  this  fact  stands  out  more  conspicuously  in  reli- 
gious history  than  elsewhere.  For  every  religion  rests  almost  wholly 
upon  the  religious  views  and  character  of  one  man  as  its  exponent. 

The  cylinder  revolves  and  Abraham,  the  Father  of  the  Faith- 
ful, appears  as  one  who  gives  impetus  to  Hebraism.  Succeeding 
this  Prince  was  the  "Great  Law-giver,"  who  on  Sinai's  lofty  smok- 
ing top  received  the  Divine  Laws,  and  the  pattern  after  which  the 
tabernacle  and  all  things  therein  were  made.  Moses  at  that  critical 
period  in  Israelitish  history  set  forth  and  expounded  Hebraism, 
which  has  been  thd  rallying  point  for  the  great  Jewish  race  until 
this  day. 

A  further  evolution  of  religious  history  and  Buddha  comes 
forth  with  that  largely  professed  but  Godless  religion.  In  Bud- 
dhism ancestors,  ancient  teaching  and  customs  are  embalmed,  which 
belief  fastens  upon  its  devotees  in  darkness  and  backwardness,  as 
well  as  cheerfulness. 

A  still  further  unfolding  and  the  Incarnate  "Word,  Shekinah's 
promise,  appears  in  harmony  with  the  divine  plan,  and  Chris- 
tianity bursts  forth  bearing  aloft  the  radiant  torch  of  hope  and 
good-will  to  all  men.  Faith  in  God  was  established.  Hope  for 
redemption  made  secure.  Men  that  walked  in  darkness  saw  a 
great  light.  Old  things  passed  away.  God  was  among  men. 
Whether  from  the  intensity  of  light  of  Divine  truth,  resulting  in 


102  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

dissensions  and  confusions  and  thus  beclouding  rather  than  clari- 
fying the  mind,  the  truth  is  that  for  many  centuries  Christianity 
as  revealed  by  Christ  was  in  obscurity. 

Catholicism  with  a  false  and  pompous  claim,  possessed  of  ar- 
rogance and  weighted  down  with  ceremonies,  enslaving  the  mind 
and  conscience  of  men,  reigned  supreme  for  centuries,  until  bold 
and  devoted  men  such  as  Martin  Luther,  John  Knox  and  John 
Huss,  plead  for  freedom  of  conscience  and  the  triumph  of  reason. 
Then  in  the  sixteenth  century  Protestantism,  that  victory  of  reason 
over  submission  and  abject  enslavement,  spread  over  the  greater 
part  of  the  European  continent.  It  was  a  light  in  the  valley,  an 
ark  for  the  wrecked,  a  hand  in  the  dark,  a  voice  to  the  lost,  and 
a  haven  to  the  helpless.  Yet  Protestantism  with  her  freedom  of 
conscience  and  of  thought  was  destined  to  separate  into  divisions 
of  distinct  religious  opinions  and  beliefs.  The  two  principal  di- 
visions, doctrinally  speaking,  into  which  Protestantism  divided  were 
Calvinism  and  Arminianism,  the  chief  adherents  of  the  latter  be- 
ing the  Methodists.  Calvinism  cries  aloud  that  God  has  decreed  aiid 
ordained  some  of  the  human  race  to  everlasting  life  and  others 
to  eternal  punishment.  Methodism  shouts  a  joyous  hope  that  "God 
desires  that  all  men  shall  be  saved,  gives  them  a  free  will  to  choose 
the  way  to  salvation,  and  promises  to  help  them  on  the  road." 

Calvinism  holds  that  infants  are  lost  or  saved,  accordingly  as 
they  are  predestined  by  the  Divine  will.  Methodism  holds  that  all 
infants  are  saved  through  imputed  righteousness.  Calvinism  de- 
clares that  "those  whom  God  has  chosen  to  eternal  life,  he  effect- 
ually calls  unto  salvation,  and  they  are  kept  by  him  in  progressive 
faith  and  righteousness  until  the  end."  Methodism  preaches  a  free 
and  full  salvation  to  the  world,  and  the  number  finally  saved  is 
limited  only  to  those  who  will;  "whosoever  will  let  him  come  and 
take  of  the  water  of  life  freely."  In  this  we  are  one.  For  wherever 
the  ba.nner  of  Methodism  is  unfurled,  hope  is  preached  for  the 
world.  Methodism  knows  neither  class  nor  condition,  kith  nor 
kin,  race  nor  color,  latitude  nor  longitude.  "Christ  for  the  world 
we  sing." 

From  that  day  in  Oxford  in  1729,  when  the  four  met  under  the 
leadership  of  John  Wesley,  a  religion  of  fire,  of  joy  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  was  an  accomplished  truth.  When  the  purpose  of  Methodism 
was  announced  as  being  "to  reform  the  nation  and  more  particu- 
larly the  Church,  and  to  spread  scriptural  holiness  over  the  land," 
the  world  felt  a  thrill  of  joy,  such  that  as  this  purpose  has  been 
heralded  over  land  and  sea,  nations  have  rejoiced  and  Methodism 
has  been  hailed  with  delight  as  this  purpose  has  been  wrought 
into  fruitful  results. 

When  Methodism  with  her  life-giving  institutions  was  estab- 
lished, a  joyous  religion  spread  among  the  people.     The  rich  seize 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  J.  A.  BRAY.  103 

upon  it  with  gladness,  the  poor  are  lifted  to  the  heights  of  ecstatic 
joy;  the  learned  are  made  happy;  the  simple  rejoice;  the  old  sing 
loud  hosannas;  the  young  shout  anthems  of  praise,  saints  adore 
and  sinners  fall  prostrate  at  the  mercy  seat. 

A  religion  that  promotes  a  feeling  of  oneness  among  its  fol- 
lowers and  emphasizes  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood 
of  all  men,  is  grounded  upon  the  eternal  verities  and  must  be  a 
joyous  religion.  The  value  of  the  institutions  of  Methodism  pro- 
motes not  only  oneness  in  organization,  but  a  oneness  in  mind  and 
spirit.  Among  some  of  the  characteristic  features  of  Methodism 
that  have  so  wonderfully  adapted  it  to  human  hearts  and  im- 
pulses and  sentiments  stand  the  following: 

Firstly.  The  simplicity  and  plainness  of  Methodism  have  ever 
been  among  her  distinguished  features.  The  Methodist  faith  is  a 
simple  faith.  The  Methodist  gospel  is  a  simple  gospel.  Others 
may  pride  themselves  on  the  philosophic  Sabbath  discourses,  deal- 
ing with  unsettled  scientific  questions.  They  may  dress  their 
sermons  in  the  garb  of  the  stilted  rhetorician  and  the  subtle  logi- 
cian, but  the  Methodist  knows  that  the  people  thrive  best  on  a 
simple  gospel,  plainly  preached  so  that  all  the  people  may  under- 
stand. Mr.  Law,  on  one  occasion,  in  addressing  Mr.  Wesley  said, 
"religion  is  the  most  simple  thing  in  the  world;  it  is  only  we  love 
Him  because  He  first  loved  us."  Methodism  is  bit  a  return  to  a 
simple  evangelical  work.  It  brings  back  the  days  of  spiritual 
fervor,  zeal  and  enthusiasm  of  the  apostles. 

Secondly.  What  shall  I  say  of  the  open  pulpit  and  even  of  the 
out-door  pulpit,  in  which  respect  Methodism  follows  the  custom 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ?  He  pi'eached  at  one  time  in  the  temple, 
at  another  from  a  boat  in  the  sea,  and  yet  at  another  the  mountain 
was  his  pulpit.  Methodism  preaches  the  gospel.  She  selects  a 
house,  or  sets  aside  a  stone;  mounts  a  stump  in  the  forest  or 
consecrates  a  hill.  The  people  must  have  the  word.  Wesley  and 
Whitefield  of  blessed  memory,  set  the  pace.  When  there  were  so 
many  thousands  of  hungering  souls  that  no  edifice  coulu  contain 
them,  the  fields  were  sought  where  the  teeming  hundreds  could 
hear  the  Gospel  and  fill  the  air  with  their  "Hallelujahs,  Aniens,  and 
Thank  God."  Many  are  the  Pentecostal  scenes  and  beautiful  ex- 
pressions witnessed  in  the  open  air  services. 

Thirdly.  The  old  Methodist  class  meeting  in  which  new  re- 
cruits of  repentant  sinners  and  veteran  "soldiers  of  the  cross" 
stand  side  by  side  and  bear  testimony  to  the  operation  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  upon  the  human  heart  and  tell  so  many  sweet  and  edifying 
experiences,  this  old  class  meeting  is  one  of  the  glorious  and  joy- 
giving  landmarks  of  Methodism. 

Fourthly.  I  must  not  omit  the  "love  feast"  and  the  Lord's 
Supper   celebrated    in    the   Methodistic   way,   with    sweet    melodies 


104  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

such  as  "Children  of  the  Heavenly  King,"  and  "Come  ye  that  love 
the  Lord."  The  unifying  influence  of  these  two  institutions  is 
peculiarly  strong. 

Fifthly.  The  dear  old  Methodist  mourners'  bench,  to  which 
millions  have  come  groaning  under  a  load  of  sin  and  whence  they 
have  gone  with  burdens  of  their  hearts  rolled  away,  whence  they 
have  gone  leaping  and  praising  God,  possessing  a  new  experience, 
exercising  faith  and  rejoicing  in  a  new  life  and  joining  in  the 
chorus,  "How  happy  every  child  of  grace."  And  it  joins  the 
hearts  of  those  saved  by  grace,  chanting  the  song  of  invitation, 
"Come  Sinners  to  the  Gospel  feast." 

These  institutions  have  a  rich  social  value  affording  the  most 
splendid  occasion  for  the  mingling  and  commingling  of  all  classes 
on  the  loftiest  plain  of  fellowship.  The  fellowship  is  enriched, 
sweetened  and  given  practical  value  through  the  spiritual,  social 
and  benevolent  features.  Every  Methodist  society  offers  oppor- 
tunities for  the  exercise  of  spiritual  gifts,  promotes  social  com- 
munion and  emphasizes  charity  with  system  and  order. 

Well  has  Methodism  been  called  Christianity  in  action.  Its 
earnestness,  zeal  and  enthusiasm  united  with  its  plain  gospel 
preaching,  and  its  simple  doctrine  of  free  grace  and  full  salvation 
make  it  remarkably  adapted  as  an  evangelical  religion  to  all  races 
and  conditions  of  men.  The  truth  of  this  is  attested  in  the  fact 
that  all  nations  of  the  world  are  joining  in  the  joyous  chorus  of  the 
world-wide  Methodism.  To  the  great  Methodist  gatherings  are 
coming  the  ends  of  the  world,  the  sons  of  Shem  from  their  tents,  the 
sons  of  Ham  out  of  the  devil-bush,  the  sons  of  Japheth  from  their 
skepticism,  agnosticism  and  atheism.  China  is  gradually  laying 
aside  Confucianism.  Japan  is  deserting  Shintoism.  India  is 
being  called  from  Brahmanism.  Africa  and  the  islands  of  the  sea  are 
leaving  their  idolatries.  From  everywhere  representing  diversity 
of  tongues  they  come  with  oneness  of  mind  and  heart  to  the  drum- 
tap  of  Universal  Methodism. 

The  President  :    "The  subject  is  now  open  for  debate." 

Bishop   E.   E.   Hoss,  D.   D.,   of  the   Methodist   Episcopal 

Church,  South : 

There  are  two  reasons  why  no  one  of  the  visible  Churches  can 
claim  to  be  the  true  Church.  The  true  Church  includes  all  believers 
in  all  countries  and  all  centuries,  and  none  others.  No  one  of  the 
visible  Churches  can  make  this  claim.  They  are  all  too  broad,  to 
begin  with.  They  include  some  people  that  are  not  true  believers. 
And  they  are  all  too  narrow  also,  for  no  one  of  them  includes  all 
true  believers.  There  never  was  a  clearer  piece  of  nonsense  than 
the  idea  of  one  universal  Church  maintained  by  tactual  succession 
from  the  time  of  the  apostles  down  to  the  present  day.  It  is  an 
old  fable  that  does  not  deserve  the  name  "cunningly  devised."    One 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  105 

of  the  secrets  of  Methodism  lies  in  the  fact  that  Wesley  failed  to 
secure  from  the  Bishop  of  London  episcopal  ordination  for  his 
Methodist  preachers,  though  he  tried  hard  to  do  it.  If  he  had  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  it  we  should  have  been  inoculated  with  the  suc- 
cessional  virus.  When  that  once  gets  into  the  blood  it  is  almost 
imposible  to  get  it  out.  When  they  undertake  to  build  a  monument 
to  the  good  Bishop  of  London  who  refused  to  ordain  Wesley's 
preachers,  I  shall  be  glad  to  contribute  my  last  cent.  Yet  there 
is  a  true  succession.  It  is  a  succesion  of  life  and  thought;  it  is 
not  a  succession  that  is  outward  and  tactual.  If  it  were,  there  is 
not  a  Church  on  earth  that  can  profess  that  it  has  it,  not  even  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church.  There  is  not  a  Romish  priest  to-day  that 
can  trace  his  apostolic  pedigree  back  to  apostolic  times.  As  for 
the  Church  of  England,  it  is  a  true  Church.  It  has  had  a  glorious 
history.  Nobody  reverences  it  more  than  I  do.  It  is  a  Church  of 
saints  and  of  martyrs,  the  Church  of  John  and  Charles  Wesley. 
But  it  is  not  "the"  true  Church.  The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  United  States  is  a  very  small  part  of  the  true  Church.  The 
last  time  I  was  in  London  I  was  invited  to  a  luncheon.  There  I 
was  interviewed.  The  next  thing  I  knew  I  was  called  the  "Bishop 
of  Tennessee."  One  gentleman  present  eyed  me  very  closely,  and 
came  and  looked  at  me  and  said,  "I  thought  Bishop  So-and  so  was 
the  Bishop  of  Tennessee."  I  said,  "He  is  the  Bishop  of  the  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  Church  in  Tennessee."  He  said,  "I  thought  that 
meant  the  Bishop  of  Tennessee."  I  said,  "He  is  bishop  of  a  small 
diocese;  but  I  am  bishop  of  a  quarter  of  a  million  people."  I  have 
never  seen  "the  true  Church,"  and  no  one  ever  will.  It  is  invisible. 
That  does  not  mean  that  it  is  not  real.  It  has  this  seal,  "The  Lord 
knoweth  them  that  are  His,"  and  "Let  every  one  that  nameth  the 
name  of  Christ  depart  from  all  iniquity."  I  am  not  particular 
about  outward  and  mechanical  union.  If  union  can  come  by  natural 
process,  well  and  good.  But  nobody  can  undertake  to  deliver  two 
million  members  in  one  bunch  to  any  organization.  If  he  does  he 
will  find. 

The  Rev.  Joseph  H.  Bateson",  of  the  British  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church : 

I  feel  constrained  to  tell  you  something  about  the  joyous  re- 
ligion of  our  men  in  the  British  army  and  navy;  because  one  of 
the  characteristics  of  the  men  who  serve  on  the  battleships  anid 
in  our  battalions  in  all  parts  of  the  British  empire  is  the  joy  that 
they  have  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  It  comes  out  in  many  ways. 
When  the  present  King  George  was  out  in  India  as  Prince  of 
Wales,  he  told  me  that  nothing  impressed  him  more  on  the  battle- 
ship that  brought  him  out  to  India  than  seeing  the  converted  sailors 
night  by  night  on  the  battleship  as  they  sang  and  held  their  meet- 
ings. He  would  go  to  some  secluded  place  on  the  ship  that  he 
might  listen  to  the  Christian  sailors  singing  the  Christian  hymns. 
On  the  Renown  the  finest  sailors  and  marines  in  the  navy  were 
selected  to  go  out  to  India  with  the  Prince  of  Wales;  and  on  that 
ship  we  had  a  larger  proportion  of  converted  sailors  than  on  any 
other  ship  in  the  navy.  The  best  soldiers  and  sailors  include  the 
largest  proportion  of  Christian  men.  The  Christian  sailors  are  in 
the  habit  of  designating  some  of  the  favorite  hymns  by  number. 
In  Victoria  Street,  London,  an  old  sailor  was  acting  as  conductor 


106  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

of  a  'bus,  and  seeing  me  on  the  pavement  he  cried  out,  "494,  sir;" 
and  I  called  back,  "500."  The  people  must  have  thought  we  were 
two  lunatics.  If  we  had  the  joyousness  of  Christ,  if  only  we  could 
show  to  the  world  by  joyous  faces  that  we  have  got  something, 
people  would  want  it.  The  other  day  four  men  from  a  battleship 
went  out  to  City  Road  in  London,  and  began  to  hold  an  open  air 
service  of  their  own.  A  policeman  came  up  and  said,  "Who  are 
you?  You  are  wearing  the  king's  uniform."  "Yes,"  said  they,  "we 
serve  the  king,  but  the  King  of  kings  too." 

The  Rev.  H.  L.  Cloud,  of  the  Metliodist  Episcopal  Church : 

I  represent  the  Cherokee  Indians.  Speaking  about  Christ  and 
God  the  Father,  I  was  made  to  recognize  this  one  thing,  that  from 
old  England  yonder  where  Wesley  was  norn,  we  have  learned  to 
love  him.  And  in  the  log  cabin  where  I  was  born,  where  father 
and  mother  learned  to  pray,  and  in  the  orphan  home  where  I  was 
converted,  I  learned  the  joyous  expression  of  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ.  And  I  thank  God  for  it.  I  thank  God  for  Methodism,  and 
for  the  gosp°l  that  saves  the  nation  from  destruction.  I  might  say 
again,  that  I  have  been  praying  that  I  might  have  the  chance  of 
seeing  every  part  of  the  world.  And  the  world  is  liere  to-night, 
and  I  see  them — a  wonderful  thing!  I  have  been  praying  that 
God  would  give  us  not  iLechanical  but  natural  elements  of  union, 
and,  in  His  wise  providence,  would  make  for  America  one  united 
Methodist  Church  for  the  spread  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 
The  Indians  and  the  men  I  love  in  Oklahoma  are  hoping  the  time 
will  come  when  we  will  have  one  Methodist  Church.  When  we 
believe  in  God  and  heaven  and  our  one  Church,  they  will  believe 
us  quicker,  and  we  will  have  increase  instead  of  decrease.  And 
the  time  will  come  when  the  love  of  God  shall  pervade  every  heart 
in  Oklahoma,  and  the  Western  country  shall  know  more  about  the 
joyous  religion  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

The  Eev.  M.  C.  B.  Mason,  D.  D.,  of  tlie  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church: 

I  have  just  found  out  how  providential  it  is  that  Methodism  as 
■a  joyous  religion  has  so  affected  the  life  of  the  negro  of  America, 
yesterday  and  to-day.  For  somehow  the  negro  turns  either  to  water 
on  the  one  hand  or  fire  on  the  other.  The  joyousness  of  Meth- 
odism during  the  years  gone  by  kept  the  slave  hopeful,  kept  him 
from  whining,  kept  him  believing  that  God  was  on  the  throne,  and 
that  by-and-by  he  would  have  a  man's  chance  even  in  America.  A 
little  while  ago  a  company  of  negroes  met  in  the  city  of  Baltimore 
for  five  days,  to  study  the  relation  of  the  negro  to  American  life 
and  civilization;  and  then  five  days  at  Norflolk,  five  days  at  New 
Orleans,  and  five  days  at  St.  Louis.  I  can  tell  you  what  these  men 
might  have  talked  about.  They  might  have  talked  about  the  in« 
consistency  of  Christian  people  here  and  there,  as  they  were  able 
to  see  it  and  interpret  it.  They  might  have  talked  about  the  work 
of  the  mob  here  and  there.  But  they  did  not.  I  was  profoundly 
interested  in  that  magnificent  address  this  morning  of  our  dis- 
tinguished bishop  from  the  South,  whom  we  all  know  and  highly 
respect.  I  was  very  glad  to  hear  him  say  that  that  jury  in  Vir- 
ginia went  down  on  their  knees.  And  I  was  saying  to  myself  that 
quite  often  the  black  man  accused  of  crime  has  no  jury  at  all.    But 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  107 

under  all  these  circumstances  the  negro  has  kept  sweet,  has  not 
whined,  has  allowed  no  bitterness  to  enter  his  heart.  Somehow, 
he  believes  that  a  man  who  loves  God,  somewhere,  sometime,  will 
get  the  place  of  a  man  among  his  brethren  in  American.  Ah!  my 
brethren!  you  will  never  know  what  Methodism  has  done  for  the 
black  man  in  keeping  him  sweet,  contented,  not  whining,  and  not 
complaining,  not  fault  finding.  What  conclusion  do  you  think  those 
negroes  came  to  after  those  twenty  days  of  deliberation.  They 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  what  the  black  man  needs  most,  his 
most  urgent  need,  is  ethical  and  moral  training. 

The  President:  "The  Conference  will  be  interested  to 
know  that  the  Chief  of  the  Creek  Indians,  Mr.  Moty  Tiger, 
has  got  the  eye  of  the  President.  He  conies  before  you  realiz- 
ing the  joyousness  of  this  religion  ;  and  to  deepen  and  strengthen 
this  joy  he  wants  the  opportunity  of  looking  into  your  faces. 
Bishop  Hoss  will  explain  the  condition." 

Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss : 

He  is  the  present  Chief,  and  will  be  the  last  Chief,  of  the 
Muskogee  Indians,  the  very  tribe  to  which  John  Wesley  went  in 
Georgia.  Wesley  went  back  imagining  that  his  work  had  been  a 
failure.  But  nearly  that  whole  tribe  now  belong  to  the  Methodist 
Church.  This  is  the  present  chief;  and  he  simply  wishes  to  look 
into  your  faces. 

The   Rev.   Joseph   Johnson,   of  the   Primitive   Methodist 

Church : 

I  should  like  to  say  just  one  word  on  the  subject  of  Methodism 
and  Christian  fellowship.  I  think  one  of  the  perils  of  modern 
Methodism  is  that  we  ai'e  in  danger  of  undervaluing  Christian  fel- 
lowship. The  class-meeting,  which  has  been  one  of  the  distinctive 
features  of  Methodism  throughout  its  history,  is  in  danger  of  being 
put  into  the  background  of  our  organizations.  And  I  fear  some- 
times that  we  ministers  do  not  sufficiently  emphasize  the  import- 
ance and  the  value  of  this  part  of  our  Church  organization.  Many 
of  us  had  the  joy  of  hearing  the  wonderful  sermon  which,  at  the 
opening  of  the  last  Ecumenical  Conference  in  London,  was  preached 
by  Bishop  Galloway — a  sermon  which  we  shall  never  forget.  It 
was  impressed  on  my  memory  as  no  other  sermon  ever  has  been 
during  my  fifty  years.  As  I  think  of  that  sermon,  and  think  of 
the  emphasis  that  Bishop  Galloway  put  on  the  subject  of  Christian 
fellowship,  I  feel  impressed  more  and  more  with  the  fact  that 
through  the  whole  of  Methodism  we  need  to  restore  the  class-meet- 
ing to  its  proper  place.  I  have  the  joy  and  the  honor  of  being 
associated  with  one  of  the  Methodist  missions  in  London.  We  have 
the  great  pleasure  of  seeing  men  converted,  drunkards  made  sober, 
gamblers  made  honest.  We  emphasize  in  that  mission  the  import- 
ance of  the  class-meeting.  We  have  a  membership  to-day  of  some- 
thing like  four  hundred,  and  have  at  least  sixteen  class  meetings 
week  by  week.  And  these  men,  reclaimed  from  the  lowest  depths, 
are  encouraged  to  go  to  these  class-meetings.  One  good  man  who. 
for  many  years  had  been  leading  a  life  of  deepest  degradation  and 


108  ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

sin,  now  comes  to  the  class-meeting  week  by  week.  I  notice  that 
one  phrase  he  uses  most  in  his  prayer  is,  "0  God,  make  this  my 
home."  He  means  more  than  you  and  I  realize.  He  wants  that 
Church  to  be  made  his  spiritual  home,  in  which  he  can  have  fel- 
lowship with  his  brothers  and  sisters.  I  should  like  to  emphasize 
the  importance  that  we  Methodists  keep  to  the  forefront  of  our 
institutions  the  class-meeting.  Let  us  have  our  organizations.  But 
I  do  feel  that  one  of  the  most  important  of  our  institutions  is  the 
class-meeting;  and  that  if  a  man  can  not  find  a  real  joy  in  attend- 
ing a  Methodist  class-meeting  there  is  something  wrong  with  his 
own  experience. 

Secretary  Ca.rroll  gave  a  notice,  and  the  session  closed 
at  9  P.  M.,  with  the  benediction  pronounced  by  the  presiding 
officer. 


THIRD  DAY, 

Friday, October  6th, 


Topic:     "THE  FOriEIGN   MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 


FIRST  SESSION. 


TIIE  session  began  at  10  o'clock,  under  the  presidency  of 
Bisliop   C.   S.   S.MiTii,  D.*  D.,  of  the   African  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church.     Bishop  C.  T.  Shaffer,  D.  D.,  of  the  same 
Church,  had  charge  of  the  devotional  services. 
Hymn  712  was  sung: 

"Eternal  Father,  thou  hast  said, 
That  Christ  all  glory  shall  obtain." 

The  Bishop  read  for  the  Scriptural  selections  Matthew  28 : 
18-20  and  Acts  28:  11-31,  and  offered  prayer. 
Another  hymn  was  sung : 

"All  hail  the  power  of  Jesus'  name." 

Secretary  Ja:mes  Chapmax  made  various  announcements 
concerning  the  printed  copy  of  the  daily  record,  concerning 
the  missionary  mass-meeting  to  be  held  in  the  evening,  and 
one  or  two  other  matters. 

He  also  read  a  cablegram  signed  by  the  three  missionary 
Bishops  for  India  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  viz., 
Bishops  Oldham,  Warne,  and  Robixsox.    The  cablegram  read : 

"Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  India,  sends  greetings.  2  Thess. 
1:  11,  12." 

This  passage  read  as  follows:  "Wherefore  also  we  pray  always 
for  you,  that  our  God  would  count  you  worthy  of  this  calling  and 
fulfill  all  the  good  pleasure  of  His  goodness,  and  the  work  of  faith 
with  power:  that  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  may  be  glori- 
fied in  j-ou  and  ye  in  Him  according  to  the  grace  of  our  God  and 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

109 


110  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

Oil  motion,  the  Secretaries  were  ordered  to  send  a  message 

of  acknowledgement  to  this  cablegram,  and  the  following  was 

sent : 

Toronto,  Canada,  October  6tli. 
"Warne,  Lucknow,  India: 

Thanks.     Hebrews  13:  20,  21.*  Carroll. 

*  "Now  the  God  of  peace,  that  brought  again  from  the  dead  our 
Lord  Jesus,  that  great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep,  through  the  blood 
of  the  everlasting  covenant,  make  you  perfect  in  every  good  work 
to  do  His  will,  working  in  you  that  which  is  well  pleasing  in  His 
sight,  through  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom  be  glory  forever  and  ever. 
Amen." 

Secretary  Simpson"  Johnson,  of  the  Business  Committee, 
reported  for  that  Committee,  as  follows : 

The  one  statement  I  have  to  make  is  this,  that  we  were  directed 
to  meet  the  Arrangements  Committee  in  order  that  some  better  ar- 
rangement might  be  made  for  distributing  letters  in  the  room  be- 
hind this  church.  We  found  that  that  committee  had  already  taken 
action.  Matters  were  very  much  better  yesterday  than  the  first 
day;  they  are  still  better  this  morning.  The  postal  authorities  of 
Toronto  are  exceedingly  anxious  that  this  shall  be  promptly  and 
efficiently  done.  They  and  the  Arragements  Committee  are  co-op- 
erating with  us  in  order  that  there  may  be  perfection  in  this  matter 
of  obtaining  letters.     We  are  under  obligation  to  them. 

The  regular  order  of  the  day  was  taken  up,  and  the  Rev. 
T.  H.  Lewis,  D.  D.,  President  of  the  Metliodist  Protestant 
General  Conference,  presented  the  essay  on  "Responsibility  of 
Methodism  in  World-wide  Evangelism:" 

Responsibility  arises  from  three  factors.  (1)  A  need  known. 
(2)  A  capability  to  supply  the  need  felt,  and  (3)  A  call  to  em- 
ploy the  capability  heard.  Sometimes  there  may  be  a  sense  of 
responsibility  without  an  accompanying  recognition  of  all  these 
factors;  and  sometimes  responsibility  may  be  denied  because  one 
of  them  is  absent.  But  when  they  are  all  consciously  present, 
responsibility  can  not  be  evaded  without  loss  of  moral  self-respect. 
If  I  know  a  need  and  know  I  can  supply  it  and  know  I  am  called  to 
do  so,  I  can  not  refuse  without  being  recreant  to  the  highest  obli- 
gations of  the  noblest  part  of  my  nature. 

The  responsibility  of  Methodism  in  world-wide  Evangelism  is 
an  instance  where  all  the  elements  of  responsibility  present  them- 
selves with  emphasis.  Never  was  the  need  for  the  gospel  as  well 
known  as  it  is  now.    Expanding  knowledge  of  the  world  and  pro- 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  T.  H.  LEWIS.  Ill 

founder  knowledge  of  human  nature  made  possible  by  the  com- 
mercial demands  and  scientific  curiosity  of  our  age  have  only  made 
more  manifest  the  world-wide  destitution  and  unhappiness  for 
which  no  remedy  is  possible  but  the  gospel. 

No  Christians  know  better  than  Methodists  that  they  have  the 
capacity  to  supply  this  need.  They  know  in  their  own  experience 
the  value  and  efficacy  of  the  gospel.  They  know  from  their  own 
history  its  marvelous  success.  Jesus  in  the  synagogue  at  Naza- 
reth, proclaiming  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord,  and  His  mission 
to  deliver  captives,  to  heal  the  broken  hearted,  and  to  preach  good 
tidings  to  the  poor,  was  re-incarnated  in  Methodism,  claiming  the 
world  as  its  parish,  and  evangelizing  as  its  sole  business  and  joy. 
In  a  little  more  than  a  hundred  years  it  has  gone  around  the 
world,  scattering  fire  on  the  earth  and  spreading  Scriptural  Holi- 
ness over  all  lands.  "The  little  one  has  become  a  thousand,  and 
the  small  one  a  strong  nation."  And  everywhere  and  in  every  case 
it  has  demonstrated  in  millions  of  instances  that  its  gospel  is 
"the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  everyone  that  believeth." 

So  clear,  then,  is  our  sense  of  this  need  and  of  our  ability  to 
supply  it.  There  remains  the  third  element  of  our  responsibility, 
to  which  this  paper  is  to  be  devoted;  the  call  that  lays  upon 
Methodists  responsibility  in  world-wide  evangelism.    Whence  is  it? 

(1)     It  is  the  call  of  the  Master. 

"Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature,"  although  spoken  at  the  close  of  His  earthly  ministry,  was 
not  an  afterthought  of  Jesus.  It  embodied  the  philosophy  of  His 
call  from  the  beginning.  He  called  those  who  followed  Him,  "dis- 
ciples," and  afterwards  "witnesses;"  which  is  a  logical  sequence 
always  observed,  for  men  always  come  to  Jesus,  first  to  learn  and 
then  to  testify.  The  first  thing  that  Jesus  did  to  the  man  deaf  and 
dumb  was  to  put  his  fingers  into  his  ears;  and  after  his  ears  were 
opened,  the  string  of  his  tongue  was  loosed.  So  it  is  in  all  spiritual 
recovery.  The  power  to  hear  is  immediately  transformed  into  a 
desire  to  tell.  The  easiest  obligation  imposed  upon  a  disciple  is  to 
tell  what  he  has  felt  and  seen ;  for  the  tidings  make  their  own 
wings. 

How  much  importance  Jesus  attached  to  this  telling  is  signifi- 
cantly indicated  in  the  fact  that  the  promise  of  His  peculiar 
presence  is  always  connected  with  some  form  of  witnessing.  "Where 
two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  my  name,  there  am  1." 
"When  ye  shall  be  brought  before  kings  and  governors  •  ♦  *  » 
for  a  testimony  *  *  ♦  *  it  shall  be  given  you  in  that  same 
hour  what  ye  shall  speak."  "Ye  are  witnesses  *  *  *  and, 
behold,  I  send  the  promise  of  my  Father  upon  you."  "Go  ye  there- 
fore, and  teach  all  nations;    *    *    *    and,  lo,  1  am  with  you  always." 

Witnessing  is  the  supreme  proof  of  loyalty  which  Jesus  always 


112  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

demands.  To  the  man  delivered  from  the  legion  of  demons  who 
prayed  that  he  might  be  with  Him,  Jesus  said,  "Go  home  and 
shoto" — "tell  it  over  and  over" — .  The  silent  disciple  was  named 
Judas,  who  kissed  his  Lord  but  said  nothing.  And  the  greatest  of 
them  all  said,  "If  I  preach  the  gospel  I  have  nothing  to  glory  of; 
for  necessity  is  laid  upon  me." 

How  impressive,  too,  is  tiiat  declaration  of  the  Master  connect- 
ing His  coming  again  in  majesty  to  sit  on  the  throne  of  His  glory 
with  the  fulfillment  of  their  mission  of  witnessing!  "This  gospel 
shall  be  preached  in  the  whole  world  for  a  testimony  unto  all 
nations;  and  then  shall  the  end  come."  Only  then  can  the  Church 
pray  consistently,  "Even  so,  come,  Lord  Jesus,"  when  it  runs  quickly 
to  bring  all  nations  word. 

And  may  I  not  add,  without  seeming  to  boast,  that  the  in- 
timate way  in  which  we  Methodists  claim  to  have  learned  of  Jesus, 
lays  upon  us  an  increased  responsibility  of  witnessing?  If  all  who 
know  Him  must  tell,  surely  those  who  know  Him  best  must  v/itness 
most. 

This  is  the  call  of  the  Master.  By  a  command  we  dare  not 
question;  by  a  love  we  can  never  repay;  by  a  promise  comprehend- 
ing all  good;  by  the  only  accepted  proof  of  loyalty;  aad  by  a 
majestic  hope  involving  a  world-consummafion.  He  is  calling  His 
disciples  to  publish  the  tidings,  "which  shall  be  to  all  people." 

(2)     It  is  the  call  of  the  Field. 

"The  field  is  the  world,"  and  therefore  nothing  less  than  world- 
wide evangelism  can  fill  up  the  measure  of  our  responsibility. 
When  the  time  drew  nigh  for  the  fulfillment  of  the  promise  of  a 
coming  Messiah,  God  sent  not  only  John  the  Baptist,  but  Caesar  the 
Conquerer,  "to  prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord."  Then,  for  the  first 
time  in  human  history,  there  arose  on  earth  a  universal  empire 
and  along  with  it  language,  laws,  customs  and  communication  that 
made  the  whole  world  one  kingdom.  This  was  God's  signature  of 
the  "due  time"  for  a  universal  religion.  This  was  the  reason  the 
narrow  limits  of  Palestine  did  not  shut  in  a  gospel  intended  for  all 
people;  and  the  disciples  could  go  "everywhere  preaching  the  "Word." 
The  world  was  ready  and  the  disciples  heard  its  call. 

But  how  much  vaster  is  the  significance  of  the  call  of  the  field 
to-day ! 

(a)  IN  EXTENT:  On  a  map  where  one  could  cover  the 
Roman  Empire  with  his  thumb,  it  would  take  his  hand  to  cover 
the  modern  world.  Great  Britain  rules  over  more  than  three  times 
as  many  subjects  as  acknowledged  the  rule  of  Augustus;  and  the 
United  States  covers  more  territory  than  all  the  Roman  world  em- 
braced. Either  China,  India,  Africa  or  Turkey  offers  a  larger 
world  for  evangelizing  to-day  than  the  whole  world  knew  at  the 
time  of  St.  Paul. 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  T.  H.  LEWIS.  113 

(h)  IN  ACCESSIBILITY:  The  great  Roman  roads,  the  two 
universal  languages  and  the  prevailing  security  due  to  respect  for 
Roman  authority,  opened  the  world  to  the  first  missionaries.  But 
a  missionary  can  now  make  the  circuit  of  the  globe,  preaching  a 
sermon  in  every  capital  of  the  world,  in  less  time  than  it  took 
Caesar  to  march  his  legions  from  Rome  to  Britain.  If  the  whole 
population  "from  every  nation  under  Heaven"  had  come  together  at 
Jerusalem  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  to  hear  in  their  own  languages 
the  mighty  works  of  God,  the  congregation  would  have  been  smaller 
than  could  now  be  assembled  to  hear  the  Gospel  in  the  English  lan- 
guage alone. 

(c)  IN  READINESS:  Everywhere  in  this  vast  world  is  seen 
a  great  awakening.  Statesmen,  industrial  leaders  and  even  ob- 
servant tourists  confirm  the  statement  of  Mr.  John  R.  Mott,  that 
"in  all  history  there  has  not  been  a  period  when  such  vast  multi- 
tudes of  people  were  in  the  midst  of  such  stupendous  changes 
economic,  social,  educational  and  religious."  The  events  indicating 
this  ferment  have  been  chronicled  in  our  newspapers  and  empha- 
sized in  speeches  and  books  until  they  scarcely  arouse  even  intel- 
lectual excitement  any  longer.  Yet  they  mean  nothing  less  than 
that  three-fourths  of  the  human  race  are  just  now  arousing  from 
the  physical,  intellectual  and  moral  torpor  of  heathenism,  and  are 
beginning  to  stretch  forth  their  hands  for  larger  and  better  things. 

Imagine  what  it  would  have  meant  if  the  first  disciples  had 
delayed  to  go  into  all  the  world  until  the  sceptre  had  departed  from 
Rome  and  the  world  had  returned  to  its  anarchic  and  barbaric 
fragments.  But  the  crisis  we  are  facing  is  infinitely  more  serious. 
A  thousand  millions,  now  without  the  gospel,  awakening  to  a  new 
national  consciousness,  arming  themselves  with  the  new  military, 
commercial  and  educational  ideas,  abandoning  outworn  religions, 
and  waiting  for  the  word  to  march!  Think  of  it,  you  Christian 
men,  who  know  so  well  what  they  need,  and  know  so  well  what 
you  can  give  them,  and  know  so  well,  too,  that  the  present  insta- 
bility can  not  continue  and  that  if  these  millions  crystallize  into 
satisfaction  with  modern  ideas  without  Christianity  it  will  be  un- 
told generations  before  another  such  opportunity  occurs!  Is  not 
this  call  of  the  field  such  a  one  as  the  Christian  world  has  never 
heard  before?  And  does  it  not  demand  of  us  men  and  time  and 
money,  and  these  in  infinitely  larger  measure  than  we  have  yet 
dreamed  of?  Is  it  not  a  call  for  singleness  of  heart,  for  persistency 
of  purpose,  for  sacrifice  of  ease  and  endurance  of  hardness,  for 
sublime  consecration  to  a  sublime  ideal,  "that  we  may  accomplish 
our  course^  and  the  ministry  which  we  have  received  from  the  Lord 
Jesus  to  testify  the  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God?" 

(3)     It  is  the  call  of  John  Wesley. 

All  that  has  been  said  hitherto  might  have  been  said  to  any 
8 


114  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

Christian  assembly  with,  equal  appropriateness;  for  the  responsi- 
bility of  Methodism  in  world-wide  evangelism  is  in  most  respects 
identical  with  that  of  other  Christians.  Yet  perhaps  every  man's 
responsibility  is  peculiar;  if  in  no  other  respect,  at  least  in  its 
impulse.  So  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  assume  that  Methodists 
would  discover  motives  for  this  universal  duty  peculiar  to  them- 
selves, and  constituting  for  them  a  peculiar  responsibility.  This  is 
what  I  mean  by  the  call  of  John  Wesley. 

John  Wesley  was  a  foreign  missionary  before  he  was  properly 
a  Methodist;  but  his  venture  in  America  was  barren  of  results,  as 
to  its  primary  intention,  fruitful  as  it  was  in  God's  design  for  him. 
It  is  also  true  that  no  systematic  effort  for  world-wide  evangelism 
was  begun  by  Methodists — or  by  other  Christians — until  about 
twenty-five  years  after  Wesley's  death.  Yet  evangelism  is  essen- 
tially a  Wesleyan  movement,  being  in  fact,  the  heart  of  Methodism; 
and  its  world-wide  expansion  was  always  inevitable.  This  arose 
not  from  the  doctrine  preached,  or  the  administrative  polity 
practised  by  Methodists.  For,  although  these  fitted  admirably  into 
such  a  design,  they  were  but  the  outward  signs  of  the  real  and  vital 
peculiarity  of  Methodists.  They  preached  a  universal  Gospel  for 
a  universal  need;  a  universal  call  to  a  universal  capability, 
and  a  universal  holiness  by  the  power  of  a  universal 
Helper.  But  they  were  not  "Universalists"  in  that  erron- 
eous application  of  the  term  claimed  by  those  who  are  really 
nothing  but  "Fatalists."  They  preached  a  conditional  salvation; 
not  in  the  sense  of  arbitrary  exceptions  and  limitations  impossible 
to  overcome;  but  in  the  true  sense  of  alternatives  submitted  to 
human  choice;  a  salvation  universally  effective  on  condition  of  its 
being  believed  in  and  accepted,  and  wrought  out  in  well-being  and 
in  well-doing. 

Such  a  salvation,  among  such  a  people,  would  involve  by 
natural  selection  a  policy  giving  scope  to  self-denial,  obedience, 
consecration  and  efficiency.  Many  forms  would  be  rejected  because 
they  offered  no  help  in  these  matters,  although  consecrated  by  long 
use;  and  many  new  forms  would  be  adopted  because  they  rhinistered 
to  these,  although  rude  and  wanting  in  liturgical  beauty.  Hence 
came  the  class  meeting,  the  camp-fire,  where  the  host  might  be 
gathered  for  fellowship,  counsel  and  inspiration ;  the  itinerancy, 
the  sacrament  of  renunciation,  and  the  tactics  whereby  the  host 
might  be  put  in  line  and  manipulated  with  order  and  efficiency; 
and  the  revival,  the  battlefield,  ultima  ratio  of  Methodists  as  well 
as  of  kings. 

'  But  both  of  these,  the  doctrine  and  the  polity,  were  but  the 
mechanical  exponents  of  the  real  peculiarity  of  Methodists.  Pierce 
a  Methodist  until  he  bleeds,  and  you  find  not  a  dogma,  nor  a  rubric, 
hut  a  throbbing  heart.     For  him   regeneration  is  not  a  figure   of 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  T.  H.  LEWIS.  115 

speech,  nor  a  magic  formula  in  baptism,  but  a  real  birth  into  a 
real  life,  a  spiritual  revolution,  the  immediate  and  supernatural 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  For  him  the  greatest  fact  and  the  gladdest 
fact  is  that  "he  has  passed  out  of  death  into  life,"  that  "he  is  alive 
unto  God  through  Jesus  Christ."  This  new  life  is  certified  in  his 
consciousness,  it  pulsates  in  all  his  members,  it  give  impulse  and 
direction  to  all  his  actions,  it  is  a  well  constantly  springing  up,  a 
tide  increasing  abundantly  until  it  swallows  up  the  old  sin  and 
death  to  make  way  for  perfect  holiness  in  the  fear  of  God.  For 
him  this  new  life  is,  among  other  things  a  communication  of  new 
power;  power  with  himself,  power  with  other  men  and  power  with 
God.  It  is  heart-power  rather  than  mind-power  but  it  is  both;  for 
it  rules  the  heart  through  a  renewed  mind.  It  breaks  the  crust  of 
custom  and  formality  and  "purges  his  conscience  from  dead  works 
to  serve  the  living  God."  It  gives  him  mastery  over  his  nature  and 
subdues  in  him  the  riot  of  lust.  It  strengthens  him  with  might 
against  all  the  strongholds  of  evil,  so  that  he  overturns  the  king- 
dom of  darkness  and  rejoices  in  tribulation  also.  Without  resist- 
ing, it  breaks  the  spirit  of  the  mob.  Without  argument,  it  con- 
vinces gainsayersJ.  Without  conceding  anything,  it  persuades 
sinners,  and  multiplies  believers  without  purse  or  sword.  It  opens 
a  new  way  to  peace,  and  peace  breaks  forth  into  joy;  because  it 
has  conquered  uncertainty  and  knows  God  as  a  real  Father  and 
Jesus  as  a  real  Savior  and  the  Spirit  as  a  real  Witness.  Prayers 
become  prayer  wherein  deep  answers  to  deep.  Heaven  is  brought 
near,  love  puts  on  omnipotence,  and  the  chiefest  of  sinners  taber- 
nacles in  the  Holy  of  Holies. 

Now  when  God  thus  raises  up  the  poor  out  of  the  dust,  and 
lifts  up  the  needy  from  the  dung-hill  to  make  them  sit  with  princes 
and  inherit  the  throne  of  glory,  what  will  follow?  I  do  not  ask 
what  will  God  require  of  such  a  man;  but  what  will  he  require  of 
himself?  The  answer  to  this  question  ought  to  define  the  responsi- 
bility of  Methodists  in  world-wide  evangelism. 

(1)  And  first,  if  the  experience  of  a  Methodist  has  been  cor- 
rectly delineated  in  what  has  been  said,  he  has  a  motive  for  evan- 
gelism that  seriously  affects  his  responsibility,  it  being  nothing  less 
in  fact  than  the  preservation  of  his  experience.  "For  the  love  of 
Christ  constraineth  us;  because  we  thus  judge,  that  one  died  for 
all,  therefore  all  died;  and  He  died  for  all,  that  they  that  live 
should  no  longer  live  unto  themselves,  but  unto  Him  who  for  their 
sakes  died  and  rose  again."  There  is  the  general  motive.  But 
this  new  life  is,  for  a  Methodist,  not  a  theological  abstraction  but 
a  real  experience.  Hence  it  must  be  subject  to  the  law  of  all  life; 
it  must  reproduce  its  kind.  "Whosoever  will  save  his  life  shall 
lose  it."  The  man  most  alive  is  thereby  most  obliged  to  send  out 
bis  life  into  other  lives,  to  reproduce  his  experience  In  other  men, 


116  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

if  he  would  not  suffer  the  loss  of  the  experience  himself.  Mr. 
Spurgeon  said  it  was  not  so  much  a  question  whether  the  heathen 
would  be  lost,  but  whether  we  could  be  saved,  if  we  did  not  send 
tnem  the  gospel.  This  is  emphatically  true  of  Methodists;  for  the 
life  which  they  live  by  faith  in  the  Son  of  God  must  be  a  sterile 
and  exhausted  life  except  as  it  gives  itself,  as  He  gave  Himself, 
that  others  might  have  life  and  have  it  more  abundantly. 

(2)  Again,  Methodists  claim  to  have  received  a  new  and 
peculiar  power;  a  power  which  they  are  not  afraid  to  say  is  of  God, 
and  is  demonstrated  to  be  of  God,  not  only  in  the  marvelous  trans- 
formation accomplished  in  their  own  lives,  but  also  in  the  still 
more  marvelous  expansion  of  Methodism  in  the  world.  We  have 
been  given  a  peculiar  power  over  sinners.  Our  societies  have  not 
been  recruited  by  transfers  from  other  denominations,  but  by  trans- 
lations from  the  kingdom  of  darkness.  "We  have  this  God-given 
power  multiplied  by  eighteen  million  individuals,  and  reinforced 
by  education,  talent,  energy  and  money  to  an  extent  that  paralyzes 
computation.  So  tremendous  is  the  mere  consideration  of  possi- 
bilities in  the  evangelizing  power  of  Methodism,  that  it  will  not 
seem  boastful  at  all,  but  a  sober  estimate  of  our  power,  to  declare 
that  the  Methodist  body  alone,  without  doing  more  than  the  Wes- 
leys  did  in  Great  Britain  or  than  Asbury  did  in  America,  could 
carry  the  glad  tidings  to  every  soul  of  the  thousand  millions  who 
now  sit  in  darkness  in  less  than  ten  years. 

It  is  truly  an  awful  reflection,  the  heavy  toll  of  responsibility 
which  power  everywhere  exacts.  We  are  familiar  with  it  in  human 
affairs  but  note  the  significance  of  the  same  disproportion  in  the 
gospel:  "to  whom  they  commit  much,  of  him  they  will  ask" — not 
much,  but  "the  more."  If  the  servant  with  but  one  talent  was 
"wicked  and  slothful"  for  hiding  it,  what  shall  the  recompense  be 
of  those  who  bury  five  talents?  And  if  Methodists  have  been  en- 
trusted with  a  world-wide  Evangel,  and  a  power,  which  not  only 
in  the  gospel  but  in  their  own  selves  they  know  is  the  power  of 
God,  how  shall  they  escape  the  greater  condemnation  if  they 
neglect  so  great  salvation? 

(3)  Finally,  our  responsibility  must  be  measured  by  our 
opportunity.  I  am  not  now  thinking  of  the  field  "white  unto 
harvest,"  nor  of  the  critical  hour  in  national,  social  and  economic 
life;  for  these  opportunities  are  not  of  our  making,  and  we  are 
responsible  only  for  using  them.  But  I  am  rather  thinking  of 
those  conditions  of  success  wholly  within  our  own  power,  and 
which  mean  more  to  the  final  result  so  far  as  we  are  concerned 
than  all  other  elements  combined.  A  man  is  responsible  not  only 
for  all  he  can  do  under  given  circumstances,  but  for  all  the  cir- 
cumstances of  his  own  making  which  prevent  him  from  doing 
more.     I  will  mention  but  one  of  these. 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  T.  H.  LEWIS.  117 

Without  presuming  to  speak  for  other  lands,  I  will  venture  to 
express  my  profound  conviction  of  the  responsibility  of  American 
Methodists  in  this  matter.  It  is  that  we  are  keeping  ourselves 
back  from  the  greatest  opportunitj^  ever  offered  us  by  the  most 
imnecessary  and  inexcusable  hindrance  ever  tolerated.  If  a  census 
could  be  taken  as  to  what  one  circumstance  would  do  most  to  pro- 
mote world-wide  evangelism  among  Methodists;  what  would  evoke 
most  enthusiasm,  enlist  most  missionaries,  induce  largest  gifts, 
remove  most  difficulties,  and  start  a  missionary  crusade  that  would 
set  the  Methodist  world  aflame  with  new  zeal  and  new  hope,  I  be- 
lieve an  overwhelming  majority  of  our  people  would  say,  it  is  the 
union  of  American  Methodists  into  one  body.  We  have  seventeen 
different  names  for  Methodists  in  America;  and,  consequently, 
about  that  many  different  missionary  campaigns.  In  the  field  we 
compete  against  each  other,  duplicate  each  other's  efforts  and  con- 
fuse those  we  are  trying  to  serve.  But  that  is  not  our  sorest  loss. 
It  is  the  loss  we  are  suffering  in  being  separated  from  one  another 
that  keeps  down  the  missionary  flame;  for  that  pure  fire  is  fed  only 
by  love.  Give  us  enough  love  for  one  another  to  induce  us  to  drop 
our  small  differences,  and  to  get  us  together  with  one  accord  in  one 
place,  and  again  there  will  come  from  heaven  a  sound  as  of  the 
rushing  of  a  mighty  wind,  filling  all  the  house;  and  tongues  parting 
asunder  like  as  of  fire  will  sit  upon  each  of  us;  and  all  will  be 
filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  begin  to  speak  with  other  tongues 
as  the  Spirit  gives  us  utterance.  For,  "if  two  of  you  shall  agree  on 
earth  as  touching  anything  that  they  shall  ask,  it  shall  be  done  for 
them  of  my  Father  who  is  in  Heaven."  Brethren,  how  can  we 
measure  our  responsibility  in  the  light  of  that  promise?  for  if 
Methodists  were  agreed  they  might  ask  for  the  conversion  of  the 
world,  "and  it  should  be  done  for  them  of  my  Father  who  is  in 
Heaven." 

We  may  pile  up  our  missionary  contributions  as  we  will,  but 
as  long  as  we  seventeen  separate  brothers  of  one  household  continue 
to  refuse  the  opportunity  and  the  importunity  for  reconciliation, 
the  very  altar  will  cry  out  against  us,  "Go  thy  way,  first  be  recon- 
ciled to  thy  brother,  and  then  come  and  offer  thy  gift." 

The  divine  strategy  for  conquering  the  work  is  not  in  the  large 
gifts,  but  in  the  union  of  Christ's  disciples;  "that  they  may  be  one, 
that  the  world  may  believe."  0  you  of  the  great  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church,  and  you  of  the  great  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  in  the  name  of  all  the  divided  hosts  of  Methodism,  I  chal- 
lenge you!  Lead  on  in  the  strategy  of  love.  "Prepare  ye  the  way 
of  the  Lord." 


118  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

The  Rev.  David  Brook,  D.  C.  L.,  of  the  United  Methodist 
Church,  delivered  the  first  invited  address,  "Mission  of  Meth- 
odism to  the  Nou-Christian  Eaces :" 

The  Mission  of  Methodism  is  the  Mission  of  Evangelical  Christ- 
endom. No  sane  man  wants  to  carry  to  China  those  denominational 
differences  which  are  daily  becoming  fainter  at  home.  The  primi- 
tive heart-hunger  of  the  world  is  not  satisfied  by  learning  the  his- 
toric meaning  of  ecclesiastical  millinery,  or  the  niceties  of  hier- 
archical nomenclature,  or  the  virtues  of  Camei'onianism.  These 
are  stones  for  the  soul  and  some  of  them  particulaiiy  hard  ones, 
and  we  have  to  give  the  world  bread,  or  let  it  alone. 

Practical  experience  on  the  field  soon  forces  the  earnest  mis- 
sionary at  the  centre  of  things.  He  says,  like  Mr.  Latimer,  a  Bap- 
tist missionary,  reporting  to  the  Edinburgh  Conference,  that  he  has 
become  less  a  churchman  and  more  a  Christian.  "Particular  tenets 
of  my  own  Church"  he  adds  "are  falling  into  the  background,  in  view 
of  man's  need  of  Christ."     Similar  testimony  is  almost  universal. 

At  home  the  same  result  is  produced  by  that  true  and  wonderful 
vision  which  is  dawning  upon  the  Church.  We  see  a  world  suddenly 
awakening  from  the  slumber  of  ages,  and  ready  to  hear  an  adequate 
message  for  its  soul.  The  opportunity  is  so  vast,  and  has  come  so 
suddenly,  that  the  Church  is  bewildered,  almost  appalled  by  the 
responsibility.  The  doors  which  are  open  or  all  sides  of  ns  to-day 
were  closed  yesterday,  and  may  shut  again,  more  firmly  than  ever, 
to-morrow.  Africa,  except  for  its  coastlands,  unknown  fifty  years 
ago,  is  now  open  to  the  heart  of  it.  China,  Japan,  Korea,  sealed  for 
centuries,  have  opened  their  mind  to  the  wonders  of  the  West,  and 
ask  the  Churches  of  Christ  "what  they  have  to  say  to  their  souls?" 
And  to-morrow  the  chance  may  be  gone.  Islam  may  have  conquered 
Africa.  Materialism  may  have  won  the  far  East.  Noio  is  the 
accepted  time.  At  an  hour  so  critical  in  the  history  of  the  world 
our  mission  is  Christian.  We  can  not  spare  a  moment  for  the  lesser 
things. 

The  races  in  question  all  need  our  central  truths — truths  that 
are  older  and  deeper  than  Methodism,  truths  that  ennoble  character 
that  give  the  soul  eternal  life.  They  need  the  Christian  revelation 
of  God  and  man  and  destiny  "of  God."  They  have  dwelt  for  ages 
in  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow  of  Fear.  It  is  true  of  Pagans.  It  is 
true  also  of  those  in  whom  old  animistic  faiths  have  been  overlaid  by 
a  thin  veneer  of  Buddhism.  The  terror  of  envious  spirits  haunts 
them  from  childhood  to  the  grave.  They  can  never  hope  to  pro- 
pitiate them  all.  It  is  glad  tidings  of  great  joy  to  them  to  learn 
that  there  is  one  Lord  God,  that  there  are  no  other  gods,  that  He  is 
Almighty,  and  that  He  is  at  the  same  time  the  loving,  tender  Father. 

Still  closer  to  the  soul  comes  the  truth  that  his  God  is  known 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  DAVID  BROOK.  119 

and  accessible  through  His  Son,  Jesus  Christ  But  the  contempla- 
tion of  the  holy  and  loving  God  as  Jesus  Christ  reveals  Him, 
awakens  a  sense  of  sin,  and  naakes  the  soul  feel  the  need  of  an 
atoning  sacrifice.  Their  own  former  sacrifices  assist  them  to  under- 
stand the  sublime  story  of  Calvary,  which  is  the  glowing  heart  of 
the  Christian  message.  This,  this  only,  meets  the  need  of  the 
world.  The  Lamb  of  God,  only  the  Lamb  of  God,  can  take  away 
the  world's  sin. 

But  the  races  need  God  the  Holy  Ghost.  Every  missionary 
tells  us  that  what  China,  at  all  events,  requires  is  not  so  much  a 
new  code  of  ethics  as  an  adequate  moral  energy  to  live  what  siie 
knows.  Her  soul  needs  the  breath  of  the  Holy  One.  The  whole 
world  needs  the  Triune  Jehovah  of  Christendom. 

But  we  have  to  tell  the  races  in  this  pregnant  hour  what  man 
is,  and  what  he  may  be.  They  have,  indeed,  ideals  to  which  they 
aspire.  Some  of  them  are  hideous  and  all  are  imperfect.  We  have 
to  show  them  the  Son  of  JMan  as  He  lived  in  Palestine,  holy  and 
strong,  tender  and  loving — the  Man  in  whom  God  is  well  pleased. 
AVe  have  to  tell  them  with  the  help  of  the  Spirit  the  very  vilest  may 
be  transformed,  and  become  like  Christ. 

Nor  is  our  mission  to  men  only.  We  have  to  tell  that  half  of 
the  human  race,  which  through  all  the  dim  millenniums  of  the  past 
has  been  held  in  bondage,  that  for  them  as  well  as  for  men, 
Christianity     opens  the  way  to  a  divine  life. 

And  we  have  to  tell  them  all  that  that  life  is  everlasting.  It 
is  true  that  vague  glimmerings  of  existence  beyond  death  are  in- 
volved in  animism  and  in  ancestor  worship.  But  immortality,  in 
such  a  sense,  for  example,  as  to  make  infant  life  in  this  world  saved, 
in  such  a  sense  as  to  make  a  Father's  House  of  many  mansions 
luminous  in  the  world  of  departed  saints,  is  distinctively  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus,  which  it  is  the  mission  of  the  Church  to  make  known 
to  a  dark  world. 

These  are  elementary  truths  of  the  Christian  Church.  We  be- 
lieve Christ  came  from  God  to  make  them  known.  They  are  for 
the  world.  They  are  not  for  Teutons  only,  or  Kelts  or  Latins. 
They  are  not  for  Aryans  alone.  For,  as  concerning  the  flesh,  Christ 
Himself  w'as  not  an  Aryan.  We  certainly  can  not  for  a  moment 
entertain  the  notion  of  a  determination  of  territory  for  Jesus.  We 
can  not  abate  one  iota  of  the  imperial  claims  of  His  love  to  save  the 
whole  world. 

Then  is  the  Church  ready  for  the  heroic  devotion  which  is 
called  for  by  the  glorious  possibilities,  the  wide  world  over,  of  this 
hour? 

Is  Methodism  ready  for  it? 

It  is  true  that  INIethodisni  has  no  monopoly  of  the  truths  just 
discussed  so  briefly  and  imperfectly.     For  Methodism  does  not  i)ri- 


120  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

marily  stand  for  a  distinctive  doctrine.  It  conferred  on  the  lives 
of  John  Wesley  the  truths  embodied  in  the  creed  of  his  Church. 
Methodism  is  a  spirit.  It  is  a  life.  John  Wesley  made  old  truths 
BO  thrill  and  so  glow  that,  under  God,  England  (and  not  England 
only)   was  saved  from  spiritual  death. 

To-day  the  task  is  far  vaster.  But  so  also  are  the  resources. 
The  circumstances  of  the  hour  are  Christ's  grand  challenge  to  His 
Church.  Is  Methodism  prepared  to  take  a  foremost  place  in  giving 
a  loyal  and  practical  answer?  The  whole  world  is  open  to  the 
Church  which  dares  to  feel  and  say  what  its  founder,  alone,  dared 
to  say — •"The  World  is  my  Parish."     Have  we  such  faith? 

Faith?  Aye.  But  have  we  the  love — so  that  we  count  not  our 
lives  dear  unto  us,  so  that  we  are  content  at  the  earthly  end  to  be- 
queath in  wordly  goods  little  more  than  two  silver  spoons?  We 
have  a  mission  to  the  world.  Have  we  the  Spirit,  at  any  cost,  to 
get  it  home.  If  we  have,  we  may  be  used  to  save  the  world — we 
shall  certainly  save  Methodism — which  else  is  surely  doomed — for 
there  is  no  other  way  for  man  or  for  Church — to  life — except  the 
way  through  Death. 

The  second  invited  address  was  g-iven  by  Bishop  Wm.  Burt, 
D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church : 

What  an  impossible  task,  "the  Mission  of  Methodism  to  the 
Latin  Races,"  in  ten  minutes! 

The  representatives  of  the  Latin  races  are  to-day  in  South  and 
Central  America,  Mexico,  France,  Italy,  Spain,  Portugal,  Roumania, 
Switzerland,  North  Africa  .and  scattered  among  other  nationalities. 
They  number  in  all  about  one  hundred  and  forty-five  millions  of 
the  world's  population.  The  Latins  were  the  leaders  in  the  world's 
thought  and  civilization.  They  gave  us  literature,  law,  art,  archi- 
tecture, science  and  philosophy,  and  they  brought  to  our  barbarian 
ancestors  the  good  news  of  the  Gospel. 

The  moral  and  religious  sentiments  of  the  ancient  Latins  were 
so  relatively  high  that  Augustine  said,  "God  must  have  conceded 
to  the  descendants  of  Romulus  and  Remus  the  government  of  the 
world  because  of  their  religious  virtues." 

Later  the  Romans  became  corrupt  since  the  basis  of  their 
moral  conceptions  was  very  narrow.  This  corruption  which  rapidly 
increased  during  the  time  of  the  Empire  was  restrained  by  the 
Christian  Church,  but  only  for  a  comparatively  short  time  and  then 
was  favored  and  nourished  by  the  Church  itself,  so  that  as  early  as 
the  time  of  Chrysostom  the  distinction  between  Christian  and 
Pagan  had  become  nominal  rather  than  real. 

Once  started  on  the  moral  decline  the  Romish  Church  went 
from  bad  to  worse,  and  during  the  centuries  has  exercised  a  fatal 
influence  on  the  character  and  spiritual  life  of  the  Latin  people,  so 


ADDRESS  BY  BISHOP  WM.  BURT. .  121 

that  Niccolo  Machiavelli  said,  "Those  who  come  nearest  to  Rome 
have  the  least  religion.  Through  the  influence  of  the  Papal  Court 
the  Roman  province  has  lost  all  religion.  Hence  we  Italians  owe 
it  to  the  Church  and  to  the  priests  if  we  are  bad  and  without 
religion." 

Romanism  as  a  system  is  pagan  in  its  thought  and  practice 
and  in  its  ultimate  results  on  human  character,  society  and  national 
life.  There  is  nothing  Christian  about  it  but  the  sacred  names 
which  it  assumes.  It  is  Paganism  restored  with  the  old  rites,  fes- 
tivals, flowers,  incense,  holy  water,  vestments,  rosaries  and  images, 
yea,  the  very  gods  but  with  new  names,  even  going  so  far  as  to  take 
the  old  pagan  images  and  altars,  baptizing  them  with  Christian 
names.  The  Papacy  instead  of  representing  Christian  progress 
tends  to  drag  the  world  back  again  amid  the  ideas,  rites  and  cus- 
toms of  idolatrous  ages.  Look  at  the  poor  deluded  people  kneeling 
for  hours  before  some  statue  or  picture,  kissing  the  toe  of  some 
old  image,  crawling  up  the  sacred  stairs,  or  walking  with  bare 
bleeding  feet  up  the  steep  stony  path  to  some  shrine  on  the  hill-top. 
And  why?  To  appease  the  wrath  of  angry  deities  and  to  acquire 
indulgences.  But  alas,  this  has  nothing  to  do  with  their  inner 
life  or  conduct.     Religion  is  entirely  divorced  from  ethics. 

The  Romish  Church  arrests  all  progress,  spiritual,  intellectual, 
social,  economic  and  national,  and  it  saps  those  virtues  which  are 
essential  to  the  development  of  the  race.  The  difference  between 
the  moral  vigor  of  Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic  populations  is  not 
accidental  but  is  due  to  the  very  essence  of  the  two  systems.  The 
Reformation  emancipated  the  believer  from  subjection  to  the  priest 
and  restored  to  him  his  individual  liberty.  The  believer  must  be  a 
free  man  before  he  can  become  a  true  follower  of  the  Christ. 
Protestantism  means  spiritual  independence,  individual  energy  and 
personal  responsibility.  Hence  the  Reformation  laid  the  founda- 
tions for  a  new  era  in  the  world's  history. 

What  has  Romanism  ever  done  for  any  country  or  people  on 
the  face  of  the  earth?  Read  the  history  of  France.  Witness  the 
struggle  through  which  she  has  recently  passed  in  order  to  be  free. 
Look  at  poor,  ignorant,  superstitious  Spain,  just  manifesting  her 
first  spasmodic  longings  for  liberty.  Watch  the  doings  in  Portugal 
to-day.  Ask  Italy,  and  her  sad  story  is  enough  to  convince  the  world 
that  the  Papacy  is  the  cruelest  form  of  despotism  that  the  world 
has  ever  seen.  Go  to  Mexico,  South  America,  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  the 
Philippine  Islands  or  to  any  other  si>ot  on  this  globe  where  Roman- 
ism has  been  dominant  and  there  you  will  find  in  proportion  to  the 
absoluteness  and  the  time  of  its  power,  ignorance,  idolatry  and 
human  degradation.  Hence  thinking  men  and  women  in  all  these 
lands  are  being  driven  into  infidelity  while  the  ignorant  are  still 
deceived. 


122  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

Thirty  years  before  the  French  Revolution  Sir  Isaac  Newton 
predicted  that  Roman  Catliolicism  on  the  Continent  of  Europe  was 
destined  to  be  trampled  under  foot  by  the  infidelity  which  Romanism 
itself  had  caused.  A  prophecy  which  is  now  being  literally  fulfilled. 
The  testimony  is  the  same  concerning  all  the  so-called  Catholic 
countries.  "Romanism  is  baptized  Paganism."  The  educated  classes 
call  themselves  spiritualists,  materialists,  infidels  and  atheists. 
Lawyers,  physicians,  artists,  journalists  and  business  men  gener- 
ally are  totally  indifferent  to  religion.  Socialists  and  radicals  assert 
the  falsity  of  all  religions  and  zealously  promote  infidelity.  In  the 
Universities  both  professors  and  students  are  hostile  to  religion. 
In  France  and  Italy  out  of  seventy-three  millions  of  people  less  than 
one-third  are  loyal  to  the  Romish  Church. 

In  a  recent  number  of  the  Outlook,  even  the  Outlook,  we  read: 
"To  those  who  realize  the  great  and  sore  need  of  the  religious  spirit 
and  of  a  deep  abiding  faith  in  God  amid  the  perplexities  of  this  age 
the  situation  in  the  Latin  States  has  assumed  the  proportions  of  a 
tragedy."  There  is  no  part  of  the  world  that  needs  the  Gospel  more 
urgently  than  these  Latin  countries.  After  years  of  study  and 
observation  on  the  field  I  am  personally  convinced  that  a  radical 
reform  in  the  Romish  Church  is  out  of  the  question  since  it  would 
mean  the  destruction  of  the  institution  as  it  now  exists. 

The  sun  shines  in  the  heavens,  but  those  whose  eyes  are 
bandaged  can  never  enjoy  its  glory  until  the  bandages  have  been 
taken  off.  Romish  superstitions  and  traditions  are  so  many  ban- 
dages which  absolutely  prevent  the  people  from  having  the  vision 
of  God  as  He  has  been  pleased  to  reveal  Himself  through  the  Sun 
of  Righteousness. 

These  lands  overshadowed  and  blighted  for  centuries  must  be 
evangelized  with  faith  and  fervor. 

Some  remembering  what  the  Latin  races  were  in  their  suprem- 
acy and  glory  now  speak  of  them  as  degenerate  and  decayed,  a 
people  whose  golden  age  is  in  the  past,  with  no  hopeful  future  before 
them.  No  one  who  has  read  modern  history  and  visited  and  studied 
these  lands  in  recent  years  can  entertain  such  a  thought  for  a 
moment.  No,  the  Latin  race  is  not  dead,  nor  dying,  but  very  much 
alive. 

The  wonderful  progress  of  these  nations  in  recent  years  has 
only  come  as  a  result  of  their  liberation  and  separation  from  the 
Church  of  Rome.  Mere  ethical  teaching  will  not  suffice  for  their 
moral  redemption.  They  have  been  robbed  of  the  Christ  and  the 
living  Christ  must  be  given  back  to  them. 

One  of  the  sad  features  of  our  present-day  Christianity  is  the 
lack  of  Protestant  enthusiasm.  How  indifferent  we  have  become 
concerning  the  heritage  bought  for  us  by  the  blood  of  our  martyred 
fathers!  We  say,  "Times  have  changed,"  "Rome  is  not  what  it  was." 
Has  Rome  changed  or  have  we?     Brothers,   Romanism   is  just  as 


ADDRESS  BY  BISHOP  WM.  BURT.  123 

bad   to-day   in   any  country  or   in   any   community  as  the  external 
circumstances  and  influences  will  permit  it  to  be. 

The  offense  of  the  cross  is  not  easy  to  bear,  but  we  must  be 
true  to  our  Lord  and  Master.  Paul  did  not  enjoy  the  persecutions 
of  the  Jews  and  he  might  have  avoided  much  of  it  if  he  had  not 
persistently  testified  against  Judaism.  How  much  more  should  we 
in  our  day  be  true  in  witnessing  against  the  assumptions,  falsity 
and  tyranny  of  Romanism. 

1.  Methodism  is  positive  and  practical  and  hence  responds  fully 
to  the  present  needs  of  the  Latin  people. 

2.  The  experimental  character  of  Methodism  satisfies  better 
than  any  other  exigencies  of  the  Latin  mind.  More  than  belief,  it  is 
personal  heart-communion  with  God. 

3.  The  popular  character  of  the  organization  of  Methodism 
renders  it  attractive  to  the  modern  Latins,  who  also  in  their  political 
ideas  and  preferences  are  becoming  more  and  more  democratic. 

4.  The  eminently  social  character  of  Methodism  splendidly 
adapts  it  to  the  spirit  and  demands  of  the  Latin  races. 

5.  Our  vivacity  and  freedom  in  worship,  so  characteristic  of 
whole-hearted  Methodism,  is  wonderfully  adapted  to  the  wai-m 
spontaneous  temperament  of  these  Southern  people. 

6.  Methodism  is  in  favor  with  the  Latins  because  they  wish  to 
counteract  the  deleterious  influences  of  Romanism.  If  there  are  two 
systems  of  religious  thought  and  activity  diametrically  opposed  to 
each  other  these  are  IMethodism  and  Romanism. 

■  Wesley's  first  purpose  was  to  evangelize  a  corrupt  and  spir- 
itually dead  Church,  and  to  preach  scriptural  holiness  in  all  these 
lands.  The  Methodists  who  can  excuse  the  Romanism  of  to-day 
must  belong  to  a  degenerate  race.  If  Romanism  shall  succeed  in 
corrupting  Protestant  nations,  and  if  the  Latin  races  shall  be  allowed 
to  sink  into  infidelity  what  shall  be  the  final  result  on  the  Christian 
civilization  of  the  rest  of  the  world?  We  must  evangelize  these 
Latin  races  in  order  to  maintain  our  own  ideals.  We  must  save 
them  if  we  would  save  ourselves  and  the  rest  of  the  world.  Has 
modern  Methodism  the  Christ  Vision? 

Shall  the  Latin  countries  become  Protestant  but  infidel,  while 
Protestant  countries  through  Romish  influence  lose  their  vigor  and 
become  weak  and  servile? 

Let  us  not  forget  that  the  future  Church  will  be  that  Church 
which  has  at  heart  the  cause  of  the  people.  If  we  become  in  any  way 
identified  with  Rome,  we  also  shall  be  swept  away  by  the  fury  of 
angry  multitudes  who  are  waking  up  to  the  fact  that  they  have  been 
cruelly  deceived.  This  is  the  case  at  present  in  the  Latin  countries 
and  is  bound  to  be  so  later  in  other  lands. 

The  mission  of  Methodism  to  the  Latin  races  is  to  save  them 
and  to  make  them  powerful  allies  for  the  conversion  of  the 
world. 


124  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

The  third  invited  address,  subject,  "Methodism  and  France," 
was  given  by  tlie  M.  le  Pasteur  Thomas  Hocart,  of  the  French 
Metliodist  Church : 

Some  time  ago  France  discovered  Canada.  Our  daughter  Can- 
ada looked  around  for  a  wet  uurse  and  one  came  from  England. 
The  milk  must  have  been  of  a  good  quality,  for  the  child  looks 
healthy  and  prosperous.  A  few  years  ago  mother  and  nurse  met 
and  they  decided  to  shake  hands.  The  agreement  was  signed,  as 
you  all  know,  in  those  binding  words,  "L'  Entente  cordiale." 

But  you  would  like  to  know  something  about  the  mother  country. 
I  have  bought  a  book  containing  five  hundred  facts  concerning  Can- 
ada. Time  will  not  allow  me  to  give  you  more  than  five  or  six 
concerning  France.  I  could  endorse  all  that  the  bishop  has  said 
on  the  religious  aspect  of  the  Latin  races. 

Roman  Catholicism  has  some  4,000,000  earnest,  devoted  worship- 
pers. Some  say  they  are  7,000,000  strong.  The  truth  lies  between 
these  two  figures.  The  mass  of  the  people  are  breaking  away  from 
religion  altogether.  Some  30,000,000  people  have  practically  no 
religion  at  all.  Amongst  those  who  are  faithful  to  the  Roman  faith 
there  is  a  great  unrest.  You  may  have  heard  of  the  Sillon  move- 
ment, composed  mostly  of  the  young  men  of  the  Church,  with  Marc 
Sagnier  as  their  leader.  The  Sillonists  attempted  a  certain  amount 
of  social  reform,  but  one  of  the  main  ideas  was  to  prove  that  a 
Frenchman  could  be  a  loyal  republican  and  retain  at  the  same  time 
his  religious  faith.  Many  Freethinkers  believe  that  the  republic 
stands  for  progress  and  liberty,  but  they  are  persuaded  that  re- 
ligion impedes  progress  and  renders  freedom  imposible.  Unfortu- 
nately for  Marc  Sagnier  and  his  followers,  the  Pope  had  a  gavel, 
and  when  the  ardent  would-be  reformer  was  reaching  the  summit 
of  his  power,  down  came  the  hammer  and  Marc  Sagnier  down,  and 
the  movement  collapsed. 

The  Modernists  show  signs  of  earnest  inquiry.  They  are  read- 
ing Protestant  theology;  taking  in  religious  newspapers  from  the 
Protestant  world.  Some  time  ago  a  young  student  from  a  Roman 
Catholic  seminary  bought  twelve  Bibles  at  one  of  our  depots  in  Paris. 

Protestantism  we  must  never  forget  was  nearly  bled  to  death 
a  few  centuries  ago.  Some  2,000,000  Huguenots  were  either  put  to 
death  or  fled  into  exile.  These  men  were  not  ordinary  men.  They 
were  men  of  intelligence,  of  great  business  capacities,  men  of  char- 
acter, men  with  a  living  faith.  The  very  flower  of  the  nation. 
They  carried  their  spiritual  treasures  to  Protestant  lands. 

Methodism  came  to  France  about  a  century  ago.  The  work  was 
carried  on  mostly  in  the  inner  circle  of  a  somewhat  sleepy  Protes- 
tantism. Then  later  on  Methodist  preachers  worked  among  the 
outsiders  of  Protestantism.     Now  circumstances  have  changed,  and 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  LE  PASTEUR  THOMAS  HOCART.         125 

Methodism  has  to  face  the  densly  superstitious  Frenchman  who 
knows  nothing  of  a  living  Redeemer,  but  in  many  cases  he  is  facing 
the  unchurched  masses  of  Romanism.  Our  earnest  missionary  pas- 
tors have  a  much  larger  field  for  work,  and  a  constantly  widening 
vision. 

Atheism  is  a  grov/ing  force  in  many  parts  of  the-  land.  A  muni- 
cipality near  Paris  baptises  children  in  the  name  of  liberty,  equal- 
ity, and  fraternity.  This  ritual  of  the  Freethinkers  is  a  very  pale 
imitation  of  Christian  baptism.  It  is  a  revolt  against  the  papacy, 
but  it  is  at  the  same  a  yearning  of  the  people  for  something  that 
is  above  them. 

In  another  case  a  poor  widow  applied  for  the  gratuitous  services 
of  the  municipality  to  bury  her  dead  child.  The  civil  authorities 
refused  to  help  on  the  ground  that  she  was  having  the  religious 
ceremony  at  church.  The  tyranny  of  some  Freethinkers  is  as  bad  as 
and  sometimes  worse  than  the  despotism  of  the  papacy,  which  tries 
to  capture  the  conscience  by  fright. 

A  few  years  ago,  in  a  school  in  Paris,  the  teacher  alluded  to  the 
fact  of  Jonah  and  the  whale.  Of  course,  said  he  to  his  class  of  boys, 
you  do  not  believe  the  story,  and  those  of  you  who  do  not  believe 
it,  show  it  by  raising  your  hands.  All  the  boys  raised  their  hands 
except  a  boy  eight  years  old,  the  son  of  a  Methodist  minister.  "I 
did  not  raise  my  hand,"  said  the  lad  to  his  mother,  "because  I  knew 
the  teaching  of  the  Bible  was  true." 

A  society  of  men  has  been  started,  who  have  tattooed  on  their 
arms  the  letters  "A  D" — anti-Dieu.  They  ai-e  drilling  into  their 
minds  the  denial  of  the  existence  of  God. 

We  have,  however,  to  rejoice  that  we  have  in  France  perfect 
freedom  to  preach  the  gospel  since  the  separation  of  Church  and 
State.  All  the  Churches  of  the  land  are  on  the  same  footing.  One 
day  in  the  year,  on  the  14th  of  July,  the  national  fete  day  of  liberty, 
we  can  preach  the  gospel  in  the  streets  and  everywhere  in  the  open 
air.  May  that  day  be  a  prophecy  of  a  still  more  complete  freedom 
for  open  air  preaching. 

In  the  middle  ages  a  very  cruel  custom  prevailed.  It  consisted 
in  burying  people  alive.  That  awful  cruelty  is  being  repeated  in  the 
moral  and  spiritual  sphere  of  those  men  who  are  depriving  hu- 
manity of  its  God. 

In  our  great  republic  there  is  engraven  on  every  public  building 
and  institution  a  very  noble  motto:  "Liberte,  Egalete,  Fraternit(?." 
This  motto  was  born  in  a  cradle  in  Bethlehem.  Men  tried  to  bury 
it  on  Good  Friday,  but  it  rose  again  on  Easter  morn.  Our  nation 
needs  very  sorely,  preachers  who  will  explain  to  the  people  the 
great  gospel  message,  the  gospel  of  the  resurrection  day.  A  peo- 
ple that  has  in  its  expression  of  good  will  the  sweet  word  'Adieu, 
has,  beyond  doubt,  religious  capacities. 


126  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

The  heart  of  the  nation  is  rent  atwain  between  two  masters. 
One  teaches,  often  teaches,  religion  without  any  connection  with 
morality.  The  other  tries  to  reach  morality  without  any  serious 
connection  with  religion.  We  need  the  help  of  brethren  of  Protes- 
tant lands  to  lead  the  people  back  to  God  through  Christ. 

The  Rev.  J.  Scott  Lidgett^  D.  D.,  of  the  British  Wesleyan 

Methodist  Church: 

Mr.  President:  Without  in  the  sigh  test  degree  prejudicing  those 
larger  considerations  of  the  whole  world  that  are  before  us  to-day, 
I  rise  with  a  deep  sense  of  responsibility  to  urge  that  one  of  the 
great  acts  of  this  Conference  should  be  to  come  to  the  succor  of 
our  devoted  French  brethren  in  this  great  warfare  against  super- 
stition and  unbelief.  I  do  it  because  there  is  no  chance  of  our 
success  in  rearing  a  great  Christian  world-civilization  or  in  evan- 
gelizing those  new  races  of  the  far  East,  which  are  awakening 
to  the  ideals  of  liberty  and  progress,  unless  by  God's  blessing  that 
great  republic  which  has  stood  for  so  many  of  the  noblest  ideals 
American,  shall  learn  once  more  to  find  their  inspiration  in  the 
person  and  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Now,  Methodism  has 
a  great  stake  in  this.  One  of  the  most  beautiful  stories  of  our 
early  work  is  the  way  in  which  Methodism  effected  a  lodgment  in 
France, — the  story  of  our  early  success,  and  the  way  in  which  she 
won  from  the  reformed  Christianity  of  France  a  title  which  she 
bears  until  to-day,  "The  Church  of  the  Revival."  Methodism  went 
to  France,  not  for  any  narrow  denominational  purposes.  If  we 
were  to  suppose  for  one  single  moment  that  France  would  ever 
become  Methodist,  we  should  spoil  our  Methodist  ideals  and  fatally 
mis-read  the  genius  of  France.  But  there  is  a  great  opportunity 
at  this  time  when  the  hosts  of  infidelity  are  beginning  to  awake, 
when  that  inmost  religiousness  of  the  heart  of  France  is  beginning 
to  revive,  when  Methodism,  in  friendly  alliance  with  all  the  great 
evangelical  forces  which  are  coming  to  a  new  revival,  may  start 
afresh  upon  a  movement  for  permeating,  pervading,  educating  the 
mind  of  France  to  a  nobler,  freer,  more  evangelical  conception  of 
the  Christ  who  stands,  not  merely  for  a  spiritual  and  moral  reforma- 
tion of  the  individual,  but  for  the  triumph  of  every  one  of  those 
great  ideals  for  which  France  has  stood  as  few  other  nations  have, 
but  which  will  totter  to  their  fall  and  perish  from  the  lack  of  life 
within,  unless  men  come  to  see  the  need  of  the  gospel  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  I  ask  in  the  name  of  God  that  one  of  the  great  acts 
of  this  Conference  to  be  not  to  supersede,  not  to  rival  the  Meth- 
odism of  France,  but  to  come  to  its  succor,  and  make  them  feel  that 
the  world  of  Methodism  is  behind  them  because  it  loves  them,  and 
because  it  loves  France.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  the  very  day  before 
I  left  England  I  received  a  letter  from  an  English  lady,  whose 
fortune  has  come  to  her  through  France,  offering  a  sum  of  some- 
thing like  $400  a  year  for  five  years  if  only  something  could  be 
done  to  assist  our  French  brethren  to  go  on  their  way  on  a  larger 
scale,  holding  conferences  and  conventions  and  missions,  seeking 
to  educate  the  French  people  to  the  meaning  of  the  gospel,  begin- 
ning to  train  women  for  the  woi'k  of  deaconesses,  showing  a  nobler 
ideal  than  the  Catholic  sisters,  but  meeting  what  is  at  pi'esent  a 
fatal  want  in  France.  Will  this  Conference  rise  to  the  occasion? 
Will  the  men  v/ith  Huguenot  blood  in  their  veins  rise  to  this  great 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  127 

occasion,  and  in  the  name  of  Methodism  and  evangelism  and  in  the 
name  of  that  France,  of  which  "I'entente  cordiale"  is  the  political 
and  international  expression,  say  that  this  Conference  shall  give  a 
new  mesage  to  our  brethren  in  that  republic  to  which  we  owe  so 
much,  and  which  is  destined  by  God  in  the  future  to  play  so  great 
a  part  in  the  evolution  of  world-wide  civilization? 

The  Eev.  J.  W.  Butler^  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Churcli : 

I  come  from  Mexico,  the  country  lying  to  the  south  of  the  United 
States,  stretching  down  to  Central  America,  and  containing  about 
one-tenth  of  all  the  Latin  people.  Mr.  President,  when  the  first 
Ecumenical  Conference  was  held,  Rome  was  very  nearly  supreme. 
She  had  had  her  chance  for  three  hundred  and  fifty  years  in  Mex- 
ico, and  had  miserably  failed  to  lift  up  the  people.  Bishop  Burt 
is  not  the  only  one  who  says  the  things  that  have  been  said  here 
this  morning.  Abbe  Dominic,  who  came  twice  to  Mexico  as  the 
special  envoy  of  his  Holiness  declared  that  he  found  in  Mexico 
only  baptized  paganism.  Christ  is  still  entombed  in  Mexico.  It  is 
Good  Friday  all  the  time  down  there,  and  Easter  means  the  en- 
thronement of  the  virgin  of  Guadeloupe— in  other  words,  of  tho 
Virgin  Mary.  And  over  the  threshold  of  that  magnificent  cathedral 
just  outside  the  City  of  Mexico,  which  was  erected  in  her  honor,  is 
engraved  this  blasphemous  interpretation  of  a  Scripture  text,  say- 
ing, "She  hath  not  done  so  concerning  any  other  nation."  But  Meth- 
odism has  been  there  for  something  like  a  generation — two  branches 
of  Methodism;  I  wish  that  I  might  say  one  united  Methodism.  If 
there  is  a  man  in  all  this  Conference  wise  euough  to  explain  to  a 
Mexican  convert  the  justification  of  two  Methodisms  side  by  side 
in  Mexico,  he  is  wiser  than  that  man  of  the  Old  Testament  history 
who  gave  the  innocent  child  to  his  lawful  mother.  At  the  time 
of  the  first  Ecumenical  Conference  there  was  hardly  a  score  of 
Methodist  congregations  in  Mexico.  To-day  v/e  have  352  congre- 
gations in  these  two  branches  of  Methodism.  We  have  1G2  native 
pastors,  191  native  teachers,  among  whom  are  local  preachers;  and 
we  could  not  get  on  without  the  local  preacher.  We  have  13,3G8 
communicants,  and  over  37,000  adherents,  giving  us  a  Methodist 
community  to-day  of  over  51,000.  We  have  7,401  in  our  day  schools, 
and  10,198  in  our  Sunday  schools;  and  over  a  million  dollars,  gold, 
of  property  in  that  land. 

We  have  just  pased  through  most  trying  experience,  in  a  revo- 
lution that  drew  itself  out  through  eight  long  months.  Those  were 
trying  times.  Blood  ran  in  the  streets  of  a  number  of  centers  of 
our  work.  Day  after  day  our  people  were  house-bound,  and  did  not 
dare  step  out  into  the  streets  in  some  of  those  centers.  We  kept 
in  touch  with  the  missionary  authorities  in  New  York,  and  one 
day  I  received  a  cablegram  saying,  "You  are  authorized  to  send 
home  any  of  our  workers."  I  communicated  that  fact  to  all  our 
workers.  We  have  forty-three  Americans,  including  five  children,  in 
our  branch  of  the  Church.  I  communicated  that  fact  to  every  one  of 
these  people;  and  at  the  same  time  I  said,  "Brothers  and  sisters. 
the  ninety-first  Psalm  is  still  pretty  good."  And  not  one  man  nor 
one  woman  asked  to  be  released  from  the  post  of  duty.  That  is 
the  stuff  out  of  which  your  workers  are  made  in  Mexico. 


128  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

The  Rev.  E.  W.  Bysshe,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church : 

The  anomaly  of  France,  the  oldest  daughter  of  the  Church,  be- 
ing the  France  of  the  French  revolution  with  its  carnage  and  its 
worship  of  reason,  and  at  the  present  time  the  hot  bed  of  social- 
istic atheism — it  is  an  anomaly,  but  there  is  a  reason.  There  is 
an  explanation.  France,  the  oldest  daughter  of  the  Churcn,  from 
the  days  of  Irenaeus,  the  Bishop  of  Lyons,  up  to  the  days  of  Na- 
poleon III,  has  been  the  drudge  of  the  papacy.  No  great  project 
has  ever  been  fi'amed  by  that  Church  but  what  it  has  called  upon 
France,  and  has  found  men  and  money  in  large  measure  in  France. 
France,  the  oldest  daughter  of  the  Church,  has  been  atheistic  be- 
cause she  is  at  heart  religious.  France,  the  hot-bed  of  atheism  to- 
day, is  at  heart  religious.  But  atheism  for  France  is  the  only 
way  she  knows  to  register  her  revolt  against  what  she  has  known 
as  Christianity.  At  heart  the  revolution  was  religious.  It  was  an' 
effort  on  the  part  of  those  men  who  had  been  betrayed  in  their 
deepest  consciousness  to  find  a  religion  that  would  be  free  from 
ecclesiasticism  and  tyranny.  France  to-day,  socialistic,  atheistic 
France  is  seeking  after  God.  It  is  true,  some  Frenchmen  boast 
the  letters  "A.  D." — anti  dieu;  but  they  are  against  the  God  they 
have  known,  and  they  are  hungering  for  the  God  they  do  not  know. 
On  a  train  not  long  ago  I  had  the  privilege  of  talking  with  some 
men,  and  they  began,  just  as  every  ordinary  Frenchman  will  begin, 
by  telling  me  how  little  use  they  have  for  such  a  being  as  God,  and 
such  a  religion  as  the  Christian  religion.  It  took  them  about 
twenty  minutes.  When  they  were  through  I  talked  to  them  just 
as  a  Methodist  preacher  ought  to  talk.  I  went  back  to  my  expe- 
rience, and  I  told  them  what  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  had  done  for 
myself.  And  so,  when  I  got  through,  our  hearts  were  beating  pretty 
close  together,  and  the  tears  were  in  the  eyes  of  all.  I  said  to  them, 
"Men,  if  you  had  priests  who  would  preach  to  you  this  kind  of  re- 
ligion, what  would  you  do?"  One  of  them,  bringing  his  fist  down, 
said:  "We  would  all  go  to  church;  that  is  what  we  would  do.  But 
we  have  n't  got  such  priests,  and  we  can  not  get  them."  France 
is  seeking  God  to-day,  and  I  am  convinced  that  the  France  that  has 
gone  away  from  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  wants  God.  In  the 
dark  days  of  '71,  75%  were  Catholics.  They  performed  their  re- 
ligious duties.    To-day  that  is  true  of  less  than  10%. 

The  Rev.  James  Hope  Moulton^  D.  D.,  of  the  British  Wes- 

leyan  Methodist  Church: 

Mr.  President,  I  want  to  put  in  one  word  just  for  the  fourth  di- 
vision of  the  subjects  that  have  come  before  us  this  morning.  I 
do  not  want  to  talk  about  the  subject  in  general,  but  to  speak  one 
word  about  the  heathen  at  our  door.  I  do  not  mean  those  who 
profess  that  they  are  Christian,  but  in  reality  worship  the  world. 
I  mean  the  enormous  field  of  missionary  enterprise  that  we  have  in 
Christian  countries  among  those  who  are  not  even  nominally  be- 
longing to  any  religion.  I  have  just  had  the  great  privilege  of  going 
with  the  president  of  our  British  Wesleyan  Conference  to  the  West 
Indies,  and  it  was  my  duty  to  represent  him  in  a  short  visit  to 
Demerara.  Do  we  realize  that  in  that  province  of  British  Guiana 
half  the  increasing  population  are  not  even  nominally  Christian? 
It  is  an  immense  field.  I  drove  four  miles  by  the  side  of  a  river 
and  saw  only  East  Indian  faces — coolies.     There  are  enormous  ad- 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  129 

vantages  for  evangelization  there.  We  can  evangelize  these  men, 
who  when  they  go  back  will  be  our  most  useful  missionaries  in 
India.  But  what  have  we  there  in  Guiana?  One  of  our  own  Wes- 
lej'an  missionaries;  and  there  is  also  a  devoted  and  splendid  mis- 
sionary from  the  Canadian  Presbyterian  Mission.  Nearer  home  we 
have  just  the  same  story.  About  one  year  ago  I  was  invited  to  a 
small  meeting  of  Parsees  in  London.  I  was  asked  by  a  Parsee  editor 
to  speak  to  them.  They  are  among  the  neglected  non-Christian 
races  of  the  world.  They  were  not  mentioned  in  the  great  Edin- 
burgh Conference,  though  I  tried  hard  to  get  a  chance  to  speak  for 
them.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  there  are  less  than  one  hundred 
thousand  of  them  in  India,  they  are  the  very  cream  of  India  to-day, 
Intellectually  and  in  many  other  ways.  There  are  two  hundred 
Parsees  resident  in  London  alone.  At  the  beginning  of  the  students' 
missionary  convention  a  special  meeting  was  held  in  regard  to  the 
enormous  number  of  non-Christian  students  in  our  universities. 
There  are  very  many  such.  These  men  come  to  our  Christian  civ- 
ilization, and  it  is  absolute  ruin  of  their  ideals  of  Christianity. 
What  do  they  get  there?  They  get  the  cold  shoulder  to  a  large 
extent.  They  see  things  which  they  go  back  and  talk  about  as  evi- 
dence of  how  far  these  Bristishers  believe  in  the  religion  which 
they  profess.  In  the  meeting  which  I  just  now  mentioned,  we  were 
told  a  story  of  parents  in  India  whose  son  was  getting  too  much 
under  the  influence  of  Christian  missionaries,  as  they  thought.  Be- 
ing wise  in  their  generation,  in  order  to  keep  him  from  becoming 
a  Christian  they  sent  him  to  England  to  study  in  a  university 
there. 

Bishop   E.    E.   Hoss^   D.   D.,  of   the   Methodist   Episcopal 
Church,  South: 

Mr.  President,  I  think  we  have,  in  what  we  have  heard  this 
morning,  an  admirable  illustration  of  what  comes  from  the  un- 
checked dominion  of  a  single  Church.  The  universal  result  is  first 
that  it  becomes  proud  of  its  own  obesity,  arrogant,  then  persecut- 
ing, and  then  corrupt;  and  that  is  what  will  come  to  Protestanism 
under  presisely  the  same  conditions.  It  is  the  upgrowth  and  the 
outgrowth  ultimately  of  the  instincts  of  corrupt  human  nature. 
We  have  in  it  the  vindication  of  the  rightness  of  denomination- 
alism.  I  am  as  broad  a  man  as  you  can  make  out  of  a  Methodist, 
as  catholic  in  my  spirit  and  temper  as  can  possibly  be;  and  yet  I 
can  not  help  being  amazed  at  the  fact  that  nearly  all  voices  are 
now  loading  the  air  with  a  clamor  which  resembles  that  which  the 
Roman  Catholics  have  been  making  through  all  these  centuries 
[No,  no,  no],  when  we  demand  that  everybody  shall  come  into 
one  Church.  Well,  I  knew  I  should  not  meet  a  universal  response 
to  this. 

I  rose  more  particularly  to  speak  about  a  branch  of  the  Latin 
race,  that  has  not  been  i-eferred  to  in  any  speeches  to-day.  It  is 
customary  to  speak  of  South  America  as  Spanish  America.  It 
would  more  properly  be  called  Portuguese  America;  for  there  are 
more  Portuguese  people  in  the  Republic  of  Brazil  and  elsewhere  in 
South  America  than  in  all  the  Spanish  states  together.  They  have 
never  been  quite  so  much  under  tlie  dominion  of  Rome  as  the 
Spaniards  have, — the  Portuguese  in  South  America.  My  own  Church 
has  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  the  only  Methodist  Church  down 
there;  and  I  am  not  particularly  solicitous  that  any  other  Meth- 
9 


130  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

odism  should  come  there,  unless  it  is  willing  to  take  the  equatorial 
provinces.  We  have  two  large  Conferences,  one  in  Central  Brazil; 
about  seventy-five  ministers,  native  and  foreign;  about  two  hundred 
congregations;  about  seven  thousand  members.  We  have  a  Church 
which  is  alive,  and  would  continue  to  grow  and  prosper,  I  verily 
■believe,  if  American  Methodism  were  to  sink  into  the  sea  to-mor- 
row. I  trust  American  Methodism  is  never  going  to  be  disinte- 
grated as  a  distinctive  form  of  the  American  Church.  If  that  time 
should  come,  I  shall  not  be  present,  except  in  the  capacity  of  a 
broken-hearted  mourner. 

M.  le  Pasteur  Theophile  Eoux,  of  the  French  Methodist 
Church : 

Mr.  President,  dear  brethren:  When  deputations  come  and 
speak  to  you  in  perfect  English,  you  sometimes  doubt  if  they  are 
really  genuine  natives  from  the  country  which  they  represent. 
Now,  in  my  case  you  are  relieved  from  all  such  doubt. 

I  have  had  the  privilege  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  province 
of  Jacque  Cartier;  and  often  when  I  was  a  local  preacher  I  passed 
near  the  old  home  of  Montcalm.  I  heartily  second  the  proposition 
of  Dr.  Scott  Lidgett,  and  in  doing  so  I  give  expression  to  the  feel- 
ings of  our  French  Methodist  Church. 

We  have  many  reasons  for  the  Forward  Movement.  (1.)  Roman 
Catholicism  as  a  spiritual  force  is  unable  to  revive  the  power  of 
Christianity  in  France.  There  is  an  incurable  hostility  between 
Rome  and  democratic  progress.  It  is  only  nominally  that  France 
can  be  called  now  a  Roman  Catholic  country.  The  largest  portion 
of  her  citizens  have  no  i-eligion  at  all.  The  Romish  superstitions 
have  driven  them  to  agnosticism  and  incredulity.  (2.)  The  tide 
of  materialism  shows  signs  of  receding  in  France,  and  there  is 
general  disappointment  with  the  moral  results  of  secularism.  (3.) 
The  time  is  opportune  for  a  Forward  Movement  for  the  evangel- 
ization of  France.  Since  the  separation  of  Church  and  State  our 
Christians  have  more  liberty  to  proclaim  the  gospel  to  the  multi- 
tudes. In  many  places  new  and  enthusiastic  enterprises  have  met 
with  encouraging  success.  (4.)  The  Protestants  in  France  are  a 
small  minority,  scarcely  one  to  sixty;  six  hundred  thousand  out  of 
forty  millions;  and  the  Protestants  who  are  eager  for  the  religious 
salvation  of  their  country  are  in  minority  in  these  six  hundred 
thousand.  (5.)  The  conversion  of  France  to  the  gospel  is  not 
merely  of  French  interest,  nor  merely  of  European  interest,  but 
is  of  universal  interest.  I  say  it  without  hesitation,  to  win  France 
for  Christ  would  be  a  conquest  of  first  missionary  importance.  In 
order  to  understand  this,  consider  the  unique  position  occupied  by 
France  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  She  is  the  only  great 
Catholic  power.  She  gives  to  the  Pope  half  of  the  funds  and  half 
of  the  missionaries  required;  and,  Mr.  President,  they  prevent  or 
undo  much  of  your  mission  v/ork.  Should  France  not  be  the  strate- 
gic point  for  evangelical  mission  work?  Consider  the  position  of 
France  in  the  Latin  world,  and  the  still  larger  world  which  is 
reached,  penetrated,  influenced  by  the  French  spirit.  From  east  and 
west  your  sons  and  daughters  come  to  our  large  cities,  to  the  centers 
of  science  and  art  and  literature.  For  their  sakes  spread  abroad 
the  light  God  has  entrusted  to  you.  Brethren,  we  beseech  of  you 
to  consider  all  such  things,  to  lay  them  upon  your  heart,  and  each 
of  you  to  say,  "Lord,  what  wouldest  thou  have  me  to  do." 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  131 

Bishop  C.  S.  Smith,  D.  D.,  of  the  African  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church : 

I  wish  to  speak  of  the  spirit  that  should  possess  the  propa- 
gandist of  the  Christian  religion  as  he  goes  out  among  the  non- 
Christian  races.  What  is  the  Christ  spirit?  What  is  the  Christ 
Idea  of  the  brotherhood  of  man,  His  idea  as  it  relates  to  the  com- 
monwealth of  mankind?  If  the  propagandist  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion goes  out  among  the  non-Christian  races  asserting  the  spirit 
of  race  superiority,  he  finds  himself  at  once  handicapped.  And 
from  my  observation  in  foreign  fields  I  am  frank  to  confess,  though 
I  do  it  regretfully,  that,  at  least  in  many  instances,  there  is  too 
much  exaltation  of  race  superiority  and  too  little  exaltation  of  the 
life  and  spirit  and  purpose  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Point  to  a 
single  utterance  of  the  Master  wherein  He  boasted  of  His  racial 
lineage,  wherein  He  emphasized  or  laid  stress  upon  the  mere  in- 
cident of  race  superiority.  I  say  "the  mere  incident"  because  there 
are  four  things  for  which  no  man  is  responsible — of  whom  he  was 
born,  when  he  was  born,  where  he  was  born,  and  how  he  was  born. 
I  know  that  there  is  no  lack  of  stressing  the  idea  of  the  fatherhood 
of  God  and  the  sonship  of  Christ.  But  there  is  a  woeful  lack 
of  stressing  the  brotherhood  of  man — not  as  white  men,  not  as 
black  men,  not  as  yellow  men,  not  as  red  men,  not  as  brown  men, 
but  as  men. 

Now,  I  postulate  that  if  the  brotherhood  of  man  is  not  one  of 
the  cardinal  and  fundamental  teachings  of  the  New  Testament,  tnen 
the  whole  scheme  of  the  Christian  religion  is  but  a  cunningly  de- 
vised fable,  the  agony  of  Calvary  the  echo  of  a  deceiving  dream, 
and  the  reputed  vicarious  death  of  Christ  a  mere  figment  of  the 
imagination.  Jesus  said,  "If  I  be  lifted  up  I  will  draw  all  men  unto 
me."  "All  ye  are  brethren."  "Love  one  another,  even  as  I  have 
loved  you."  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to 
every  creature."  And  unless  the  brotherhood  of  man  is  brought 
into  realization  here,  the  apocalyptic  vision  never  can  become  a 
reality — the  vision  wherein  John  saw  a  number  that  no  man  could 
number  gathered  together  out  of  every  tribe  and  tongue  under 
heaven;  and  when  the  inquiry  was  made,  "Who  are  these?"  the 
answer  was  not  white  men,  not  black  men,  not  yellow  men,  not  red 
men,  not  brown  men.  No!  But,  "These  are  they  who  have  come 
up  through  great  tribulation,  and  have  washed  their  robes  and  made 
them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb." 

Mrs.  Geo.  0.  Robixsox,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  : 

Fathers,  brethren,  and  sisters:  I  rise  this  morning  to  protest 
against  a  note  of  discouragement  that  I  read  in  this  morning's 
Guardian.  Statistics  is  a  dismal  science.  We  that  are  struggling 
with  the  statistics  of  the  deaconess  work  of  our  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  realize  this.  Spiritual  things  can  not  be  measured 
by  figures.  What  we  Methodists  have  done  through  the  last  decade 
is  not  to  be  measured  by  even  the  figures  that  your  accurate  chair- 
man or  secretary  read  yesterday,  nor  by  the  political  movements 
in  countries.  Who  is  it  that  has  given  you  Englishmen  steps  for- 
ward in  the  pathway  of  humanity,  but  Lloyd  Geoige,  a  non-con- 
formist? Who  started  our  work  against  special  privilege  in  the 
United  States  but  Ida  Tarbell,  a  Methodist  woman?  We  women  do 
not  want  our  work  to  be  measured,  perhaps.     But  think  of  what 


132  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

the  Woman's  Foreign  Misionary  Society  has  brought  forth  in  this 
last  decade.  The  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society  will  come  up 
to  our  annual  meeting  on  the  19th  of  this  month  reporting  twenty 
thousand  more  members  than  a  year  ago.  How  did  we  do  it?  We 
simply  went  to  individuals.  You  men,  instead  of  talking  about 
individuals,  get  your  men  and  tell  every  one  of  them  to  go  for 
an  individual.  How  did  the  Paulist  Fathers  arise — one  of  the 
strongest  Catholic  forces  we  have  to  meet  in  your  American  cities? 
Through  a  Methodist  preacher  of  Old  St.  George's  Church,  an 
erratic  man,  but  a  man  of  genius,  whom  no  one  of  our  Methodist 
presiding  elders  was  wise  enough  to  recognize  for  what  was  in  him. 
The  Catholic  authorities  got  hold  of  him,  and  he  became  the  founder 
of  the  Paulist  Fathers.  They  are  diplomats.  They  go  to  the  leaders 
in  Protestantism,  they  go  after  your  brightest  young  men  and 
women.  In  the  Eucharistic  Congress  what  did  they  do?  They  did 
not  trouble  about  statistics;  they  did  not  say,  "O,  we  have  only 
so  many  thousand,  not  so  many  as  a  year  ago."  But  they  sent 
through  all  the  associated  press  a  fine  account  of  the  robes  their 
bishops  and  archbishops  wore,  and  what  a  beautiful  ceremony  it 
was.  I  read  in  Detroit  what  a  picturesque  pageant  it  was,  and  I 
wished  I  could  have  been  there  with  a  kodak.  Are  we  to  go  out 
from  here  with  a  note  of  depression?  No!  We  have  made  a  tre- 
mendous advance  in  these  last  ten  years.  I  have  great  sympathy, 
friends,  with  that  colored  brother  yesterday,  who  said  he  had  got 
more  accurate  statistics.  I  have  listened  hungrily  and  meekly,  as 
a  woman  should,  and  I  have  not  heard  a  v/ord  about  the  sisters; 
and  yet  we  are  over  one-half  of  the  membership  of  our  Church. 
We  don't  have  high  situations;  but  we  get  up  sewing  societies  and 
oyster  suppers,  get  the  money,  you  know,  to  look  after  the  Church. 
I  was  in  Paris  a  year.  What  interested  me  more  than  my  studies 
in  the  university  was  the  social  aspect  of  the  city.  Every  Saturday 
morning,  walking  through  the  Sorbonne,  I  would  see,  headed  by 
a  sister,  a  long  line  of  girls  going  to  their  catechism,  and  a  similar 
line  of  boys  led  by  a  priest. 

Bishop  J.  M.  Walden,  D.  J).,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church : 

Brethren, — and  that  includes  the  sisters, — I  have  a  word  that  I 
feel  that  I  ought  to  say.  I  am  glad  that  there  has  been  so  much 
said  to  take  away  the  gloom  that  apparently  had  fallen  upon  our 
spirits  because  of  the  statistics  that  were  given,  and  the  comments 
given  in  connection  with  them,  which  were  not  understood.  Those 
comments  illuminated  the  statistics,  and  made  them  vital  and  force- 
ful. There  has  been  before  us  the  wide  field.  But  we  know  that 
we  have  not  come  to  the  time  yet  when  we  can  occupy  all  these 
fields  as  fully  as  we  would  desire.  I  want  to  call  attention  to  this 
one  thing,  that  in  the  midst  of  other  counsel  we  are  called  upon  to 
make  a  wise  determination  as  to  the  fields  we  will  occupy  v/ith  the 
force  we  have.  I  am  so  glad  that  these  great  fields  have  been 
brought  before  you  this  morning.  And  as  we  survey  the  whole 
world,  we  are  to  try  to  occupy  only  so  much  of  the  world  as  we 
have  the  men  and  means  at  the  time  to  occupy.  Sixteen  years 
ago  I  was  in  China,  and  just  about  this  time  of  year  was  com- 
pleting my  visits  to  several  of  the  missions  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  there.  I  met  Bishop  Hendrix  there;  and  if  the 
Church  had  followed  what  we  thought  was  the  best  thing  for  Meth- 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  133 

odism  in  China,  they  would  have  had  a  union  press  many  years  be- 
fore they  did  get  it.  When  I  returned  and  made  my  report,  I  put  it 
in  this  form,  that  with  four  hundred  million  people  the  Chinese 
are  the  brainiest  people  in  Asia  and  the  best  heathen  in  the  world. 
Where  do  you  find  your  martyrs  among  converted  heathen?  Chi- 
nese pages  of  history  in  the  last  ten  years  alone  furnish  the  mar- 
tyrs that  are  the  seed  of  the  Cnurch.  Nearly  fifty  years  ago  I  was 
busy  helping  to  organize  a  movement  to  help  the  colored  people 
that  were  being  thrown  between  the  two  armies  in  the  great  war 
in  our  country,  organizing  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society.  How  did 
I  rally  our  people?  I  said  to  them,  "We  must  see  that  in  this 
movement  of  these  colored  people  coming  within  our  reach,  in  the 
emancipation  of  the  colored  people  of  America,  there  is  a  provi- 
dential relation  to  the  evangelization  of  Africa.  Where  to-day  do 
you  find  Christianity  and  Mohammedanism  face  to  face?  The  great 
struggle  between  these  two  powers  is  to  be  wrought  out  in  Africa; 
and  we,  with  our  twenty  schools  and  more  in  the  South,  are  helping 
in  that  struggle.  Ah!  friends,  some  day  I  want  to  go  and  take  my 
hat  off  at  the  tomb  in  Columbia,  South  Carolina,  of  Bishop  Capers 
on  whose  grave  there  is  this  inscription,  "He  was  a  missionary  to 
the  slaves  on  the  plantations." 

The  Eev.  James  Lewis,  of  the  British  Weslej^an  Methodist 
Church : 

Mr.  President,  I  want  to  strike  a  note  here  this  morning  that 
was  struck  in  Edinburgh  relative  to  heathenism.  I  think  that  the 
note  has  not  been  struck  relative  to  Roman  Catholicism — the  neces- 
sity to  act  according  to  the  principle  of  comprehension  in  dealing 
with  your  antagonist.  Sweeping  statements,  wholesale  statements, 
have  been  made  in  this  Conference  this  morning,  relative  to  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church.  Surely  the  Lord  Jesus,  through  the  Holy 
Spirit,  is  at  the  core  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  though  it  be 
weighted  down,  laboring  under  much  of  ignorance  and  superstition 
that  leaps  to  the  eyes.  No  one  can  read,  for  instance,  Pere  Gratry's 
"Life  of  Henri  Perreque,"  without  realizing  that  devotion  to  the 
person  of  Jesus  exists,  and  exists  intensely,  in  multitudes  within 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church;  and  we  shall  never  do  the  work  rela- 
tive to  our  brethren  in  that  great  Church  until  we  recognize  that 
fact  and  lay  hold  of  the  Roman  Catholic  by  the  hand  as  brethren 
at  that  particular  point  of  contact,  its  devotion  to  the  person  of 
Jesus.  I  have  come  into  contact  with  Frenchmen  in  South  India, 
fourteen  highly  educated  priests,  in  what  is  known  as  the  "frypan 
of  India,"  Trichinopoli,  leaving  friends,  leaving  all,  separating  them- 
selves from  their  kind  in  a  way  and  to  an  extent  that  we  at  large 
do  not  take  to,  living  and  dying  there  for  the  conversion  to  Jesus 
of  the  Hindoos.  In  Ireland,  in  many  visits,  I  have  been  in  contact 
with  the  priests.  I  have  traveled  on  the  Mauretania  with  an 
American  priest  and  with  his  brother,  an  American  attorney. 
Would  to  God  that  the  devotion  to  the  person  of  Jesus  that  these 
men  had  were  current  everywhere  through  Protestantism.  In  Eng- 
land we  Protestants  have  lost  the  great  mass  of  the  manhood  of 
the  country.  Romanism  has  lost  France,  but  what  have  we  lost 
in  England?  Would  to  God  that  the  time  would  come  when,  by  the 
grace  of  Jesus,  we  could  lay  hold  of  the  intellect  of  men  in  the 
trades  unions. 


134  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

The    Secretary   made   announcements,    and   tlie    Conference 
sang  the  hymn, 

"Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds." 

Bishop  Smith  pronounced  the  benediction,  and  the  session 
was  closed. 


SECOND  SESSION. 

THE  Rev.   Geo.   Packer^  D.  D.,  President  of  the  United 
Methodist  Conference,  presided  at  the  afternoon  session. 
The  Rev.  J.   S.  Clemens,  D.  D.,  of  the  United  Methodist 
Church,  conducted  devotional  services,  offering  prayer  and  read- 
ing  Mark   16 :  15-20   and   Romans   1 :  14-16.     Hymn    714   was 
sung: 

"Behold,  the  fountain  of  the  Lord 
In  latter  days  shall  rise." 

Secretary  Chapiman  submitted  tlie  record  of  the  three  ses- 
sions of  yesterday  as  printed,  and  moved  that  it  be  taken  as 
printed  and,  with  one  or  two  alterations,  be  adopted  by  the 
Conference.     This  was  agreed  to. 

The  Secretaries  had  appointed  the  Rev.  John  Elsv^^orth, 
of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church,  to  prepare,  under 
their  responsibility,  the  official  record  from  day  to  day ;  and  the 
Conference  sanctioned  the  arrangement. 

The  essay,  subject,  "Our  Resources  in  Men  and  Means," 
was  presented  by  the  Rev.  James  Lewis,  of  the  British  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church: 

This  is  a  question  of  spiritual  dyamics;  figures  are  next  to 
useless. 

"Who  can  number  the  fourth  part  of  Israel?"  either  in  himself, 
or  in  his  capacity  for  God's  tasks.  Only  as  we  measure  Israel 
through  God  can  we  know  what  he  is,  or  can  do.  The  fulness  of 
Israel  is  Jehovah.  What  is  true  of  Israel  is  true  of  Methodism. 
Methodism  is  mighty,  but  only  through  God.  Measured  through 
Him  we  discover  our  illimitable  resources,  and  the  utter  inanity  of 
numerical,  or  spatial,  or  monetary  formulas  to  express  our  possi- 
bilities and  realities.  Our  lads  with  five  barley  loaves  and  two 
small  fishes,  being  all  they  have  and  all  consecrated,  can  feed  five 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  JAMES  LEWIS.  135 

Or  fifty  thousand  if  God  will.  We  need  a  calculus  of  faith  to 
gauge  our  facts  and  schedules  by.  In  a  schedule  St.  Paul  counts 
one,  the  widow's  mite  two,  and  the  alabaster  box  one;  but  that  one 
man  spells  the  conversion  of  Europe,  the  two  mites  may  inspire  a 
St.  Francis  or  a  Wesley,  and  the  odour  of  that  one  box  may  fill  the 
Church  and  the  world  and  heaven  with  its  love  and  devotion  of 
praise.  Administrative  mathematics  have  no  sure  and  direct 
equivalence  in  the  spiritual  world. 

Merely  to  space  the  world  in  square  miles  and  the  Church  and 
the  race  in  numbers,  and  the  cost  of  missionary  work  in  so  many 
dollars  is  coming  nigh  to  tempting  God  by  the  folly  of  our  thoughts, 
as  we  try  in  that  fleshly  fashion  to  gauge  the  facts  and  needs  of 
heathendom  as  Christ's  representatives.  The  white  fields  of  God 
are  a  silent  call  to  fervent  prayer,  ay,  even  to  agonizing  prayer,  if 
we  be  capable  of  such  a  thing.  They  are  also  a  call  to  labour  that 
shall  know  no  limit  save  our  power  and  opportunity. 

Our  resources  in  men  are  not  measured  by  their  numbers,  but 
by  their  power  to  prevail  with  God  and  with  men.  Our  resources 
in  means  are  measured  by  God's  will  to  use  them.  Every  ruined 
church  and  abbey  and  school  of  Christian  learning  is  eloquent  of 
the  futility  of  all  means  except  God  condescend  to  use  them.  We 
are  flung  back  on  God,  and  Jacob  can  only  become  Israel  as  he  learns 
through  agony  prevalence.  And  the  last  thing  the  flesh  consents  to 
is  to  pray,  and  in  praying  to  plead,  and  in  pleading  to  agonize,  till 
our  Gethsemane  makes  endurable  the  cross,  and  at  last  our  triumph- 
ant "It  is  done"  proclaims  to  heaven  and  hell  the  victory. 

Paul  plants,  Apollos  waters;  let  none  glory  in  them.  The 
increase  is  of  God,  and  the  glory  His,  alone.  "The  work  that  is 
done  upon  earth  He  doeth  alone."  He  made  us  a  people  from  noth- 
ing and  can  as  easily  unmake  us. 

Subject  to  all  this,  there  has  been  compiled  as  complete  and 
elaborate  a  set  of  schedules  of  our  resources  in  men  and  money  for 
the  Foreign  Missionary  enterprise  as  could  be  got  together.  Their 
source  is  the  World  Missionary  Conference  Statistical  Atlas  of  1910. 
That  Atlas  has  been  revised  and  was  reissued  last  July  as  "The 
World  Atlas  of  Missions."  By  the  handsome  help  of  Mr.  Chas.  H. 
Fahs,  B.  A.,  I  have  been  able  to  bring  the  schedules  up  to  date.  The 
revised  Atlaa  of  Statistics  contains,  in  addition  to  the  old  matter, 
the  Methodist  work  carried  on  in  Bulgaria,  South  America,  Mexico, 
West  Indies,  etc.,  places  ruled  out  of  consideration  by  the  terms  of 
the  Edinburgh  Conference,  whose  concern  was  with  the  purely  non- 
Christian  world. 

Of  course,  the  real  resources  of  Methodism  in  men  or  money, 
no  man  can  tell.  The  figures  reveal  the  painful  fact  that  Methodism, 
like  Christendom,  has  not  fully  heard  Christ  calling  her  to  advance 
into  the  starlight   of  heathenism:      "Arise,   shine."     The  men  and 


13G  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

women  and  the  money  we  devote  to  this  great  task  are  both  of  them 
small  compared  with  our  resources. 

And  yet,  even  so,  it  is  probably  as  true  of  us  as  of  others,  that 
we  waste  much  of  the  little  we  give  by  bad  husbandry.  The  World 
Conference  deliberately  registered  the  conclusion  that  the  mission- 
ary i-esources  of  the  Church  might  be  doubled,  if  mission  boards 
would  reasonably  co-operate  in  common  institutions  for  training 
mission  agents,  and  in  educational,  industrial,  medical  and  evan- 
gelistic work.  But  one  thing  needs  emphasis  in  this  connection. 
This  work  of  reunion  in  organization,  economy  in  administration, 
is  but  small  compared  to  the  infinitely  harder  one  of  rousing  our 
youth  to  devote  itself  to  Christ  for  missions,  and  the  further  worlv 
of  rousing  the  Church  to  drop  its  playing  at  missions  and  to  give 
large  gifts  with  thought  and  sacrifice  and  gladness. 

In  the  Universities  and  High  Schools,  in  laboratories  and  work- 
shops, in  homes  of  wealth  and  poor  men's  cottages  are  multitudes 
who  are  awaiting  their  vocation.  Shall  we  not  pray  for  power  to 
enlist  them  for  the  Highest?  In  our  coffers  are  the  means  to  equip 
them.  That  wealth  kept  back  cries  aloud.  Christ  overhead  views 
the  needy  heathen  and  the  slack  Christian.  I  sometimes  do  not 
fear  for  the  heathen,  but  I  do  for  the  Christian.  Why?  "You  only 
have  I  known  .  .  .  therefore  will  I  judge  you."  God's  gifts 
unused  turn  to  judgments;  the  stored  manna  bred  worms. 

But  if  young  and  old,  rich  and  poor,  are  to  be  roused,  the  min- 
istry must  become  more  thoroughly  enlightened  on  the  needs  of  the 
world,  the  duty  of  the  Church  and  the  opportunity  of  to-day. 
Theological  students  should  be  thoroughly  versed  in  the  modern 
religious  aspect  of  the  heathen  world.  The  world-view  of  missions 
should  be  accurately  and  vividly  put  before  every  Church.  As  every 
Church  feels  its  bonds  to  Christ  and  Christendom,  so  ought  it  to 
heathendom.  It  will  gain  thereby  in  largeness  of  view  and  strength 
for  service.  Missions  should  not  be  a  hobby  for  the  few  and  the 
weak,  but  the  inspiration  and  endeavor  of  all,  especially  of  the 
strongest  and  best.  The  Church  ought  not  so  much  to  have  a  Mis- 
sionary Society  as  to  he  one.  The  true  Missionary  Society  is  the 
whole  Church  functioned  in  relation  to  heathenism,  bent  on  saving 
a  world.  We  look  upon  the  whole  world  as  our  parish;  that  may  be 
an  idle  boast,  or  an  inspiring  ideal. 

The  main  statistics  of  our  present  resources  are  now  to  be 
given.     The   schedules    of    particulars   will    appear   in   the   Report. 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  JAMES  LEWIS.  137 


ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

I.  Foreign  Missionakies  : — • 

Ordained  men   918 

Physicians :  — Men    67 

Physicians: — Women    53 

Laymen    (apart  from  physicians) 104 

Married  women   (not  physicians) 769 

Unmarried  women  (not  physicians) 678 

Total    Foreign    Missionaries 2,528 

(Deducting  for  those  taken  twice:   e.  g.  ordained  men  who 
are  also  physicians.) 

II.  Native  Workebs:  — 

Ordained    1,419 

Unordained  (preachers,  teachers,  bible-women,  etc.) .  .19,430 

Total     20,849 

Native  workers  are  eight  times  the  foreign  ones. 

III.  Stations:  — 

Principal    Stations    673 

Substations  6,089 

Total    6,762 

IV.  Christian   Community  and  Contributions:  — 

Baptized  Christians 708,105 

Total  Christians  and  Adherents,  whether  baptized 

or  not    1,448,294 

Sunday  school  teachers  and  scholars 458,165 

Contributions  of  Native  Church  as  far  as  ascertained, 

but  somewhat  imperfect    $796,039 

In  the  figure  of  total  Christians  and  adherents  there  are  many 
estimates;    the  contributions  are  also  slightly  imperfect. 

The  ordained  ministry  of  Ecumenical  Methodism  in  1909  was 
52,978.  Of  these  only  2,332,  counting  foreign  and  native,  were  on 
the  Mission  field;  i.  e.,  less  than  5  per  cent.  All  over  the  world  our 
ministers  were  1  to  174  members.  In  our  Churches  in  the  heathen 
world  they  are  1  to  303. 

Our  Means  as  expressed  by  the  income  of  the  Missionary  Society 
amounted,  according  to  the  Edinhurgh  World  Missionary  Conference 
Statistical  Atlas  of  1910  to  £6,931,537;  roughly  seven  millions. 
But  who  can  determine  its  spiritual  equivalence?  None  but  the 
Holy  Spirit.  Divided  by  the  membership,  8,715,434,  it  works  out  at 
80  cents  per  member  per  annum.    The  order  in  which  the  Churches 


138  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

come,  measured  in  contributions  per  member  per  annum,  is  as 
follows:  [N.  B. — I  merely  state  the  order  but  can  not  draw  any 
conclusion  from  it  as  to  relative  merit.  What  may  appear  small 
may  be,  relative  to  the  wealth  of  the  Church,  a  considei^able  gift. 
Remember  the  widow's  mite.]  Per  member 

per  annum 
Foreign  churches  of  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society. ..  .$G.59 

South  African  Methodist  Missionary  Society 4.13 

Foreign  churches  of  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 2.37 

Free  Methodist  Church  of  North  America 1.89 

Methodist  Church  of  Canada 1.87 

Wesleyan  Methodist  of  Great  Britain 1.59 

French  Methodists   1.38 

American  Auxiliary  Primitive  Methodists 85 

Methodist  Missionary  Society  of  Australasia 82 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Connection  of  America 78 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  U.  S.  A 63 

United  Methodist  Church,  Great  Britain 62 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South 46 

Methodist  Protestant  Church 25 

Primitive  Methodist  CTiurch,  Great  Britain 18 

African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 04 

African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church 04 

Few  will  argue  that  our  present  gifts  to  missions  represent  any- 
thing like  our  capacity  to  give,  or  the  opportunity  of  the  hour. 
God  has  flung  the  doors  of  the  world  open.  Four  states,  mostly 
small  buffer  states,  alone  are  closed,  Afghanistan,  Nepaul,  Bhutan, 
and  Thibet.  All  the  rest  of  the  world  is  open.  The  Lord  has  given 
the  Word;  let  the  number  of  the  heralds,  both  men  and  women,  be 
adequate.  Let  us  pray  for  them  to  be  given  to  us,  men  and  women. 
Spirit  filled,  universal  in  their  love,  seeing  Christ  in  every  man  and 
every  man  in  Christ,  to  whom  distinctions  of  nationality,  culture, 
religious  heritage,  race,  class,  sex,  melt  for  ever  away  and  are  as 
nothing,  as  they  go  to  seek  and  save  the  lost.  Let  us  pray  for  men 
with  an  eye  to  see  the  blood-red  seal  of  Calvary  on  every  man's 
forehead,  giving  him  infinite  worth  as  the  beloved  and  redeemed  of 
God,  however  low  his  present  moral   and  spiritual  estate. 

Oh,  when  all  comes  to  all,  God  is  the  Great  and  Only  Worker, 
God  is  our  One  and  Only  Resource.  We  are  but  tools  of  His  using; 
chosen  vases.  It  is  not  for  the  tool  tO'  magnify  itself  against  the 
User,  or  the  vase  against  Him  who  fills  it  with  perfume.  "In 
quietness  and  confidence  is  our  strength."  "Emmanuel:  God  is  with 
us." 

What  are  our  resources  in  men?  It  is  a  great  question,  but  we 
can  not  bottom  it  till  we  know  their  resources,  in  and  through  God. 


ADDRESS  BY  BISHOP  G.  W.  CLINTON.  139 

Who  can  estimate  the  resources  lying  paralyzed  in  us  through 
our  lack  of  faith  and  love? 

Who.  can  measure  the  plentitude  of  power  in  the  new  age 
coming  up,  flying  on  the  wings  of  the  wind  and  communicating 
through  ether.  If  the  physical  universe  be  as  the  Fathers  thought, 
a  sacrament  of  the  unseen,  what  is  the  correlative  of  all  this? 

Who  knows  what  time  the  Spirit  may  be  poured  out  as  never 
before,  thrilling,  inspiring  and  directing  the  new  age  to  undreamt 
of  feats  of  sacrifice  and  love  and  power?  Expecta  Dominum.  Wait 
on  the  Lord.  He  is  at  hand.  Never  has  He  failed  the  watchers  yet. 
Watchmen,  get  to  your  towers.  Look!  the  dawn  is  spreading  on  the 
mountains. 

Our  Lord  has  still  the  dew  of  His  youth.  He  never  fails  with 
the  young.  He  is  calling  and  they  answering.  If  proof  be  needed, 
then  look  at  the  Student  Volunteers.  I  see  them  coming  with  the 
light  of  God  in  their  eyes  and  the  grand  original  idea  of  Christi- 
anity bred  in  their  marrow — that  idea  so  well  put  by  Justin  Martyr, 
that  to  have  the  Christian  faith  and  not  to  proclaim  it  is  to  incur 
the  judgment  of  God.  The  Christian,  like  the  Mohammedan,  in  the 
new  age  coming  up  will  be  everywhere  a  missionary,  without 
hesitation. 

Our  resources  in  men  are  our  whole  membership;  our  resources 
in  means  are  our  whole  wealth;  our  resources  in  God  are  the  illimit- 
able powers  of  the  Spirit.  By  the  self-emptying  of  Chri?t,  and  by 
His  infinite  agony  for  us  we  are  compelled  and  constrained  to  lay- 
all  at  His  feet  for  such  uses  as  He  may  will.  The  Cross  of  .lesus 
has  made  all  things  but  loss,  ay,  refuse,  to  the  Church,  and  the 
claim  of  the  Lord  and  His  redeemed  world  absolute.  The  Bride  of  a 
stripped  and  crucified  Lord  covets  sackcloth.  Her  will  is  to  finish 
His  work,  and  in  it,  to  fill  up  that  which  remaineth  over  of  His 
sufferings.    For  our  world-task  our  sufficiency  is  of  God. 

Bishop  G.  W.  Clintox,  D.  D.,  of  the  African  Methodist 
Episcopal  Zion  Church,  gave  the  first  invited  address,  "Mis- 
sion of  Methodism  to  the  Backward  Races:" 

This  question  is  but  the  personal  application,  or  the  consider- 
ation, in  its  personal  bearing,  of  the  larger  problem — The  Mission 
of  Christianity  to  the  Backward  Races.  And  I  deem  it  very 
appropriate  that  Methodism  should,  on  such  an  august  occasion  as 
this,  consider  this  question  in  so  decidedly  personal  an  aspect,  and 
this  for  two  chief  reasons. 

First,  because  we  have  been  placed — providentially,  may  I  say? 
— in  the  very  forefront  of  the  advancing  columns  of  Protestantism, 
and  hence  ought  to  be  the  first  to  hear  and  interpret  the  cry  that 


140  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

comes  from  the  backward  races,  like  some  Macedonian  appeal,  at 
once  plaintive  and  insistent. 

And  secondly,  unless  Methodism  be  false  to  the  traditions  of 
her  glorious  past  and  disloyal  to  the  spirit  and  genius  of  her  great 
founder,  none  is  more  eminently  fitted  to  minister  to  the  clamant 
needs  of  these  races  than  she,  by  reason  of  her  special  adaptations 
and  qualifications.  In  her  incipiency  and  during  the  days  of  her 
early  struggles  and  triumphs,  Methodism  caught  the  viewpoint  of 
the  Christ  and  dreamt  of  a  world  conquered  for  Him.  With  a 
splendid  faith  she  transcended  the  narrow  limitations  of  Calvinism, 
and  in  the  spirit  of  the  immortal  Wesley,  who  declared  that  the 
world  was  his  parish,  she  went  forth  proclaiming  a  gospel  of  love 
and  hope  for  the  world. 

Methodism  emphasized  anew  the  worth  and  "the  equal  spiritual 
value  of  the  individual."  One  authority,  quoted  by  Dr.  John  S. 
Simon  in  his  able  and  valuable  Fernley  Lecture,  testifies  that  largely 
as  a  result  of  Methodist  preaching  in  the  eighteenth  century  "all 
ranks  of  society  recognized,  or  had  a  passionate  desire  to  recognize 
the  equality  of  every  living  being  before  Almighty  God."  Methodism, 
moreover,  believed  in  and  proclaimed  the  power  of  the  grace  of  God, 
manifested  in  Jesus  Christ  and  made  operative  through  the  Holy 
Ghost,  to  save,  uplift  and  ennoble  the  lowest  and  the  worst  who 
might  respond  to  it.  If  she  still  holds  to  these  great  principles 
which  were  fundamental  in  the  beginnings  of  her  history,  then  she 
is  eminently  qualified  to  fulfill  a  splendid  mission  to  the  backward 
races. 

What  this  mission  is  may  be  expressed  in  one  brief  but  pregnant 
sentence:  Patient,  loving.  Christlike  leadership  towards  all  that 
makes  for  the  salvation  and  uplifting  to  complete  manhood  of  the 
backward  peoples.  God's  ideal  is  the  same  for  all  mankind.  He 
aims  at  perfect  manhood  in  Jesus  Christ  for  every  member  of  the 
race.  "Unto  the  measure  of  the  fulness  of  the  stature  of  Christ" — 
that  is  the  sublime  goal  towards  which  we  are  approximating,  and 
to  which  the  whole  human  race,  by  the  grace  of  God,  must  ultimately 
come;  but  ere  this  goal  is  reached,  ere  the  divine  plan  is  consum- 
mated and  humanity  is  presented  "faultless  before  the  presence  of 
His  glory  with  exceeding  joy,"  all  backward  races  must  be  led  "out 
of  darkness  into  His  marvelous  light,"  must  be  led  up,  lifted  up, 
if  you  please,  from  the  depths  of  sin  and  superstition  to  the  high- 
way of  holiness  and  truth,  the  highway  which  finally  culminates 
in  the  glory-crowned  heights  of  spiritual  perfection.  And  this  is  the 
high  and  responsible  task  to  which  Methodism  must  address  her- 
self, a  task  so  grand  that  the  very  angels  of  God  might  well  covet 
it,  and  yet  so  great  that  men  must  seek  God's  help  in  order  to 
accomplish  it. 

In  that   magnificent   address   which   he,  as   the   fraternal   mes- 


ADDRESS  BY  BISHOP  G.  W.  CLINTON.  141 

senger  from  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  delivered  before  the 
last  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South — 
an  address  that  was  full  of  throbbing  and  burning  eloquence,  and 
for  which  I  want  to  thank  that  gentleman  from  my  heart — Dr. 
Naphtali  Luccock,  touching  upon  this  question  in  its  larger  bearing, 
recalled  how  Virgil  took  leave  of  Dante  on  the  edge  of  Paradise 
with  these  words: 

"Thus  far,  v.-ith  art  and  skill  thy  way  I  've  urged 
Along  the  narrow,  steep  and  dark  ascent. 
Behold  the  sunlight  on  thy  forehead  thrown. 
Thy  will  is  henceforth  upright,  free  and  sound; 
Lord  o'er  thyself,  be  mitered  and  be  crowned!" 

"Such,"  says  Dr.  Luccock,  "is  the  relation  of  Christianity  to  all 
the  backward  races  of  the  earth.  Patiently  and  at  any  cost  she 
must  lead  them  forward  until  they  obtain  the  splendid  crown  of 
personality,  true  self-control  and  self-direction."  And  this,  I  would 
say,  strikes  the  keynote  of  what  should  be  the  attitude  and  relation 
of  our  great  Church  to  these  races.  These  obligations,  this  mission, 
must  be  assumed,  attempted,  accomplished  "at  any  cost,"  said  the 
good  Doctor.  "Af  a7iy  cost!''  We  may  not  know  the  utmost  cost; 
God  alone  knows  that,  and  it  is  well.  But  we  do  know  some  of  the 
high  demands  it  will  lay  upon  us. 

It  will  demand  of  us  a  new  appraisement  of  our  potentialities 
and  capacities  and  a  correct  interpretation  of  their  significance  both 
in  relation  to  ourselves  and  to  the  backward  races.  Methodism  has 
been  wonderfully  blessed  by  God;  she  has  been  the  recipient  of  a 
marvelous  endowment  of  diversified  gifts,  talents,  powers.  What 
is  God's  purpose  in  bestowing. them?  What  ends  are  they  designed 
to  serve?  If  we  have  never  grasped  the  profound  significance  of 
life,  or  are  content  to  pass  a  mere  aimless  existence,  we  shall  not 
concern  ourselves  with  these  questions,  and  whatever  blessings  we 
possess  will  be  confiscated  because  of  abuse  "or  neglect.  Or  if  we 
cherish  a  low,  pagan  view  of  life,  like  that  expressed  by  Goethe  when 
he  said,  "The  man  who  has  life  in  him  feels  himself  to  be  here  for 
his  own  sake,  not  for  the  public."  According  to  this  view,  all  that 
we  have  and  may  receive  must  minister  to  self,  must  be  applied  to 
selfish  ends,  used  for  self-enrichment,  self-aggrandizement,  self- 
glorification. 

But  surely,  Methodism  has  learned  a  more  excellent  way  than 
these.  She  has  apprehended  the  divine  philosophy,  the  Christian 
interpretation  of  life,  and  unless  she  would  shamefully  abuse  her 
noble  heritage,  and  fatally  pervert  her  divinely-bestowed  posses- 
sions, she  must  interpret  them  in  terms  of  trusteeship  and  devote 
them   in   loving   and   enthusiastic    service   to    the    backward   races. 


142  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

She  must  recognize  the  philosophy  which  Shakespeare  puts  into  the 
mouth  of  one  of  his  characters: 

"Thyself  and  thy  belongings 
Are  not  thine  own  so  proper  as  to  waste 
Thyself  upon  thy  virtues,  they  on  thee. 
Heaven  doth  with  us  as  we  with  torches  do. 
Not  light  them  for  ourselves;  for  if  our  virtues 
Did  not  go  forth  of  us,  'twere  all  alike 
As  if  we  had  them  not.     Spirits  are  not  finely  touch'd 
But  to  fine  issues,  nor  nature  never  lends 
The  smallest  scruple   of  her  excellence 
But,  like  a  thrifty  goddess,  she  determines 
Herself  the  glory  of  a  creditor. 
Both  thanks  and  use." 

Gifts  are  for  service.  This  is  a  truth  that  runs  like  a  golden 
thread  through  the  warp  and  woof  of  Scripture.  "I  will  bless  thee, 
and  make  thy  name  great;  and  thou  shalt  be  a  blessing."  "The 
Lord  God  hath  given  me  the  tongue  of  the  learned,  that  I  should 
know  how  to  speak  a  word  in  season  to  him  that  is  weary."  "The 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  God  is  upon  me;  because  the  Lord  hath  anointed 
me  to  preach  good  tidings  unto  the  meek;  He  hath  sent  me  to  bind 
up  the  broken-hearted,  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives,  and  the 
opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound;  to  proclaim  the 
acceptable  year  of  the  Lord."  In  the  light  of  this  teaching  must 
Methodism  find  the  deep  significance  of  the  divine  bestowments 
vouchsafed  to  her.  They  are  given  for  the  high  ends  of  beneficent 
ministry. 

Again,  the  fulfillment  of  her  mission  will  demand  of  Methodism 
that  she  seek  the  highest  and  the  best.  She  must  strive  after  the 
highest  attainments  in  Christian  life  and  experience;  she  must 
bring  the  best  things  within  the  sphere  of  her  life — the  things  that 
will  minister  to  her  continued  growth  in  grace  and  in  the  knowledge 
of  our  Lord  and  Savior  Jesus  Christ,  to  a  deeper  spirituality,  a 
larger  vision,  a  broader  culture,  a  loftier  optimism,  a  greater 
efficiency.  And  this  must  be  done  on  the  principle  enunciated  in 
these  words  of  Hugh  Black,  that  "what  we  do  ultimately  depends 
on  what  we  are;  and  according  to  the  depth  and  wealth  of  our  own 
nature  can  our  value  to  society  be  measured."  Another  item  in  the 
cost  of  fulfilling  this  mission  is  complete  consecration.  "For  their 
sakes  I  sanctify  myself"  is  the  keynote  here.  Vicarious  consecra- 
tion, unconditional  and  absolute!  This  will  mean  the  uprooting 
and  casting  away  of  much  refined  selfishness,  unholy  pride  and 
stubborn  prejudices;  it  will  mean  the  facing  of  grave  and  sometimes 
unpleasant  issues  in  a  new,  a  brotherly,  a  Christlike  way;  it  will 
mean   the   devoting   of   the   best  we    have   to   the   redemption   and 


ADDRESS  BY  BISHOP  G.  \\.  CLINTON.  143 

upliftment  of  the  backward  races.  So  consecrating  ourselves,  we 
shall  go  to  these  less  fortunate  peoples  in  the  spirit  of  the  gospel 
of  the  Son  of  God  which  esteems  no  man,  no  people,  "common  or 
unclean,"  but  regards  all  as  members  of  the  universal  human 
brotherhood,  and  teaching  that  they  are,  makes  them  the  sons  of 
God. 

One  who  devoted  the  greater  part  of  a  long  life  to  work  among 
the  Indians,  tells  us  that  he  went  among  them  thinking  of  them  as 
Indians,  but  he  soon  came  to  think  of  them  as  men.  Methodism 
must  not  make  this  mistake;  she  must  approach  these  backward 
races  regarding  them  as  men,  who,  in  spite  of  differentiations  in 
nationality,  color  and  the  like,  and  because  of  the  intrinsic  fact 
of  manhood,  are  our  brethren.  In  spite  of  all  differences  we  are 
one,  one  in  common  sinfulness,  one  in  the  deepest  necessities  of 
our  being;  we  are  all  comprehended  in  the  same  infinite  plan  of 
God,  with  equal  right  to  the  redemptive  efficacies  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  with  similar  possibilities  in  destiny.  The  gospel  treats  us  as 
one.  As  has  been  said,  "It  was  meant  for  the  race  and  for  the 
far-reaching  reciprocities  and  inexpressible  necessities  of  the  race." 

Before  closing  let  me  suggest  that  apart  from  the  high  reasons 
growing  out  of  our  sense  of  Christian  responsibility,  there  is 
another,  and,  perhaps,  a  utilitarian  reason  why  we  should  fulfill 
this  mission  to  these  races.  It  is  that  the  perfection  of  the  race 
at  large,  of  humanity,  if  you  please,  is  delayed  by  these  backward 
peoples.  Of  the  heroes  and  worthies  celebrated  in  the  eleventh 
chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  it  is  said  that  "they  without 
us  should  not  be  made  perfect."  So  the  perfection  of  humanity 
shall  be  delayed  until  these  races  are  brought  to  Christ.  Shall  we 
give  ourselves  to  the  task?  We  shall  lose  nothing  by  it.  Our  own 
heavenward  progress  will  not  be  retarded  by  our  efforts  to  minister 
to  the  necessities  of    the  unfortunate. 

Anna  Shipton,  in  one  of  her  books,  tells  us  that  once  when, 
weary  in  her  work  and  longing  for  rest  and  Christ,  she  fell,  asleep 
and  dreamed  that  through  a  sea  of  glass  she  was  being  drawn  by  a 
strong  cable  to  a  city  of  gold,  while  heavenly  watchers  waved  their 
welcome  from  the  battlements,  and  echoes  of  heavenly  melody  made 
her  long  to  be  there.  But  looking  back  for  a  moment,  at  the  sound 
of  a  bitter  cry,  she  saw  multitudes  of  men  and  women  drowning 
around  her,  and  throwing  up  their  anus  in  wild  and  despairing 
cries  for  help.  The  sight  so  moved  her  that  she  turned  her  face 
upward  again  and  cried:  "Father,  not  yet;  a  little  longer  let  the 
glory  wait,  and  send  me  back  again  to  rescue  and  to  save  these 
perishing  ones!"  Instantly  the  prayer  was  answered.  She  did  not 
cease  still  to  be  borne  heavenward,  but  now  it  was  no  longer  alone, 
but  scores  were  following  behind  her,  and  they  were  all  drawn  by  her 
own  heart-strings.     The  cords  of  her  heart  seemed  to  have  loosened 


144  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

and  to  have  become  cables  of  love,  "which  these  sinking  ones  grasped 
as  they  followed  on,  while  at  every  new  burden  her  bosom  quivered 
with  pain  and  the  water  was  red  with  her  own  warm  blood.  But 
still  her  own  progress  was  not  impeded,  and  she  entered  the 
Celestial  City  grandly  with  her  precious  burden. 

So  will  it  be  with  Methodism  as  she  stoops  to  uplift  the  back- 
ward races.  Go  as  "stewards  of  the  manifold  grace  of  God;"  go 
with  a  flaming  passion  for  humanity,  charged  with  the  Spirit  of 
Christ,  baptized  with  power  of  God,  and  you  shall  "touch  them  again 
with  immortality,  give  back  the  upward  looking  and  the  light, 
rebuild  in  them  the  music  and  the  dream." 

The  second  invited  address  was  presented  by  the  Eev.  A.  B. 
Leonard,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  who  spoke 
upon  the  subject,  "Methodist  ISTative  Churches :" 

The  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  has  been  defined  by  high  authority 
as  "a  congregation  of  faithful  men,  in  which  the  pure  word  of  God 
is  preached  and  the  Sacraments  duly  administered  according  to 
Christ's  ordinance,  in  all  things  that  are  necessary  or  requisite  to 
the  same,"  and  this  definition  is  quite  in  harmony  with  the  teach- 
ings of  the  New  Testament.  While  it  is  true  that  every  "congrega- 
tion of  faithful  men"  is  a  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  there  is  no 
reason  why  such  churches  may  not  be  organized  into  ecclesiastical 
bodies  with  such  symbols  of  faith,  polity  and  government  as  may  be 
mutually  agreed  upon,  provided  they  are  not  contrary  to  New  Testa- 
ment teaching. 

But  whatever  differences  there  may  be  in  forms  of  government 
and  doctrinal  statements,  all  agree  that  the  Christian  Church  is  an 
Institution  founded  by  Jesus  Christ,  which  Paul  declares  to  be 
"the  Church  of  the  Living  God, — the  pillar  and  ground  of  Truth." 
(ITim.  3:15.)  The  several  ecclesiastical  bodies  of  Christendom 
have  organized  societies  and  boards  with  one  sole  purpose — that 
of  planting  the  Church  of  Christ  in  non-Christian  lands  and  to  aid 
in  reforming  and  purifying  ecclesiastical  bodies  which  have  lapsed 
into  semi-pagan  forms  of  worship,  and  have  largely  ceased  to 
l-ossess  uplifting  and  transforming  power.  In  the  planting  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  in  non-Christian  lands,  much  has  already  been 
accomplished.  Churches  have  been  founded  and  ecclesiastical 
bodies  organized,  which  are  increasing  in  numbers,  intelligence, 
influence,  spirituality,  and  power.  These  churches  should  have  the 
same  recognition  as  is  accorded  to  churches  in  other  countries  of 
the  same  order  or  denomination.  They  should  be  represented  in 
all  general  assemblies  and  conferences,  conventions  and  synods,  etc., 
and  the  members  thereof  be  eligible  to  all  ofiicial  positions.  They 
should  also  have  placed  upon  them,  as  soon  as  they  are  capable  of 
discharging  their   obligations,  full   governmental   responsibilities. 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  A.  B.  LEONARD.  145 

These  native  churches  should  be  officered  by  their  own  mem- 
bers so  far  as  practicable,  and  be  allowed  to  administer  all  local 
affairs.  In  a  word,  within  the  rules  and  regulations  of  their 
respective  organizations,  they  should  be  self-governing,  and,  as 
soon  as  possible,  self-supporting. 

In  every  land  there  must  be  raised  up  a  native  ministry.  Mis- 
sionaries can  found  the  Church,  but  they  can  not  evangelize  the 
masses.  India  must  be  evangelized  by  Indians,  China  by  Chinese, 
Japan  by  Japanese,  Korea  by  Koreans,  and  Africa  by  Africans. 
Where  the  Christian  Church  is  founded,  the  principal  work  of  the 
foreign  missionary  must  be  the  education  and  training  of  the  native 
church  and  ministry.  Natives  can  do  the  work  of  evangelization 
far  more  effectively  than  foreigners.  They  understand  their  own 
people,  their  habits,  manners  and  customs,  as  foreigners  can  not. 
No  foreigner  can  become  so  thoroughly  transformed  into  a  native 
as  to  see  with  his  eyes,  think  with  his  brain,  fully  understand  his 
spiritual  needs,  or  appreciate  the  sacrifice  he  must  make  in  break- 
ing with  his  age-long  environment.  A  native  who  knows  what 
heathenism  is  and  also  by  personal  experience  the  power  of  Jesus 
Christ  to  save  from  sin,  can  find  his  way  to  the  hearts  of  his  own 
people  far  more  readily  than  can  the  foreign  missionary.  Besides, 
he  can  enter  into  their  social  and  civic  life  and  be  at  home  with  the 
people  whom  he  seeks  to  save.  The  necessity  of  evangelizing  non- 
Christian  peoples  by  ministeis  and  workers  of  their  own  blood  is 
seen  in  the  fact  that  it  is  impossible  to  send  out  missionaries 
in  sufficient  numbers  to  do  the  work.  The  number  needed,  the 
expense  of  outgo  and  support,  render  such  a  policy  not  only  imprac- 
ticable, but  impossible.  Such  a  policy  would  relegate  the  evangeli- 
zation of  the  world  to  the  future  millenniums. 

But  the  native  Church  must  not  only  produce  its  ow.n  ministry, 
it  must  found  and  develop  its  own  institutions,  such  as  schools,  of 
all  grades,  publishing  plants,  orphanages,  hospitals,  etc.  In  a  word, 
the  native  Church  must  build  up  and  support  the  various  institu- 
tions and  agencies  that  now  exist  in  Christian  lands.  They  must, 
for  the  present  and  for  many  years  to  some,  be  generously  aided  by 
money  and  missionaries,  but  the  responsibility  for  self-support  and 
self-government  and  all  that  belongs  to  the  development  and  con- 
quering power  of  the  Church  of  Christ  should  be  placed  upon  the 
natives  as  quickly  as  possible.  It  is  better  that  the  native  Church 
should  be  overburdened  financially  than  that  it  should  be  pauper- 
ized. Nothing  weakens  churches  so  much  as  the  lavish  expenditure 
of  missionary  money.  Every  pastoral  charge  should  be  required, 
up  to  and  even  a  little  beyond  its  ability,  to  support  its  own  pastor. 
Where  the  pastor  is  supported  by  the  people  he  serves,  the  pastoral 
relation  is  likely  tg  be  properly  appreciated  and  the  bond  that  unites 
pastor  and  people,  strong  and  enduring. 

10 


146  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

To  bring  the  native  Church  to  its  greatest  strength  and  effective- 
ness, it  is  important  that  denominations  "which  are  Ivindred  in 
doctrine  and  polity  should  be  brought,  whenever  practicable,  into 
organic  union.  Denominations  of  the  Presbyterian  family  should 
get  together,  as  should  also  the  Methodists,  Baptists  and  Congrega- 
tionalists.  The  trend  is  already  in  this  direction  in  some  parts  of 
the  world.  In  May,  1907,  three  Methodist  bodies  in  Japan,  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  and  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada,  were  united  and  or- 
ganized into  the  Methodist  Church  of  Japan.  The  coming  together 
of  ecclesiastical  bodies  of  similar  forms  of  government  and  creed 
gives  to  the  native  Church  a  standing,  strength  and  conquering 
power  that  can  not  otherwise  be  obtained. 

While  federation  and  even  organic  union  is  desirable  with 
kindred  denominations,  there  is  no  Scriptural  basis  for  the  theory 
widely  promulgated  that  distinct  ecclesiastical  organizations,  among 
Christians,  is  sinful.  An  ecclesiasticism  may  be  a  good  thing  or  it 
may  be  a  bad  thing.  If  it  is  a  good  thing  it  ought  to  be  continued 
and  strengthened,  but  if  it  is  a  bad  thing,  the  sooner  it  is  abolished 
the  better. 

Sometimes  an  ecclesiastical  schism  is  a  great  blessing.  It  was 
such  in  Luther's  day  and  it  was  the  same  in  John  Wesley's  day, 
and  it  has  been  scarcely  less  valuable  in  not  a  few  other  instances. 
To  rend  an  ecclesiasticism  does  not  mean  a  rending  of  the  body  of 
Christ.  The  Truth  is  that  the  body  of  Christ  has  never  been  torn 
asunder.  It  has  always  been  and  will  always  be  one.  When  the 
JBnal  roll  is  called,  ecclesiastical  church  records  will  not  be  con- 
sulted. Only  the  names  that  are  written  in  the  Book  of  Life  will 
be  announced. 

It  is  gratifying  to  know  that  Methodist  denominations  the 
world  round  are  drawing  nearer  to  each  other.  Recently  Bishops 
Warne  and  Robinson  and  the  District  Superintendents  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  India,  in  session  at  Jubulpore,  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  confer  with  a  similar  committee  to  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  Wesleyan  authorities  to  discuss  the  problem  of 
federation  so  far  as  it  relates  to  these  two  denominations,  with  the 
expressed  hope  that  it  might  not  only  result  in  federation,  but  be 
also  the  first  step  toward  a  closer  union.  The  time  will  probably 
come  when  Korea,  China,  Southern  Asia,  Africa  and  other  countries 
where  there  are  two  or  more  Methodisms,  will  respectively  follow 
the  lead  of  Japan,  become  self-governing  and  ultimately  self-sup- 
porting denominations. 

It  would  seem  that  the  academic  discussion  of  organic  union 
of  the  several  Methodisms  of  the  world  is  about  exhausted.  The 
Commission  of  Federation,  appointed  by  three  Methodisms  in  the 
United  States,  after  three  sessions,  state  that  they  will  make  a  full 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  147 

report  of  their  conclusions  as  far  as  they  have  "been  able  to  reach 
any  conclusions,  to  the  General  Conferences,"  which  they  respec- 
tively represent.  They  further  say:  "We  wish  it  to  be  distinctly 
understood  that  what  we  have  done  is  not  and  does  not  pretend 
to  be  of  the  nature  of  a  definite  plan  of  union,  but  cast  in  the  form 
of  a  series  of  suggestions  to  the  General  Conferences  such  as  may 
be  helpful  to  them  in  reaching  final  conclusions." 

It  is  reported  that  there  was  much  good  fellowship  enjoyed  by 
the  Commissioners  and  certainly  there  was  no  lack  of  high-grade 
oratory  at  public  functions,  but  the  rank  and  file  of  the  ministers 
and  members  of  these  churches  are  required  to  wait  until  their 
respective  General  Conferences  convene  in  order  to  know  what  are 
the  "series  of  suggestions"  that  have  been  formulated,  all  of  which 
does  not  encourage  the  hope  that  organic  union  will  occur  at  an 
early  day. 

When  the  question  of  resuming  specie  payment  was  before  the 
United  States  Congress,  back  in  the  late  sixties,  and  after  a  long 
and  memorable  discussion  of  the  difficulties  to  be  overcome,  an 
eminent  statesman  flung  out  the  slogan:  "The  way  to  resume,  is 
to  resume."  So  it  would  seem  that  the  academic  discussion  of 
Methodist  union  has  had  its  day  and  that  the  time  for  action  has 
come.  The  only  way  to  accomplish  union  is  to  unite.  If,  however, 
organic  union  fails,  in  America  and  elsewhere,  the  true  spiritual 
union  of  the  Church  of  the  Living  God  will  continue  to  exist  the 
world  round.  The  Continuation  Committee  of  the  World  Missionary 
Conference  held  in  Edinburgh,  last  year,  has  recently  stated  the 
case  tersely:  "It  is  to  be  observed  that  unity  need  not  involve 
uniformity — denominationalism  and  unity  are  related  rather  than 
opposed.  A  fundamental  principle  of  Christianity  is  the  fact — 
'One  is  your  Master,  even  Christ,  and  all  ye  are  brethren.'  " 

Bishop  E.   E.   Hoss,  of  the  Metliodist  Episcopal   Cliurch, 
South,  delivered  the  third  invited  address,  on  "Methodism  in 
Korea."      [The   editors  regret  that,  not  having  succeeded  in 
obtaining  the  manuscript,  the  address  must  be  omitted.] 
*         *         *         * 

Tlie  Rev.  Richard  F.  Broomfield,  of  the  British  "Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church,  opened  the  discussion: 

Mr.  President,  ladies,  and  gentlemen,  I  desire  to  hark  back 
just  for  a  moment  or  two  to  an  incident  of  this  morning.  I  felt 
that  it  would  have  been  helpful  to  us  if  we  could  have  heard  more 
about  the  modernist  movement  in  Italy.  We  heard  a  little  about 
the  movement  in  France.  I  realize  it  would  help  us  very  much  if 
some  arrangement  could  be  made  by  which  one  of  the  speakers  to- 
night could  tell  us  something  about  the  inwardnes  of  that  great 
movement  as  it  affects  Italy.     I   have  felt  that  the  movement  in 


148  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

Italy,  or  the  movement  in  Portugal  and  Spain,  rather,  is  not  so 
much  a  political  movement  as  a  religious  movement.  We  should 
like  to  understand  it  better.  Also,  how  far,  if  it  is  practicable  to 
tell  us,  the  recent  election  in  Canada  was  influenced  by  religious 
feeling.  Some  of  us  feel  intensely  about  these  things;  and  we 
would  like  to  know  more  about  them. 

I  notice  that  Mr.  Lewis  mentioned  the  proportion  of  workers 
at  home  to  the  workers  abroad.  I  felt,  I  feel  now,  that  it  is  of 
the  greatest  moment  that  we  should  have  a  developed  native 
agency,  and  I  would  like  to  emphasize  that.  And  a  moment  more 
with  reference  to  men  and  means.  I  question  whether  we  are  using 
the  men  as  much  as  we  might,  especially  with  reference  to  the 
development  of  Methodism  over  here  in  this  great  country.  You 
have  a  great  mixed  multitude  coming,  some  poor,  possibly,  some 
better,  but  a  great  many  who  are  good — good  Methodist  local 
preachers;  and  I  am  doubtful  whether  these  men  are  being  used 
as  well  as  they  should  be  in  evangelizing  this  great  country.  A 
little  while  ago  a  good  sound  Cornishman,  an  excellent  local 
preacher,  came  over  to  this  country.  I  kept  in  touch  with  him  for 
a  long  time.  And  his  frequent  complaint  was  that  he  was  not 
preaching  as  frequently  as  he  did  in  the  Old  Country;  and  he 
earnestly  desired  to  do  more  work  of  that  kind.  I  commend  it 
humbly  to  the  friends  over  here  who  are  in  charge  of  this  land 
and  its  evangelization,  as  to  whether  it  is  not  wise  for  them  to 
use  these  local  preachers  who  are  trained  and  qualified.  They  do 
not  discuss  academic  questions.  Their  message  is  clear  and  straight 
and  evangelical.  I  believe  these  men  will  help  very  much,  if  they 
are  wisely  directed,  in  carrying  on  the  work  of  God  over  here. 

The  Eev.  Owen  S.  Watkins^  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church: 

I  am  a  pioneer  missionary  in  South  Central  Africa,  and  I  came 
here  to-day  to  recall  this  great  Conference  to  a  subject  which  was 
appointed  for  this  afternoon,  the  subject  of  "the  backward  races." 
Twenty-nine  years  ago  the  Methodist  Conference  of  Great  Britain 
sent  three  young  men  to  the  north  of  the  Vaal  river  to  organize 
Methodist  missions.  We  found  when  we  got  there  that  Ethiopia 
was  stretching  out  her  hands  unto  God.  The  people  were  waiting, 
hungering,  and  thirsting.  And  I  had  messages  from  heathen  chiefs 
hundreds  of  miles  north  of  my  headquarters  beseeching  me  to  go 
to  gather  in  Christian  people  in  their  tribes,  who  had  never  been 
baptized  and  who  had  never  seen  the  face  of  a  white  man.  Per- 
haps some  of  you  think  that  when  God  permitted  the  white  man 
to  find  diamonds  in  Africa  it  was  to  enrich  a  few  bloated  Jews. 
It  was  no  such  thing.  It  was  to  attract  the  notice  of  Africa  to 
this  important  place,  that  they  might  learn  about  Jesus  Christ. 
And  on  every  diamond  field  and  every  gold  field  in  South  Africa 
the  natives  gathered  from  the  center  and  the  east  and  the  west 
of  Africa,  coming  there  to  work  in  those  mines,  are  met  by  a  Meth- 
odist preacher,  and  they  hear  in  their  own  tongue  the  wonderful 
works  of  God.  Every  man  of  them  becomes  a  missionary  to  his  own 
people.  He  has  only  come  to  the  gold  or  diamond  fields  for  five  or 
six  months;  and  hundreds,  if  not  thousands,  of  these  men  have  gone 
back  to  their  distant  homes,  and  have  carried  on  their  return  three 
things  they  did  not  bring  with  them.    One  was  the  Word  of  God  in 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  r49 

their  own  tongue;  and  the  second,  John  "Wesley's  hymn-book;  and 
the  third  was  a  Methodist  tune-book — not  the  new  one!  No!  no! 
but  the  tunes  that  warmed  our  fathers'  hearts.  They  have  gone 
to  the  very  center  of  Africa.  And  while  I  have  traveled  thousands 
upon  thousands  of  miles  in  Africa,  I  have  not  yet  got  beyond  these 
God-planted  Churches  among  the  tribes  and  people  north  of  the 
Vaal  river.  Let  me  say,  we  have  no  need  for  any  exhortations 
from  this  Conference  or  any  other  to  say  that  we  must  create  a 
native  ministry.  We  have  done  it;  and  we  started  that  mission 
with  this  principle,  "The  minimum  of  English  agency  and  the 
maximum  of  native  agency."  And  we  are  creating,  year  by  year, 
a  glorious  ministry.  .  We  have  taught  them  the  gospel  of  giving. 
For  there  we  have  three  gospels. 

Mr.  N.  ^^  EowELL,  K.  C,  of  the  Methodist  Church  of 
Canada : 

One  of  the  themes  for  discussion  this  afternoon  is  "Our  Re- 
sources in  Men  and  Means."  This  moi-ning  the  opportunity  and 
the  need  were  made  clear  to  us.  We  realize  that  our  failure  to 
meet  the  situation  is  largely  due  to  our  lack  of  men  and  means 
to  occupy  tiie  fields.  A  word  of  testimony  is  always  in  order  in  a 
Methodist  meeting. 

Two  propositions — and  I  will  illustrate  them  by  experience.  If 
in  view  of  the  magnitude  of  the  task  before  us  we  expect  little  and 
ask  little,  we  will  not  be  disappointed.  We  will  get  less  than  we 
ask  or  expect.  But  if,  in  view  of  the  magnitude  of  the  undertak- 
ing, we  expect  great  things  and  ask  great  things,  we  will  get  more 
than  we  either  expect  or  ask.  All  we  require  is  to  bring  home  to 
the  intellect  and  conscience  of  the  Church  to-day  the  magnitude 
and  urgency  of  the  opportunity,  and  I  believe  the  Church  will 
respond.  The  experience  of  our  own  Canadian  Methodist  Church 
shows  this.  Eight  years  ago,  at  our  late  General  Conference  in 
Winnipeg,  we  realized  that  the  inrush  of  immigrants  to  Canada 
required  our  Church  to  put  forth  great  effort  to  do  her  share  in 
meeting  the  religious  needs  of  these  new  settlers.  We  decided  to 
raise  an  emergency  fund  of  $50,000  to  supplement  our  current  in- 
come and  provide  for  additional  agencies  in  the  field,  this  covering 
a  period  of  four  years.  We  realized  a  little  less  than  half  that 
amount.  Since  then  we  have  adopted  a  settled  policy  of  increas- 
ing our  annual  income  by  not  less  than  $.50,000  a  year,  or  ten 
thousand  pounds.  For  four  years  in  succession  we  have  done  better 
than  that,  increasing  on  an  average  of  $G0,000  a  year.  Last  year 
we  concluded  that  we  could  not  posibly  meet  the  situation  out  of 
current  income,  even  with  that  increase.  We  gathered  together 
our  laymen  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and  our  missionary 
secretaries  presented  to  them  the  needs  of  our  w'ork  for  planting 
and  equipment  at  home  and  abroad.  The  gathering  of  our  most 
representative  laymen  decided  that  we  need  one  and  one-half  mil- 
lions of  money  in  the  next  five  years,  besides  increasing  our  cui"- 
rent  income  by  $50,000  a  year,  for  increasing  our  plant  and  equip- 
ment; and  they  decided  we  would  undertake  it.  We  asked  and 
expected  great  things.  We  have  not  covered  half  the  ground  yet, 
and  we  now  have  subscriptions  of  between  six  and  seven  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  If  the  rest  of  Canada  respond  as  well  as  the 
sections  already  covered,  we  will,  in  this  ecclesiastical  year,  reach 


150  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

a  total  subscription  of  a  million  and  a  half  dollars  for  plant  and 
equipment,  one-half  to  be  spent  in  Canada  and  half  in  the  foreign 
field.  And  meantime  we  will  continue  to  increase  our  annual  in- 
come by  not  less  than  $50,000  a  year. 

If  we  present  it  in  a  way  that  carries  conviction  to  the  men 
that  there  is  need  and  that  the  money  will  be  well  spent  if  con- 
tributed, and  if  they  feel  the  divine  impulse  stirring  in  their 
hearts,  to  be  servants  of  their  Lord  and  Master,  the  money  will 
come.  The  Christian  men  have  the  money.  They  have  got  abun- 
dance. The  evangelization  of  the  world  from  the  money  standpoint 
is  the  simplest  part  of  the  proposition. 

The  Rev.  Joseph  H.  Bateson,  of  the  British  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church: 

Mr.  President,  we  have  been  passing  our  battalions  in  review. 
I  feel  it  laid  on  my  heart  with  all  the  earnestness  I  have  to  put 
before  you  the  case  of  the  Mohammedan  world.  Here  we  have 
been  proudly  looking  at  the  serried  ranks  of  our  Methodist  army; 
and  there  is  this  conquering  religion,  and  Methodism  is  practically 
doing  nothing  to  win  the  great  Mohammedan  world  to  the  Christ 
that  has  won  our  hearts  and  whom  we  love.  For  Islam  is  a  con- 
quering religion.  It  is  conquering  in  Africa  to-day.  And  if  we 
are  not  going  to  try  to  win  Africa,  it  will  be  won  for  the  crescent 
when  it  might  have  been  won  for  the  cross.  A  missionary  told 
me  that  three  years  ago  two  villages  asked  for  two  teachers  to  be 
sent  to  tell  the  people  about  Christ.  They  could  not  send  the 
teachers  at  the  time.  After  two  years  the  teachers  were  sent,  only 
to  find  that  the  dark  line  had  passed  further  southward  in  the  conti- 
nent of  Africa,  and  those  villages  had  come  under  the  sway  of  Mo- 
hammedanism. In  India  Mohammedanism  is  the  conquering  re- 
ligion of  to-day.  It  is  making  more  converts  than  we  are.  They 
are  conquering  by  a  new  power  that  has  come  to  them.  The  other 
day  I  was  in  a  mosque  on  the  frontier  of  India.  When  the  men 
had  gone  through  the  Mussulman  prayers,  a  priest  got  up  and 
preached  from  this  text,  "What  good  is  your  coming  here,  Friday 
after  Friday,  and  washing  your  feet,  and  kneeling  in  prayer? 
What  good  is  that?  Cease  to  do  evil,  and  learn  to  do  well."  The 
end  of  his  oratory  that  moved  that  crowd  of  our  restless  frontier 
neighbors  was  this — "Let  us  win  India  for  the  crescent."  That 
spirit  is  coming  to  Mohammedanism.  I  mean  to  say  that  there 
in  India  to-day  Mohammedanism  is  a  conquering  power.  It  is  hold- 
ing its  own  in  Persia,  Turkey,  Egypt,  despite  the  new  enlighten- 
ment in  these  countries;  and  I  think  it  is  a  tragedy  that  Arabia, 
practically,  and  Afghanistan,  absolutely,  are  closed  to  Christian 
missions  to-day.  All  the  Churches,  and  certainly  Methodism,  ought 
to  be  doing  something  definite  and  deliberate  to  win  the  Moham- 
medan populations  to  Jesus  Christ.  Out  on  God's  far-flung  battle 
line  we  are  only  waiting  for  orders.  But  the  people  at  home  who 
have  the  administration  of  the  army — I  wish  it  might  be  laid  on 
their  hearts  to  attack  this  problem.  The  men  at  the  front  will 
make  any  sacrifice.  If  anything  can  break  down  the  power  of 
Mohammedanism,  it  will  be  prayer.  I  wish  you  at  home  every  day 
for  the  next  twelve  months  would  pray  earnestly  and  deliberately 
that  Christ  may  win  Mohammedans  to  His  service.  Let  us  do 
something  to  put  an  end  to  this  conquering  power.     O,  the  man- 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  151 

hood  that  is  embraced  bj'  Mohammedanism  to-day,  which  only  waits 
to  be  won  fox'  Clirist.  My  prayei'  to  the  Conference  is  this,  that 
one  result  of  our  meeting  here  will  be  that  whereas  to-day  we  have 
few  Methodist  missionaries  to  Mohammedans,  we  will  attack  this 
giant  foe. 

The  Eev.  E.  L.  Beale,  D.  D.,  of  the  African  Methodist 

Episcopal  Church : 

Mr.  President,  and  members  of  the  Ecumenical  Conference,  I 
rise  on  behalf  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  African  Methodists  in 
particular,  to  thank  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church,  for 
what  you  have  done  and  are  doing  for  our  uplift;  not  only  in 
Canada  and  the  United  States,  but  for  benighted  Africa.  "Words 
are  inadequate  to  express  our  gratitude  for  your  missionary  labors. 
"We  thank  first  Almighty  God,  and  then  you,  for  your  noble  sacri- 
fice in  misionary  labor  and  treasure  for  the  spread  of  the  gospel 
truth  among  us.  Surely  God  has  blessed  Japhet,  and  has  given  him 
power  and  dominion  to  spread  civilization  to  earth's  remotest 
bounds.  "Venerable  sirs,  continue  to  swing  wide  the  gates  of  hope. 
For  it  is  a  difficult  climb  out  of  the  depths  from  which  we  have 
come,  to  the  altitudes  to  which  we  have  attained.  "With  faith  in 
God  we  have  gone  forward,  looking  to  the  "Father  of  lights,  with 
whom  is  no  variableness  nor  shadow  of  turning."  "We  are  pressing 
to  the  goal  where  just  men  are  made  perfect;  and  as  your  chariots 
are  sweeping  on  to  the  heights  celestial,  look  back  occasionally  and 
give  us  a  cheer,  for  we  are  pressing  onward.  Count  us,  therefore, 
a  valuable  part  of  your  assets.  "We,  too,  have  millions  of  souls  that 
are  to  be  redeemed  by  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  rainbow  of 
nations  that  shall  belt  the  great  world. 

The  Eev,  G.  C.  Clement^  D.  D.,  of  the  African  Methodist 

Episcopal  Zion  Church : 

Mr.  President:  I  come  here  to  say  a  word  about  Africa.  I  have 
been  intensely  interested  in  this  discussion  of  world-wide  evangel- 
ism and  missionary  endeavor.  It  may  seem  strange  that  the  two 
continents  in  which  the  living  Christ  dwelt,  the  only  two  upon 
which  He  ever  was  when  upon  earth,  are  the  two  farthest  away 
from  Him  to-day.  He'  was  born  in  Asia,  and  He  was  carried  to 
Africa  that  He  might  be  protected  with  His  mother.  I  would  like 
to  remind  this  great  Methodist  Conference  that  the  same  hospi- 
tality which  characterized  the  African  who  received  the  Babe  of 
Bethlehem  and  His  mother  Mary  fills  the  hearts  of  Africans  in 
Africa  and  America  to-day.  We  stand  ready  to  protect  the  women 
and  children.  Strange  it  is,  I  say,  that  that  land  to  which  the 
Babe  of  Bethlehem  was  carried  is  yet  the  land  furthest  away  from 
Christ.  And  this  Conference  would  do  well  to  consider  it.  Africa 
offers  a  great  opportunity  for  missionary  work — two  hundred  mil- 
lions of  heathen  people.  There  are  missionaries  stationed  here  and 
there.  But  yet  that  continent  is  the  blackest  on  the  face  of  the 
earth,  not  only  because  of  the  color  of  its  people,  but  because  of 
the  dark  night  that  has  set  upon  us.  I  come  to  ask  you  for  this 
one  favor:  we  have  been  reminded  in  these  discussions  this  after- 
noon that  men  of  the  same  blood  make  the  best  missionaries  to 


152  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

heathen  countries.  I  want  to  ask  you  to  interest  yourselves  in  the 
American  negro,  whether  in  the  United  States  or  in  the  "West  In- 
dies. I  ask  you  to  help  him  to  go  back  to  Africa  and  there  carry 
the  torch  of  Christianity.  For  the  negro  is  destined  to  be  God's 
messenger  to  that  land.  Perhaps  Africa  has  waited  two  thousand 
years  that  Christian  America  and  Europe  might  educate  sons  of 
that  land  to  send  them  there  to  lead  our  brothers  out  of  darkness 
into  light. 

Miss    Clementina    Butler^    of    the    Methodist    Episcopal 

Church : 

Something  was  said  this  morning  that  gave  the  impression,  ap- 
parently, that  work  among  Latin  peoples  must  necessarily  mean 
an  unkind  attitude  toward  devout  members  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.  After  six  years'  observation  of  work  among  Latin  peo- 
ples, may  I  say  that  we  have  no  contest  with  the  devout  souls  of 
any  faith?  But  we  have  a  right  to  differ  as  to  the  method  in 
which  the  message  of  God  is  delivered.  We  are  reminded  of  the 
devotion  of  Roman  Catholic  missionaries.  I  have  a  book  giving 
the  life  of  one  of  the  most  faithful  and  devout  priests  in  the  history 
of  that  Church  in  South  India.  For  thirty-seven  years  he  labored 
there,  living  so  far  as  posible  as  a  native.  In  his  diary  he  reports 
what  seems  to  me  the  secret  of  his  failure — for  he  confessed  his 
failure.  He  said  that  in  the  beginning  of  his  ministry  he  decided 
it  would  not  be  best  to  give  the  Bible  to  the  natives  because  cer- 
tain parts  might  repel  them.  At  the  end  of  his  thirty-seven  years 
he  writes:  "I  have  made  only  a  few  score  of  converts,  and  I  can  not 
say  that  any  of  them  are  disinterested;  and,  therefore,  it  is  time 
to  return  home  and  make  my  peace  with  God."  This  morning  you 
heard  that  Methodism  has  won  51,000  converts  in  Mexico.  How 
has  it  been  done?  Let  me  tell  you  the  story  of  one.  Many  years 
ago  a  Mexican  bought  a  copy  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  He  knew  it 
was  forbidden,  and  so  he  read  it  only  secretly.  After  his  death 
his  wife  found  it,  and  she  began  to  read  it  for  herself.  She  soon 
stopped  going  to  confession  and  mass.  A  few  years  ago  she  hap- 
pened into  Mexico  City,  and  was  invited  by  a  friend  to  the  watch- 
night  service  in  the  Methodist  Church.  There,  for  the  first  time, 
she  came  into  contact  with  a  Protestant.  She  sat  through  the 
watch-night  service,  communion,  and  love-feast,  and  at  the  close 
gave  her  hand  to  Dr.  Butler,  and  said,  "I  have  been  a  Methodist 
for  thirty  years  and  never  knew  it  until  to-night."  A  priest  in  a 
Catholic  college,  to  whom  Dr.  Butler  related  this  incident,  said, 
"Do  you  mean  to  say  that  reading  a  Bible  made  a  Methodist  of 
her?"  Dr.  Butler  said,  "That  is  her  testimony."  He  said,  "That  is 
the  Protestant  Bible."  Dr.  Butler  said,  "There  is  no  Protestant 
Bible;  it  was  the  Bible."  One  woman  was  found  to  have  a  picture 
of  the  Virgin  of  Guadaloupe,  and  of  a  Methodist  minister,  in  a 
shrine.  We  have  no  right  to  condemn  her  for  either;  but  we  have 
a  right  to  substitute  for  these  the  picture  of  the  Lamb  of  God 
who  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world. 

Mr.  Ernst  G.  Bek,  of  tlie  Methodist  Episcopal  Church : 

In  the  speeches  this  morning  no  reference  whatever  was  made 
to  one  of  the  largest  bodies  of  the  world,  which  at  the  same  time 
is  the  neediest  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.     That  is  a  country 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  153 

larger  than  the  United  States  in  population  and  area.  It  is  Rus- 
sia. I  visited  that  country  lately.  I  have  been  in  several  of  its 
capitals  and  among  its  Churches,  and  studied  somewhat  the  Greek 
Catholic  religion,  both  there  and  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem.  I  have 
seen  things  there  that  made  me  astonished.  I  went  into  many 
places  of  business  in  Jerusalem,  and  saw  priests  everywhere  in 
the  shops.  I  said,  "What  do  these  priests  do  in  these  shops?"  The 
reply  was  that  they  owned  the  business.  Then  I  went  into  the 
church  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher,  and  saw  how  the  rough  people  came 
in  and  one  after  another  were  blessed  by  the  priest  with  one  hand 
while  the  other  hand  was  outstretched  for  their  silver  and  gold. 
I  have  seen  the  Greek  Catholic  religion  in  Russia— nothing  more 
and  nothing  less  than  heathendom!  The  icon  worship  there  is 
nothing  else  but  the  worship  of  a  heathen  god.  As  an  illustration 
let  me  cite  a  young  business  man  who  bought  a  very  high  candle 
and  had  it  burn  while  he  was  going  on  a  trip.  He  said  to  a  friend, 
"I  am  going  on  a  long  trip  and  I  have  taken  a  very  long  candle." 
"Why  do  you  want  it?"  "That  my  trip  may  be  successful.  But 
I  have  cheated  the  priest.  I  have  only  given  him  two  kopecks  in- 
stead of  twenty."  There  are  one  hundred  and  sixty  million  people 
in  Russia.  Until  a  few  j^ears  ago  it  was  impossible  for  a  mission- 
ary to  enter  Russia.  Within  a  few  years  religious  liberty  has  been 
declared,  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  entered,  and 
has  a  very  able  representative  in  Dr.  Simons,  who  has  gathered 
a  beautiful  congregation  in  the  short  space  of  three  years.  I  saw 
a  congregation  of  over  one  hundred  Russian  children.  Many  Rus- 
sian immigrants  are  coming  to  America.  You  have  got  to  study 
the  problem  of  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church. 

There  was  so  much  discussion  about  union  of  Methodist 
Churches,  and  once  or  twice  it  was  referred  to  that  a  union  like 
that  would  mean  that  the  Protestant  Churches  of  the  world  would 
unite.  I  have  just  been  at  a  table  with  representative  laymen  of 
very  many  Churches,  and  we  had  most  charming  communion.  I 
believe  that  if  the  laity  of  the  Church  were  asked,  both  men  and 
women,  there  would  be  a  tremendous  majority  of  little  Methodist 
bodies.  The  laymen  ought  to  be  heard,  because  we  are  a  demo- 
ci'atic  Church,  and  not  a  hierarchical  Church.  Soon  there  would  be 
no  distinction  of  creed.  There  is  only  one  Christ,  and  every  one 
who  believes  in  Him  is  my  brother. 

Tlie  Eev.  Joseph  T.  Barkby,  of  the  Primitive  Methodist 

Church : 

.  I  want  to  suggest  this  question  to  this  great  Conference.  Do 
we  as  Methodists  to-day  feel  the  pressure  of  the  missionary  prob- 
lem? Do  we  feel  that  the  world  needs  the  gospel,  and  that  without 
the  gospel  it  will  perish?  That  was  the  belief  of  our  fathers;  is 
it  our  belief?  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  these  later  years 
there  has  been  a  great  shifting  of  beliefs.  And  our  belief  has  a 
great  deal  to  do  in  determining  how  we  feel  in  relation  to  the 
conversion  of  mankind.  I  well  remember  how  Dr.  Horton  told  us 
in  England  that  for  a  while  he  was  much  enamored  of  Dr.  White's 
"conditional  immortality"  theory,  and  that  for  years  he  worked  on 
that  theory.  But  by-and-by  he  found  that  there  had  been  working 
in  his  mind  a  subtle  deterioration  of  his  view  of  the  worth  of  man, 
and  in  order  to  preserve  his  view  of  the  essential  dignity  and  worth 


154  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

of  man  lie  had  to  cast  out  from  his  mind  the  "conditional  immor- 
tality" theory  of  Mr.  White.  In  these  days  our  theological  view 
has  to  some  extent  changed.  In  Wesley's  day  it  was  believed  that 
only  those  who  believed  in  Jesus  Christ  are  saved,  and  others  are 
damned.  We  do  not  believe  that  to-day,  I  venture  to  say.  But 
has  that  changed  belief  in  any  way  weakened  our  appreciation  of 
the  great  missionary  problem?  There  has  been  a  great  change  of 
view  in  relation  to  comparative  religion.  We  have  come  to  see 
that  God  is  not  only  in  Christianity,  but  is  expressing  Himself  in 
all  religions  all  the  world  over,  and  that  in  some  sort  men  are 
feeling  their  way  after  God  and  coming  nearer  to  Him.  Has  that 
changed  view  in  relation  to  men's  consciousness  of  God  tended  to 
weaken  our  realization  of  the  great  missionary  problem?  Third, 
there  has  been  a  great  change  of  view  from  the  point  of  science. 
Most  of  us  to-day  more  or  less  work  by  the  principle  of  evolution. 
I  wonder  sometimes  whether  our  taking  this  great  principle  and 
working  by  it  has  served  in  any  way  to  weaken  our  view  of  the 
absolute  necessity  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  to  save  men. 
Fourth,  Biblical  criticism  has  done  a  great  deal  for  us  in  relation 
to  the  Scriptures.  It  has  changed  our  views  of  the  date  and  author- 
ship and  character  of  some  booivs  of  the  Bible.  Do  we,  with  this 
changed  view  in  relation  to  the  Scriptures,  to-day  feel  the  urgency 
of  Christ's  words  as  our  fathers  did  when  they  realized  the  full 
magnitude  of  that  message,  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach 
the  gospel  to  every  creature?"  Has  the  Bible  lost  authority  to  ua 
to-day  by  reason  of  the  doings  of  the  Biblical  critics?  The  same 
thing  is  true  to  some  extent  in  relation  to  the  new  psychology.  1 
sometimes  question  whether,  working  as  I  do  in  the  full  light  of 
these  things  that  I  have  named,  I  have  the  same  sense  of  sin  in 
the  human  heart  working  to  its  degradation  and  damnation,  and 
of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  salvation  for  man. 

Mr.  Llewellyn  E.  Camp,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church: 

I  have  come  here  this  afternoon  because  I  believe  that  God  in- 
tended me  just  to  say  one  simple  word  as  a  plain  business  man 
to  business  men.  We,  as  business  men,  hitherto  have  not  realized 
the  enormous  importance  of  this  work.  We  need  a  fresh  vision  of 
the  need  of  the  world.  To-day  we  see  business  organized  as  never 
before.  We  see  all  kinds  of  inventions  being  used.  And  we  ought 
as  business  men  to  go  forward  and  use  all  the  measures  which 
we  use  in  business  to  the  furtherance  of  the  Kingdom  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  As  far  as  our  missionary  progress  is  concerned,  and 
our  missionary  projects,  we  are  back  in  the  stone  age.  It  is  for 
us  as  business  men  to  go  forward  and  find  the  means,  if  we  can, 
to  get  ourselves  into  the  missionary  movement.  We  should  make 
it  our  business  to  send  men  to  the  field.  What  finer  end  to  his 
life  can  a  man  have  than,  having  succeeded  in  business,  to  go 
forward  and  say,  "I  will  devote  the  remainder  of  my  life,  and  my 
means,  to  sending  the  gospel  to  the  ends  of  the  world?"  Let  us 
realize  that  the  picture  we  are  painting  day  by  day  has  not  been 
painted  in  the  right  way.  There  are  manj^  things  in  the  forefront 
of  that  picture  which  are  merely  material.  I  pray  to  God  that  we 
may  be  enabled  by  His  grace  to  do  more  in  the  future  than  in  the 
past.  We  can  put  native  agents  into  the  field  very  economically. 
We  have  been  born  in  a  missionary  Church.     We  have  lost  our  en- 


MISSIONARY  MASS  MEETING.  155 

thusiasm  largely.  We  want  to  regain  it.  No  business  succeeds  ex- 
cept as  the  manager  has  faith,  in  it.  Let  us  apply  that  to  our  mis- 
sionary work. 

The  Rev,  M.  C.  B.  Mason,  D.  D.,  of  tlie  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church : 

Yesterday  America  sent  Stanley  to  find  Livingstone  in  Africa. 
To-day  the  Methodists  of  America  and  of  England,  following  the 
consecration  of  Livingstone,  have  gone  to  save  Africa.  And  it  is 
an  important  fact  that  here  in  America  we  have  a  constituency 
of  this  backward  race  prepared  in  mind  and  thought  to  join  with 
the  Englishman  in  England  and  the  American  in  America  to  help 
save  Africa.  For  there  are  scores  and  hundreds  of  black  men  and 
women  who  have  gotten  a  high  Anglo-Saxon  civilization,  who  can 
speak  the  English  language  with  as  much  accuracy  as  I  myself 
am  attempting  to  speak  it  at  this  time.  So  that  the  work  of  the 
Almighty  God  in  the  schools  of  Christian  learning  for  the  negroes 
in  America  has  not  cultivated  his  mind  simply  to  save  Africa  here, 
but  to  save  Africa  yonder.  Already  from  these  schools  we  have 
sent  forty-three  of  our  graduates,  one  of  them  a  Bishop  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  person  of  Isaiah  B.  Scott,  a 
graduate  of  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society,  who,  with  Bishop  Hartzell 
and  other  consecrated  men,  stands  for  the  salvation  of  Africa. 
Bishop  Phillips  is  himself  a  graduate  of  one  of  the  schools  of  the 
Freedmen's  Aid  Society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  And 
the  distinguished  bishop  who  presided  with  such  dignity  over  this 
morning's  session  is  a  graduate  of  one  of  the  schools  of  the  Freed- 
men's Aid  Society.  He  has  already  been  in  Africa,  and  without  at- 
tempting to  indicate  to  his  Church  what  his  work  shall  be,  I  hope 
that  within  the  near  future  he,  with  others  who  have  themselves 
seen  the  light,  will  go  and  help  in  the  mighty  work  of  bringing  that 
land  to  our  Lord  and  His  Christ. 

On  motion  of  the  Eev.  James  Chapman,  D.  D.,  the  Con- 
ference voted  to  adjourn. 

Announcements  were  made ;  and  tlie  Conference  adjourned 
at  4.30  o'clock,  the  benediction  being  pronounced  by  tlie  pre- 
siding officer. 


THIED  SESSION. 
MISSIO^WRY  MASS  MEETING. 

The  presiding  officer  was  Sir  "\Y.  Howell  Davies,  M.  P.,  of 
the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

Devotional  services  were  conducted  liy  the  Rev.  James 
Allen,  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada,  and  comprised 
the  singing  of  Hymn  743, 

"The  morning  light  is  breaking," 

reading  of  Psalm  72:17-19  and  John  13:12-17,  and  prayer. 


150  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

Sir  W.  Howell  Davies  spoke  as  follows : 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  count  it  a  great  honor  to  be  allowed 
to  take  some  part  in  this  great  service.  Upon  no  subject  would  I 
rather  my  voice  were  heard  than  upon  the  subject  with  which  it 
has  seemed  this  place  reverberated  this  day — the  work  which  the 
Methodist  Church  has  to  do  with  evangelizing  the  world.  We  meet 
to-night  in  order  to  devote  our  thoughts  for  a  while  to  this  great 
subject  of  missions.  When  we  remember  that  there  are  other 
branches  of  the  Christian  Church  as  well  as  our  own,  and  other 
countries  as  well  as  our  own,  which  are  engaged  in  this  great 
work,  when  we  think  of  all  these  countries  to  which  the  Lord  has 
committed  this  great  question  of  sending  the  evangel  around  the 
world,  our  thoughts  naturally  turn  to  our  motherland,  to  the  United 
States,  to  this  great  nation,  and  to  Germany,  as  the  great  Protes- 
tant nations  of  the  world.  When  we  think  of  the  enormous  power 
which  is  vested  in  these  great  nations,  of  their  wealth,  their  armies 
and  navies,  of  the  way  in  which  their  flags  are  respected  in  all 
parts  of  the  world,  we  think,  therefore,  also  of  the  great  commerce 
which  these  nations  engage  in,  how  they  have  bound  the  world 
right  around  with  great  railways  and  steamship  lines,  and  have 
found  in  the  most  distant  parts  of  the  world  avenues  for  com- 
merce. We  think,  with  such  enormous  forces  behind  the  mission- 
aries who  go  out  from  these  great  nations,  what  a  power  there  must 
be,  what  a  force  there  must  be.  But  we  remember  all  the  same 
that  Christ  has  never  harnessed  His  cause  with  armies  or  navies 
or  with  any  other  material  forces.  The  first  of  our  great  mission- 
aries who  went  out  to  preach  the  word  which  Christ  Himself  com- 
mitted to  them  were  the  despised  members  of  a  despised  race.  And 
yet,  without  any  great  forces  behind  them  of  the  kind  which  I  have 
been  enumerating,  they  lit  up  such  fires  and  such  influences  and 
established  the  gospel  in  these  morning  lands  of  history  so  that 
it  has  never  been  quenched.  The  flames  which  they  lit  have  never 
been  put  out.  And  we  also  remember  that  for  the  new  renaissance 
of  the  great  missionary  spirit  we  have  to  go  back — may  I  say  with 
some  amount  of  modesty  as  an  Englishman? — to  the  British  race. 
For  we  are  all  gathered  largely  within  that  description.  The  re- 
naissance of  the  missionary  spirit  commenced  in  Great  Britain 
very  largely  at  a  time  when  Great  Britain  was  impoverished  by  the 
French  wars,  when  we  were  a  people  in  great  poverty.  Yet  that 
was  the  time  when  the  new  missionary  spirit  arose  which  has  suc- 
ceeded so  marvelously  in  spreading  itself  over  the  face  of  the 
earth.  Our  founder,  at  a  memorable  period  in  his  life,  said,  "The 
world  is  my  parish."  He  was  poor.  Those  who  have  read  the 
life  of  Wesley  know  that  he  was  poor,  that  he  had  little.  As  far  as 
worldly  goods  were  concerned,  he  left  little  when  he  died.  And 
certainly   his  followers   were   poor.     The   little  church,   as   it   was 


ADDRESS  BY  BISHOP  EUGENE  R.  HENDRIX.  157 

called,  or  room,  that  first  building  which  he  erected  in  the  city 
which  I  have  the  honor  of  representing  in  the  imperial  parliament, 
that  little  room  in  Bristol,  was  not  a  very  elaborate  undertaking. 
His  followers  were  poor,  and  yet  they  so  preached,  with  such  su- 
preme and  superb  faith  and  courage,  that  they  betook  themselves 
to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.  And  if  we  had  half  the  cour- 
age and  half  the  faith  of  those  early  Methodist  preachers,  think 
of  the  mighty  power  we  might  wield  throughout  the  world.  We 
must  go  back,  therefore,  to  the  first  principles.  We  must  go  back 
to  this  simple  faith,  this  loving  zeal,  this  sublime  courage.  "Watch- 
man, what  of  the  night?"  "The  night!  the  night  is  departing, 
there  is  a  star  rising  in  the  east,"  and  we  see  it.  We  see  the 
Eastern  nations  awaking  from  their  long  slumber.  We  see  the 
supei'stitions  which  have  bound  them  for  so  long  shaking  off.  We 
see  India  with  her  three  hundred  millions  of  people.  And  you 
who  are  Canadians  in  this  assembly,  they  are  your  brothers  under 
your  flag.  And  you  who  are  members  of  the  United  States,  thej' 
are  your  cousins  under  this  great  empire.  Three  hundred  millions 
of  people  in  India  awaking  from  their  long  sleep,  shaking  off  supei*- 
stition,  looking  out  for  something  to  take  its  place.  With  their 
education  they  can  be  no  longer  tied  up  to  the  superstition  which 
has  held  them  so  long.  And  they  look  to  us,  to  the  schools  and 
the  universities  and  Churches.  They  look  to  us,  and  they  look  to 
America  to  send  men  to  teach  them  the  simple  evangel  that  Christ 
died  to  save  the  world.  And  in  China — look  what  is  taking  place 
to-day  in  China.  Four  hundred  millions  of  souls  there  who  are 
shaking  off,  as  they  are  in  India,  the  faiths  which  held  them  so 
long.  O,  I  say,  is  n't  it  a  great  thing  to  belong  to  a  Christian 
Church  that  has  a  mission  so  great  as  this,  a  mission  to  send  the 
gospel  to  these  people  whose  faith  we  have  helped  to  uproot? 
They  are  sheep  without  a  shepherd;  and  God  calls  us  to  send  to 
them  men  and  women  whose  lips  have  been  touched  with  a  live 
coal  from  the  altar.  Let  us  have  this  courage;  and  then  we  shall 
be  able  to  look  forward  with  the  same  hope  and  trust  and  confi- 
dence, with  the  same  exaltation  as  Malachi  when  he  said,  "For 
from  the  rising  of  the  sun  even  unto  the  going  down  of  the  same 
Thy  name  shall  be  great  among  the  Gentiles.  And  in  every  place 
incense  shall  be  offered  unto  My  name,  and  a  pure  offering:  for 
My  name  shall  be  great  among  the  heathen,  saith  the  Lord  of 
hosts." 

Bishop  EuGEXE  R.  ITekdrtx,  D.  D.,  of  the  Metlioclist  Epis- 
copal Cliureh,  South,  delivered  the  first  address,  as  follows: 

The  field  is  the  world;   the  good  seed  are  the  children  of  the 
Kingdom. 

Our  Lord  was  the  greatest  expounder  alike  of  Revelation  and  of 


158  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

Nature.  He  never  dissociated  the  two,  for  both  were  books  of  God. 
He  spoke  to  his  own  in  beatitudes  and  to  those  who  were  without 
in  similitudes.  His  parables  thus  had  a  growing  fulfillment  as 
nature  itself  has,  "for  all  things'  were  made  by  Him  and  for  Him 
and  in  Him  all  things  consist."  It  is  one  of  the  proofs  of  His 
divinity  that  our  Lord  speaking  in  parables  spake  as  none  other 
man  ever  did.  Not  even  an  apostle  ever  used  this  rich  form  of 
speech  and  of  instruction.  Our  Lord  had  charged  these  natural 
objects  with  spiritual  meaning  which  he  himself  designed  that  they 
should  teach.  Thus  in  the  parable  of  the  sower  he  teaches  us  the 
seed  plot  and  the  seed  corn. 

Our  Lord  teaches  that  the  seed  plot  is  essential  to  the  propa- 
gation of  the  seed  corn  while  the  seed  corn  with  its  marvelous 
increase  glorifies  the  seed  plot.  "Our  Lord  alone  can  save  this 
world  but  our  Lord  can  not  save  it  alone."  There  must  not  only  be 
good  seed  but  good  soil.  God  alone  can  give  the  good  seed;  man 
must  furnish  the  good  soil.  The  good  soil  is  not  only  worth  while, 
it  is  all  important  to  keep  alive  the  seed  corn  and  to  propagate  it. 

The  good  soil,  the  choicest  for  man's  use  is  found  in  the 
temperate  regions  where  cereals  can  be  grown.  Neither  the  arctic 
nor  the  tropical  regions  grow  the  better  type  of  men  or  of  nations. 
The  temperature  is  too  forbidding  from  the  cold  or  too  enervating 
from  the  heat.  Wild  beasts  may  reach  their  gigantic  stature  where 
man  remains  a  dwarf.  Nature  may  pauperize  by  her  plentiful 
fruits  while  the  dweller  in  the  tropics  does  not  need  to  cultivate 
the  soil,  and  so  remains  always  a  minoi'.  Dependent  as  a  child 
upon  nature's  bounty  he  does  not  need  to  exert  himself  and  should 
adverse  conditions  bring  a  scanty  supply  none  are  more  helpless 
than  the  children  of  the  tropics.  Never  taught  to  win  his  bread 
from  the  soil  whether  in  the  frigid  or  tropic  zone  man  lives  either 
a  predatory  existence  on  the  one  hand,  as  he  seeks  his  food  amid 
icebergs,  or  an  indolent  existence  as  he  gathers  what  he  does  not 
sow  amid  tropical  luxuriance. 

God  seems  to  have  established  sacred  relations  between  man 
and  cereals.  Even  the  ancients  observed  this  fact  and  said  that 
grain  of  all  kinds  was  a  gift  of  the  goddess  Ceres.  Other  foods  of 
value,  as  some  of  the  vegetables  and  fruits,  have  been  developed 
from  some  grass  or  shrub.  But  there  is  no  trace  of  a  cereal  ever 
having  come  from  anything  lower.  Nor  is  there  any  indication  that 
cereals  preceded  man's  presence  on  the  earth.  They  can  only  be 
propagated  by  man's  labor,  and  so  be  perpetuated.  It  is  not  a 
"volunteer  crop"  but  it  must  be  sown  annually  and  reaped  or  it 
will  disappear  from  the  earth.  It  is  not  even  fertilized  by  insects, 
as  are  many  fruits  and  flowers,  but  by  the  breath  of  God  as  the 
gentle  winds  scatter  the  pollen  and  so  make  good  the  promise  that 
seed  time  and  harvest  shall  not  cease.     It  is  the  one  fruit  of  the 


ADDRESS  BY  BISHOP  EUGENE  R.  HENDRIX.  150 

earth,  which  is  not  sometimes  a  universal  failure  and  the  one  kind 
that  can  be  stored  and  kept  to  meet  emergencies.  Yet  such  is  our 
conscious  dependence  on  God  for  our  bread  that  we  daily  pray, 
"Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread. "At  one  time  of  every  year  we 
are  within  about  a  month  of  famine,  before  the  harvest  is  gathered. 
Our  cattle,  too,  are  dependent  on  man's  industry  for  their  winter 
food,  so  that  man  must  sow  and  harvest  the  grain  for  their  neces- 
sities. 

God  rewards  man's  industry  in  sowing  and  reaping  by  giving 
him  a  fixed  home  near  his  growing  crops  and  with  Church  and 
school  to  make  home  the  more  attractive.  He  now  ceases  to  be  a 
mere  nomad  wandering  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  or  dependent  on  the 
uncertain  chase  for  his  scant  and  irregular  supplies.  He  is  advanced 
beyond  the  pastoral  stage  which  requires  him  often  to  go  far 
afield  to  find  pasture  for  his  flocks.  But  with  a  fixed  and  trust- 
worthy source  of  supply  from  his  ample  and  fertile  fields  commerce 
is  now  possible  to  man,  and  he  can  sail  his  corn-ships  to  remote 
shores  and  brings  back  what  other  landsi  produce.  Thus  his  world 
is  broadened  and  he  brings  back  new  ideas,  larger  knov/ledge  of 
the  race  and  its  life  and  history,  and  men  are  bound  into  brother- 
hoods by  their  mutual  knowledge  of  what  each  has  done  for  the 
ongoing  of  the  race.  Not  only  is  the  whole  world  the  burial  place 
of  great  men  but  the  home  of  great  men  while  they  live.  Our  heroes 
are  not  the  property  of  any  one  people  or  time  but  belong  to  all 
as  fast  as  we  know  them. 

God  graciously  encourages  the  faith  and  industry  of  man  by 
making  the  harvest  in  such  excess  of  the  sowing.  "Be  not  deceived; 
God  is  not  mocked:  for  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he 
also  reap."  The  dependableness  of  God  is  at  the  basis  of  all 
worship.  He  is  a  God  of  good  will  who  wishes  well  to  His  own,  and 
He  is  pre-eminently  the  Lord  of  the  harvest.  Nothing  is  so  notable 
in  all  nature  as  God's  reward  of  faith  and  industry.  God  gives 
thirty  fold  to  the  sower  of  wheat  and  a  hundred  fold  to  the  sower 
of  corn.  Measure  God's  harvest  by  reckoning  them  imdiminished 
for  twenty  years.  Thus  one  bushel  of  wheat  in  twenty  years  would 
require  10,995,989  such  worlds  as  this  to  hold  the  crop  while  this 
earth,  if  a  hollow  sphere,  would  hold  more  than  thirty-one  sex- 
tillions  of  bushels,  and  there  would  be  wheat  enough  left  in  the 
remaining  fraction  to  feed  the  race  for  millions  of  years.  If  we 
plant  a  bushel  of  corn  and  continue  to  plant  its  produce  for  only 
fifteen  years  we  shall  need  31,536,188  such  cribs  as  this  earth  would 
make,  and  the  little  fraction  left  over  would  feed  the  world  corn 
for  many  billions  of  years.  It  is  this  confidence  of  adequate 
return  for  his  labor  that  encourages  agriculture  as  the  basis  of 
all  prosperity.  The  wheat  fields  of  California  have  made  larger 
and  surer  harvests   than   the   gold   fields.     So  the   increasing  area 


160  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

of  wheat  around  the  world  in  Russia  and  Argentina  and  Canada 
and  South  Africa  and  Siberia  and  even  in  Alaska.  The  wise  adap- 
tation of  the  hardy  seed  to  the  severer  climates  and  the  quick 
returns  in  some  ten  weeks  from  the  sowing  of  some  of  the  cereals 
make  sure  our  breadstuffs,  if  man  will  do  his  part  in  sowing  the 
seed  corn. 

The  choice  of  proper  seed  plots  makes  sure  both  the  seed  corn 
and  the  abundant  harvest.  Loss  of  the  seed  corn  on  the  hard  and 
irresponsive  roadside,  where  the  seed  is  trodden  under  foot  and 
where  the  birds  devour  it,  is  made  up  when  the  good  soil  is  found. 
So  when  much  seed  falls  on  stony  places  and  amid  dirty  soil  where 
briers  and  thorns  choke  it  and  it  brings  forth  no  harvest  to  per- 
fection God  still  provided  in  the  good  soil  for  the  hundredfold 
return.  Power  to  match  the  tasks  of  life  comes  from  the  Lord  of  the 
harvest  who  gives  peace  and  sleep  to  the  tired  worker  while  God 
gives  the  harvest.  The  dependable  God  pays  the  largest  and  surest 
wage  in  all  the  world. 

The  hope  of  the  world  is  in  the  seed  corn  and  the  seed  plot. 
Failure  to  sow  is  to  lose  no  less  than  failure  to  reap  is  to  lose.  The 
seed  will  not  sow  itself  and  failure  to  sow  the  truth  like  failure 
to  sow  the  seed  is  to  forfeit  what  we  have.  "From  him  that  hath 
not  shall  -be  taken  away  even  that  which  he  seemeth  to  have."  We 
only  really  have  as  we  improve,  and  truth  becomes  ours  as  we  use 
it  and  embody  it.  "The  good  seed  are  the  children  of  the  kingdom" 
and  the  seed  that  God  sows  is  men,  the  best  possible  seed  raised  in 
the  best  possible  seed  plots.  When  God  would  save  a  nation  He 
scatters  a  handful  of  the  best  seed  corn,  as  when  Paul  and  Barna- 
bas were  scattered  in  Cyprus,  and  Paul  and  Silas  were  scattered  in 
Asia  Minor,  and  Luke  was  joined  to  them  in  the  little  handful  of 
seed  corn  that  meant  the  evangelization  of  Greece,  and  later  in 
the  Grecian  colonies  in  Asia  Minor  which  the  Lord  of  the  hai-vest 
forbade  Paul  to  evangelize  until  the  seed  corn  was  ready.  How 
Paul  gathered  his  ripened  seed  corn  in  the  furrow  and  went  on 
scattering  it  as  he  went  until  he  was  forehanded  enough  to  be 
ready  to  sow  Rome  down  with  the  seed,  and  even  to  take  his  jour- 
ney into  Spain  looking  for  the  good  ground! 

The  work  of  Christian  lands  to-day  in  addition  to  sowing  the 
seed  in  all  heathen  lands  is  in  raising  seed  corn  in  the  soil  where 
it  will  grow  best.  The  5,000  choice  student  volunteers  now  in  the 
field  are  such  seed  corn.  Those  are  peculiarly  Christian  colleges 
where  the  missionary  spirit  grows  apace  with  the  learning  of  the 
Christian  truth  of  divine  revelation  no  less  than  of  science.  None 
but  the  Christian  religion  can  survive  civilization  whose  ascer- 
tained facts  undermine  all  false  scientific  theories  of  paganism. 
But  it  is  not  enough  to  overthrow;  it  is  essential  to  build  and  to 
preoccupy   ere   other   false   views  take  the   possession   of   the   soil. 


ADDRESS  BY  BISHOP  WILSON  S.  LEWIS.  161 

Never  was  the  urgency  so  great  and  never  the  zeal  so  consuming. 
Jewry  for  1800  years  has  been  given  to  money-making  and  has 
produced  no  Paul.  There  must  be  folio  copies  of  mankind,  your 
Angelos,  your  Goethes,  your  Wesleys,  your  Gladstones,  and  these 
can  be  grown  only  in  the  most  responsive  soil,  if  their  influence  is 
continental.  Of  these  his  influence  is  greatest  after  death  who  best 
grasped  and  embodied  divine  truth  in  life.  John  and  Paul  are  the 
greatest  teachers,  next  to  Christ,  after  nearly  twenty  centuries. 
Who  can  measure  their  rate  of  increase? 

It  was  not  Paul  but  Jesus  who  said:  Ye  worship  ye  know  not 
what;  we  know  what  we  worship,  for  salvation  is  of  the  Jews. 
There  could  be  no  social  prejudice  in  Christ's  words  as  he  pro- 
claimed that  truth  was  not  evolved  but  revealed.  He  must  have 
faith  in  the  good  seed  as  to  revealed  truth  of  God  and  in  the 
responsibility  of  certain  chosen  people  to  cultivate  it  and  safe- 
guard it  and  share  it  with  all  the  world.  If  God's  favored  seed- 
plots  should  fail  the  very  seed  corn  would  deteriorate.  The  supply 
exhausted,  whence  could  come  the  bread  of  life  for  the  world's 
hunger  and  to  stay  the  world's  famine? 

China  promises  to  become  one  of  God's  great  seed-plots  for 
Asia.  We  are  happy  in  being  able  to  hear  from  Bishop  Lewis,  as 
to  the  good  soil  in  the  middle  kingdom  where  Christianity  has  won 
both  saints  and  martyrs  who  are  the  seed  of  the  Church.  The 
good  soil  is  found  in  no  one  land  or  even  continent.  The  Lord  of 
the  harvest  has  not  left  himself  without  witnesses  to  bring  in  his 
kingdom  that  has  no  end,  or  as  is  fitly  rendered  "The  Kingdom 
Without  Frontiers."  Be  it  ever  working  together  with  God  himself, 
who  furnishes  the  seed  to  "sow  abundantly,  that  we  may  reap  also 
abundantly,"  we  lose  our  very  seed  corn  if  we  do  not  scatter  it  and 
We  lose  the  very  truth  of  God,  as  Asia  Minor  did,  unless  we  share 
it.  The  false  prophet  has  won  his  great  triumphs  in  the  lands 
where  Chrysostom  and  Athanasius  preached  the  pure  word  of  life, 
but  where  their  successors  have  been  false  to  their  trust  and  to 
Christ.  "How  dare  we  eat  our  morsel  alone?"  How  dare  we  selfishly 
consume  the  seed  corn  that  must  furnish  our  children  and  all 
the  hungry  nations  bread? 

Bishop  "\ViLSOX  S.  Lewis,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  Foochow,  China,  spoke  next : 

Sir  William,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  do  not  claim'  your  atten- 
tion for  the  brief  twenty  minutes  to  plead  for  the  Chinaman  because 
he  constitutes  one  quarter  of  the  population  of  this  planet,  nor 
because  his  is  the  most  ancient  Empire  now  existing  upon  the  face 
of  the  earth.  The  true  measure  of  a  nation's  greatness  is  the 
quality  of  the  moral  purposes  of  its  people. 

11 


162  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

In  1900,  the  plains  and  vallej^s  of  China  bloomed  with  poppy 
and  her  people  were  drunk  with  opium.  The  foot  of  the  conqueror 
was  on  her  neck,  her  army  was  scattered,  her  Empress  Dowager 
had  fled  to  the  mountains  and  her  government  for  the  time  was 
abolished.  In  those  sad  days  the  question  was  raised  by  the  great 
men  of  the  Empire.  "Why  are  we  in  this  condition — why  are  we 
fallen  from  our  ancient  proud  estate?"  The  answer  came:  "It  is 
opium,  opium  has  made  us  drunk." 

Nineteen  hundred  to  1906  marks  the  most  pathetic  period  in  the 
history  of  China,  a  great  nation  on  her  knees  struggling  to  relieve 
herself  of  the  incubus  of  opium.  The  benevolent  government  of 
Great  Britain  listened  to  her  cry  and  entered  into  treaty  relation 
which  provided  that  if  China  would  reduce  her  acreage  of  poppy  one 
tenth  each  year  for  ten  years,  then  would  the  importation  of  Indian 
opium  be  diminished  at  the  same  rate. 

China's  response  to  this  agreement  is  characteristic  of  her 
people.  The  first  edict  from  the  throne  commanded  that  the  acre- 
age of  poppy  in  all  the  provinces  be  diminished  twenty  per  cent 
the  first  year.  This  was  followed  by  an  edict  commanding  all  the 
officials  of  China  to  cease  the  use  of  opium  within  six  months  on 
penalty  of  being  deprived  of  their  office.  Then  came  the  edict 
that  all  revenues  to  the  government  from  the  sale  of  opium  within 
the  Empire  should  be  abolished.  This  was  followed  by  an  edict 
commanding  that  all  raising  of  poppy  within  the  boundaries  of  the 
Empire  should  cease.  The  people  responded  to  the  mandates  of 
the  government;  in  fact,  petitioned  the  government  to  issue  the 
edicts  against  opium. 

Anti-opium  societies  were  formed  and  millions  of  the  leading 
subjects  of  China  led  in  the  crusade  against  the  hated  drug  until 
in  this  year  of  our  Lord,  poppy  raising  in  the  Chinese  Empire  is  a 
thing  of  the  past.  In  five  short  years  this  tremendous  task  has  been 
accomplished. 

In  1908,  the  Chinese  government,  responding  to  earnest  peti- 
tions of  her  people,  issued  an  edict  entitled,  "An  edict  providing 
for  the  education  of  the  Chinese  people  in  constitutional  govern- 
ment." The  programme  was  carefully  outlined  in  the  edict,  and  the 
suggestion  was  made,  that  if  the  Chinese  people  would  be  careful  to 
observe  all  the  directions  of  the  government,  within  ten  years  there 
would  be  established  in  the  Chinese  Empire  such  a  form  of  consti- 
tutional government  as  would  be  best  suited  to  the  Chinese  people. 

It  was  provided  that  in  all  the  provinces  of  the  Empire  there 
should  be  elected  provincial  assemblies;  that  the  number  of  mem- 
bers of  each  assembly  should  be  determined  by  the  number  of 
men  in  each  province  who  had  Chinese  literary  degrees — for  every 
twenty-five  degree  men  there  should  be  one  provincial  assembly 
man. 


ADDRESS  BY  BISHOP  WILSON  S.  LEWIS.  163 

Four  qualifications  were  named  for  voters: 

(a)  Those  who  had  literary  Chinese  degrees;  (b)  those  who 
are  worth  $5,000  silver;  (c)  those  who  have  been  teachers  in  the 
government  schools  for  three  years;  (d)  all  officials  who  have 
been  in  office  for  two  years.  In  the  summer  of  1909,  the  pro- 
vincial assemblies  were  elected,  and  on  October  2nd  of  the  same 
year,  these  assemblies  convened  in  their  respective  capitals.  Pro- 
vincial Assemblies  have  neither  legislative,  judicial  nor  executive 
functions.  Their  work  is  simply  to  lead  the  people  in  the  study  of 
constitutional  government. 

These  provincial  assemblies  nominate  eight  of  their  members, 
from  whom  the  Viceroy  selects  four  who  are  to  become  members 
of  the  national  parliament;  other  members  of  the  national  parlia- 
ment are  selected  by  various  methods,  the  whole  parliament  num- 
bering 3.50.  In  the  fall  of  1910,  the  first  national  parliament  was 
assembled  in  the  city  of  Peking;  and  while  the  parliament  had 
neither  legislative,  judicial,  nor  executive  functions,  yet  so  well  have 
the  provincial  assemblies  and  the  national  parliament  done  their 
work  that  by  edict  they  are  constituted  legislative  bodies  in  their 
respective  spheres  in  the  year  1913.  Thus,  an  absolute  monarchy 
controlling  one  quarter  of  the  race,  is  to  be  lifted  to  the  plane  ol' 
constitutional  government,  God  grant,  without  the  shedding  of  a 
drop  of  human  blood. 

The  Methodist  Church  is  to-night  entrenched  in  the  power 
points  of  the  Chinese  Empire;  this  statement  is  true  whether  wo 
consider  it  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  political  organism  or  the 
intellectual  and  spiritual  life  which  characterizes  the  Chinese  peo- 
ple. 

The  eighteen  provinces  of  China  located  south  of  the  Wall — 
old  China,  less  than  two-thirds  the  area  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada, 
is  populated  by  four  hundred  millions  of  people,  more  than  one- 
fourth  of  the  human  race.  This  is  the  China  that  has  eaten  and 
digested  and  assimilated  the  peoples,  the  philosophies,  the  doctrines 
that  have  been  sent  unto  her,  leaving  no  remnant  to  tell  the  tale. 
From  this  China,  in  the  early  days,  the  original  inhabitants  were 
quietly  pushed  from  fertile  lands  either  by  absorption  or  by  that 
relentless  force  of  the  Chinese  personality,  upward  to  the  mountain 
fastnesses  where  agriculture  is  impossible.  Here  these  aborigines 
live  to-day,  silent,  for  they  have  no  written  language,  almost 
ghastly  witnesses  to  that  dominant  trait  of  the  Chinaman  which 
expresses  itself  in  the  complete  mastery  of  the  soil  on  which  he 
places  his  foot.  The  country  was  not  conquered  by  armies,  but  by 
that  quiet,  persistent,  deathless  force  which  out-farms  the  farmer, 
out-trades  the  trader,  out-wits  the  mightiest  in  practical  affairs  of 
life,  and  so  possesses  the  land.  Patient  he  makes  the  centuries 
bow  to  his  purposes. 


164  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

Methodism,  I  say,  has  entrenched  herself  south  of  the  Wall. 

Peking,  the  capital  of  the  nation  since  1644,  is  the  ancient  Rome 
of  the  Chinese  Empire,  the  seat  of  absolute  monarchy  for  two  and 
a  half  centuries;  she  has  made  the  Chinese  people  feel  the  sharp 
blade  of  her  absolute  authority,  she  has  pressed  her  life  into  every 
province  in  the  Empire,  so  that  the  mind  of  Peking  is  felt  in  the 
remotest  part  of  the  nation.  The  language  of  Peking  is  the  coveted 
tongue  of  all  the  provinces,  and  for  age  on  age,  her  examination 
halls  have  been  the  end  of  the  dreams  of  the  ambitious  scholars 
of  the  Empire.  The  Chinaman,  above  all  men,  is  the  victim  of 
habit,  and  thus  Peking  has  grooved  itself  into  the  thinking  of  the 
people.  Methodism  under  the  providence  of  God  is  located  in  the 
most  strategic  spot  in  this  strategic  city.  Here  we  have  a  university 
of  500  students,  a  school  for  women  of  more  than  300,  and  radiat- 
ing out  from  this  place,  we  have  mission  stations  and  churches 
scattered   through   the   provinces   of   Che-li   and    Shangtung. 

Nanking,  located  on  the  Yangste  River,  is  the  ancient  capital 
of  old  China.  This  is  the  city  of  the  golden  age,  the  home  of  the 
great  Emperors  of  the  people  before  they  had  known  the  heavy 
hand  of  the  Manchu  or  the  bitterness  of  a  foreign  yoke.  Celebrated 
in  song  and  in  history,  this  ancient  city  still  grips  the  Chinese 
heart,  and  if  the  day  should  come  when  China's  life  should  be 
free  to  express  herself  as  she  will,  Nanking  may  be  the  capital  of 
the  new  China.  Methodism  has  here  a  woman's  college,  and  is 
associated  with  the  Presbyterian  and  Disciple  Churches  in  a  splen- 
did university,  which  numbers  400  Chinese  men.  Farther  up  the 
Yangtse  we  have  William  Nast  College.  From  these  centers  we 
send  forth  our  workers  into  three  great  provinces  numbering  mil- 
lions of  people. 

Hankow  is  th'e  Chicago  of  China;  it  is  the  greatest  in  point  of 
commerce  of  all  the  inland  cities  of  the  nation.  Here  British 
Methodism  has  important  work,  and  moving  southward  by  conven- 
ient stations,  now  ministers  to  the  people  as  far  as  Canton  and 
Hongkong. 

West  China  is  the  great  mission  field  of  Canadian  Methodism. 
The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  strikes  glad  hands  with  her  hon- 
ored sister,  and  here  tremendous  work  is  being  done.  The  Chengtu 
Plain,  fifty  miles  long  and  forty  miles  wide,  is  the  most  populous  dis- 
trict on  the  face  of  the  earth,  with  the  possible  exception  of  the 
county  of  London.  On  this  fertile  -spot  dwell  more  than  twenty 
millions  of  people.  At  Chengtu  the  Canadian  Methodist,  the  Amer- 
ican Baptist,  the  English  Friends  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Churches  have  united  in  the  building  of  a  great  university.  The 
foundations  are  being  laid  broad  and  deep.  Promises  of  large 
success  are  abundant,  and  a  splendid  spirit  of  unity  is  grooving 
itself  into  the  brain  of  the  Chinese  Christians.     Away  yonder  on 


ADDRESS  BY  BISHOP  WILSON  S.  LEWIS.  1G5 

the  far-flung  battle  line  under  the  shadows  of  the  Himalaya  Moun- 
tains, is  being  built  a  Christian  Church  which,  God  grant,  may 
come  to  be  the  joy  of  the  whole  earth. 

Shanghai  is  the  commercial  emporium  of  China.  Here,  under 
the  leadership  of  the  venerable  Dr.  Allen  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  has  been  established  a  splendid  Methodism.  A  great 
university  at  Soochow  co-operates  with  a  good  college  at  Shanghai. 
Here  we  have  our  Union  Publishing  Plant,  where  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  fur- 
nish the  periodical  literature  for  the  Methodism  of  China  and  for 
the  other  good  Christian  relatives  in  the  Empire. 

In  the  Fukien  province  we  have  two  conferences,  the  Foochow 
and  the  Hinghwa.  Here  Methodism  first  took  its  root  and  here  as 
elsewhere  she  continues  to  express  that  particular  genius  which 
constitutes  her  very  being  and  life. 

While  the  college  and  the  university  are  essential  factors  in 
the  propagation  of  the  spirit  of  Methodism,  they  are  not  the  only 
nor  perhaps  the  most  essential.  The  atonement  of  Jesus  Christ 
revealed  by  God  in  the  person  of  His  Son,  and  to  man  by  the 
agency  of  the  Holy  Ghost  with  many  fruits  flowing  therefrom,  is 
the  great  theme  of  Methodism — profound  as  the  mysteries  of  God, 
yet  simple  as  human  life.  This  is  well  illustrated  by  an  incident 
closely  related  to  the  establishment  of  the  gospel  in  the  Fukien 
province.  Fifty  years  ago  Mr.  Li  was  passing  a  chapel  in  the 
city  of  Foochow;  as  he  walked  on  the  street  he  heard  a  voice  from 
within  saying,  "God  is  Love."  This  sentence  arrested  his  attention. 
He  entered  the  house  to  listen  to  a  sermon  from  John  3:16.  He 
tarried  for  a  night,  for  a  week,  for  a  month  until  the  Spirit  of 
God  had  rooted  Himself  in  his  heart,  then  with  swift  foot  he 
journeyed  to  preach  the  gospel  to  his  own  people  in  the  Hoching 
District  His  words  had  dynamite  in  them,  and  soon  an  enraged 
official  commanded  that  he  should  be  beaten  with  bamboo  rods  and 
thrown  into  a  Chinese  dungeon.  When  his  lacerated  back  had 
healed  a  bit  he  drew  himself  up  to  the  grates  of  the  dungeon,  and 
calling  to  the  people  on  the  street,  he  preached  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ.  The  throngs  came,  listened,  were  over-powered.  Again  the 
official  sent  his  servants  to  the  dungeon,  and  again  Father  Li's 
back  was  flayed.  As  soon  as  he  was  able  to  stand  by  the  grates 
of  the  dungeon,  he  again  proclaimed  the  truth,  until  the  magistrate, 
touched  by  his  sufferings  and  his  enthusiasm,  commanded  that  the 
dungeon  should  be  opened,  and  that  Father  Li  should  go  free. 
My  last  ofiicial  act  in  China  was  to  dedicate  the  Methodist  Church 
just  across  the  road  from  the  dungeon  where  Father  Li  had  been 
confined.  The  church  seats  2,000  people  and  on  the  day  of  the 
dedication,  it  was  packed  from  the  pulpit  to  the  doors,  and  all  the 
officials  of  the  city  were  on  the  platform. 


166  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

This  same  spirit  is  expressed  among  the  student  classes.  In 
1910,  a  great  revival  swept  through  Peking  university.  For  two 
weeks  the  students  of  that  university  were  confronted  with  this 
pledge:  "I  hereby  agree,  on  graduation  from  this  univei'sity,  to 
devote  my  life  to  the  ministry  for  the  salvation  of  the  people  of 
the  Chinese  Empire."  When  one  graduates  from  Peking  university 
by  reason  of  his  training,  and  especially  of  his  knowledge  of  the 
English  language,  he  is  entitled  to  receive  from  the  Government  or 
from  business,  $50.00  a  month  and  this  may  be  increased  until  he 
shall  receive  $150.00  a  month,  which  is  a  fortune  for  the  Chinaman; 
but  if  this  man  shall  turn  away  from  secular  employment  and 
devote  his  life  to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  he  may  not  expect 
more  than  $6.00  per  month.  A  Chinaman  loves  money.  The  test 
therefore  was  upon  these  young  men.  Some  of  them  struggled 
hard,  but  during  the  revival  meeting,  153  of  the  500  men  of  the 
university  signed  the  pledge,  choosing  poverty  and  sacrifice,  that 
they  might  declare  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ  to  their  peo- 
ple. 

Friends,  I  plead  for  China  tonight.  She  was  a'  proud  nation, 
having  an  organized  government,  and  a  high  degree  of  civilization, 
when  the  Christ  hung  on  the  cross  for  her  redemption.  The  cen- 
turies have  passed  and  she  has  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  messengers 
of  God.  Thrice  during  these  ages  the  Christ  has  definitely  spoken. 
In  the  early  ages  the  Nestorian  Christians  planted  the  gospel  in  the 
heart  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  but  the  message,  confused  by  the 
philosophies  of  the  times,  failed  to  take  root.  The  centuries  passed 
and  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  sent  devoted  men  to  the  Chinese 
people.  The  message  was  not  understood — the  heart  of  China  was 
hard.  Their  prophets  were  slaughtered,  their  churches  destroyed 
and  the  people  lost  the  knowledge  of  the  story.  In  these  last  days 
the  great  Protestant  Church  has  been  commissioned  by  the  Master 
to  bring  the  knowledge  of  His  truth  to  this  great  nation.  The  Holy 
Ghost  has  opened  the  hearts  of  the  people  to  receive  the  word. 
Signs  of  coming  showers  are  abundant.  At  last  China  has  lifted 
her  soiled  face  to  the  light  of  Heaven.  The  beams  of  His  glory 
break  upon  the  great  nation.    China  shall  yet  be  saved. 

The  Eev.  Joseph  Johnson,  of  the  Primitive  Methodist 
Church,  gave  an  address  on  "British  Home  Missions:''' 

I  have  been  asked  to  speak  a  few  words  relative  to  home 
missions  in  British  Methodism.  The  Methodist  Churches  of  Great 
Britain  have  given  increased  attention  to  this  question  during  the 
last  ten  years,  and  though  it  may  not  be  possible  within  the  few 
minutes  allotted  adequately  to  describe  the  achievements,  yet  I 
hope  I  may  be  able  to  show  in  general  terms  that  the  home  mission 
triumphs  are  greater  than  ever. 

The  home  missions  of  England,  for  the  purposes  of  this  address, 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  JOSEPH  JOHNSON  1G7 

may  be  grouped  under  rural  and  city.  Two  great  problems  are  ever 
confronting  Methodism  in  these  modern  days.  One  is  the  ever 
decreasing  population  of  many  rural  districts  and  the  other  the 
ever  increasing  population  of  the  large  towns  and  cities. 

During  the  last  decade,  in  all  sections  of  British  Methodism, 
the  tendency  has  been,  where  populations  have  been  declining 
owing  to  the  drift  of  the  people  to  the  cities  and  the  colonies,  to 
group  together  feeble  churches  and  circuits  and  place  them  under 
the  supervision  of  the  Home  Mission  Board  with  a  capable  super- 
intendent in  charge  of  such  a  staff  of  colleagues  as  the  occasion 
required.  One  result  of  this  has  been  that  many  a  dwindling  cause 
has  been  saved  from  destruction  and  Methodism  has  held  its  own 
in  areas  where  it  was  needed,  but  where  its  local  resources  were 
getting  exhausted. 

Methodism  still  believes  she  can  not  afford  to  neglect  the  rural 
districts  of  England.  Some  of  her  most  capable  ministers  and 
church  workers  have  been  gathered  from  these  areas.  And  though 
It  may  mean  considerable  expense  to  the  sustentation  and  mission- 
ary funds  of  our  respective  Churches,  yet  rather  than  leave  the 
people  with  no  other  religious  influence  about  them  than  that 
which  emanates  from  the  Church  of  England,  we  feel  the  cost  must 
be  provided.  Many  of  our  village  missions  are  doing  a  great  and 
heroic  work  and  are  deserving  the  utmost  recognition  and  support. 

The  missions,  however,  in  our  great  centers  of  population  are 
perhaps  the  most  fascinating  and  arresting  in  the  story  of  their 
work.  Take  such  a  city  as  Manchester,  where  the  Rev.  S.  F.  Collier 
has  been  directing  the  energies  and  efforts  of  the  great  "Wesleyan 
Central  Mission  for  over  twenty  years.  Probably  there  is  no 
mission  in  the  world  that  has  been  such  an  outstanding  success  as 
this.  For  upwards  of  twenty  years  its  agencies  have  been  pene- 
trating and  permeating  the  heart  of  Manchester,  and  its  influence 
has  been  felt  more  or  less  throughout  Christendom.  Similar  mis- 
sions, though  perhaps  not  quite  so  extensive,  have  been  operating 
in  Liverpool,  Birmingham,  Leeds,  Bristol,  Newcastle,  Bradford, 
Nottingham  and  other,  large  cities,  and  each  has  been  a  great  suc- 
cess. 

But  London,  the  capital  of  the  world, '  is  the  city  where  the 
most  extensive  Methodist  missions  have  been  carried  on.  London  is  • 
a  problem  to  all  the  Churches.  It  is  impossible  for  many  people  to 
realize  its  magnitude.  Its  population  of  seven  millions  is  appalling. 
When  you  group  together  thirty-five  of  the  largest  cities  and  towns 
in  England  you  have  a  smaller  city  than  the  city  of  London. 
Whilst  it  is  one  of  the  wealthiest  cities  in  Europe,  you  have  here  a 
poverty  more  maddening,  more  bewildering  and  more  sickening 
than  can  be  found  anywhere  else  on  the  globe.  Inner  London 
especially   presents   a   great  problem   to   the   Churches. 

Now  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 


leg  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

Church  has  been  attacking  this  problem,  and  with  conspicuous 
success.  And  here  I  should  like  to  pay  a  warm  tribute  to  two  of 
the  pioneers  in  this  movement  who,  since  the  last  Ecumenical 
Conference,  have  been  called  to  the  higher  service  of  the  Kingdom 
— Hugh  Price  Hughes  and  Peter  Thompson.  Both  these  men  played 
an  important  part  in  the  evangelization  of  London.  Hugh  Price 
Hughes  was  a  striking  personality,  a  man  of  unique  gifts,  who  gave 
himself  unstintedly  to  this  great  enterprise,  whilst  Peter  Thomp- 
son, the  "Great  Heart"  of  Methodism,  a  big-souled  man,  literally  con- 
sumed his  whole  strength  in  his  effort  to  evangelize  East  London. 
All  over  London  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  has  turned  its 
attention  to  the  conversion  of  old,  derelict,  down-town  churches 
into  aggresive  mission  centres  and  the  erection  of  large  and  com- 
modious halls. 

As  a  minister  of  another  Methodist  Church,  I  am  glad  to  have 
this  opportunity  of  testifying  to  the  daring  and  magnificent  Home 
Mission  policy  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  in  London  and 
other  large  and  growing  cities.  It  has  the  commendation  of  all 
who  are  interested  in  the  real  salvation  of  England. 

As  regards  the  United  Methodist  Church,  that,  too,  has  some 
important  home  mission  centers  in  London  and  elsewhere  which 
are  doing  a  great  work.  I  will  content  myself  by  mentioning  the 
one  in  Bermondsey,  under  the  superintendence  of  the  Rev.  W. 
Kaye  Dunn,  B.  A.,  which  is  a  conspicuous  success. 

Referring  to  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church,  of  which  I  have 
the  honor  to  be  a  minister,  there  are  numerous  mission  centers, 
but  the  most  outstanding  are  the  Whitechapel  Mission  in  the  heart 
of  East  London,  under  the  supervision  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Jackson, 
and  the  Southeast  London  Mission  (St.  George's  Hall)  in  Old  Kent 
Road,  which  for  the  past  nine  years  has  been  under  my  superin- 
tendence. The  Whitechapel  Mission  has  achieved  some  marvelous 
results  among  friendless  lads  and  men,  whilst  the  Southeast  London 
Mission  in  a  vast  population  living  only  a  little  above  starvation 
line,  is  continually  witnessing  some  striking  miracles  of  grace. 

Several  features  of  this  Home  Mission  work  in  British  Meth- 
odism deserve  to  be  pointed  out  and  emphasized. 

First  These  mission  centers  have  a  wide  and  all-compre- 
•  hensive  basis  and  scope.  They  believe  in  the  possible  salvation  of 
the  whole  man.  They  believe  that  every  man  has  been  redeemed 
and  that  it  is  the  will  of  God  that  every  man  should  be  saved. 
Hence,  the  basis  of  their  operations,  while  supremely  spiritual,  are 
suflRciently  expansive  to  permit  of  provision  being  made  for  the 
social,  educational  and  recreative  needs  of  the  people. 

Hence,  in  the  poorer  districts  especially,  these  mission  centers 
provide  men's  social  institutes  as  counter  attractions  to  the  public 
house.     You  inquire.  Is  it  needful  for  the  Christian  Church  to  do 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  JOSEPH  JOHNSON.  169 

this?  For  illustration,  take  Old  Kent  Road,  the  scene  of  my  own 
labours.  In  that  one  road  alone  we  have  upwards  of  fifty  public 
houses  and  that  is  only  one  road  of  many  thousands  in  London. 
When  families  live,  as  many  of  the  poorer  classes  have  to  live, 
one  family  in  two  or  three  rooms,  it  is  no  wonder  that  when  the 
unconverted  husband  comes  home  from  his  work  at  the  close  of 
the  day,  he  desires  somewhere  to  go.  We  think  it  is  better 
that  he  should  come  on  to  mission  premises  than  go  to  a  public 
house.  We  provide  these  social  institutes  for  these  men  and,  thank 
God,  not  in  vain,  as  often  they  prove  to  be  an  avenue  into  the 
Cturch.  Whatever  the  public  house  provides,  these  institutes  pro- 
vide, except,  of  course,  intoxicating  drinks.  The  public  house  pro- 
vides rooms  for  social  intercourse,  newspapers  and  recreation,  and 
so  do  we.  The  public  house  has  its  clubs — Christmas  Clubs,  Recre- 
ation Clubs,  Loan  Clubs,  Sick  Benefit  Clubs,  and  so  have  we. 
We  provide  food  for  hungry  children,  we  clothe  the  ill-clad  and 
the  starving,  we  assist  the  unemployed  to  situations,  and  we  min- 
ister to  the  sick  and  diseased  by  means  of  our  medical  missions. 

Second.  These  mission  centers,  too,  declare  a  free,  full  and 
present  salvation.  You  get  no  sermons  here  spoken  with  bated 
and  hesitating  breath.  You  never  hear  any  new  theology,  so-called, 
spoken  from  these  platforms.  There  is  no  ritual  to  trammel  the 
public  services.  The  gospel  of  the  saving  grace  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  of  Him  alone  is  spoken.  The  prayer  meetings,  especially  the 
Sunday  evening  prayer  meeting,  is  a  real  live  meeting,  and  con- 
versions are  expected  every  Sunday  and  invariably  they  are  seen. 
The  class  meetings,  too,  are  going  concerns  at  these  centers,  and 
the  converts  are  encouraged  to  rally  to  them  and  get  help  for  the 
sustenance  of  their  Christian  life  and  experience.  Some  speaker  at 
an  earlier  session  of  the  Conference,  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that 
Methodism  was  not  capturing  the  manhood  of  England.  That  is 
certainly  not  true  in  its  application  to  these  mission  centers. 
Wherever  Methodism  is  alive  she  can  capture  and  is  capturing  the 
men  for  God. 

Third.  There  is  another  feature  worthy  of  notice  and  that 
is  the  influence  for  good  effected  by  these  mission  centers  on  local 
public  life.  This  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  these  mission  centers 
touch  life  at  every  point. 

This  is  a  humanitarian  age,  and  in  the  slum  areas  it  is  just  as 
important  for  us  to  see  that  landlords  keep  their  property  in  good 
sanitary  condition  as  it  is  for  us  to  visit  the  sick.  Many  of  the 
representative  leaders  of  the  mission  centers  render  great  service 
to  public  life  in  the  capacity  of  Poor  Law  Guardians  and  Borough 
Councillors.  Prof.  Drummond  was  once  reported  to  have  said:  "To 
make  cities — that  is  what  we  are  here  for.  To  make  good  cities — 
that  is  for  the  present  hour  the  main  work  of  Christianity. 


170  THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  ENTERPRISE. 

He  who  makes  the  city  makes  the  world."  Every  branch  of  British 
Methodism,  to  the  utmost  of  their  ability,  are  trying  to  make 
London  a  city  of  God  and  we  believe  they  will  yet  succeed. 

The  Eev.  Joseph  H.  Bateson,  of  the  British  Wesle3'an 
Methodist  Clmrch,  gave  the  last  address,  which,  owing  to  the 
lateness  of  the  hour,  was  not  reported  save  very  briefly.  He 
said : 

It  is  a  great  honor  and  joy  to  say  something  about  the  work 
of  God  in  India,  a  land  that  any  one  who  has  been  there  must  love. 
The  British  government  has  done  great  things  for  India.  We  have 
taken  the  whole  of  our  civilization,  and  have  given  the  very  best 
that  under  God's  providence  has  come  into  our  hands.  If  our  gov- 
ernment has  given  its  best  to  India,  is  it  not  absolutely  incumbent 
upon  the  Christian  people  of  the  world  to  give  their  best  to  the 
millions  of  India? 

"Heaven  above  a  brighter  blue, 

Earth  beneath  a  deeper  green. 
Something  shines  in  every  hue 

Christless  eyes  have  never  seen. 
Birds  with  sweeter  song  o'erflow. 

Flowers  with  richer  luster  shine, 
Since  I  know,  as  I  may  know, 

I  am  His  and  Christ  is  mine." 

Does  that  mean  something  to  us?  Are  we  not  in  all  branches 
of  Methodism  bound  to  do  the  very  best  we  can  to  give  the  millions 
of  India  that  which  is  foremost  with  us?  In  giving  Christ  to  India 
the  giving  has  been  woefully  inadequate.  India  has  not  been  evan- 
gelized. In  the  north  side  of  the  city  of  Bombay,  where  there  are 
two  hundred  thousand  people,  there  is  only  one  mission. 

In  recently  passing  through  a  region  with  a  population  of  some 
fourteen  million  people,  I  found  only  one  flickering  light.  In  India 
there  are,  roughly  speaking,  one  hundred  and  fifty  languages  spoken 
by  the  people,  as  dissimilar  as  Russian  and  French.  The  Bible  has 
been  translated  into  only  eighty  vernaculars;  and  there  are  seventy- 
five  vernaculars  spoken  by  eighty  million  people,  into  which  the 
Bible  has  not  been  translated.  But  the  result  of  what  has  been 
done  is  wonderful.  I  could  give  remarkable  instances  of  salvation 
among  the  Indians.  The  soldiei'S  in  the  empire  are  doing  something 
to  this  end. 

The  services  closed  with  the  singing  of  Hymn  726, 

"O'er  the  gloomy  hills  of  darkness," 

and  the  benediction,  pronounced  by  Bishop  Lewis. 


FOURTH  DAY. 

Saturday,    October    7th. 


Topic:     METHODIST  THEOLOGY. 


THE  morning  session  opened  at  the  appointed  time,  under 
the  presidency  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  T.  H.  Lewis^  President 
of  the  General  Conference  of  tlie  Methodist  Protestant  Churcli. 
Dr.  F.  T.  Little,  of  the  same  Church,  in  the  ahsence  of 
Dr.   F.    T.   Tagg,   conducted  the   devotional   services,   reading 
1  John  1:  1-3,  Eomans  8:  14-17,  and  offering  prayer. 
The  hymn  sung  was, 

'  Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds." 

Secretary  Carroll  made  various  announcements  and  read 
a  cablegram  from  the  Rev.  G.  A.  Simons,  Superintendent  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  mission  in  Russia,  as  follows : 

"Ecumenical  Conference, 
Toronto : 
"Regret  pressure  of  work  prevents  attendance.    Read  Acts  28:  30, 
31;   2  Thess.  3:  1.     Great  door  and  effectual  opened  unto  Methodism 
in  Russia." 

The  Secretary  said :  'T  ouglit  to  explain,  in  order  to  show 
tiie  application  of  tlie  first  sentence  or  two,  that  Mr.  Simons 
has  dwelt  in  his  own  hired  house  in  St.  Petersl)urg  for  two 
years.  Tlie  Scripture  reads  as  follows :  'And  Paul  dwelt  two 
wliole  years  in  liis  own  liired  house  and  received  all  that  came 
in  unto  him,  preaching  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  teaching 
those  things  which  concern  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  with  all 
confidence,  no  man  forbidding  liim.'     (Acts  28  :  30-31.) 

"  'Finally,  l)rethren,  pray  for  us  that  the  Word  of  the  Lord 
may  have  free  course  and  be  glorified,  even  as  it  is  with  you.' 
(2  Thess.  3:1.)" 

171 


173  METHODIST  THEOLOGY. 

On  motion,  a  suitable  resjjonse  was  directed  to  be  made, 
and  Secretary  Carroll  sent  a  letter  of  acknowledgment  and 
greeting. 

The  essay  on  "The  Theological  Heritage  of  Methodism'^ 
was  read  by  the  Eev.  Geo.  G.  Findlay,  D.  D.,  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church: 

The  Theological  Heritage  of  Methodism  signifies,  I  suppose, 
both  that  which  Methodism  inherited  from  the  past,  and  that  which 
it  has  transmitted  to  its  sons  of  the  present.  It  seems  proper,  in 
introducing  the  subject,  to  read  the  title  chiefly  in  the  former  sense. 

I  point  therefore  to  Paul,  Augustine,  Luther,  Wesley  as  our 
spiritual  ancestors.  Those  four  immortal  names  mark  out  the 
channel  along  which  "the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints"  has 
come  down  to  us.  Each  of  them  illustrates  the  unity  of  doctrine 
and  experience  which  makes  a  living  theology.  These  cardinal 
witnesses  to  the  gospel  of  God  stood  at  four  great  junctures  in 
religious  history:  Paul  at  the  transition  from  Jewish  to  Gentile 
Christianity,  Augustine  at  the  passage  from  the  Roman  Empire  to 
the  Middle  Ages,  Luther  at  the  he.art  of  the  Protestant  Reforma- 
tion, Wesley  at  the  springs  of  the  Methodist  Revival. 

On  St.  Paul's  doctrine  I  will  only  remark,  that  we  perceive  no 
cleft  between  the  Jesus  of  the  Gospels  and  the  Christ  of  the 
Epistles.  The  "teacher  of  the  nations  in  faith  and  truth"  has  faith- 
fully "delivered"  what  he  truly  "received  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  The 
first  steps  in  the  transmission  of  the  Christian  heritage,  traceable 
through  the  New  Testament,  are  as  critically  sure  as  they  are 
historically   vital. 

The  Gentile  Apostle  lived  again  in  the  African  Bishop.  It 
was  a  sentence  of  St.  Paul's  that  decided  St.  Augustine's  conversion: 
"Put  ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  make  not  provision  for  the 
flesh,  to  fulfill  the  lusts  thereof" — words  which  give  the  key  to 
Augustine's  career.  Measured  by  length  and  breadth  of  dominion, 
his  was  the  mightiest  mind  of  Christendom,  outside  the  New 
Testament.  Augustine  summed  up,  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 
century,  the  previous  course  of  Christian  thinking;  he  furnished 
the  starting-point  both  for  the  Romanist  and  Scholastic  develop- 
ments, and  for  the  Protestant  renovation  of  Christianity.  The 
Lutheran  point  of  departure  lay  in  the  profound  spiritual  experience 
recorded  by  Augustine's  Confessions  and  wrought  into  his  Anti- 
Pelagian  treatises.  The  polity  of  Rome  grounded  itself  on  the  con- 
ception, impressed  on  Augustine  by  his  environment  but  trans- 
fused in  the  fire  of  his  imperious  genius,  of  the  visible  Catholic 
Church  as  the  essential  body  of  Christ,  the  indispensable  vehicle 
of  His  Spirit  and  the  exclusive  organ  of  His  grace.  The  antagonism 
latent  in  these  two  principles  has  been  working  itself  out  ever  since. 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  GEO.  G.  FINDLAY.  173 

In  the  following  age  the  ecclesiastical  overlaid  the  evangelical 
Augustine.  More  and  more  the  Roman  Church  thrust  herself 
between  the  soul  and  God;  more  and  more  she  became  a  kingdom  of 
this  world,  needing  and  making  for  herself  an  earthly  monarch. 
At  length  she  deified  her  Pope,  while  she  put  Christ  away  behind  a 
screen  of  magic  sacraments  and  lordly  priests.  Protestantism  was 
a  protest  against  the  supercession  of  Jesus  Christ  within  His  Church. 
The  seeds  of  much  of  the  evil  growth,  whose  fruit  he  would  have 
abhorred,  may  be  found  in  Augustine's  writings;  those  seeds  fell 
into  his  garden  borne  by  the  winds  about  him. 

Martin  Luther  was  an  Augustinian  monk  to  begin  with,  and 
remained  Augustine's  disciple  to  the  end.  His  doctrine  was  Paul- 
Inism,  not  drawn  purely  from  the  Epistles,  but  strained  through  the 
Augustinian  sieve.  The  defects  of  Protestantism,  doctrinally  and 
practically  considered,  were  largely  due  to  its  falling  back  at 
certain  points  upon  the  Latin  Fathers,  instead  of  returning  all  the 
way  to  the  New  Testament.  The  Reformation  meant,  however,  the 
reawakening  of  Christendom  to  the  sovereign  grace  of  God  toward 
sinners.  The  Roman  system  was  a  network  of  canals  and  conduits 
constructed  to  convey  Christ's  mercy  to  mankind,  which  led  ever 
further  from  the  source,  mixing  its  waters  with  turbid  elements; 
the  men  of  the  Reformation  forsook  the  muddy  channels  to  seek 
the  fountain-head.  They  returned  by  a  path  already  trodden;  St. 
Augustine  was  their  chief  "schoolmaster  to  bring  them  to  Christ." 
History  imposed  on  them,  as  on  every  generation,  its  limiting  con- 
ditions. One  thing  they  knew;  and  the  knowledge  of  it  was  life 
from  the  dead. 

God  the  Father  directly  accessible  through  His  justifying  grace 
in  Christ;  this  was  the  creative  thought  of  the  Refoi'mation.  Now, 
the  vindication  for  the  human  soul  of  the  right  of  immediate  access 
to  the  Divine  grace,  was  a  kind  of  recreation  for  the  soul  itself. 
Hence  modern  history  begins  with  the  Reformation.  The  world  we 
live  in  dates  not  so  much  from  the  renaissance  of  learning,  nor 
from  the  birth  of  physical  science,  nor  even  from  the  discovery 
of  America,  as  from  the  emancipation  of  the  soul  which  took  place 
in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  man  henceforth  stands  out  in  clear 
relief  against  the  background  of  polities  and  institutions,  in  which 
he  had  been  lost. 

Martin  Luther,  accordingly,  impersonates  the  Reformation.  In 
his  single  manhood,  by  the  power  of  "the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ 
Jesus,"  the  Wittenberg  scholar  successfully  defies  Pope,  Emperor, 
and  devils!  A  figure  stepped  into  the  arena  of  Europe  the  like  of 
which  the  world  had  never  looked  on,  whose  advent  proclaimed  in 
tones  of  thunder  the  liberty  of  conscience,  the  moral  majesty  of  the 
individual  man  as  the  redeemed  son  of  God,  and  the  boundless 
potencies  lying  in  the  breast  of  him  who  can  say,  "Christ  lives 
in  me." 


174  METHODIST  THEOLOGY. 

Protestantism  had,  however,  two  illustrious  chiefs.  If  Luther 
was  its  prophet  and  evangelist,  Calvin  was  its  theologian  and  law- 
giver. Both  men  realized,  with  the  shock  of  a  new  creation,  the 
sovereign  grace  of  God  in  Christ,  as  this  appeals  by  the  word 
of  Scripture  to  the  faith  of  each  man's  heart.  Luther  laid  stress 
upon  the  grace,  Calvin  on  the  sovereignty  of  God  in  this  common 
conception;  here  the  divergence  in  Reformation  thought  began. 
Alike  they  were  pupils  of  Augustine — Calvin  in  the  more  thorough- 
going fashion  upon  the  soteriological  side,  while  he  broke  from  his 
master  completely  upon  the  churchly  side.  Calvin  resumed  Augus- 
tine's predestinarian  teaching,  to  which  his  austere  logic  gave  a 
more  consistent  expression  and  a  sharper  edge.  One  sublime 
thought  possessed  his  soul,  that  of  the  sovereignty  of  God  in  His 
electing  grace,  and  in  His  reprobating  judgments.  Behind  all 
human  choice  and  action  he  saw  the  one  mystery,  swallowing  up 
every  other,  of  the  eternal,  holy,  and  inscrutable  will  of  God. 
Strong  natures  were  tempered  like  steel  by  Calvin's  creed;  it  passed 
as  iron  into  the  blood  of  the  young  Protestant  nations,  struggling 
against  the  legions  of  Rome.  But  the  gentle  and  sensitive,  the 
natures  ruled  by  sentiment  more  than  by  logic  and  duty,  found  John 
Calvin  a  hard  master;  for  such  his  doctrine  proved  a  reductio  ad 
impossihle,  or  even  ad  horribile,  of  the  tender  gospel  of  Christ.  How 
the  severities  of  Calvinism  have  been  relaxed  and  its  harsher 
features  effaced  in  recent  times,  every  one  is  aware. 

Calvinism  at  its  worst  pervaded  the  religious  atmosphere  of 
Wesley's  day;  his  teaching  was  a  reaction  against  it.  But  another 
powerful  tendency  swayed  Wesley's  contemporaries — viz.,  the  deistic 
Rationalism,  which  formed,  the  religion  of  "the  modern  mind"  of  a 
century  and  a  half  ago.  'The  Deism  of  the  eighteenth  century  may 
be  regarded  as  the  Calvinism  of  the  seventeenth  robbed  of  its  faith 
and  translated  into  the  philosophical  sphere.  Each  of  these  sys- 
tems sacrificed  the  immanence  to  the  transcendence  of  the  Deity, 
and  merged  Providence  in  creation.  Both  meant  a  God  afar  olf, 
determining  everything  in  the  infinite  past — not  dealing  with  men 
reciprocally  in  the  living  present."'^  They  contemplate  a  world 
finished  and  ready-made,  wound  up  like  clock-work  to  run  its  time, 
while  the  Great  Contriver  looks  on  aloof.  On  the  deistic  hypothesis, 
to  talk  of  miracles  and  revelations  and  witnessings  of  the  Spirit, 
of  Divine  interpositions  in  nature  and  history,  was  childish  or  pro- 
fane. This  was  but  to  carry  the  Augustinian  dialectic  a  stage 
further  than  the  Calvinists  did,  making  human  actions  and  natural 
occurrences  alike  links  in  the  chain  of  eternally  fixed  causation, 
and  finite  wills  mere  puppets  executing  a  play  prescribed  in  each 
syllable  and  gesture.  To-day  the  pendulum  is  swinging  to  the  oppo- 
site extreme.  Evolution  has,  for  multitudes,  dethroned  the  Great 
First  Cause;   Deism  is  exchanged  for  Pantheism,  Calvinism  for  the 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  GEO.  G.  FINDLAY.  175 

New  Theology.  God's  immanence  is  on  every  one's  lips;  His  awful 
transcendence  is  forgotten.  His  majesty  is  sunk  in  His  mercy, 
and  the  horror  of  sin  lost  with  the  ceasing  of  wonder  and  adoration 
before  the  Divine  holiness. 

It  was  an  unhappy  corollary  of  predestinarianism  that  no  man 
till  his  death  may  be  sure  of  salvation.  Calvin  taught,  it  is  true, 
a  doctrine  of  assurance;  but  this  was  overshadowed,  not  to  say 
nullified,  in  his  system  by  the  mystery  of  the  eternal  decrees. 
Luther,  too,  was  Augustinian  in  the  matter  of  election  and  free- 
will. But  Luther,  fortunately,  could  contradict  himself;  he  prac- 
ticed a  bold  filial  confidence  toward  God — temperament  counting 
for  something  in  this  tone  of  mind.  From  the  time  that,  at 
Staupitz's  bidding,  he  "cast"  himself,  out  of  his  agony  of  repentance, 
"into  the  Redeemer's  arms,"  Luther  would  never  wrong  his  Saviour 
by  clouding  his  joy  in  redemption  through  brooding  over  the  mys- 
teries of  election  and  the  uncertainties  of  final  perseverance.  In 
his  sensible  and  hearty  way  he  writes:  'To  fulfill  the  law  is  to 
do  those  things  the  law  commands  with  a  cheerful  and  willing 
heart.  .  »  .  Such  a  cheerfulness,  readiness,  willingness,  and 
ardent  affection,  comes  by  the  quickening  Spirit,  and  His  lively 
impulsions  and  agitations  in  our  hearts.  Now  the  Spirit  is  given 
by  faith  in  Christ.  Faith  cometh  through  the  hearing  of  the  Gospel, 
through  which  Christ  is  preached  to  us,  to  have  died,  to  have  been 
buried,  and  to  have  risen  from  death  for  us." 

To  the  sentences  I  have  quoted  from  Luther's  Preface  to  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  John  Wesley  probably  refers  in  the  memo- 
rable entry  in  his  Journal  for  May  24,  1738,  recording  his  conversion, 
with  which  we  are  familiar.  Some  days  earlier  Charles  Wesley 
had  been  similarly  affected  at  the  reading  of  Luther's  Commentary 
on  the  Galatians.  "From  this  time,"  Charles  relates,  "I  endeav- 
oured to  ground  'our  friends'  on  this  fundamental  truth — salvation 
by  faith  alone;  not  a  dead,  idle  faith,  but  a  faith  which  works  by 
love,  and  is  necessarily  productive  of  all  good  works  and  all  holi- 
ness." There  is  Methodism  in  a  nut-shell!  Luther's  hand  opened 
the  door  of  faith  for  both  the  brothers,  who  have  opened  it  for 
us  all. 

The  Assurance  of  Faith  formed  the  turning  point  in  the 
spiritual  experience  of  the  Wesleys.  In  the  witness  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  the  believer's  adoption  into  the  family  of  God  they  found 
"the  secret  of  the  Lord"  for  their  own  day.  Augustine  dwelt  with 
predilection  on  the  first  three  chapters  of  the  Epistla  to  the  Romans, 
on  the  seventh,  and  on  the  ninth  to  the  eleventh;  Luther  revelled 
in  the  paragraphs  extending  from  the  third  to  the  fifth;  John 
Wesley  understood  the  sixth  and  the  eight  chapters  as  scarcely 
any  interpreter  before  him.     He  recovered  the  complete  Paulinism. 

The   Methodist   Revival   was   thus,    in   important    respects,   the 


176  METHODIST  THEOLOGY. 

complement  of  the  Protestant  Reformation,  and  signalized  an  ad- 
vance upon  it.  In  the  Reformation  the  human  soul  cast  itself  by 
faith  nakedly  upon  God's  redeeming  grace  in  Christ;  in  the  revival 
God  answered  by  the  clear  testimony  of  His  Spirit  to  the  appeal 
of  faith.  From  this  date  assurance  assumes  a  central  place  in 
Christian  theology,  and  "experimental  religion"  becomes  a  familiar 
phrase.  The  restored  sense  of  the  immediate  touch  of  God  upon 
the  soul  created  Methodi.«m,  and  originated  the  modern  movement 
in  Christianity.  "My  God  is  reconciled;  "His  pardoning  voice  I 
hear" — the  life  of  our  Church  is  in  those  lines! 

Here  I  must  hand  over  the  subject  to  the  following  speaker. 
But  a  moment  or  two  is  left  for  allusion  to  other  outstanding  fea- 
tures of  Methodism,  closely  connected  with  that  we  have  defined. 

On  the  question  of  Universal  Redemption  Wesley  was  at  dag- 
gers drawn  with  Calvinism,  assailing  it  with  a  logic  keen  as  its 
own.  Bidden  to  "preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature,"  how  could 
he  suppose  it  was  only  meant  for  some?  Strict  Calvinism  was 
incompatible,  as  a  working  hypothesis,  with  world-evangelism.  For 
this  reason  it  was  broken  down.  But  it  was  their  vivid  sense  of 
God's  fatherly  love,  and  the  tender  affection  to  all  mankind  which 
this  inspired,  that  constrained  the  Wesleys  to  preach  a  free  sal- 
vation, bound  by  no  limiting  decrees: 

"The  sovereign  grace  that  found  out  me, 
For  every  soul  of  man  is  free; 
None  of  Thy  mercy  need  despair!" 

So  Charles  Wesley  taught  us  to  sing. 

And  our  founders  could  as  little  limit  the  grace  of  God  in  its 
depth  as  in  its  breadth;  the  power  of  the  Cross  to  save  from  all 
sin  matches  its  power  to  save  every  sinner.  When  God  in  very 
deect  breathes  Himself  into  the  soul,  can  sin  abide  His  presence? 
is  any  pollution  tolerable  in  the  acknowledged  temple  of  the  Holy 
Ghost? 

"When  Jesus  makes  this  heart  His  home, 
My  sin  shall  all  depart!" 

So  the  doctrine  of  assurance  leads  on  to  that  of  entire  sanctifica- 
tion.     Here  again  Methodism  countered  Calvinism. 

John  Wesley's  embarrassed  Church  position  forbade  his  devel- 
oping all  that  was  implied  in  his  conception  of  the  Christian  Society. 
This  piece  of  doctrinal  construction  is  waiting  for  our  younger 
theologians.  If  the  founder  did  little  to  interpret  the  apostolic 
theory,  he  restored  with  marvelous  pastoral  skill  the  apostolic 
practice  of  church-fellowship.  .  The  early  Methodists  gave  an 
object-lesson  to  Christendom  on  the  way  of  the  Church's  "building 
up  of   itself   in  love,"   unmatched   since  the   primitive  days.     This 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  R.  J.  COOKE.  177 

crown  none  must  be  allowed  to  take  from  us.  The  assurance  of 
faith,  was  that  which  prompted  our  pervasive  mutual  edification, 
and  supplied  its  material.  The  consciousness  of  adoption  consti- 
tutes the  family  of  God,  whose  instincts  of  brotherhood  constrain 
them  to  serve  each  other  in  love.  The  Spirit  of  Jesus  is  the  social- 
izer  of  humanity.  Lay-fellowship,  not  priestly  order — brotherhood, 
not  government — forms,  for  us,  the  basis  of  the  Church;  and  we 
recognize  in  the  sacraments  not  indeed  the  bonds,  but  the  seals 
set  upon  those  bonds  of  faith  and  love  that  unite  us  eternally  to 
Christ,  and  to  each  other  in  Him. 

Methodist  Churchmanship,  duly  realized,  supplies  the  direct  and 
full  antithesis  to  that  of  Rome — I  know  not  where  else  to  find  it! 

The  first  invited  address  dealt  with  "The  Doctrine  of 
Assurance,"  and  was  presented  by  the  Eev.  R.  J.  Cooke,  D.  D., 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church : 

The  illuminating  paper  to  which  we  have  just  listened  sets 
forth  in  the  clearest  light  the  vital  relation  which  the  Scriptural 
doctrine  of  assurance  bears  to  every  fundamental  truth  in  the 
Christian  revelation.  It  is  the  one  distinguishing  doctrine  in 
Methodist  theology  which  differentiates  that  theology  from  all  other 
theological  systems  and  in  that  theology  it  is  of  the  utmost  prac- 
tical importance.  Methodism  is  not  religious  philosophy.  It  is  not 
rationalism.  It  is  not  ritualism.  It  is  an  affirmation  of  the  soul. 
We  know  that  "we  have  received  the  spirit  of  adoption  whereby" — 
through  which,  and  not  through  postulates  of  philosophy,  not  by 
the  mediation  of  a  priesthood,  but  by  the  immediate  voice  of  God 
in  the  soul — we  are  enabled  to  call  God  "Father." 

In  the  theology  of  the  Reformation  the. doctrine  of  justification 
by  faith  was  the  criterion  of  a  standing  or  a  falling  Church.  Vital 
experience  and  preaching  of  the  experimental  fact  that  God  speaks 
to  and  enters  into  loving  relation  with  the  human  soul  is  the  test 
of  a  standing  or  a  falling  Methodism. 

What  is  this  assurance  of  faithf 

It  is  not  the  inner  light  of  the  mystic,  wholly  subjective  and 
independent  of  the  Scriptures  and  the  witness  of  the  Church.  It 
is  not  an  intuitive  knowledge  or  revealed  truth  which  may  be  used 
as  an  infallible  interpreter  of  biblical  problems  and  ecclesiastical 
dogmas,  of  historical  events  and  scientific  teaching.  It  is  not  a 
pious  feeling  of  dependence  upon  God.  It  is  not  a  pathological 
experience  without  objective  reality. 

It  is  a  conviction.     It  is  a  spontaneous,  immediate  and  certain 

knowledge  of  the  soul's  very  self  that  the  Spirit  of  God  has  spoken 

in  love  to  the  human  spirit.     It  is  the  soul's  immediate  knowledge 

of  itself,  that  it  has  passed  from  a  state  of  sin  and  alienation  from 

12 


178  METHODIST  THEOLOGY 

God  to  a  state  of  filial  relationship  with  God.  This  testimony  of 
the  soul  to  its  own  state  is  confirmed  by  the  witness  of  the  Spirit, 
and  this  two-fold  testimony  blended  into  one  consciousness  is  the 
core  of  the  doctrine  of  assurance  by  faith,  which  doctrine  is  the 
crown  and  glory  of  Methodist  theology. 

In  the  light  of  modern  science,  is  this  consciousness  reliable? 
Is  it  capable  of  verification  by  the  scientific  formula  for  ascertaining 
any  truth,  observation,  reason,  and  experience? 

On  the  reliability  of  consciousness  all  science,  all  philosophy 
depends.  If  the  absolute  veracity  of  consciousness  is  denied,  there 
can  be  no  appeal  of  any  science  to  a  false  consciousness;  and  there- 
fore all  philosophy  and  all  science  becomes  impossible,  since  we  can 
not  absolutely  know  that  we  are  not  deceived  in  our  scientific 
knowledge  by  a  vacillating  and  unreliable  consciousness,  if  we  can 
not  trust  the  experiences  of  our  own  souls. 

In  the  light  of  modern  science  and  psychological  investigations 
in  the  field  of  the  abnormal,  in  the  face  of  the  fanaticisms  and 
hallucinations  of  false  prophets  and  teachers  claiming  equal  cer- 
tainty of  religious  experience,  how  do  I  know  that  my  experience 
is  not  also  a  delusion  and  has  no  ground  in  objective  reality? 

No  individual  experience  can  be  the  standard  of  truth  even  for 
the  individual  apart  from  the  universal  experience  of  the  race. 
Therefore,  in  earthly  affairs  I  appeal  to  universal  experience;  in 
religious  affairs  I  appeal  to  the  universal  experience  of  the  Church 
of  God  through  all  the  mountain  ranges  of  the  centuries,  as  Wesley 
did  in  his  reply  to  Bishop  Lavington,  down  to  the  day  of  Pentecost 
when  the  Spirit  of  God  first  came  in  demonstration  and  with  power. 

The  experience  of  the  Body  of  Christ  together  with  the  Scrip- 
tures is  the  criterion  of  Christian  experience.  By  that  standard 
all  abnormalities,  idiosyncrasies  and  aberrations  are  corrected  or 
eliminated  until  that  which  is  the  common  experience  of  all  stands 
out  universally  acknowledged,  just  as  scientists  eliminate  from 
thousands  of  experiments  everything  which  is  contrary  to  the  one 
and  only  true  formula  which  under  similar  conditions  everywhere 
and  always  produces  identical  results. 

How  do  I  know  that  the  Spirit  of  God  produces  this  change  and 
not  the  reflex  influence  of  religious  contemplation? 

Independently  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  I  do  not  know,  for  con- 
sciousness does  not  report  personalities  but  states  and  affections.  I 
do  not  know  that  light  or  heat  comes  from  the  sun,  but  my  eyes  show 
me  the  sun.  I  do  not  know  intuitively  that  God  Himself  is  in  me, 
but  the  Holy  Scriptures  reveals  Him  to  me  as  the  Spirit  that 
regenerates  me  and  fills  me  with  the  consciousness  of  adoption  into 
the  family  of  God. 

The  practical  value  of  this  doctrine  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
to  the  Christian  life  and  the  Church. 

For  the  individual  this  God-consciousness  is  a  safeguard  against 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  R.  J.  COOKE.  179 

all  doubts  of  Divine  revelation  and  Divine  authority  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture. Rooted  and  grounded  in  this  personal  knowledge,  the  most 
advanced  Biblical  scholar,  the  most  speculative  thinker  may  pursue 
his  researches  with  the  utmost  freedom,  for  he  knows,  as  he  knows 
his  own  soul,  that  God  has  spoken  to  him.  And  the  most  unlet- 
tered man,  who  never  heard  of  philosophical  or  biblical  criticism, 
may  have  a  deeper  knowledge  of  the  Christ  of  History,  the  Christ 
of  the  Gospels,  than  all  the  Harnacks  and  Cheynes  and  Schmiedels 
and  Pfleiderers  and  Boussets  that  ever  misinterpreted  the  Christ  or 
distorted  the  facts  of  history.  For  the  Christ  of  History  is  a 
living  Christ,  that  Christ  of  the  Here  and  the  Now! 

As  with  the  individual,  so  in  the  Church.  The  doctrine  of 
assurance  by  faith  is  the  conservator  of  evangelical  truth.  It  de- 
mands by  its  presuppositions  and  inevitable  conclusions  an  Aton- 
ing Christ,  a  regenerating  Spirit  and  the  Eternal  Father,  who  was 
in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself.  Rooted  and  grounded 
in  this  experimental  fact,  verified  by  observation,  reason  and  experi- 
ence, the  only  scientific  method  by  which  we  can  discover  truth, 
the  Church  can  boldly  face  all  attacks  of  rationalism  and  unbelief 
upon  fundamental  Christian  truths  and  give  to  her  scholars  and 
thinkers  the  largest  freedom,  confident  that  no  truth  can  ever  be 
opposed  to  primal  truth. 

This  doctrine  furnishes  also  a  genuine  and  abiding  motive  for 
Christian  life  and  action.  "The  love  of  Christ  which  is  shed  abroad 
in  our  hearts  by  His  Spirit  which  He  has  given  us  constraineth  us." 
It  is  the  impelling  motive  of  sacrifice  and  devotion.  It  is  the 
dynamic  motive  for  missions,  for  Christian  education,  and  for  all 
philanthropies  of  the  Christian  heart. 

For  this  doctrine  there  can  be  no  substitute.  No  religious 
philosophy  or  vacillating  psychology  tinctured  with  religious  emotion 
can  never  take  the  place  of  the  witness  of  the  Spirit.  We  dare  not 
fill  our  Churches  with  people  who  know  the  Christ  only  as  Brother 
and  Exemplar  but  not  as  their  Lord  and  personal  Redeemer.  "Ye 
must  be  born  again."  Redemption  is  real  only  as  it  becomes  a  re- 
ality in  experience.  This  was  the  clarion  note  in  the  evangelism  of 
the  fathers.  This  is  the  one  definite  doctrine  which  has  made  Meth- 
odism what  it  is,  a  repioduction  of  the  witnessing  of  the  Church  of 
apostolic  days.  This  is  the  one  definite  doctrine  once  denounced 
by  theologians  which  has  modified  the  theological  thought  of  the 
English  speaking  world  by  bringing  God  out  of  the  abstract  into 
the  realm  of  personal  consciousness.  It  is  the  one  convincing  proof 
of  the  heart  of  the  Gospel  that  "God  was  in  Jesus  Christ  reconciling 
the  world  unto  Himself,"  and  for  that  revelation  of  reality  in  the  soul 
of  man  there  is  no  other  proof,  and  there  is  no  substitute  that  may 
not  be  analyzed  to  death  by  processes  of  historical  and  philosophical 
criticism. 

The  soul  of  man  is  the  stronghold  of  faith!     What  is  not  real 


180  METHODIST  THEOLOGY. 

there  is  not  real  any  where.  The  soul's  knowledge  of  itself  is  im- 
pregnable. Superior  to  that  knowledge  there  is  no  knowledge.  Let 
this  doctrine,  therefore,  be  insisted  upon  in  the  congregation  and 
in  the  Sunday  schools  and  in  all  evangelical  efforts.  There  will 
then  be  no  startling  statistics  to  bring  grief  to  the  hearts  of 
Methodists  the  world  over,  but  confident  of  results  we  may  declare 
to  all  Methodism  as  did  Isaiah  to  Israel,  "Thy  sun  shall  no  more 
go  down;  nor  thy  moon  withdraw  her  rising;  for  the  Lord  God 
shall  be  thine  everlasting  light,  and  the  days  of  thy  mourning  shall 
be  ended." 

The  second  invited  address  was  given  by  Mr.  W.  Windsor, 
J.  P.,  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church.  Subject,  "The 
Essentials  of  Eeligion  According  to  John  Wesley :" 

Religion  to  John  Wesley  was  not  something  which  had  a  place 
in  life;  it  was  everything.  It  was  not  a  star  upon  the  brow  of 
night;  it  was  the  sun  at  noonday.  At  its  depth  it  was  an  unutter- 
able sense  of  need;  at  its  supreme  height  it  was  the  final  and  com- 
plete satisfaction  of  that  need.  It  is  impossible  to  read  either 
AVesley's  Journals  or  Sermons  without  recognizing  that  a  vivid 
apprehension  of  the  reality,  the  awful  and  tragic  reality  of  sin 
lay  at  the  very  base  of  all  his  conceptions  of  religion.  The  con- 
demnation, the  enslavement,  the  helplessness,  the  impending  doom 
of  every  unforgiven,  unrenewed  man  was  the  almost  constant  theme 
of  his  preaching.  In  his  sermons  before  the  University  of  Oxford 
at  the  beginning  of  his  great  evangelical  work  in  England  he  laid 
the  clearest  emphasis  on  the  New  Testament  doctrine  of  sin.  More 
than  fifty  years  later  when  he  came  to  the  end  of  his  ministry 
the  same  note  rang  through  his  dying  testimony.  Once  and  again 
with  solemn  significance  he  repeated. 

"I    the    chief    of    sinners    am, 
But  Jesus  died  for  me." 

His  Journal  abounds  from  page  to  page,  and  from  decade  to  decade, 
with  indications  of  the  earnestness  and  fidelity,  with  which  he 
insisted  on  the  pitiful  need,  the  desperate  condition,  and  the  solemn 
doom  of  the  impenitent.  The  same  vivid  pages  reveal  something 
of  the  profound  and  far-reaching  impression  of  this  insistence  on 
his  multitudinous  hearers  of  all'  ranks  in  every  part  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland.  As  one  reads,  the  impression  becomes  irre- 
sistible that  preaching  so  consistently  heart-searching  and  con- 
science-awakening is  scarcely  to  be  heard  to-day  even  in  the  most 
evangelical  pulpits  of  Methodism. 

But  if  Wesley  insisted  on  the  profound  consciousness  of  sin 
and  guilt  as  the  condition  pre-requisite  to  Christian  life,  he  was  not 


ADDRESS  BY  MR   WM.  WINDSOR.  181 

less  careful  or  eager  to  insist  on  an  equally  valid  and  assured 
experience  of  redemption  from  sin.  Without  repentance,  justifica- 
tion by  faith  and  regeneration  there  could  be  no  entrance  into 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  And  these  incalculable  blessings,  he  as 
plainly  taught,  are  authenticated  beyond  all  misgiving  in  the  renewed 
hearts  of  believers.  They  receive  "the  Spirit  of  adoption  whereby 
we  cry,  Abba,  Father.  The  Spirit  itself  beareth  witness  with  our 
spirit  that  we  are  the  children  of  God."  But  Wesley  solemnly  urged 
upon  all  Christians  the  necessity  for  seeking  that  state  of  grace 
which  he  was  wont  to  describe  as  "Christian  Perfection"  or  "Chrisr 
tian  love  made  perfect."  To  be  athirst  for  holiness  in  heart  and  life, 
to  seek  it  constantly  with  solemn  purpose  he  held  to  be  essential 
to  religion  in  the  individual  and  vital  to  the  prosperity  of  every 
societv  of  believers.  And  with  w^hat  simplicity  and  luminousness 
did  he  invariably  exhibit  the  entire  inheritance  of  grace  as  mediated 
by  Jesus  Christ,  as,  in  all  its  heights  and  depths,  and  lengths  and 
breadths,  wrought  for  us  by  His  passion,  His  final  victory  over  sin 
and  death.  To  rest  in  this  assurance,  to  rejoice  in  the  all-sufficient 
grace  of  Christ,  to  have  no  confidence  in  the  flesh  but  an  unreserved 
dependence  on  the  power  of  God  as  revealed  in  His  Son,  was  to 
Wesley   the  supreme   essential   of   religion. 

Reading  his  Journal,  it  is  not  surprising  to  note  that  one  of  his 
favorite  texts  was,  "Jesus  Christ,  made  of  God  unto  us  wisdom, 
righteousness,  sanctification  and  redemption."  These  Pauline  word§ 
were  as  a  deep  channel  in  which  the  full  tide  of  Wesley's  faith 
and  hope,  and  joy  could  flow.  The  grace  and  sufficiency  of 
Christ  made  the  music  of  his  preaching,  and  it  icas  music.  How 
for  more  than  fifty  years  listening  thousands  from  the  North  of 
Scotland  to  Land's  End,  and  from  Londonderry  to  Cork,  felt  its 
holy  thrill.  The  deep  joy  of  this  evangelical  preaching  is  reflected 
In  the  hymns  of  the  great  revival,  especially  in  those  of  Charles 
Wesley.  I  know  of  nothing  like  it  except  the  triumphant  gladness 
of  the  apostolic  letters. 

But  if,  in  Wesley's  preaching,  the  grace  and  sufficiency  of 
Christ  had  a  supreme  place,  faith  in  the  recipients  of  grace  was  as 
clearly  and  strongly  enforced.  The  forgiveness  of  sins  and  the  ne.v 
birth  are  conditioned  upon  faith,  and  so,  Wesley  taught,  is  the 
added  grace  of  sanctifying  love.  He  declared  explicitly  rhat  the 
faith  demanded,  to  quote  his  actual  words,  "is  not  barely  a  specu- 
tative,  rational  thing,  a  cold,  lifeless  assent,  a  train  of  ideas  in 
the  head;  but  a  disposition  of  the  heart."  Faith  which  does  not 
infallibly  produce  the  fruit  of  holy  living  Wesley  pronounced 
"dead."  He  affirmed  with  Paul  and  in  the  plainest  terms,  tliat 
saving  faith  establishes  the  moral  law.  It  makes  the  observance 
of  that  law  a  necessity  to  the  man  who,  embracing  by  faith  the' 
love  of  God  in  Christ,  is  henceforth  subjected  to  love,  and  impelled 


182  METHODIST  THEOLOGY. 

to  honor  the  law  that  he  may  honor  Christ.  Here  may  I  be 
suffered  a  personal  word?  Wesley's  witness  in  this  matter  accords 
with  my  early  experience  in  a  typical  Methodist  home.  Since  those 
days  I  have  read  much  about  the  ethical  deficiency  of  evangelical 
teaching,  but  nowhere  in  my  subsequent  experience  have  I  been 
conscious  of  anything  so  stringent  and  exacting  as  the  moral 
standards  of  that  simple  evangelical  circle. 

Wesley  laid  great  stress  on  the  constant  and  devout  use  of 
"the  means  of  grace"  as  among  the  essentials  of  religion.  Private 
and  public  prayer,  the  devotional  study  of  the  Scriptures,  and  the 
earnest  observance  of  the  Lord's  Supper  he  habitually  insisted  upon. 
Whilst  making  it  perfectly  clear,  to  quote  his  words,  "That  th'^re 
is  no  power  in  any  means,"  that  "it  Is  in  itself,  a  poor,  dead,  empty 
thing;  separate  from  God,  it  is  a  dry  leaf,  a  shadow,"  he  urged 
upon  all  godly  persons  the  full  and  profitable  exercise  of  thi3 
Christian  duty. 

In  his  Journal  and  Sermons  Wesley  repeatedly  sums  up  the 
essentials  of  religion  in  our  Lord's  words,  to  "love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy 
mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 
Truly  no  words  more  fitly  describe  the  gracious  fruits  of  redemption 
as  realized  in  the  heart  and  life. 

We,  the  spiritual  heirs  of  Wesley  and  the  early  Methodists, 
may  thank  God  for  the  witness  cf  Wesley's  life  and  labours  to  the 
essentials  of  religion.  He  had  his  limitations  as  we  can  all  see, 
but  when  every  deduction  has  Veen  made  Lhat  Christian  love  can 
make,  what  a  life  of  abandonment  to  Christ,  of  glorious,  tireless 
service  in  his  Master's  Kingdom  was  that  blessed  life  of  eight j'-eight 
memorable  years.  Gathered  here  to-day,  his  spiritual  descendants 
from  many  lands,  is  there  not  in  the  crowding  memories  that  fill 
our  hearts  strong  incentive  to  cry,  "Oh,  for  a  host  of  men  in  this 
twentieth  century  inspired  by  a  like  triumphant  faith,  inflamed 
by  the  burning  zeal  and  impassioned  by  the  Divine  love  which  made 
John  Wesley  one  of  the  greatest  servants  of  Jesus  since  the  apos- 
tolic age,  and  his  evangelical  work  for  England  unparalleled  in  its 
history!" 

The  general  discussion  was  opened  by  the  Rev.  J.  G.  Tasker_, 
D.  D.,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church,  who  spoke  as 
follows : 

Mr.  President,  and  dear  brethren,  I  rejoice  greatly  in  the  spirit 
in  which  the  great  subject  of  this  morning  has  been  brought  before 
the  Conference.  We  are  now  in  touch  with  great  realities.  And 
I  think  that  sometimes  we  are  disposed  to  take  a  rather  too  pessi- 
mistic view  of  what  is  often  called  the  crisis  of  faith.  We  do  not 
allow  as  we  ought  to  allow  for  the  theological  vantage  ground  on 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  183 

which  we  stand  to-day  in  justifying  Methodist  theology,  because 
it  is  an  appeal  to  experience  and  can  be  verified  by  experience. 
Experience  is  spiritual,  and  there  are  many  voices  telling  us  to-day 
that  the  spiritual  is  the  ultimate  reality.  I  have  thought  often 
during  these  discussions  of  the  difference  between  the  atmosphere 
of  this  day  and  that  of  the  day  when  the  first  Ecumenical  Con- 
ference met.  When  I  was  a  student  in  a  Methodist  theological  in- 
stitution, not  long  after  that  first  Conference,  Tyndall  gave  his 
great  deliverance  as  to  matter  having  in  it  the  potency  of  life. 
We  know  what  a  complete  reversal  there  has  been  in  scientific  and 
philosophic  thought  in  regard  to  the  spiritual  being  the  ultimate 
reality.  The  reason  why  I  rise  to  speak  is  to  say  a  word  which 
came  to  me  as  I  have  been  sitting  and  listening  to  the  essays  and 
papers  that  have  been  read.  I  wish  to  say  this  especially,  the  great 
danger  is  lest  we  confound  two  different  things,  our  subjective 
knowledge  of  the  saving  grace  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  our  ob- 
jective knowledge  of  his  historic  personality.  There  is  that  dis- 
tinction to  be  drawn.  I  think  we  ought  to  take  care  lest  we  make 
extreme  claims  in  regard  to  the  range  of  truth  which  inward  assur- 
ance is  said  to  guarantee;  or,  in  other  words,  as  to  the  relation 
between  subjective  and  objective  assurance  in  religious  certainty. 
Take  the  case  of  a  person  who  has  been  carefully  instructed  in  re- 
ligious truth;  to  him  this  certainty  would  mean  that  what  had 
been  head  knowledge  becomes  explicit,  heart  and  soul  experience. 
That  is  to  say,  there  comes  to  him  a  realization  of  the  power  of 
Christ — the  saving  power  of  the  Christ  who  may  in  theory  have 
been  known  and  whose  claims  may  have  been  acknowledged,  but 
who  has  never  before  been  known  as  a  Savior  from  the  guilt  and 
power  of  sin.  But  then  you  may  easily  know  another  whose  knowl- 
edge of  Christ's  teaching  and  claims  is  very  scanty.  He  may  be 
led  in  the  hour  of  conviction  for  sin  to  trust  the  promises  of  for- 
giveness, and  trusting  in  Christ  he  finds  Him  a  Savior.  I  do  not 
think  that  you  can  say  that  he  has  all  that  knowledge  of  the  his- 
toric Christ  which  is  sometimes  claimed  for  assurance.  He  will 
have  an  overwhelming  feeling  of  this  reality  of  his  own  experience; 
and  if  he  grows  not  only  in  grace  but  in  the  knowledge  of  Jesus 
Christ  he  will  have  that  assurance  better  founded  as  he  goes  on 
to  investigate  the  historic  grounds  of  his  belief. 

The  Eev.  "Wm.  Eedfern,  of  the  United  Methodist  Church: 

Mr.  President,  I  would  like  to  lay  stress  on  what  I  consider  to 
be  the  remarkable  modernness  of  the  Methodist  faith.  It  seems 
somehow  to  be  taken  for  granted  among  our  cultivated  young  men 
that  Methodist  theologj^  belongs  to  the  eighteenth  century,  and  has 
grown  altogether  antiquated.  If  that  be  so,  it  can  have  no  message 
for  our  time,  and  it  can  have  no  guidance  for  men  who  are  trying 
to  solve  the  problems  of  the  times.  I  hold  on  the  contrary  that 
John  Wesley  was  one  of  the  most  prophetic  theologians  that  ever 
lived,  and  that  he  anticipated  to  a  remarkable  degree  the  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  movements  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Take, 
for  example,  that  glorious  gospel  on  the  universality  of  grace.  The 
greatest  sermon  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  one  of  the  few  ser- 
mons of  Christendom,  was  John  Wesley's  sermon  on  free  grace. 
Sometimes  it  has  been  said  that  John  Wesley  dug  the  grave  of 
Calvinism.  I  think  it  would  be  more  true  to  say  that  he  antici- 
pated the  forces  of  it  which  dug  its  grave.     For  Calvinism  was 


184  METHODIST  THEOLOGY. 

destroyed  by  no  man  and  no  argument  and  by  no  sermon,  but  by 
a  series  of  forces  that  were  working  continually  in  men's  minds. 
It  would  be  an  interesting  subject  of  thought  for  us  to  consider 
how  much  this  pioneered  the  way  for  the  great  missionary  move- 
ment which  was  started  early  in  the  nineteenth  century.  I  think 
It  might  be  proved  that  without  John  Wesley  there  would  not  have 
been  the  marvelous  missionary  expansion  which  we  ourselves  have 
witnessed.  Take  again  his  doctrine  of  the  witness  of  the  Spirit. 
Why,  in  this  respect  he  was  at  one  with  all  the  best  philosophic 
thinking  of  our  times.  When  Emanuel  Kant  laid  down  his  doctrine 
of  the  categorical  imperative,  when  Coleridge  discoursed  on  I'eason, 
when  Green  spoke  of  the  witness  of  faith,  when  America's  greatest 
thinker,  William  James,  spoke  of  the  "varieties  of  religious  experi- 
ence," they  were  working  in  philosophic  form,  giving  philosophic 
development  to  the  great  spiritual  truth  that  John  Wesley  had  been 
preaching  a  century  before  on  the  witness  of  the  Spirit.  So  far 
from  John  Wesley  being  dead,  he  is  just  beginning  to  live;  and 
his  power  is  being  felt  to-day  in  all  the  best  minds.  Take  another 
truth,  the  sovereignty  of  grace.  Dr.  Findlay  has  linked  Wesley 
with  Luther  and  Augustine.  I  think  that,  broadly  speaking,  Wes- 
ley was  inferior  to  the  other  two.  But  in  this  one  particular,  his 
grasp  of  sovereign  grace,  Wesley  surpassed  any  man  since  the  days 
of  St.  Paul. 

The  Eev.  Thomas  Nicholson,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church: 

I  have  been  greatly  impressed  this  morning  as  in  the  able  papers 
which  have  been  read  we  have  had  Wesley  so  clearly  connected 
with  Luther,  and  have  had  the  doctrine  of  assurance  so  clearly 
brought  up.  But  I  desire  to  call  your  attention  to  another  thing 
which  so  far  has  not  been  clearly  brought  out.  John  Wesley  came 
to  the  assurance  of  faith  through  the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  wit- 
nessed to  him  by  the  strange  warming  of  his  heart  consequent  upon 
the  love  of  God  shed  abroad  in  his  heart;  and  from  that  time  to 
the  close  of  his  life  this  idea  of  love  interested  Wesley  most  pro- 
foundly. And  there  has  taken  hold  upon  me  with  the  force  of  a 
great  new  conviction,  in  the  last  few  months,  this  thought,  that 
the  thing  for  which  John  Wesley  will  be  longest  remembered  in  the 
far  reach  of  the  years  to  come  will  be  his  struggle  to  voice  for  all 
time  the  full  content,  the  length  and  depth  and  height  and  breadth 
of  the  meaning  of  the  love  of  God  for  human  kind.  In  that,  my 
brethren,  I  think  we  have  the  key  to  the  next  great  revival.  The 
mayor  of  Pittsburgh  telegraphed  to  Mayor  Gaynor  of  New  York, 
on  the  opening  of  a  great  tunnel  in  that  city:  "The  world  is  on 
the  edge  of  great  things."  I  believe  that  Methodism  is  on  the  edge 
of  great  things;  and  it  is  to  find  them  through  a  rediscovery  of 
the  things  that  John  Wesley  was  feeling  after  and  never  quite  real- 
ized and  never  quite  voiced  satisfactorily.  The  love  of  God  is  to 
be  the  basis  of  all  Church  unity.  A  great  statesman  in  the  land 
from  which  I  come  is  reported  to  have  said  what  the  distinguished 
president  of  the  Wesleyan  Conference  said  the  other  day,  that  sig- 
nificant thing  that  there  are  many  men  outside  the  Church  who 
ought  to  be  inside  it.  He  is  reported  to  have  said:  "When  I  can 
find  a  Church  that  will  be  content  to  write  over  its  doors  this,  'Thou 
Shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  mind,  soul,  and 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  185 

strength,  and  thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,'  as  its  only 
test,  I  am  ready  to  join  that  Church."  We  are  not  quite  ready  for 
that.  Bishop  Hoss  talked  to  us  about  union.  When  he  was  talk- 
ing so  much  against  this  idea  of  getting  a  little  closer  together,  I 
felt  just  as  I  have  sometimes  in  revivals.  I  have  found  that  when 
the  thing  was  going  and  men  were  coming  forward,  there  was  al- 
ways a  type  of  sinner  who  would  protest  most  loudly  that  he  was 
not  under  conviction,  that  he  was  not  going  to  be  caught,  that  he 
was  not  coming  in,  and  all  that  just  at  the  time  when  already  un- 
consciously to  himself  he  was  getting  profoundly  under  conviction. 

The  Eev.  W.  J.  Moulton,  D.  D.,  of  tlie  British  Wesleyan 

Methodist  Church: 

Mr.  President,  In  his  opening  essay  Dr.  Findlay  appeared  to  me 
to  have  a  thought  that  appeals  very  strongly  to  every  student  of 
Christian  thought — the  profound  influence  that  Luther  has  had  upon 
all  subsequent  religious  teaching.  One  of  the  first  things  that  I 
saw  when  I  landed  in  Quebec  was,  outside  the  Jesuit  house,  the 
figure  of  Ignatius  Loyola  with  his  foot  upon  the  neck  of  Luther. 
I  was  not  very  much  surprised  to  see  it,  because  in  Luther's  teach- 
ing there  is  contained  the  power  that  utterly  destroys  the  extreme 
ecclesiastical  claims  of  Romanism.  Passing  on  from  that,  two  great 
movements  of  theological  thought  since  Luther's  day  come  back  to 
me,  one  being  the  greatest  of  all  the  modern  movement  in  Europe, 
the  great  Ritschlian  movement.  It  came  turning  away  from  the 
barrenness  of  mere  speculation,  and  appealed  to  the  freshness  and 
vitality  of  the  faith  of  Luther.  And  there  is  nobody  to  say  how 
vast  has  been  its  influence  ever  since.  We  turn  to  the  writers  of 
that  school,  and  we  delight  in  the  glow  and  warmth  that  we  find 
in  their  pages;  but  after  all  thej'  only  w^ent  half-way  back  to 
Luther.  Refusing  all  mysticism  in  Christianity  and  denying  the 
possibility  of  personal  communion  with  the  living  Christ,  they 
seemed  to  have  thrown  away  some  factors  that  are  absolutely  es- 
sential in  a  full  Christian  experience.  When  one  turns  back  to 
Wesley  one  is  reminded  again  how  Wesley's  experience  is  abso- 
lutely up-to-date  still.  Holding  fast  the  head,  with  the  intense 
sense  of  the  living  and  personal  relation  to  Christ,  he  went  back 
fearlessly  to  Luther  to  learn  from  him  the  joy  and  the  delight  of 
personal  experience.  We  may  claim  that  Wesley  to-day  unites  the 
mystical  and  historic  in  Christianity  in  perfect  balance,  and  that, 
therefore,'  in  his  teaching  he  presents  to  us  the  finest  example  that 
the  world  has  ever  seen  since  the  Reformation  of  the  full-grown, 
fully-developed  Christian  man.  And  if  we  go  back  without  fear  to 
our  theological  heritage  and  make  our  own  experiences  of  the  past, 
we  may  still  as  Methodists  face  without  fear  the  problems  of  the 
future,  and  holding  fast  the  Head,  even  as  Wesley  did,  may  carry 
on  his  work. 

The  Rev.  Joseph  Dinnick,  of  tlie  Primitive  Methodist 
Church : 

Wesley  went  in  for  Christian  experience  based  on  the  Scripture. 
Our  Scriptures  have  somehow  gotten  less  in  later  times  than  what 
he  acknowledged  and  emploj'ed,  but  the  Scriptures  that  are  left  fo 
us  are  quite  sufficient  for  us  to  have  a  Christian  experience.  Jesus 
Christ  taught  His  disciples  that  they  lacked  a  Christian  experience 


186  METHODIST  THEOLOGY. 

such  as  it  is  our  privilege  to  enjoy.  He  said  to  Peter,  "O,  thou  of 
little  faith,"  and  He  tried  to  bring  His  disciples  into  a  higher  level 
of  faith.  I  want  us  to  see  this,  that  every  one  of  us  is  a  child  of 
God  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  But  are  we  fit  for  service?  There 
are  four  stages  of  faith  laid  before  us.  The  first  degree  of  faith 
is  that  of  the  agnostic  who  accepts  nothing  except  what  he  can  see 
and  feel;  the  second  stage  is  that  which  says  I  believe  in  proba- 
bility; the  third  stage  of  faith  says  I  believe  in  possibility;  but 
the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ  and  John  Wesley  was  believing  in  im- 
possibilities. 

Blind  unbelief  is  sure  to  err, 
And  scan  His  work  in  vain; 

God  is  His  own  interpreter, 
And  He  can  make  it  plain. 

Jesus  Christ  said  to  His  disciples,  when  they  were  looking  at 
Him,  "If  ye  had  faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,"  etc.  Had  n't 
they  faith?  What  meant  He?  Were  they  faithless?  But  they  did 
not  have  faith  for  the  impossible.  Faith  "laughs  at  impossibilities, 
and  cries  'it  shall  be  done.'  "  I  have  been  trying  the  old  system 
of  fasting  and  praying  for  the  last  two  months.  I  have  lived  many 
days  on  two  meals  a  day  and  cold  water,  just  to  try  and  get  this 
great  power  that  we  used  to  believe  in.  "This  kind  goeth  not  out 
except  by  prayer  and  fasting."  John  Wesley  urged  the  practice 
of  fasting.  There  is  too  much  feasting  to-day,  and  too  little  fast- 
ing. In  the  last  two  months  I  have  seen  more  conversions  than 
in  forty  years.  I  know  the  old  plan  is  the  best.  I  could  give  yoii 
answers  to  prayer  that  would  astound  you.  Thirty-seven  years  ago 
I  had  to  pay  three  hundred  pounds  in  the  afternoon,  and  had  not 
three  hundred  pence  in  the  morning.  We  were  building  a  church. 
I  said  to  a  young  fellow  who  had  been  recently  converted,  "Come 
with  me  in  my  study.  I  want  to  ask  God  to  give  us  three  hundred 
pounds  by  three  o'clock."  The  young  fellow  came  into  my  study, 
and  we  prayed  and  believed.  Then  I  said,  "You  keep  praying,  and 
I  will  go  out  for  the  answer."  I  had  not  got  far  along  the  road 
when  I  met  one  of  the  highest  churchmen  in  the  town.  I  had 
never  spoken  to  him  but  once.  Said  he,  "What  do  you  want?" 
"Three  hundred  pounds,"  said  I.  "Yours  is  a  big  want,"  said  he; 
"here  is  five  pounds  towards  it."  "I  am  grateful  to  you,  but  I 
want  three  hundred  pounds."  "Where  are  you  going  to  get  it?" 
"I  am  relying  on  God."  "What  are  your  trustees  worth?"  "Noth- 
ing at  all."  He  took  his  card  out  of  his  pocket  and  wrote  on  the 
back,  "Let  this  man  have  three  hundred  pounds  at  once." 

Bishop  J.  L.  NuELSEN.  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church : 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  rise  simply  to  express  my  conviction  that  Meth- 
odist theology  has  a  great  mission  in  the  modern  world.  The  clamor 
is  to-day  for  a  Christianity  that  is  stripped  of  theology.  "Give  us 
religion,  but  we  don't  care  for  your  doctrines;  give  us  Christ,  but 
none  of  your  creed;  give  us  life,  but  we  need  no  theological  sys- 
tem." So  people  speak.  Certainly  life  is  the  great  thing  that  we 
are  striving  for;  but  not  every  kind  or  type  of  life.  There  is  but 
one  life  that  is  worth  living,  and  that  is  the  Christ-life.  But  the 
Christ-life  is  possible  only  in  compliance  with  the  Christ-law.  And 
that  is  the  participation  and  the  appreciation  and  personal  relation 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  187 

of  the  divine  law.  Now,  what  has  theologj^  to  do  with  that?  It  is 
the  function  of  theology  to  study  the  divine  law  and  interpret  it 
to  the  men  and  women  of  every  generation  in  their  own  language. 
But  doctrines,  after  all,  are  attempts  more  or  less  adequate  to  give 
expression  to  great  personal  conviction  of  the  divine  law.  Methodism 
has  had  the  mission  in  the  theological  world  to  be  a  protest  against 
barrenness  of  mere  theological  creeds.  They  tell  us  that  creeds  are 
barren.  Methodism  has  protested  against  that  and  has  shown  that 
doctrines,  creeds,  theology  are  anything  but  barren — that  they  are 
productive  of  abundant  fruit.  Methodism  has  protested  against 
mere  theological  abstractions,  mere  philosophic  speculations,  every- 
thing that  does  not  really  produce  life.  And  it  has  never  discounted 
doctrine;  on  the  contrary,  it  has  always  emphatically  stressed  vital 
doctrines.  John  Wesley  was  a  very  liberal  man,  but  he  was  one  of 
the  greatest  doctrinal  preachers  the  Church  has  ever  produced. 
It  seems  to  me,  the  mission  of  Methodist  theology  is  to  be  a  living 
protest  against  that  notion  of  an  undogmatic,  unconscious,  subcon- 
scious Christianity.  Subconscious  life,  or  unconscious  life,  is  not 
the  highest  type  of  life.  And  undogmatic  Christianity  is  not  that 
interpretation  of  Christianity  that  will  find  the  world.  Gentlemen, 
the  note  was  sounded  here  of  regret  that  there  is  a  decadence  of 
the  Methodist  class-meeting.  Why  is  it?  Why  is  it  many  Metho- 
dists seem  fo  have  no  appreciation  of  the  class-meeting.  I  am 
afraid  it  is  because  they  have  not  an  experience  worth  talking  about. 
Why  do  so  many  to-day  consider  doctrines  and  theology  not  worth 
keeping  up?  In  some  cases  it  is  that  people  have  no  strong  con- 
victions worth  thinking  about  or  cultivating  in  language;  but  unless 
we  have  a  strong  religious  conviction,  so  strong  that  it  will  out- 
weigh all  other  considerations,  dearer  to  us  than  our  own  life,  we 
have  no  message  which  the  modern  world  will  stop  to  listen  to. 
What  kind  of  an  appeal  shall  we  make?  The  mere  assthetical  ap- 
peal has  never  saved  the  world.  Literature  and  art  and  drama  and 
the  opera  can  make  that  appeal  better  than  the  Church.  The  emo- 
tional appeal  has  not  done  much  good.  A  five-cent  moving-picture 
show  can  make  a  stronger  emotional  appeal  than  the  preacher  can. 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  Buckley,  D.  D.,  of  tlie  Metliodist  Epis- 
copal Church : 

Mr.  President  and  brethren,  I  am  one  of  the  survivors  of  the 
First  Ecumenical  Conference.  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  survive,  and 
have  made  every  effort  to  do  so.  John  Wesley  put  me  astray  when 
I  was  asking  God  to  forgive  my  sins  and  renew  my  spirit,  and 
caused  me  to  wander.  Why?  Because  I  fixed  my  eye  upon  the 
sentence  that  "his  heart  was  strangely  warmed."  The  only  way  to 
understand  John  Wesley  is  to  take  anything  he  says  upon  experi- 
ence, and  then  go  through  all  his  journals  and  sermons  and  take 
out  the  passages  that  bear  upon  those  subjects.  He  declared,  him- 
self, that  he  unintentionally  slandered  himself,  and  wrote  in  his 
manuscript  a  few  years  afterwards  that  he  had  said  far  too  much. 
Furthermore,  he  admits  that  many  a  man  can  be  regenerated  with- 
out any  convulsion  in  his  soul.  John  P.  Durbin,  the  most  eloquent 
man  we  ever  had  in  our  whole  Church,  saw  a  lady  whom  he  re- 
spected converted.  Her  face  beamed;  and  he  said,  "I  will  never  rest 
until  I  can  have  an  experience  which  will  light  up  my  face  and 
make  it  stay  so  from  day  to  day."     He  says,  "I  tried  for  several 


188  METHODIST  THEOLOGY. 

years,  but  never  found  such  an  experience  as  hers;  but  finally  I  sat 
down  and  asked  God  to  forgive  me,  and  I  was  encoiiraged,  and  from 
that  time  until  now  I  have  walked  in  the  Spirit."  Bishop  Foss  was 
trying  to  find  something  that  would  be  a  tremendous  witness  so 
that  he  would  understand  and  declare  in  the  presence  of  all  that  he 
had  been  brought  to  Christ;  but  at  last,  when  he  was  about  to 
despair,  Albert  Hunt  said  to  him,  "Just  rest  in  Christ."  And  in 
one  moment  he  rose  and  believed  himself  converted,  and  to  the  day 
of  his  death  proved  that  he  had  been  converted.  My  grandfather 
was  a  judge,  and  a  certain  man  was  praying  for  five  hours.  My 
grandfather  spoke  to  another  man,  and  said  to  him,  "If  that  young 
man  knew  how  easy  it  is  to  believe,  he  would  be  converted  on  the 
spot."  The  young  man  rose  up  and  said,  "I  am  converted."  "How 
do  you  know?"  "Because  I  found  how  easy  a  thing  it  is."  The 
man  was  Anthony  Atwood,  who  was  the  converter — under  God — of 
many  thousand.  If  he  had  been  sophisticated  as  John  Wesley  so- 
phisticated himself  in  the  earlier  part  of  his  life,  he  might  never 
have  been  converted  at  all. 

The  Eev.  George  Elliott^  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church: 

In  the  opening  sermon  of  the  Conference  the  distinguished  presi- 
dent of  the  Wesleyan  Conference  with  great  nobility  of  thought  and 
a  beauty  of  expression  which  I  can  not  reproduce,  I  fear,  said  that 
the  royalty  of  truth  demanded  and  should  receive  the  loyalty  of  obe- 
dience. It  sems  to  me  that  we  might  also  turn  the  sentence  around 
and  say  that  the  loyalty  of  obedience  is  a  pathway  to  the  royalty 
of  truth.  After  all,  the  lesson  of  Methodist  theology  is  simply  the 
lesson  of  living  philosophy  of  to-day:  that  a  sheer  intellectualism  is 
no  path  to  religious  truth,  or,  in  that  great  sentence  of  Lotze,  "Life 
is  always  greater  than  logic."  Indeed,  what  we  call  Christian  doc- 
trine is  simply  the  attempt  to  express  more  or  less  clearly  in  terms 
of  intellect  what  is  already  an  experience  of  heart  and  life.  We  are 
constantly  finding  out  how  impotent  is  that  thing  we  call  science. 
We  must  continually  be  turning  from  that  and  taking  a  fresh 
plunge  into  the  living  wealth  of  reality  and  life.  And  the  reason 
that  the  theology  of  John  Wesley  is  alive  and  that  Wesley  appears 
to  us  to  be  so  utterly  modern  is  that  he  places  the  basis  of  the  re- 
ligious life  not  in  some  intellectual  forms  of  statement,  but  in  that 
deeper  realm  of  living  experience.  Now,  there  are  two  sources,  and 
only  two  possible  sources,  for  Christian  doctrine  and  theology;  one 
is  psychology,  the  other  is  history,  which  is  simply  the  larger  con- 
sciousness of  the  race.  If  Holy  Scripture  is  for  us  the  supreme 
source  of  Christian  truth,  it  is  because  in  it  we  have  supremely  the 
record  of  religious  experience  and  the  history  of  religious  develop- 
ment; and  it  is  therefore,  it  seems  to  me,  that  we  can  claim  that 
our  heritage  to-day  is  rich  and  full.  It  seems  to  me  that,  after  all, 
we  must  submit  to  this  pragmatic  test. 

The  Rev.  N".  Burwash,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Church 

of  Canada: 

Professor  Findlay  in  that  very  able  paper  very  quietly  suggested 
that  we  might  almost  claim  for  John  Wesley  an  advance  on  the 
work  of  Luther.     There  are  two  or  three  facts  which  I  think  would 


GENERAL  REIVIARKS.  189 

make  that  position  not  merely  one  of  hypothesis,  but  very  evident 
to  our  minds.  Luther's  watchword  was  justification  by  faith.  The 
first  sermon  in  John  Wesley's  four  volumes  is  on  "Salvation  by 
Faith" — a  free,  full,  and  present  salvation  by  faith.  You  will  see  at 
once  how  far  John  Wesley's  position  passes  beyond  that  of  Luther. 
You  will  find  two  thoughts  with  reference  to  the  definition  of  re- 
generation: one,  the  old  Catholic  thought  that  regeneration  is  a  mj's- 
terious  process  which  begins  with  baptism;  the  other,  the  thought 
which  John  Calvin  puts  forth,  that  regeneration  begins  by  a  mys- 
terious act  of  God,  which  leads  to  all  the  subsequent  developments 
of  religious  experience,  beginning  with  conviction  and  passing  for- 
ward until  its  final  completion,  at  the  hour  and  article  of  death,  in 
a  full  preparation  for  the  passing  beyond.  John  Wesley  held  that 
regeneration  is  the  great  crisis  through  which  a  man  passes  by 
faith  when  he  receives  the  witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  the  fruits 
of  the  Spirit  in  his  heart.  If  you  study  the  theological  thought  of 
Christendom  from  that  day  to  this,  you  will  find  that  John  Wesley's 
position  has  finally  obtained  the  supremacy,  and  is  now  acknowl- 
edged, I  think,  by  every  branch  of  the  evangelical  Church.  It  is 
the  very  center  of  all  our  great  revivals  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
from  the  Ulster  revival  to  the  Noonday  revival  in  New  York,  and 
the  great  work  of  Moody  and  Sankey  and  down  to  the  latest  Welsh 
revival,  that  regeneration  is  a  definite  crisis  in  human  experience 
and  that  no  man  has  passed  up  into  the  full  manhood  of  Chris- 
tianity who  lacks  that  definite  religious  experience.  And  perhaps, 
if  there  is  any  one  lesson  which  we  need  to  have  impressed  upon 
our  minds  to-day  in  our  Methodism  and  in  all  our  Churches,  it  is 
the  danger  of  having  the  great  body  of  our  Church  membership  rest- 
ing short  of  this  definite  experience.  John  Wesley,  of  course,  rec- 
ognized that  men  may  be  Christians  without  having  attained  this 
experience.  He  says  it  is  not  sufficient  to  divide  all  men  into  two 
classes:  saints  and  sinners;  but  there  are  the  enemies  of  God  and 
the  servants  of  God  and  the  children  of  God.  But  if  we  rest  in  the 
position  of  servants,  we  have  fallen  back  into  the  old  Jewish  dis- 
pensation instead  of  coming  up  to  the  full  privilege  of  the  Christian 
dispensation.  And  to-day  I  think  that  one  thing  we  need  more 
than  ever  is  John  Wesley's  doctrine  of  regeneration,  of  the  new 
birth,  of  salvation  full,  free,  and  present,  by  faith,  as  a  definite  ex- 
perience in  the  hearts  of  all  our  people.  The  great  work  being 
done  for  our  young  people  to-day  is  gathering  large  numbers  of 
sincere  and  earnest  and  conscientious  young  people  into  our 
Churches.  But  the  query  in  my  mind  is,  "Are  they  being  brought 
into  the  full  enjoyment  of  this  clear,  definite,  old-fashioned  Metho- 
dist experience?"  Ii  not,  we  will  certainly  lose  power  in  our  Church, 
our  spiritual  life  will  come  to  a  lower  plane,  and  our  influence  will 
pass  back  in  the  future. 

Bishop    E.    E.    PIoss,   D.  D.,   of   the   Methodist   Episcopal 

Church,  South : 

In  the  American  Methodist  Churches  we  have  some  religious 
symbols,  as  the  twenty-five  articles,  cut  down  from  the  thirty-nine 
articles.  The  complaint  is  made  sometimes  that  they  do  not  embody 
a  single  distinctive  doctrine  of  Methodism.  The  differentiation  of 
Methodism  has  never  been  crystallized  in  a  definite  form.  You  find 
it  in  the  ritual,  I  understand  that  you  find  it  in  the  fifty-two  ser- 
mons, and  you  find  it  in  the  Methodist  hymns.    Our  Methodist  teach- 


190  METHODIST  THEOLOGY. 

ing  is  to  be  found  in  the  assertion  of  the  immediate  influence  of 
God  upon  the  liuman  soul.  Without  priest,  or  ritual,  or  sacrament, 
or  intervention  of  any  human  agency  of  any  kind,  God's  living  way 
is  open  into  the  souls  of  men  that  He  has  created,  and  He  comes 
near  to  them,  and  He  comes  consciously  near  to  them.  That  is 
the  Methodist  emphasis.  I  used  to  be  greatly  disturbed,  when  I 
was  a  boy,  by  certain  old  preachers  who  were  in  the  habit  of  saying, 
"If  you  can  not  tell  when  or  where,  you  have  n't  got  it."  But  I 
heard  Bishop  McTyeire  say,  "I  can  not  tell  precisely  when  or  where, 
but  it  was  some  time  within  six  months  when  I  was  praying  ear- 
nestly, and  somewhere  in  a  pine  thicket  where  I  was  praying."  An 
old  man  at  a  Tennessee  camp-meting  said:  "Thank  God,  Brother 
Thorne,  I  have  got  it.  It  hit  me  on  the  wrong  side,  but  it  struck 
me  in  the  right  place."  Our  doctrines  do  not  have  to  be  explained 
away,  but  simply  explained.  We  do  not  reserve  them  for  campaign 
display,  but  for  use  in  the  open  light  of  day.  I  am  much  in  hope 
that  when  we  get  fused  with  our  Presbyterian  brethren  there  is 
one  thing  that  we  shall  insist  upon  at  least:  the  retaining  of  our 
Methodist  doctrine  of  assurance.  The  same  word  does  not  always 
mean  the  same  thing.  "Assurance"  in  Calvinism  means  the  assur- 
ance of  unconditional  election  to  eternal  life.  It  does  not  mean 
any  such  thing  in  Methodism.  It  means  a  fixed  conviction  that 
here  and  now  through  faith  in  Christ  I  am  accepted  of  God.  I  trust 
we  shall  always  insist  upon  that.  Our  doctrine  of  perfection  has 
been  referred  to.  Dr.  Dale  used  to  say,  "There  is  a  large  volume 
of  theological  implications  in  the  Methodist  doctrine  of  perfect  love, 
of  which  we  have  never  made  the  most."  I  am  disposed  to  insist 
upon  this.  If  it  be  intimated  again  that  I  am  opposed  to  Methodists 
getting  together,  I  shall  do  what  Mr.  Weller  advised  Sammy  to  do: 
prove  an  alibi. 

Tlie  Eev.  Prof.  M.  S.  Teeet,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church: 

I  should  like  to  emphasize  three  things  in  connection  with  the 
discussion  this  morning:  first,  the  catholicity  of  Methodism;  and 
then  its  insistence  upon  simple  fundamentals;  and  then  a  word  on 
the  Calvinistic  controversy  that  is  associated  with  its  history.  As 
for  the  catholicity  of  Methodism,  it  is  well  for  us  to  read  occasion- 
ally those  two  immortal  sermons  of  John  Wesley;  one,  "Caution 
Against  Bigotry,"  followed  immediately  by  one  on  "The  Catholic 
Spirit."  I  have  always  appreciated  those,  and  feel  that  it  is  a 
glory  of  our  Methodism  that  we  live  and  act  in  accord  with  the 
teaching  of  those  sermons.  I,  of  all  men,  ought  to  appreciate  the 
catholicity  of  Methodism;  for  I  was  born  a  Hicksite  Quaker  and 
was  reared  on  the  Heidelberg  catechism,  which  gave  me  an  insight 
into  the  Calvinism  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Churches.  I  was  edu- 
cated for  the  ministry  in  a  Con-gregational  theological  seminai-y. 
Then  I  received  a  call  to  a  Presbyterian  Church,  but  determined  to 
become  a  Methodist  Episcopalian,  in  which  faith  I  stand  even  to 
the  present  hour.  Now  the  simplicity  of  the  essential  doctrines  of 
Methodism.  We  are  all  familiar  with  Wesley's  discarding  opinions 
on  non-essential  points.  But  he  was  no  latitudinarian  in  the  faith. 
He  insisted  on  the  fundamentals.  When  I  was  in  my  teens  I  got 
puzzled  about  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  went  to  my  Quaker 
father.  I  said,  "How  do  you  explain  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity?" 
He  smiled  and  said,  "My  son,  I  think  if  you  get  one  of  them  you 
will  get  them  all." 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  191 

In  the  Calvinistic  controversy  there  are  two  or  three  things  to 
note.  John  Wesley  dreaded  that  controversy.  He  tried  long  and 
hard  before  parting  with  Whitefield.  But  there  was  a  time  when 
they  had  to  say,  "We  have  leaned  too  much  toward  Calvinism." 
When  they  began  leaning  the  other  way  there  was  controversy  and 
trouble  for  nearly  one  hundred  years,  and  the  result  is  that  Armin- 
ianism  is  to-day  world-wide;  Calvinistic  Methodism  is  Wales-wide. 
In  our  own  country  I  remember  Bishop  Morris  telling  of  his  contro- 
versy with  the  Calvinism  then  dominant.  But  now  we  can  preach 
and  practice  sermons  about  knowing  that  we  are  saved  without  meet- 
ing controversy.  One  Calvinistic  preacher,  when  the  Methodists  had 
come  to  his  town,  said,  "If  I  had  my  choice  between  a  Methodist 
preacher  and  the  devil  coming  to  town,  I  would  take  the  devil  every 
time;  for  I  know  something  of  the  wiles  of  the  devil,  but  I  don't 
know  about  the  Methodists."  Some  one  has  said  that  the  Calvinists 
preached  the  "five  points:"  total  depravity,  limited  atonement,  eter- 
nal predestination,  effectual  calling,  final  perseverance  of  the  saints; 
but  we  put  it  this  way:  all  men  are  sinners,  all  men  are  redeemed, 
all  men  are  called,  all — as  many  as  obey  the  call — are  elected,  and 
those  thus  elected,  if  they  persevere  until  the  end,  shall  be  saved. 

The  Eev.  "William  Bradfield,  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 

Chi;rch : 

I  can  not  give  you  the  experience  of  the  speaker  who  has  just 
sat  down. 

"I  'm  a  Methodist  born  and  a  Methodist  bred. 
And  when  I  am  gone  there  will  be  a  Methodist  dead." 

I  am  a  Methodist  because  I  believe  that  Methodism  is  the  most 
central  form  of  Christianity.  I  want  to  put  in  a  plea  for  a  side  of 
it  that  has  not  been  much  mentioned  this  morning.  We  have  heard 
of  St.  Paul,  Augustine,  Luther,  Wesley.  Wesley  came  from  the 
High  Church  side.  It  was  not  all  old  clothes  that  he  brought  with 
him.  And  we  have  an  inheritance  from  the  Catholic  Church.  I 
want  just  to  claim  our  part  in  that  inheritance,  because  I  believe 
that  nothing  but  a  full-orbed  Christianity  can  ever  conquer  the 
world.  There  are  some  things  that  Pi'otestantism  has  not  done; 
and  I  think  it  has  missed  doing  them  because  it  has  missed  some- 
thing of  the  great  message  of  the  gospel.  ;^erhaps  I  can  express 
it  if  I  remind  you  of  what  Mark  Twain  said  w^hen  he  saw  the 
great  navy  gathered.  He  said  it  made  him  think  of  that  text, 
"Blessed  are  the  meek,  for  they  shall  inherit  the  earth."  I  want 
to  put  side  by  side  with  that  what  the  English  poet  said,  that 
poet  with  Methodist  blood  in  his  veins: 

"The  tumult  and   the   shouting  dies; 

The  captains  and  the  kings  depart. 
Still  stands  thine  ancient  sacrifice — 

A  broken  and  a  contrite  heart. 
Lord  God  of  hosts,  be  with  us  yet, 
Lest   we   forget." 

I  want*  to  plead  that  that  humility  has  not  had  its  proper  place 
in  the  Protestant  putting  of  religion.  If  it  has  its  proper  place  in 
the  Methodist  Church  it  is  because  we  have  a  very  precious  treasure 
from  the  other  side.  We  have  our  inheritance  in  the  great  men 
whose  names  have  been  named,  and  we  have  an  inheritance  in  St. 


193  METHODIST  THEOLOGY. 

Francis  of  Assisi  and  Thomas  a  Kerapis.  I  hope  we  will  never,  be- 
cause we  have  to  protest  sternly  and  strongly  against  an  evil  ec- 
clesiastical system  and  superstitious  doctrines  connected  with  Ro- 
manism, forget  our  inheritance  in  the  great  Western  Church  of 
Christendom. 

The  Eev.  C.  Ensoe  Walters,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church : 

We  have  heard,  this  morning,  famous  theologians  and  bishops 
and  scholars  concerning  Methodist  theology.  I  want  to  add  one 
word  from  the  standpoint  of  one  who  has  declared  that  theology  in 
the  open  air  must  play  a  part  in  connection  with  mission  work. 
There  are  a  number  of  the  younger  men  of  Methodism  who,  if  they 
were  to  speak  this  morning,  would  probably  say  that  they  are  con- 
cerned by  the  theological  tendencies  of  the  times  in  which  we  live. 
As  a  younger  Methodist,  I  express  my  own  disappointment  that 
more  has  not  been  said  by  the  great  scholars  of  our  Church  with  re- 
gard to  some  of  those  gigantic  problems  which  are  concerning  the 
Church  of  God  theologically  to-day.  As  a  very  humble  student  of 
these  questions,  I  want  to  say  that  I  have  found  a  real  and  true 
justification  of  Methodist  theology  in  the  way  in  which  it  meets  life. 
I  have  had  to  speak  in  the  open  air  to  atheist,  agnostic,  secularist; 
and  I  have  found  that  Methodism  wins  here — we  are  not  bound  by 
any  hide-bound  theory  concerning  the  Bible.  When  any  man  has 
faced  me  concerning  any  modern  theory  of  the  Bible,  I  say  that  the 
seat  of  authority  in  Methodism  is  not  in  the  historic  Church,  nor 
in  an  infallible  book,  but  in  the  living  consciousness  of  Christ  and 
in  the  converting  power  of  God.  As  I  have  had  to  face  all  types 
of  men,  this  glorious  doctrine  of  Methodism,  I  want  to  say,  has  noth- 
ing to  fear  from  the  twentieth  century.  And  I  plead  that  at  the 
close  of  this  discussion  this  morning  we,  as  Methodists,  should  re- 
solve to  get  to  what  is  Methodist  teaching.  We  too  often  in  our 
preaching,  because  we  are  frightened  of  these  great  questions,  deal 
with  side  issues.  We  are  often  tempted  to  deal  with  mere  ethical 
theories.  But  the  greatest  problem  of  all  is  the  regeneration  of  the 
race.  John  Wesley  has  given  us  the  key,  social  and  religious,  to 
the  new  age.  I  thank  God  that,  as  a  young  Methodist  preacher, 
I  can  stand  in  any  society,  in  any  place,  and  declare  the  faith  that 
was  delivered  to  John  Wesley  by  Jesus  Christ. 

C.  T.  PiOMAN,  M.  D.,  of  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church : 

I  have  been  here  since  the  opening,  and  I  like  to  listen.  I  will 
bear  testimony  to  what  the  laity  in  the  Church  look  for.  The  old 
question  of  converting  the  world  is  the  same  question  to-day.  A 
man  once  saw  a  simple-minded  fellow  with  a  dog  going  through 
some  tricks.  He  said,  "How  do  you  teach  him  that?"  "Well,"  the 
simple  fellow  replied,  "the  first  thing  is  that  you  have  got  to  know 
more  than  the  dog."  The  world  to-day  is  looking  for  brotherhood 
and  goodness  and  kindness;  and  the  Church,  to  convert  the  world, 
must  show  more  goodness  than  the  world  has.  Why  have  secret 
societies  taken  away  the  members  from  the  Church?  Because  the 
lodges  show  them  more  charity.  I  teach  a  Bible  class  of  young  men. 
I  hold  a  chair  in  a  medical  college,  and  my  class  is  mostly  of  med- 
ical students. 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  193 

"One  ship  drives  east  and  one  drives  west 

By  the  very  same  wind  that  blows. 
'T  is  the  set  of  the  sails,  and  not  the  gales. 

That  tells  which  way  she  goes. 
Like  the  waves  of  the  sea  are  the  gales  that  blow 

As  we  journey  together  through  life, 
'T  is  the  set  of  the  sail  that  determines  the  goal 

And  not  the  storm  or  the  strife." 

The  object  of  religion  is  to  get  the  set  of  the  sail.  I  picked  up 
a  paper  three  months  ago,  and  it  had  an  article  on  Eugenics,  the 
science  of  improving  the  human  breed.  I  began  thinking,  and,  mix- 
ing up  theology  and  medicine,  this  question  came  into  my  mind: 
"The  teleological  aspect  of  eugenics."  I  have  not  been  able  to  get 
a  single  thought  on  it.  I  can  not  get  any  meaning  to  life  in  science. 
Religion  is  the  only  explanation  of  life;  and  if  religion  explains  life, 
it  will  uplift  men. 

On  motion  of  Dr.  Carroll^  it  was  voted  to  adjourn  after 
giving  the  notices. 

Also,  on  liis  motion,  the  daily  record  of  yesterday  as  printed 
was  approved. 

Announcements  were  given,  and  the  session  closed  with  the 
benediction  pronounced  by  the  presiding  officer. 
13 


FIFTH  DAY. 

Sunday,    October    8th, 


THE  morning  service  began  at  11  o'clock.    The  pastor  of  the 
Metropolitan  Church,  the  Eev.  W.  L.  Armstrong^  D.  D., 
conducted  the  opening  devotions. 
After  singing  of  Hymn  50, 

"All  people  that  on  earth  do  dwell," 

the    Rev.    W.    I.    Havek^    D.  D.,    of    the    Methodist    Episcopal 
Church,  offered  prayer. 
Hymn  104  was  sung, 

"The  spacious   firmament  on  high;" 

and  then  the  sermon  of  the  morning  was  preached  by  the  Eev. 
James  R.  Day,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  ffom 
the  text.  Genesis  i :  9,  "And  tlie  Lord  said  unto  Cain,  Where  is 
Abel,  thy  brother  ?  And  he  said,  I  know  not ;  am  I  my  brother's 
keeper  ?" 

God's  question  is  the  good  question  that  is  in  every  Godlike 
heart.  Cain's  answer  is  the  mean  and  cruel  answer  of  selfish  men. 
God's  question  is  the  key  to  God's  heart  and  to  the  purposes  of 
His  revelations  to  men.  He  missed  Abel.  Not  even  a  sparrow  falls 
without  His  notice. 

This  inquiry  about  Abel  is  the  hinge  upon  which  the  door  of 
revelation  swings  outward  to  men.  Through  that  door  we  see 
God's  care  for  His  own.  Through  it  came  His  law  and  command- 
ments, and  through  it  came  His  Son  with  redemption.  His  com- 
mandments are  not  to  glorify  Himself  but  to  guide  men.  His 
beatitudes  are  His  solicitude  for  His  children. 

That  question  to  Cain  also  shows  how  accountable,  how  re- 
sponsible is  man  for  his  every  act  toward  his  fellow  man.  We 
can  not  escape  that  responsibility  for  it  is  an  essential  element  of 
character  and  it  is  in  the  conditions  of  Christian  living. 

Mr.  Webster  once  said  that  his  sense  of  responsibility  to  God 
was  the  greatest  thought  that  had  ever  come  to  him.     It  will  occur 

194 


SERMON  OF  THE  REV.  JAMES  R.  DAY.  195 

to  us  as  being  at  the  base  of  the  moral  character.  It  is  the  key- 
Btone  of  the  finished  structure.  It  goes  all  the  way  up  through 
human  progress.  The  true  man  deeply  feels  himself  accountable 
to  God.  It  is  the  root  thought  of  the  world's  greatest  thinking  and 
achieving.  Man  is  an  animal  without  it.  He  only  takes  on  large 
proportions  and  his  enterprises  widen  out  into  worthy  horizons 
as  he  stands  under  the  hand  of  God  and  plans  along  His  will  and 
purpose.  As  this  great  thought  controls,  his  works  shape  out  into 
enduring  and  unwasting  permanency  and  magnificent  proportions. 
What  he  does  short  of  a  deep  sense  of  responsibility  to  God,  in 
response  to  passing  appetites  and  ephemeral  ambitions  and  emo- 
tions, are  fragments  of  the  things  that  are  seen  and  temporal.  This 
is  the  way  that  thousands  build  business  and  plan  successes  that 
fail.  To  the  men  of  reverent  concept  of  God  and  of  an  abiding  sense 
of  stewardship,  life  is  not  a  string  of  incidents  and  accidents,  but 
a  complete  purpose,  a  divine  plan,  a  kingdom.  It  has  an  object 
and  a  conquest  as  its  inspiration. 

It  is  this  that  strengthens  and  widens  thought,  that  inspires 
action,  that  swallows  up  little  ambitions,  that  forgets  the  things 
that  are  behind  and  reaches  forth  unto  the  things  that  are  before. 
It  is  this  that  makes  life  rich  and  happy  and  glorious.  It  is  this 
that  serves  the  world. 

It  makes  the  family  of  the  Cotter's  Saturday  Night.  It  makes 
the  nation  of  consecrated  hearts,  like  Holland  and  Switzerland  and 
the  little  American  and  Canadian  Colonies  in  the  days  when  they 
were  superior  to  numbers  and  wealth  and  power  of  brute  force. 
Every  man  was  a  fortress  and  fought  a  battle  of  personal  responsi- 
bility. It  leads  the  world  to  conscience  and  faith  and  righteousness. 
It  is  this  that  sends  us  out  after  the  lost. 

It  is  the  only  thing  that  is  needed  today  to*  evangelize  the 
world.  Personal  responsibility,  which  really  is  only  response  to 
ability,  would  fire  every  brain  with  new  plans  and  open  every  pocket 
with  new  offerings  and  tune  every  tongue  to  new  music  with  which 
to  sing  the  old,  old  story,  and  send  all  feet  hurrying  over  all 
old  paths  and  pioneering  all  new  ones,  swift  couriers  of  the  glad 
tidings  of  great  joy.  If  we  could  just  gut  a  burning  sense  of 
responsibility  under  our  intellects,  they  would  be  compelled  to 
think  as  water  expands  into  tremendous  energy  over  fire;  if  we 
could  get  it  into  our  money,  it  would  break  away  from  our  selfish 
grasp  and  float  out  into  the  wide  world  a  contribution  of  everlast- 
ing benefaction,  as  glaciers  torn  asunder  from  resisting  winter's 
iron  hand  by  the  rays  of  a  melting  and  subduing  sun  are  sent 
forth  to  sweeten  and  replenish  the  ocean  in  mighty  bulk,  whole 
rivers  in  the  lump. 

We  do  not  need  miracles.  It  is  folly  to  expect  new  gifts  of 
power;  it  is  temporizing  to  wait  for  great  national  movements  which 


196  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

while  they  may  facilitate  opportunities  take  along  in  their  train 
forms  of  wiclvedness  more  terrible  to  overcome  than  heathenism's 
superstitions.  The  one  thing  that  we  need  to  work  miracles,  to 
multiply  talents,  to  seize  opportunities  in  the  track  of  moving, 
awakening,  contending  nations,  is  a  sense  of  personal  responsibility 
to  God  for  the  salvation  of  the  world  by  the  teaching  and  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  of  His  Son.     That  will  bring  everything. 

That  is  the  mighty  revival  demanded  among  Christians  today 
and  among  all  the  unsaved  in  all  lands.  Men  must  wake  up  every 
morning  with  a  feeling,  as  deep  and  permanent  as  their  being, 
of  responsibility,  with  reverence  in  it,  with  a  conscience  in  it,  if 
they  are  to  be  great  and  do  great  things. 

The  census  does  not  tell  the  story  of  our  greatness  as  Churches. 
Our  wealth  may  be  our  poverty.  Our  schools  and  colleges  may 
flood  us  with  conceits.  Our  power  may  be  our  weakness  by  betray- 
ing us  with  a  false  confidence.  Rather  a  Church  of  one  hundred 
thousand  with  personal  responsibility  than  of  as  many  millions 
without  it. 

The  old-fashioned  sense  of  duty,  of  the  things  to  be  done,  not 
simply  to  be  gained  but  to  be  giyen,  the  conscience  of  putting 
service  into  the  world  is  the  hope  of  the  world.  Its  hope  perishes 
if  our  responsibility  is  smothered  imder  the  abundance  of  the 
things  we  possess  or  stagnates  in  indifferent  indolence. 

The  peril  of  the  Church  to-day  is  the  decadence  of  personal 
responsibility.  We  are  organizing  our  responsibility.  We  are 
losing  it  in  aggregations.  We  are  lumping  it.  At  every  form  of 
our  evangelizing  life  suffers  from  it. 

The  danger  of  a  great  Church  is  that  it  dwarfs  in  the  nature 
of  the  case  the  individual  and  he  says:  "What  am  I  among  so 
many,  and  what  is  my  little  offering  for  a  world  among  the  mil- 
lions?" 

The  wisdom  of  the  Church  is  in  patting  its  whole  business  on 
every  heart.  Its  greatness  and  the  pov/er  of  its  work  have  no  other 
warrant.  Rich  men  are  not  a  necessity  to  us  because  of  their 
riches.  But  any  man  is  a  necessity,  however  rich  or  poor,  great 
or  small,  who  brings  to  the  Kingdom  a  consecrated  soul  that  carries 
with  it  the  glad  offerings  of  himself  fully.  We  have  men  who  could 
pay  all  the  millions  the  united  Church  raises  for  missions  and  be 
rich  still.  But  the  Churches  would  perish  if  it  were  given  so. 
Our  service  to  the  world  must  come  up  out  of  every  heart  that  has 
been  saved  by  this  gospel,  according  as  it  has  been  prospered, 
with  a  prayerful  consecration  of  personal  responsibility.  That 
would  send  millions  of  prayers  to  Heaven  from  daily  altars  and 
millions  of  money  to  tell  the  story  of  such  glad  redemption  to  all 
the  world. 

Ecclesiasticism  of  proper  measure  is  good,  for  there   is  much 


SERMON  OF  THE  REV.  JAMES  R.  DAY.  197 

to  be  done  through  the  church  forms  and  life.  But  we  must 
remember  that  the  objective  point  in  it  all  is  the  man  for  whose 
salvation  we  have  been  made  responsible. 

It  has  sometimes  seemed  to  me  that  we  spend  a  disproportion- 
ate amount  of  time  and  energy  in  searching  for  God,  when  we 
would  be  more  likely  to  find  Him  if  we  sought  more  for  men. 

Christian  teachers  and  preachers  often  act  as  though  they  had 
been  appointed  to  explain  the  divine  mysteries  and  to  construct 
systems  of  theological  thought.  And  they  spend  enormous  energy 
upon  the  attributes  of  deity  and  the  secrets  of  the  divine  economy; 
upon  the  mathematics  of  the  Trinity  and  the  justice  of  the  appli- 
cation of  the  decrees  to  His  visible  Kingdom  and  the  exact  propor- 
tions of  His  Providence     to  the  affairs  of  men  and  nations. 

There  never  has  been  lack  of  theological  dialectics,  and  they 
have  served  some  purpose,  assisting  man  by  his  understanding  to 
know  better  the  meaning  of  the  Scriptures.  But  it  is  possible  that 
that  office  and  work  of  the  Christian  Church  has  been  accomplished. 
We  have  enough  theology  on  hand  to  last  us  out  to  the  millen- 
nium. 

The  tremendous  call  is  that  we  make  practical  application  of 
the  plain  teachings  of  the  Scriptures  to  men;  that  we  use  the  sav- 
ing force  of  the  gospel  upon  the  perishing. 

The  success  of  the  pioneer  preacher  was  in  the  preaching  of 
the  doctrine  that  saves  to  men  who,  like  drowning  men,  must  be 
saved  at  once  before  you  could  stop  to  build  a  boat  or  organize  a 
rescue.  All  men  were  their  brothers,  and  they  felt  that  they  must 
save  them.  They  did  not  work  toward  a  Church  as  an  end,  for  they 
had  none  and  the  ambition  at  that  time  was  not  a  pulpit,  but  the 
back  of  a  horse  and  saddlebags.  Men  were  honored  and  their 
success  was  measured  by  the  numbers  of  their  brothers  for  whom 
they  accounted.  They  knew  where  they  were  and  what  they  were. 
They  proved  their  doctrine  by  the  men  whom  it  saved.  The  great- 
est defense  of  dogmatics  is  the  rescue  of  the  perishing.  And  the 
helpfulness  of  a  religion  to  the  needy  and  the  overburdened  is  its 
divine  test. 

If  our  religion  does  not  fill  us  with  a  sense  of  responsibility, 
deep  and  overmastering  for  our  brothers,  there  is  a  fatal  defect  in 
it.  That  is  the  most  sacred  feeling,  the  profoundest  thought  that 
can  come  to  the  Christian's  heart. 

And  this  sense  of  responsibility  turns  upon  God's  estimate  of 
man.  His  whole  revelation,  by  prophets  and  apostles,  by  angels 
and  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect  and  the  pain  of  death  in  that 
horrible  suffering  on  the  cross,  which  was  to  center  the  eyes  of  all 
men  upon  Christ,  is  His  estimate  of  man.  The  most  important  and 
valuable  of  all  things  in  Heaven  and  in  earth  was  man.  It  was  for 
him  that  He  poured  out  the  infinite  love  in  every  form  from  the 


198  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

crimson  that  flows  from  the  cross  to  the  promise  of  the  many 
mansions  and  the  ineffable  glory. 

And  when  you  come  to  think  of  your  brother  as  God  does,  you 
will  feel  that  nothing  is  so  great  that  you  can  do,  and  no  honor 
is  so  distinguished  as  saving  him. 

And  the  dignity  and  importance  of  that  work  increases  with 
the  increasing  power  and  widening  influence  of  man.  No  one  can, 
by  any  concept,  estimate  the  disaster  of  Abel's  death. 

You  find  yourself  thinking  upon  what  the  world  would  have 
become  had  Abel  lived  and  had  he  become  the  prototype  of  the 
ascending  generations.  By  what  they  would  have  been  and  by  what 
the  world  would  have  become  deepens  the  blackness  of  Cain's  mur- 
der. And  your  thought  shifts  to  the  comparative  man  with  whom 
you  are  put  in  trust.  He  is  greater  to-day  than  Abel  was.  More 
power  is  put  into  his  hands.  He  is  the  agent  and  distributor  of 
more  forces  and  influences.  He  has  been  multiplied  by  all  the 
things  God  has  revealed  in  natural  law  and  inventions  and  dis- 
coveries for  sixty  centuries.  It  is  a  greater  thing  to  save  a  man 
for  the  man  is  greater  in  his  resources  than  he  has  ever  been  and 
is  constantly  increasing  in  his  possibilities.  And  it  is  a  greater 
responsibility  not  to  save  him. 

And  the  singular,  sad  fact  remains  that  his  increase  in  wisdom 
and  natural  power  leaves  him  subject  to  the  same  destructive 
moral  weaknesses  and  sins.  A  few  days  ago  I  read  in  an  editorial 
of  one  of  the  great  secular  periodicals  of  my  country  that  "The 
world  seems  upset;  agitation,  unrest  and  distrust  prevail.  .  .  . 
Bombs  and  dynamite  do  their  fearful  work.  Lynchings,  North  and 
South,  of  innocent  and  guilty  are  reported.  Rioters,  young  and 
old,  desecrate  the  Sabbath.  The  divorce  courts  are  working  over- 
time. The  white  slave  traffic  increases  by  leaps  and  bounds. 
Legislative  bodies  are  debauched  by  demagogues  and  rankest 
municipal  corruption  is  widespread.  The  theatres  are  crowded 
while  the  pews  of  the  Churches  are  empty  and  religion  is  at  the 
lowest  ebb." 

Our  editor  friend  might  have  framed  that  picture  in  the  gold 
and  silver  of  benevolence,  integrity,  virtue  and  human  nobility. 
But  what  he  said  of  sinning  is  not  the  wail  of  a  pessimistic 
preacher.  It  is  a  statement  of  fact  by  the  keenest  of  all  observers, 
the  editor  of  a  great  periodical.  And  it  is  not  peculiar  to  my 
country.  It  writes  large  across  the  horizon  of  every  country  our 
responsibility. 

As  sane  to  stop  and  discuss  the  quality  of  the  brick  and  tim- 
ber of  which  a  house  is  constructed  when  it  is  burning  down.  It 
is  our  business  to  save  men  and  to  save  them  now.  And  our  sense 
of  responsibility  must  widen  far  out  beyond  our  own  in  kind  or 
estate.     Our  brother   will   be   recognized   by  his   need   everywhere. 


SERMON  OF  THE  REV.  JAMES  R.  DAY.  199 

He  can  not  be  too  far  away  to  forfeit  his  claim  upon  our  help  un- 
less he  is  too  far  from  the  love  of  God  to  reach  him.  When  we  put 
a  limit  to  our  brotherhood  in  Christ,  when  we  resist  the  claims 
upon  us  of  those  we  do  not  know,  we  soon  lose  all  power  over  those 
we  do  know.  Nothing  dwarfs  and  withers  the  Christian  Church 
like  a  narrow  concept  of  man  or  the  limiting  of  the  scope  of  evan- 
gelical activities. 

We  are  under  obligation  to  all  men  everywhere. 

If  you  say  show  me  the  bound  of  my  oflSce  and  obligation  to 
men,  I  will  ask  you  to  show  men  the  bound  and  limit  of  God's 
love  and  power  of  the  gospel.  I  will  point  you  to  the  outer  rim 
of  this  globe,  out  as  far  as  God  has  created  man,  where  any  weary 
footprint  is  found  in  its  hot  sands. 

Will  you  say  I  admit  that  personal  responsibility  is  the  inspi- 
ration and  measure  of  a  man,  and  that  without  it  he  is  the  embodi- 
ment of  capricious  or  misdirected  energies?  I  know  also  that  it 
is  the  hope  of  a  Church.  But  I  have  ample  field  for  my  responsibil- 
ity and  it  all  is  exhausted  before  I  reach  the  heathen.  Such 
reasoning  shows  a  narrow  horizon.  We  forget  whence  we  came 
and  whither  -we  are  going. 

To  what  are  we  to  attribute  our  place  in  the  Kingdom  or  in 
Christian  civilization?  To  an  inherited  domain  and  inherent  rights? 
Were  we  placed  here  by  a  sort  of  first  creation  and  a  peculiar  favor 
like  that  of  the  chosen  people?  You  will  pardon  me  for  the  blunt- 
ness  of  the  assertion.  We  are  all  descendants  of  heathen.  Unless 
some  Jews  of  the  pure  and  unmixed  type  have  come  in  here,  every 
man  and  woman  of  us  traces  back  to  aborigines,  to  a  Druid  it  may 
be,  to  some  savage  Celt  or  Saxon  or  Norseman.  And  we  enjoy  our 
faith  and  our  Christian  Churches  and  varied  forms  of  civilization 
because  missionaries  sought  out  the  huts  or  tents  of  our  nomadic, 
savage  ancestors.  They  might  have  remained  in  Jerusalem,  but 
their  sense  of  God's  love  sent  them  out.  They  might  have  plead 
that  Rome  needed  them  when  they  saw  the  fair  haired  slaves  from 
far  away  Albion  in  the  slave  market  of  the  Imperial  city.  They 
could  have  urged  reasons  for  home  work,  and  perils  and  suffering 
of  mission  work  we  know  not  of,  but  they  went  out  with  the  con- 
suming fire  of  a  Savior's  love  for  the  perishing  and  they  told  the 
story  of  redemption  to  our  father's  greatest  grandfather,  and  that 
is  why  you  are  here.    We  are  the  descendants  of  converted  heathen. 

And  does  it  not  sound  strange  to  hear  any  such  descendant  say: 
I  have  no  personal  responsibility  for  the  salvation  of  the  world!  I 
am  glad  my  father's  greatest  grandfather  got  converted  because 
it  brought  the  knowledge  and  the  heritage  of  the  gospel  to  me. 
It  means  infinite  things  to  me.  But  I  really  can  see  no  reason 
why  I  should  be  interested  in  the  heathen  when  there  is  so  much 
to  do  at  home.     Ah,  the  logic  of  the  true  heart  is:     Whenever  I 


200  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

think  of  what  would  be  my  land  and  my  home  and  my  soul  had 
it  not  been  for  the  faithful  messengers  of  the  cross  who  came  to 
my  far-off  ancestors,  I  hear  a  voice  more  persuasive  than  any  voice 
I  ever  heard  saying  to  me,  "As  ye  have  freely  received,  freely  give." 
And  the  missionaries  to  the  heathen  appear  to  me  more  like  my 
Lord  than  any  men  and  women  I  ever  saw. 

Every  star-lit  firmament  of  hope  is  blazing  with  the  lives  of 
men  and  women  who  lived  in  it,  and  left  their  white  and  pure 
lives  as  fixed  stars.  They  were  what  we  may  hope  to  be.  They 
came  to  shine  as  constellations  to  us.  We  know  the  way  because 
they  pioneered  it  for  us. 

By  so  much  as  knowledge  of  God  is  better  than  superstition, 
by  so  much  as  conscious  freedom  from  the  bondage  of  sin  is  better 
than  slavery  of  sensuality,  by  so  much  as  Christ,  who  speaks  words 
of  life,  is  better  than  a  fetich,  by  so  much  as  hope  big  with  immor- 
tality is  better  than  despair  and  the  echoes  of  a  desolate  heart  on 
the  edge  of  a  grave,  and  by  so  much  as  we  have  the  joy  unspeakable 
and  full  of  glory,  we  are  obligated  to  give  as  we  have  received. 
By  every  blessing,  by  every  hope,,  by  every  promise  we  are  bonded 
to  the  perishing.  To  such  heights  as  we  have  beert  brought,  we 
must  lift  their  level. 

But  our  responsibility  reaches  out  into  a  form  of  self  preser- 
vation. Our  life  must  go  to  them  or  their  death  damp  will  fall 
upon  us.  The  extremes  of  the  earth  are  drawing  marvelously 
near.  It  is  only  a  few  days  between  shores.  It  was  weary,  uncer- 
tain months  a  short  time  ago.  It  is  a  flash  of  lightning  now.  The 
tides  of  commerce  are  the  ebb  and  flood  of  the  same  sea.  Manners 
and  customs  are  mingling.  The  unthinking  are  asking  what  dif- 
ference? They  of  the  Orient  are  attacking  our  civilization  with  oiled 
poniards.  The  world  grows  smaller.  We  are  getting  to  be  near 
neighbors.     Which  type  shall  it  be? 

We  have  no  time  to  lose.  We  must  protect  our  shores  on  the 
shores  of  India  and  China  and  Japan.  We  have  a  Christian  re- 
sponsibility to  our  land  and  country  in  other  lands.  We  know  that 
we  have  our  sins, -our  horrid  intemperance  and  sensuality  and  folly. 
But  sin  with  Christianity  is  quite  a  different  thing  from  sin  with- 
out Christianity.  Sin  here  has  a  remedy  and  that  remedy  is 
working  like  leaven.  But  sin  without  Christianity  at  hand  is  a 
leprosy  incurable.  The  wickedness  of  heathenism  is  the  despair  of 
wickedness.  The  nation  that  has  the  gospel  has  practical  hope. 
There  is  a  vast  difference  between  wicked  America  with  the  gospel 
and  wicked  China  without  the  gospel. 

Because  we  are  drawing  nearer  together  and  the  lands  are 
being  bound  together  by  a  thousand  unyielding  cables,  we  owe  it 
to  our  children's  children  to  make  plain  that  which  has  made  us 
great  and  to  make  hideous  that  which  curses  us,  and  we  must  lift 
up  Him  who  will  draw  all  men  up  to  the  summit  of  His  purity. 


SERMON  OF  THE  REV.  JAMES  R.  DAY.  201 

There  is  upon  us,  therefore,  the  responsibility  of  common 
patriotism.  We  are  saving  America  and  England  and  Germany 
when  we  save  the  lands  in  which  we  have  planted  our  missions. 
This  is  our  problem,  its  scope  and  magnitude.  What  can  solve  it? 
Not  ethical  culture,  philosophical  discussions  or  Buddhism  or  Shin- 
toism  or  any  other  isms  that  have  not  solved  themselves  or  gotten 
out  beyond  themselves.    We  must  solve  it  with  the  gospel. 

Our  reponsibility  increases  by  the  fact  that  we  hold  the  only 
remedy  of  this  world's  woes.  If  it  does  not  get  what  we  have, 
it  will  not  be  saved.  And  it  must  get  it  from  saved  Christians.  No 
new  Christ  will  come,  no  new  Bible  will  be  given,  no  new  twelve 
will  spring  up.  The  truth  must  be  given  by  those  who  have  it. 
They  will  pass  it  on  or  hinder  it.  They  must  take  the  responsibility 
of  withholding  it  or  giving  it.    There  is  no  escape. 

God  has  no  other  way.  If  there  were  a  way  consistent  with 
divine  wisdom  the  Lord  would  not  have  waited  all  these  centuries 
for  the  accomplishment  of  this  work  by  such  half-hearted  servants. 
We  have  accumulated  a  tremendous  responsibility. 

And  it  takes  its  magnitude  from  the  character  of  that  which 
we  have  to  give.  It  is  not  philosophy  that  classifies  the  phenomena 
of  the  mind  and  describes  their  relations  and  conditions.  It  is  not 
natural  science  tracing  the  marvels  of  the  world  structure  and 
interpreting  force  and  applying  law  and  method.  It  is  not  reason, 
that  moonlight  in  the  fog  by  which  infidelity  sails  its  doomed 
ship.  It  is  not  poetry,  art,  music.  It  is  not  political  economy 
or  commerce.  It  is  life  and  character  and  immortality.  It  is  that 
without  which  art  and  literature  and  painting  and  science  and 
philosophy  leave  a  people  to  wither  and  perish  as  they  always  have 
done  where  these  have  not  sprung  out  of  the  energy  and  force  of  a 
living  faith  and  the  morals  of  godliness. 

Religion  and  morals,  ethics  proceeding  from  a  supernatural 
energy,  must  precede  intellect.  They  must  precede  civilization.  In 
this  way  intellect  is  conserved,  commerce  expands.  It  is  the  soul 
that  discovers  the  wants  and  powers  of  the  body  and  how  to  secure 
them.  It  is  this  way  that  art,  poetry,  painting,  sculpture  bloom 
into  beauty  and  fragrance  of  what  we  call  culture.  It  has  been 
well  said  that  it  is  the  gospel  that  "has  lightened  and  schooled 
philosophy  and  stimulated  and  ennobled  science  and  at  the  same 
time  poured  a  flood  of  glory  upon  the  outward  world  of  nature 
and  invested  with  a  sacred  and  awful  majesty  the  inner  world  of 
the  spirit.  It  has  touched  all  things — human  life  most  of  all — 
with  sublimity  and  grandeur.  It  has  quickened  and  ennobled  the 
whole  soul  both  mind  and  spirit;  it  has  called  into  exercise  a  new 
order  of  faculties;  it  has  revealed  to  the  spirit  a  new  world  of 
transcendent  glory." 

You  have  that  energy.  It  has  been  committed  to  you.  You  can 
tell  the  secret  of  it.    You  can  close  the  circuit  bv  united  consecrated 


202  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

hearts  so  that  it  will  flash  around  the  world;  so  that  its  energy- 
will  kindle  light  in  every  dark  land  and  swell  anthems  of  joj^  un- 
speakable and  full  of  glory  through  millions  of  hearts  that  never 
have  experienced  an  unburdened  joy  since  they  came  under  the 
load  of  a  weary  world,  a  world  that  is  weary  of  them. 

It  is  mind  building,  it  is  home  building,  it  is  nation  building 
that  you  are  called  to  do  by  showing  the  only  adequate  energy  in 
the  Christ  faith  and  life.  But  greatest  of  all,  it  is  soul  building, 
by  building  into  it  the  attributes  of  God  and  rearing  it  into  a 
sublime  ascendency  over  the  perishing  nature.  Your  office  is  to 
release  the  bird  out  of  the  shell  to  its  song  and  plumage  and  its 
joy  among  the  leaves  of  the  trees  of  life.  You  have  the  power  of 
breathing  upon  dry  bones  until  they  rise  to  a  dominion  of  spirit, 
until  they  are  clothed  upon  with  the  beauty  and  power  of  immor- 
tality. 

And  you  do  not  feel  the  responsibility  of  such  power?  You  look 
back  over  centuries  in  which  such  things  have  been.  You  know 
the  power  is  unwasting.  What  has  been  can  be.  And  the  measure 
of  the  responsibility  is  the  possibility.  And  you  do  not  feel  it!  The 
responsibility  of  what  we  have  to  give  is  appalling.  Nothing  will 
quench  those  raging  flames  which  our  editor  friend  saw  but  the 
Spirit  of  God  in  the  hearts  of  men,  the  spirit  of  purity  and  of  love. 

Lecky  says  that  the  preaching  of  the  Wesleys  saved  England 
from  the  repetition  of  the  French  Revolution.  We  all  know  that 
the  earnest,  tireless,  heroic  preaching  of  Methodism  determined 
the  type  of  the  United  States  and  Canada.  The  gospel  to  the  colliers 
of  England  and  the  frontiersmen  of  this  continent  is  exactly  what 
is  demanded  for  the  regeneration  of  these  luxurious,  lascivious  times. 
It  alone  will  show  the  selfish  rich  their  duty  to  their  brothers 
of  less  fortunate  estate.  It  will  show  the  toilers  Paul's  secret  of 
contentment  in  whatsoever  lot  they  are  and  the  courage  that  en- 
dures all  things.  It  will  set  before  the  debauchee  of  the  divorce 
court,  who  makes  merchandise  of  his  wife  and  children,  the  horror 
of  that  cruel  sensuality  that  entails  shame  upon  his  children's 
children  and  upon  the  community,  blighting  and  cursing  an  insti- 
tution that  stands  next  to  the  sacraments  of  God.  It  will  say  to 
the  murderous  mob,  under  all  provocations:  "Vengence  is  mine, 
I  will  repay,"  saith  the  Lord,  "through  My  institutions  of  justice 
which  I  have  founded." 

The  applied  truth  of  God  in  personal  regeneration,  with  its 
judgments  upon  sinning  and  its  mercy  to  the  repentant,  with  its 
keen  relentless  conscience,  with  its  new  appetities  and  noble  ideals, 
with  its  self-restraint  and  self-denial  and  self-respect,  with  its  new 
life  which  is  the  power  of  God  in  the  human  heart,  can  alone 
withstand  these  increased  passions  and  recover  men  from  all 
manner  of  wickedness  and  from  their  false  and  fatal  estimates  of 


SERMON  OF  THE  REV.  JAMES  R.  DAY.  203 

the  value  of  an  ephemeral  life,  to  obligations  commensurate  with 
their  new  powers  and  transcendent  opportunities.  It  alone  can 
settle  the  turmoil  and  strife  of  this  crazed  and  contentious  age. 

The  present  conditions  among  men,  although  they  minister  to 
their  sense  and  passion  so  much,  immeasurably  more  than  ever 
before  in  the  world's  history,  only  increase  their  restlessness.  We 
are  under  unspeakable  obligation  to  tell  them  of  that  gospel  which 
gives  rest.  Its  potency  has  never  lost  an  ohm  of  force  in  all  its 
mighty  conflict  with  sin.  It  is  still  the  power  of  God  unto  sal- 
vation. 

And  this  leads  us  to  our  subjective  responsibility.  We  are 
responsible  for  our  intellects.  As  nowhere  in  the  world,  as  at  no 
time  in  human  history,  Christians  have  been  given  knowledge  and 
the  facilities  of  mental  dicipline.  An  awakened  soul  becomes 
inquisitive.  It  searches  after  the  works  of  its  God  and  inquires 
along  every  pathway  of  creation.  And  this  power  and  the  oppor- 
tunities that  open  out  on  every  side  are  our  responsibility.  It  is 
our  business  to  know  things,  all  of  the  things  we  can  know,  to  have 
strong  minds  to  think  the  mighty  problems  of  the  hour.  It  is 
a  sin  now  not  to  read,  not  to  study,  not  to  know  things  and  think. 
Nothing  requires  so  much  thinking  as  successful  preaching  to  men. 

Christian  rhapsody  is  not  enough.  The  minds  to  which  we 
carry  our  message  are  accustomed  to  philosophic  speculation.  Their 
trouble  is  unanswered  questions.  They  are  disputatious.  We  must 
compel  respect.  Ours  may  be  a  simple  story,  but  it  is  a  mistake 
to  think  it  can  be  told  by  simpletons.  None  tell  it  so  simply  and 
effectively  as  those  who  have  studied  it  and  thought  it  most  pro- 
foundly. 

Converts  from  heathenism  coming  here  must  find  that  the 
Church  has  provided  all  facilities  for  mind  creation  and  is  waiting 
to  search  the  mystery  of  God's  thoughts  in  His  universe,  that  in- 
fidelity may  not  misguide  and  confuse  the  newly-awakened  soul 
with  inconclusive  guessings. 

Men  going  from  us  must  have  the  vehicle  and  power  of  con- 
veying truth.  We  take  on  a  terrible  responsibility  in  an  age  when 
secular  thought  is  pouring  into  the  world  the  secrets  of  natural 
force  and  all  manner  of  witty  sophistries  if  we  send  forth  men 
with  only  embryonic  mentality,  equipped  with  nothing  better  than 
some  speculations  as  to  things  hard  to  understand.  Clear,  strong 
concept,  positive  convictions,  mighty  certitudes,  intellectual  con- 
fidence: these  we  must  have.  "We  know  whom  we  believe"  was 
the  overwhelming  force  of  our  fathers.  And  they  could  give  a 
reason  for  it.  And  the  younger  men  who  were  liable  to  intellectual 
measles  were  given  in  charge  to  the  old  giants  who  had  escaped 
the  mind's  childhood  diseases. 

In  view  of  our  relation  to  all  nations,  our  foundations  must  be 


204  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

deep;  our  generalizing  must  be  wide  as  all  horizons.  We  are  re- 
sponsible for  our  minds.  And  never  has  there  been  any  time  when 
we  should  so  test  them,  when  we  should  so  severely  insist  upon 
their  quality  and  the  definiteness  and  clearness  of  thinking. 

An  honest  intellect,  a  logical,  rational  faculty,  a  full  mind  will 
have  no  difficulty  with  the  gospel.  We  must  provide  schools  here 
and  we  must  furnish  schools  in  all  lands  for  now  the  Christian 
Church  is  responsible  for  the  world's  thinking. 

If  its  science  is  wrong,  if  its  philosophy  is  cloudy,  if  its  ethics 
have  quagmire  margms,  Christianity  is  at  fault,  for  it  can  and 
should  educate  the  world  in  Christian  schools,  and  it  should  not 
allow  any  educators  in  its  schools  who  are  not  both  positive  Chris- 
tians and  great  scholars.  And,  happily,  such  are  the  devoted  men 
and  women  to  whom  this  sacred  work  is  committed.  This  fact 
never  has  been  truer  than  it  is  to-day.  We  must  insist  that  the 
Christian  life  shall  be  as  great  asi  the  scholarship. 

We  are  responsible  for  our  money.  The  money  has  been  given 
to  Christian  nations  because  God  has  turned  over  to  His  children 
the  gold  and  the  silver  and  the  wealth  of  all  the  valleys  and  hills. 
To  them  have  come  the  mental  unfoldings  that  have  invested  His 
works  with  values.  And  what  they  have  has  come  by  the  civili- 
zation which  the  gospel  has  wrought  out  directly  or  indirectly. 
They  have  made  discoveries  and  commerce.  The  gospel  has  given 
the  moral  force  that  has  made  riches  desirable,  and  that  has  shown 
the  helpful  uses  of  them.  Its  heart  has  directed  its  application  to 
the  vast  interests  of  mankind.  It  must  move  to  useful  and  helpful 
ends.  If  not  in  circulation,  it  is  like  a  sea  without  a  tide.  We  get 
it,  not  to  keep  it  stagnant,  but  to  use  it. 

We  have  a  large  duty  to  return  it  whence  we  got.  it.  In  re- 
turning to  the  gospel  it  goes  not  abstractly  or  theoretically  or 
indirectly,  but  to  embodied  sorrow  and  ignorance,  personified 
wretchedness  and  despair. 

If  we  get  a  true  perspective,  if  we  awake  to  the  actual  propor- 
tions of  the  world,  if  we  feel  the  responsibility  of  giving  what  we 
have  to  those  who  have  it  not,  we  shall  no  more  impoverish  our- 
selves with  withholding.  We  shall  make  ourselves  rich  in  faith 
and  heirs  of  the  Kingdom.  We  shall  be  rich  men  whom  God  can 
bless. 

I  once  said  that  the  people  of  my  country  give  more  for  the 
support  of  their  dogs  than  they  do  for  the  support  of  all  of  the 
ministers  in  the  land,  and  a  great  daily  paper  said  that  I  was  sen- 
sational. I  think  that  the  truth  of  that  statement  ought  to  make 
a  sensation.  It  is  so  shameful  that  it  ought  not  to  be  true  another 
year. 

Substituting  prayers  for  dollars.  We  need  prayers.  But  you 
would  better  omit  prayers   that  you   substitute  for   dollars.     Any 


SERMON  OF  THE  REV.  JAMES  R.  DAY.  205 

praj'ers  that  do  not  cash  along  the  year  by  as  much  as  in  you  is, 
will  never  be  ansv/eied. 

Ah,  Paul,  that  was  an  embarrasing  statement  when  you  said: 
"Ye  have  not  resisted  unto  blood,  striving  against  sin."  We  thought 
we  had  done  something,  until  you  said  that.  What  meal,  what 
garment,  what  comfort,  what  necessity  have  we  sacrificed  for  men, 
mentally,  bodily,  spiritually  starving  this  year? 

What  one  thing  have  we  missed  that  has  gone  out  to  a  perish- 
ing world?  We  have  given  out  of  our  surplus.  We  have  not  touched 
our  comfort.  It  has  not  reached  the  nerves  of  our  money.  Some 
things  praying  will  do,  and  some  things  preaching  will  do,  but 
there  are  other  things  nothing  but  money  will  do.  Since  the  days 
the  manna  stopped  falling  in  the  wilderness  and  the  quails  stopped 
flying  to  the  hungry,  we  have  been  obliged  to  use  money  to  rescue 
the  perishing. 

And  the  money  has  had  to  be  the  money  of  Christians.  The 
world  does  not  give  it.  It  sends  out  money  to  get  more  money. 
You  must  send  it  out  to  get  it  back  in  dividends  of  immortal  lives. 
The  world  sends  it  out  in  cargoes  of  intoxicants  and  ruin.  You 
must  send  out  cargoes  of  Bibles  and  pure  books  and  messengers 
of  hope. 

The  nations  Tvill  not  send  out  money  in  benevolence.  You  are 
the  only  people  who  send  away  money  that  will  not  return  to  you 
in  money.  And  you  have  got  to  do  it,  because  the  gospel  gave 
it  to  you  in  awakened  faculties  and  resources.  And  what  money 
has  done  for  you,  you  must  do  by  the  spirit  of  the  gospel  with 
money  to  others.  And  the  law  of  circulation  is  the  spirit  of  our 
Lord,  who,  though  He  was  rich,  became  poor  that  we  through  His 
poverty  might  be  made  rich. 

We  are  responsible  for  the  loftiest  type  of  religion  and  Chris- 
tian experience  it  is  possible  to  furnish  to  the  eyes  of  men.  They 
come  here  and  study  us  when  we  are  unaware.  We  go  among  them 
as  tourists,  or  in  business,  or  as  teachers  and  preachers.  Our  reli- 
gion is  judged  by  what  it  does  for  us,  by  the  manner  of  men  we  are. 
If  we  are  living  epistles,  epistles  alive  with  the  truth  we  tell,  our 
conquest  is  made.  It  is  a  great  responsibility  to  live  the  gospel 
among  those  who  know  it,  to  let  it  do  for  us  all  there  is  in  it.  It 
is  a  greater  responsibility  to  live  before  those  who  do  not  know  it, 
who  are  not  able  to  consider  limitations  or  to  make  any  allow- 
ances, and  who  judge  the  power  of  salvation  by  the  way  it  saves 
those  who  seek  to  save  them. 

What  kind  of  Christianity  ought  the  unchristianized  to  see 
when  they  see  the  great  Christian  Church  in  America  and  Europe? 
It  ought  to  be  the  very  stock  of  the  root  of  the  pure  gospel,  the 
very  fruit  of  the  good  olive  tree.  It  ought  to  be  the  great  identify- 
ing sample  of  the  apostles.     It  can  not  be  a  mixture  of  the  world 


206  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

and  the  gospel,  but  of  the  world  transformed  by  the  gospel.  It 
ought  not  to  be  a  mask,  but  the  image  and  likeness  of  our  Lord. 

We  must  rise  above  the  life  that  is  lived  simply  or  chiefly  to 
reach  Heaven  and  live  a  life  for  the  world.  It  is  a  tremendous 
responsibility,  but  we  must  live  the  life  we  live,  as  an  example 
and  specimen  of  what  Christ  has  sent  into  the  world.  Is  what  we 
are,  all  that  we  would  have  them  be,  in  all  manner  of  conversation, 
in  social  forms,  in  domestic  purity,  in  business  honesty,  in  brother- 
ly kindness  and  helpfulness,  in  charity  and  generosity,  in  self- 
denial  and  sacrifice,  in  transparency  of  purpose  and  earnestness  of 
usefulness,  in  application  of  talent  and  stewardship,  in  citizenship 
and  patriotism,  in  faith  of  living  and  dying?  Let  your  brothers  see 
that  manner  of  man. 

It  is  not  only  what  is  in  our  books  of  discipline  or  catechisms 
or  rubrics  or  our  theologies,  but  what  is  in  us — ivhat  are  we?  We 
must  hold  fast  the  old-time  heart  experience. 

The  gospel  must  be  a  creation.  It  must  be  seen  that  it  makes 
us  new  creatures.  The  exhibition  in  us  of  a  feeble  spirit  of  ethics, 
a  compromising  consecration  full  of  mental  reservation,  and  adapt- 
ing of  our  apostleship  to  the  standards  that  the  world  impudently 
makes  for  us,  a  dalliance  with  those  appetites  and  associations 
that  hurt  the  soul,  that  take  the  song  of  victory  out  of  our  onward 
march,  will  be  known  and  will  discredit  the  gospel  from  here  to 
Malaysia  and  back  by  the  Continent  of  Europe  and  return  to  curse 
us.     It  is  too  great  a  responsibility. 

If  we  have  the  "faith  of  our  fathers  living  still,"  if  the  chief 
joy  is  in  our  whole  consecration,  if  every  gain  is  in  our  fulness 
of  service,  if  we  are  satisfied  and  need  not  ask  the  world  to  sup- 
plement our  contented  mind,  if  we  rejoice  evermore  because  Christ 
is  all  and  in  all,  if  our  sacrifices  are  not  worthy  to  be  compared 
with  glory  that  is  being  revealed  to  us,  if  our  religion  is  being 
wrought  into  every  fibre  of  manhood  and  carried  into  every  asset 
and  carried  forward  as  the  balance  of  our  glad  accounting;  indeed, 
If  religion  is  not  a  feeble  apology  but  the  victory  that  overcomes 
the  world;  if  these  things  are  what  we  are,  then  we  shall  be  felt 
as  a  mighty  inspiration  on  all  the  circle  of  the  globe  and  our 
religion  shall  preach  religion  in  all  lands.  It  is  a  mighty  responsi- 
bility, but  we  must  be  nothing  less. 

Good  for  something.  Oh,  we  have  something  to  do  for  distant 
lands  besides  giving  and  sending  out  our  brothers  and  sisters.  We 
must  live  what  these  messengers  of  the  cross  carry  away,  and  live 
the  whole  of  it.  We  must  more  than  satisfy  the  standards  of  a  respec- 
table community.  When  Pilate  said:  "I  find  no  fault  in  Him,"  he  did 
not  give  the  whole  verdict.  He  did  not  say  all  that  could  be  said. 
That  there  was  no  fault  in  Him  was  not  all.  There  was  in  Him  the 
power  that  veiled  the  sun,  that  shook  the  earth,  that  raised  the  dead. 
It  is  not  enough  that  we  be  harmless.     We  have  something  to  do. 


SERMON  OF  THE  REV.  JAMES  R.  DAY.  207 

Ah,  the  power  of  the  gospel  must  be  in  us,  the  power  of  character, 
the  supernatural  energj-  that  makes  clean  hearts  and  true  lives 
and  calm  faith — not  like  the  calm  of  the  sea  but  like  the  calm  of 
the  mountains  from  which  flow  the  unwasting  springs  in  "broad 
rivers  and  streams." 

When  the  world  sees  our  whole  gospel  in  all  of  us,  not  a  few 
samples,  but  everywhere  having  free  courses  and  being  glorified, 
nations  will  be  born  in  a  day  and  the  angels  of  the  millennium  who 
shall  declare  that  the  kingdom  is  come  will  be  seen  hurrying 
through  every  land. 

Ours  should  be  a  glad  responsibility  and  a  grateful  one.  It 
is  a  work  of  great  honor  and  distinction.  "If  any  man  will  serve 
Me,  him  will  My  Father  honor."  If  it  were  the  building  of  a  star, 
one  star  reserved  to  be  built  by  me,  the  nebulous  material  the  star 
mist  held  in  space  until  I  spoke  and  it  became  a  world!  Or  even 
a  flower  so  fashioned  and  tinted  and  distilling  fragrance — greater 
than  a  star  because  embodying  life  and  self-perpetuating.  What 
honor!  Ah,  but  suppose  that  star  could  think,  could  suffer,  could 
rejoice  in  hope,  could  be  influenced  to  a  larger  orbit  in  which  it 
would  gather  new  visions  of  destiny  and  contribute  to  unseen 
worlds  structural  influences  without  measure;  suppose  it  could 
become  spirit,  light  and  life  and  never  perish.  Suppose  that  flower 
could  know  that  it  is  and  could  hope  to  be  forever  and  experience 
an  exquisite  delight  in  being  rare  as  its  beauty.  That  is  the 
reward  of  our  responsibility. 

As  a  flower  is  more  wonderful  than  a  star  because  it  lives  and 
reproduces  itself,  so  much  more  marvellous  is  a  thinking  being,  a 
being  with  a  conscience  and  a  vast  capability  of  receiving  knowledge 
and  rendering  service  and  living  forever.  As  great  as  is  the  object 
that  I  may  create,  and  as  great  as  it  may  become  through  my  in- 
fluence, so  great  is  my  responsibility. 

I  said  that  it  is  a  grateful  duty.  A  minister  visiting  on  the 
east  side  of  New  York  entered  a  Catholic  home,  if  home  you  could 
call  that  tenement.  He  saw  upon  the  wall  a  picture  of  the  Virgin 
and  of  our  Lord.  Between  them  was  a  cheap  print  of  Colonel 
Waring,  famous  for  the  sanitary  cleansing  of  the  streets  of  the 
great  metropolis.  The  minister,  pointing  to  Colonel  Waring's  face, 
said,  "Do  you  pray  to  that  man?"  The  good  woman  said,  "No, 
I  pray  for  him.  He  made  clean  streets  for  my  children  to  play 
in  and  made  healthful  all  of  the  conditions  about  us  and  every 
day  I  pray  for  him."  What  greater  reward  than  to  be  taken  up  into 
the  company  of  our  Lord,  to  be  given  a  place  beside  the  greatest 
of  all  women  and  our  Lord,  because  our  works  are  like  His,  and 
to  be  remembered  in  the  thoughts  of  those  whose  glad  hearts  and 
lives  will  call  us  blessed! 

The  pioneer  preacher.  I  have  known  many  great  men  and  many 
rich,  men  andanan/y  scholars',and  many  of  social  pre-eminence  and  they 


208  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

have  welcomed  me  to  their  homes  on  terms  of  friendship.  But  my 
greatest  pride  in  man  and  my  deepest  gratitude  and  my  greatest 
reverence  go  baclc  to  a  plain,  earnest  preacher  who  came  through 
rainy  nights  and  muddy  roads,  seeking  for  the  souls  of  a  long  time 
careless  neighborhood,  and  led  me  and  many  others  to  the  knowledge 
of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Savior  of  men.  It  has  ever  been  my  ambition 
to  put  some  young  man  into  the  Church  and  under  obligation  to 
me  and  make  him  my  representative  in  the  world's  work.  Happy 
that  messenger  who  has  discharged  well  his  responsibility  and  made 
debtor  to  his  faithful  services  thousands  of  saved  souls. 

Our  responsibility  increases  with  our  easy  facilities  and  the 
instruments  and  power  of  our  warfare. 

We  go  with  our  plain,  reverent,  familiar  faith.    It  will  conquer. 

We  go  with  our  Bible,  a  book  of  men  and  women  with  whom 
God  dealt  wonderfully  and  through  whom  He  declared  His  truth, 
a  book  of  law  and  precept  and  history  and  narrative  and  poetry 
and  miracle  and  pentecost  and  regeneration  and  sanctification  and 
resurrection  and  glorification;  a  book  that  never  was  revered  so 
much  nor  loved  by  so  many  millions  as  now,  and  it  shall  thoroughly 
furnish  us  unto  every  good  word  and  work. 

We  go  with  our  Lord.  He  said  He  would  be  with  us  always. 
He  is  with  us  now.  No  man  ever  started  off  for  lost  souls  that 
He  did  not  appear  on  the  road  somewhere  and  make  Himself 
known.  There  is  no  one  like  Him  in  any  nation.  We  can  go  tell 
of  Him  and  no  one  can  criticise  Him  or  find  a  flaw  or  a  false  color 
in  Him,  and  to  see  Him  is  to  feel  the  power  of  the  world  to  come. 

We  go  with  a  brotherhood  that  clusters  around  Him,  which  is 
as  wide  as  human  wants.     We  see  how  great  is  our  responsibility. 

I  can  not  consent  to  be  guilty  of  my  brother's  death.  Am  I  to 
be  classed  with  Cain  as  a  murderer  of  my  brother  by  contributory 
negligence? 

Where  is  thy  brother  of  thy  race?  Where  is  thy  brother  Hindoo? 
Where  is  thy  brother  Chinaman?  Where  is  thy  brother  Japanese? 
Where  is  thy  brother  Esquimau?  Where  is  thy  brother  African? 

Am  I  my  brother's  keeper?  Yes,  ah  yes,  in  every  land,  by  all 
you  are  by  the  gospel,  by  all  you  can  do  by  the  riches  of  His  grace 
and  the  abundance  of  His  gifts,  by  all  that  that  gospel  can  be  in 
this  life  and  the  life  to  come  to  those  to  whom  you  may  bring  it. 

I  would  not  assume  to  lecture  my  brethren  nor  scarcely  would 
I  exhort  them  if  it  might  imply  a  rebuke,  for  I  am  not  worthy 
to  unloose  their  shoes'  latchets. 

But  I  may  express  a  wish  and  a  hope.  I  would  that  we  might 
try  it  again.  Try  just  preaching  salvation  to  men,  that  they  might 
see  how  desperately  wicked  is  sin,  any  sinning,  how  wonderful  is 
salvation.     "Oh,  it  is  wonderful." 

I   think  we   should   leave   speculation    and    doubtful    questions 


SERMON  OP  THE  REV.  JAMES  R.  DAY.  209 

that  confuse  the  people,  and  talks  ahout  higher  criticism  that  we 
do  not  understand,  and  discussions  of  theology  that  go  over  the 
people's  heads  or  under  their  feet,  and  church  politics  and  prefer- 
ments, and  live  and  teach  and  exhort  and  preach  Jesus  the  Savior 
of  men. 

Oh,  it  is  worthy.  The  subject  was  large  enough  to  compel  God 
to  reveal  Himself.  It  was  large  enough  to  write  His  law  on  the 
mount  where  He  opened  a  school  of  discipline  and  moral  culture 
with  a  forty  years'  course  of  study.  It  was  large  enough  to  bring 
to  the  earth  His  only  begotten  Son  who  gave  His  life  an  offering  for 
perishing  men. 

It  was  a  theme  large  enough  to  compel  His  disciples  and 
apostles  to  go  into  all  lands,  telling  the  story  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
Him  crucified. 

Oh,  there  is  scholarship  and  dignity  and  power  and  breadth  of 
thought  enough  in  it  to  preach  right  on  until  the  judgment  comes. 
It  has  been  the  theme  of  Heaven  from  the  foundations  of  the  world. 

How  to  bring  man  to  his  uttermost  has  employed  the  thought 
of  God  and  all  who  have  thought  with  Him  from  the  hour  that 
man  came  into  the  Infinite  plan.  And  my  fathers  and  brethren, 
the  theme  is  great  enough  for  you  and  me.  And  all  we  think  and 
feel  and  plan  and  hope  should  be  brought  to  bear  upon  it. 

Ah,  if  our  universal  Church  of  the  Methodisms  would  only 
make  our  brothers  the  one  theme,  I  know  the  glory  of  the  former 
times  would  be  multiplied  a  hundred  fold. 

One  midnight  in  New  York  City  I  was  hurried  out  to  baptize 
a  dying  young  man.  On  the  top  floor  of  a  tenement  I  found  him. 
"We  knelt  around  his  bed — his  Scotch  Presbyterian  mother  and  his 
sister  of  high  Church  Episcopalian  faith  in  the  saving  power  of 
baptism;  at  the  foot  of  the  bed  knelt  a  white-haired  Jew;  opposite 
the  Cat'nolic  physician;  among  them  a  Methodist  minister.  The 
response  came  earnestly  from  all  hearts  with  a  common  want  and 
a  sorrow  none  of  us  could  heal.  A  common  Father  and  Lord  looked 
down  upon  us.  The  Savior  saw  that  other  Nicodemus.  He  saw 
His  sons  and  daughters  of  different  names. 

And  I  thought  of  the  time  when  the  hosts  that  no  man  can 
number  shall  come  from  the  East  and  the  West,  the  North  and 
the  South,  and  with  a  mighty  heart-want  that  shall  overturn  every 
obstacle  and  absorb  every  difference  and  every  other  question,  they 
shall  worship  the  Maker  of  them  all  and  the  King  of  Kings  shall 
be  their  Lord. 

Ah,  in  that  day  what  a  joy  unspeakable  to  walk  up  that  im- 
mortal way  modestly,  saying  in  His  presence,  "Here  am  I  and 
those  whom  Thou  has  given  me." 

The  service  closed  with  the  henediction. 
14 


310  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 


AFTEENOON  SESSION. 

Chairman,  Mr.  T.  E.  Ferens,  M.  P.,  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church. 


Topic:    EELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  OF  INDUSTEY  AND 
COMMEECE. 


Devotional  services  were  conducted  by  the  Eev.   Geo.   H. 
McNeal^  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 
Eemarks  by  the  Chairman : 

The  meeting  this  morning  was  a  most  fitting  introduction  to  our 
work  of  this  afternoon.  That  there  is  in  our  civilization  now  seeth- 
ing unrest  can  not  be  denied;  nor  can  it  be  denied  that  there  are 
classes  of  workers  who  have  just  cause  for  unrest  and  discontent. 
Can  you  in  Canada  claim,  can  you  of  the  United  States  claim  (cer- 
tainly we  can  not  claim  in  the  United  Kingdom)  that  the  workers 
have  received  advance  in  their  wages  consistent  with  the  enormous 
increase  in  the  Vvfealth  of  those  countries  that  has  taken  place  dur- 
ing the  last  decade?  Since  I  undertook  to  preside  at  this  meeting 
there  has  been  in  the  homeland  a  great  labor  upheaval.  Never  in 
the  history  of  Great  Britain  has  there  been  its  equal.  Never  before' 
have  the  forces  of  labor  been  so  united  in  action,  never  before  has 
there  been  such  determination  on  the  part  of  trades  unionists,  to 
combine  in  sympathy  one  with  another  to  improve  their  condition. 
Speaking  from  the  employer's  standpoint,  while  strongly  deploring 
and  condemning  unlawful  incidents  in  connection  with  the  strike, 
I  can  not  but  sympathize  with  the  discontent  which  exists  on  the 
part  of  many  of  the  underpaid  sections  of  the  laboring  classes — 
some  of  them,  at  any  rate.  It  has  transpired  that  there  are  many 
laborers  on  land  and  on  the  docks  and  on  the  railways  who  are 
earning  a  rate  of  pay  per  week  on  which  it  is  absolutely  impossible 
to  keep  a  wife  and  family  in  decency.  I  fully  agree  with  the  Rev. 
Henry  Haigh  in  what  he  said  the  other  day  in  the  official  sermon, 
that  the  Church  at  this  moment  has  a  great  opportunity.  I  hope 
that  she  will  rise  to  it.  The  public  conscience  needs  arousing. 
Never  before  were  the  extremes  in  the  distribution  of  wealth  so 
great  as  now.  Wage  earners  are  neither  blind  nor  indil¥erent  to 
this.  Can  we  be  surprised  if  they  are  dissatisfied  with  their  hous- 
ing their  life,  and  their  conditions?  Are  we  satisfied  with  their  lot? 
If  not,  let  us  resolutely  set  ourselves  to  improve  it.  Social  peace 
and  national  prosperity  are  bound  up  in  social  reform  and  the  bet- 
tering of  industrial  conditions.     Should  not  Christian  employers  be 


REMARKS  BY  THE  CHAIRMAN,  MR.  T.  R.  FERENS.       211 

the  first  to  set  the  example  in  regard  to  good  conditions  of  labor? 
Why  not  consider  the  subject  here,  right  in  Toronto?  I  find  this 
has  a  sympathetic  response  in  some  parts  of  this  audience.  I 
was  driving  around  your  beautiful  city,  on  which  I  congratulate 
you,  and  I  said  to  the  driver  of  the  carriage,  "You  have  some  very 
fine  Churches  here  in  Toronto."  He  said,  "Yes;  they  are  terribly 
religious."  I  was  glad  to  hear  that.  But  do  you  know,  as  I  was 
going  from  the  missionary  meeting,  the  other  night,  to  the  hotel, 
there  was  a  good  deal  of  excitement  in  a  shop  window.  It  was  a 
billiard  alley;  and  right  in  the  window,  in  the  view  of  passers-by, 
there  were  three  or  four  little  boys  taking  up  the  ball  and  dropping 
It  into  the  channel  to  send  it  back  to  the  players.  I  went  in  at 
the  doorway,  and  one  little  boy  with  an  agonized  little  face  was 
doing  his  best  to  lift  the  ball  and  drop  it  in  in  time,  and  it  seemed 
to  me  that  every  effort  was  a  strain  upon  his  heart.  I  said  to  him, 
"Little  man,  how  old  are  you?"  He  said,  "Ten  and  a  half."  That 
little  boy,  onlj^  ten  years  old,  at  ten  o'clock  at  night!  I  say  it  was 
a  disgrace  to  the  parents,  and  a  greater  disgrace  to  the  men  playing. 

And  as  members  of  Christian  Churches  we  need  to  create  a 
Christian  conscience  in  social  matters,  to  dare  to  investigate  the 
conditions  of  our  fellow-creatures  v/ho  are  ill-fed,  ill-clad,  and,  under- 
paid. The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,  but  his  hire  too  often  is 
unworthy  of  the  laborer.  The  Church  simply  can  not  ignore  its  re- 
sponsibilities in  the  temporalities  of  the  people.  Christ  did  not,  and 
His  followers  must  not.  Let  us  here  say  that  bettering  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  working  people,  although  sometimes  involving 
considerable  cost,  often  proves  an  advantage  and  a  gain  to  the  em- 
ployer. I  know  half  a  dozen  large  firms  in  the  old  country,  each  em- 
ploying thousands  of  work-people — what  they  have  done,  and  are 
doing  now,  and  what  has  been  the  result. 

Then,  reduction  of  hours  of  labor.  In  one  firm,  where  the  women 
employees  used  to  work  sixty  hours,  they  reduced  the  hours  to  fifty- 
three,  and  later  to  forty-seven.  It  was  most  gratifying  to  know 
that  the  workers  in  forty-seven  hours,  at  the  same  rate  of  piece- 
work, earned  more  money  than  in  sixty  hours.  On  the  principle  of 
a  stitch  in  time,  these  firms  have  a  doctor  on  the  premises  to  at- 
tend to  the  health  of  the  working  people.  They  keep  a  dentist  to 
look  after  the  work-people's  teeth — a  very  good  thing  for  the  health 
of  the  worker.  Then,  a  physical  instructor  to  take  young  people 
into  the  gymnasium  during  work  hours,  without  any  reduction  of 
wages.  They  provide  recreation-grounds  for  ball,  tennis,  and 
cricket.  They  have  classes  in  the  evening  for  instruction  in  dress- 
making and  millinery.  They  have  provided  garden  villages,  where 
the  work-people  can  be  housed,  not  only  in  decency  but  in  luxury. 
They  have  a  vegetable  garden,  and  a  tlower  garden,  and  a  bath  for 
each  house.     The  rent  is  from  one  dollar  and   a  quarter   a  week 


213  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

upward.  They  have  old-age  pensions,  so  that  when  working  people 
come  into  decrepitude  they  have  not  to  fear  the  workhouse.  I  was 
told  the  other  day  of  an  American  firm  within  one  hundred  miles 
of  here  who  employ  ten  thousand  working  people,  and  they  have  no 
labor  troubles.  I  do  not  remember  any  strikes  or  lockouts  in  con- 
nection with  any  of  the  firms  to  which  I  have  alluded,  and  they  tell 
you  that  all  these  advantages  have  been  a  paying  investment  to 
the  firm.  The  managers  themselves  take  a  personal  interest  in  the 
working  people.  In  the  old  days  the  employer  and  employed  knew 
each  other  individually.  That  of  recent  years  has  fallen  almost  of 
necessity  into  disuse.  But  among  the  firms  to  which  I  have  alluded 
the  employers  and  contractors  themselves  often  go  down  and  meet 
the  work-people  in  the  evening,  and  take  a  particular  interest  in 
their  welfare. 

I  do  not  say  that  workers  are  altogether  perfect,  by  any  means. 
There  are  malingerers.  I  can  not  deny  that  some  people  reckon  up 
particularly  what  wages  they  get,  and  endeavor  to  give  service  ac- 
cordingly. I  one  day  said  to  a  boy  in  a  factory,  "Run,  and  tell  So- 
and-so  I  want  him."  The  boy  M'ent  slowly  away.  I  said,  "You  run." 
He  went  at  just  the  same  slow  rate.  When  he  came  back  I  said: 
"Didn't  you  hear  me  say  to  you  to  run?  Why  didn't  you  run?" 
"Because  I  am  not  paid  for  running."  I  said,  "How  much  do  you 
get?"  He  told  me.  I  said,  "How  much  would  you  run  for?"  He 
said,  "For  two  shillings  a  week  more!" 

Some  years  ago  a  book  was  written,  "If  Jesus  Came  to  Chicago." 
And  what  if  Jesus  were  to  come  to  deal  with  the  present  crisis? 
Would  He  not  apply  the  same  principles  which  He  taught  when 
He  was  here,  which  He  enforced  not  only  by  precept,  but  by  ex- 
ample? He  said  that  He  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to 
minister.  He  tenderly  went  about  doing  good.  He  looked  upon 
service  not  as  a  sacrifice,  but  as  a  delight.  Surely  the  servant  is 
not  above  his  Lord.  I  am  reminded  of  an  incident  given  in  the 
life  of  Sammy  Hicks,  the  celebrated  Yorkshire  blacksmith  local 
preacher.  He  had  preached  in  the  village,  and  was  entertained  by 
the  doctor  of  the  village.  When  he  got  to  bed  in  one  of  those  old- 
fashioned  feather-beds,  he  sunk  down  in  the  middle,  and  his  arms 
were  sticking  up  at  either  side,  and  he  could  not  sleep  for  the 
thought  that  the  Master  had  not  where  to  lay  His  head.  I  wonder 
how  many  of  us  are  kept  awake  by  the  thought  that  some  of  His 
servants  have  not  where  to  lay  their  heads.  He  said,  "Inasmuch  as 
ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  My  brethren,  ye  have 
done  it  unto  Me."  "If  any  man  will  come  after  Me,  let  him  deny 
himself  and  take  up  his  cross  daily  and  follow  Me." 

You  have  a  great  scheme,  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  in  both  the 
States  and  Canada,  called  the  "Men  and  Religion  Forward  Move- 
ment." We  have  the  same  analogous  movement  in  the  Old  Country, 
that  has  been  run  for  some  years.    It  corresponds  much  to  the  great 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  HON   C.  W.  FAIRBANKS.  213 

Brotherhood  movement.  I  think  there  are  no  less  than  GOO, 000  in 
this  movement.  They  meet  on  Sunday  afternoons.  They  are  the 
cream  of  the  working  classes.  This  movement  aims  to  lead  men 
and  women  into  the  Kingdom  of  God,  to  unite  men  in  brotherhood 
and  mutual  help,  to  win  the  masses  of  people  to  Jesus  Christ,  to 
encourage  the  State  in  social  science,  to  enforce  the  obligations  of 
Christian  citizenship.  The  motto  is,  "One  is  your  Master,  even 
Christ,  and  all  ye  are  brethren."  Personal  loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ, 
and  responsibility  for  the  social  conditions  under  which  the  people 
live,  are  all  encouraged.  We  are  saved  to  save.  I  remember  read- 
ing of  a  little  boy  who  fell  down  in  the  street  and  soiled  his  pina- 
fore and  began  to  cry.  A  kind  woman  said,  "What  is  the  matter, 
my  little  man?"  "Please,  I  have  dirtied  my  pinafore."  "Oh,  never 
mind;  come  in."  She  washed  his  pinafore  and  turned  him  out 
happy.  In  half  an  hour  that  little  boy  came  back  and  said,  "Please 
I  have  brought  another  little  chap  with  a  dirty  pinafore."  That 
is  what  we  want — "Catch  my  pal,"  you  know.  R.  W.  Briggs  has 
well  said  that  the  only  real  cure  for  industrial  discontent  and  social 
strife  is  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  teaches  men  to  show 
kindness  to  one  another  and  to  lead  honest  and  thrifty  lives. 

Let  me  close  by  reading  to  you  what  I  consider  a  most  excellent 
prayer:  "May  I  so  live  to-day  as  to  make  somebody's  yoke  easier 
and  his  burden  lighter.  May  I  have  Thy  compassion  and  so  lessen 
the  pain  of  the  broken-hearted.     Amen." 

The  Hon.  C.  W.  Fairban;ks^  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  delivered  the  following  address: 

Mr.  Chairman,  ladies,  and  gentlemen,  I  am  profoundly  grateful 
for  your  grand,  courteous  reception.  It  is  a  great  pleasure  for  me 
to  be  able  to  stand  before  you  for  a  few  minutes  this  afternoon  to 
speak  to  you  upon  the  subject  which  has  been  assigned  me  by  the 
Committee  of  Arrangements.  I  shall  be  false  to  myself  if  I  do  not 
express  my  great  pleasure  at  the  opportunity  to  meet  representa- 
tives of  the  Methodist  Churches  who  have  come  from  the  four  quar- 
ters of  the  earth.  I  recognize  before  me  an  audience  such  as  I 
never  addressed  before,  Methodists  all,  though  belonging  to  different 
branches  of  Methodism.  I  love  the  Methodist  Church,  to  which  I 
early  gave  my  allegiance.  I  love  all  branches  of  Methodism.  It 
has  been  my  dream  for  many  years  to  see  the  great  Methodist 
Church  of  the  world  brought  into  unity  and  closer  fellowship.  I 
had  hoped  that  in  God's  providence  I  might  live  to  see  the  day  when 
there  would  be  organic  union  of  the  mighty  forces  of  Methodism 
everywhere.  But  if  there  can  not  be  organic  union,  let  there  be 
union  in  Christian  fellowship,  stronger  and  stronger  forever.  Such 
meetings  as  this  are  full  of  splendid  promise,  I  believe,  to  the  cause 
of  Methodism  generally. 

The  subject  assigned  to  me  is  "The  Aspects  of  Religion  in  Indus- 


214  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

try  and  Commerce."  Not  being  a  minister  in  the  pulpit,  I  shall  feel 
obliged  to  adhere  more  or  less  closely  to  the  text  which  is  before 
me.  I  know  that  my  brethren  of  the  ministry  will  pardon  me 
if  I  set  them  an  unfortunate  example.  Industry  and  commerce  have 
attained  to  such  magnitude  throughout  the  world,  have  touched 
mankind  at  such  an  infinite  number  of  points,  have  so  affected  -the 
nations  of  the  earth,  that  we  may  well  consider  the  relation  of  re- 
ligion thereto.  Industry  and  commerce  have  attained  to  a  magni- 
tude in  all  countries  never  attained  in  all  the  history  of  the  human 
race.  Nations  are  closer  together  than  they  have  ever  been.  They 
do  not  dwell,  as  in  the  older  days,  far  apart.  The  multiplied  instru- 
ments of  invention  are  effecting  a  profound  change  in  the  world 
of  industry  and  commerce  everywhere.  All  parts  of  the  earth, 
through  the  subtle  and  titanic  forces  of  steam  and  electricity  are 
in  easy  touch.  Through  the  press  of  the  world  millions  and  hun- 
dreds of  millions  are  brought  to  daily  consideration  of  the  same 
great  problems.  Never  before  was  the  alignment  of  the  nations  so 
nearly  perfect  as  now.  There  is  no  perfection  in  that  regard;  some 
are  in  the  advance;  but  they  are  more  nearly  abreast  of  each  other 
than  at  any  time  since  the  human  family  was  scattered  upon  the 
face  of  the  earth.  The  fruit  of  the  inventive  genius  of  the  world, 
the  advance  in  the  mechanical  arts,  are  so  wonderful  that  we  are 
no  longer  surprised  by  them.  We  do  not  dwell  in  the  age  of  mir- 
acles; we  no  longer  are  surprised  at  what  the  genius  of  men  ac- 
complishes. We  look  upon  the  wonderful  inventions  as  on  matters 
of  a  natural  and  ordinary  character.  We  simply  say:  "Very  well. 
What  next?" 

There  has  been  a  change  in  the  relations  of  labor.  The  laboring 
man  does  not  sustain  the  same  relation  to  his  fellows  that  he  did 
in  decades  long  past.  He  has  become,  in  a  sense,  a  part  of  the 
mechanism  with  which  he  labored.  In  a  very  considerable  degree, 
my  friends,  he  has  lost  his  individuality;  it  has  been  merged  in  the 
machine  of  which  he  is  an  important  and  essential  part.  It  is,  there- 
fore, in  the  utmost  degree  important  that  he  should  have  the  sup- 
port, the  consolation,  the  active  interest,  of  religion.  The  fact  is 
that  the  laborer  has  come  to  feel  in  many  parts  of  the  world — ^no 
country  is  differentiated  from  another  in  this  respect — he  has  come 
to  feel  too  frequently  that  the  great  Church  is  not  sympathetic  with 
him.  I  use  "Church"  in  its  generic  sense;  for  what  I  shall  say  has 
respect  to  all  Churches,  to  every  denomination.  The  fact  is  that 
millions  are  seeking  work.  Their  earthly  salvation  is  in  obedience 
to  the  Biblical  injunction,  "In  the  sweat  of  their  faces;"  and  re- 
ligion should  enter  in.  In  the  past  there  have  been  conflicts  between 
capital  and  labor,  or  rather,  I  will  say,  labor  and  capital.  We  have 
just  heard  from  the  lips  of  our  distinguished  friend  from  across  the 
sea  of  the  conflict  between  the  employers  and  the  employed  in  Great 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  HON.  C    W.  FAIRBANKS.  215 

Britain.  We  are  not  unfamiliar  witli  such,  collisions  in  our  respec- 
tive countries.  The  progress  of  labor  has  been  accomplished  through 
conflict.  It  is  a  singular  providence  in  this  world  that  the  greatest 
progress  in  liberty,  the  greatest  progress  in  all  that  makes  for  the 
exaltation  of  the  human  race,  has  been  accomplished  through  con- 
flict. Liberty — a  word  that  is  nearest  to  the  heart  of  every  Anglo- 
Saxon  on  both  sides  of  the  sea — liberty,  that  is  most  loved  by  the 
children  of  men  everywhere,  has  been  accomplished  only  through, 
conflict.  It  is  a  singular  fact  that  that  which  we  most  enjoy  in 
human  government,  has  come  through  the  battlefield,  where  the 
blood  of  thousands  of  patriots  has  been  shed;  yes,  poured  out  so 
that  it  would  the  multitudinous  seas  incarnadine.  But  we  are  led 
to  believe — our  faith  in  the  overmastering  influence  of  the  Christian 
religion  leads  us  to  believe — that  those,  conflicts  in  the  world  of  in- 
dustry and  commerce  and  the  conflicts  in  the  other  and  larger  affairs 
of  the  world,  are  coming  to  be  less,  and  will  be  on  the  morrow  less 
still.  Industrial  peace  is  the  state,  the  condition,  at  which  we  are 
aiming.  The  world's  peace  is  a  condition  to  which  the  combined 
religious  influence  of  the  world  is  tending.  If  there  be  a  cessation 
of  the  conflicts  of  labor  and  capital,  it  will  come  through  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Christian  religion.  You  speak  from  the  standpoint 
of  a  man  of  large  business  affairs. 

I  would  suggest  that  the  key-note  of  the  Church  should  be,  "Put 
more  religion  into  business,  and  more  business  into  religion."  Re- 
ligion has  done  much  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  men  in  all  their 
vast  and  complicated  relations.  The  relations  of  labor  have  changed, 
as  I  have  said.  The  vast,  concentrated,  centralized,  intensified  in- 
dustrialism of  the  day  has  made  it  essential  that  we  should  give 
more  and  more  thought  to  labor's  condition.  The  Christian  religion 
has  improved  the  hours  of  labor.  We  have  enacted  in  our  different 
countries,  through  congresses  and  legislatures  and  parliaments,  laws 
recognizing  one  day  out  of  the  seven  for  labor.  We  have  improved 
the  wage  scale.  We  have  provided  here  and  there — not  the  same 
in  all  countries — but  here  and  there  we  have  provided  against  the 
infirmities  of  years  and  against  the  inability  to  labor  because  of  ac- 
cident. The  political  law,  I  would  remind  you,  had  its  inspiration 
in  the  moral  law.  There  is  no  act  of  legislature  or  congress  or 
parliament  for  the  amelioration  of  the  wage-earner's  lot,  except  it 
has  been  written  there  in  response  to  the  influence  of  the  conscience 
of  religious  people.  Religion  demands  improved  conditions  for 
childhood.  I  was  glad  to  hear  the  distinguished  chairman  say  what 
he  did  in  reference  to  childhood.  It  is  the  command  of  religion  that 
childhood  shall  not  be  oppressed  in  hard  labor  by  inconsiderate  par- 
ents or  inconsiderate  employers.  Religion  demands  that  childhood 
shall  not  be  paralyzed,  shall  not  be  bodily  stunted,  or  morally  atro- 
phied, not  only  in  the  interest  of  childhood,  but  the  interest  of  the 


216  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

community  and  the  State  itself.  Religion  demands  better  condi- 
tions for  women  in  the  various  employments  where  they  are  en- 
gaged. Religion  throws  about  woman  protection  to  her  health,  pro- 
tection to  her  moral  welfare;  and  religion  demands  beyond  these 
things  that  woman  shall  receive  for  the  same  service  the  same  com- 
pensation received  by  her  fellow-men.  Inequality  of  wage  for  man 
and  v/oman  under  like  condition  is  an  affront  to  the  principles  of 
the  Christian  religion.  Religion  takes  thought  of  the  physical  frame 
of  woman  in  the  various  vocations  of  the  world.  This  is  important 
not  only  to  woman  herself,  but  to  mankind  in  general.  A  people 
can  not  rise  higher  in  the  moral  scale  than  womanhood  rises.  The 
progress  of  nations  is  measured  in  the  final  analysis  by  the  progress 
of  woman  herself.  On  the  shores  of  the  far-off  Orient,  where  the 
Christian  missionaries  are  working  so  nobly,  one  of  the  great  prom- 
ises of  those  people,  far  beyond  us  in  years  and  experience,  but  far 
behind  us  in  advance  and  progress,  the  promise  of  the  far-off  Orient 
rests  upon  the  fact  that  the  Christian  missionaries  of  the  world  are 
lifting  womanhood  into  its  true  dignity. 

1  was  glad  to  say  to  those  people  a  few  months  ago,  when  I  met 
them,  that  they  never  could  expect  to  rise  in  the  scale  of  civiliza- 
tion and  enter  into  competition  with  the  Western  world  in  all  the 
ways  that  make  for  true  advancement  unless  they  lifted  the  mother- 
hood of  their  countries  up  to  an  equality  with  the  fatherhood. 

The  last  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
at  Baltimore,  gave  an  expression  to  its  creed  with  respect  to  labor. 
It  opens,  as  it  appropriately  should,  with  a  pacific  note,  "We  urge 
the  members  of  our  great  communion,  both  employers  and  employed, 
to  seek  the  promotion  of  the  principles  of  industrial  peace  and 
human  brotherhood."  And  then  it  summarizes  its  doctrine:  "The 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  stands  for  equal  rights  and  complete 
justice  for  all  men  in  all  situations  of  life;  for  the  principles  of  con- 
ciliation and  arbitration  in  industrial  dissensions;  for  the  protec- 
tion of  the  worker  from  dangerous  machinery,  occupational  diseases, 
injuries,  and  mortality;  for  the  abolition  of  child-labor;  for  such 
regulation  of  the  conditions  of  labor  for  women  as  shall  safeguard 
the  physical  and  moral  health  of  the  community;  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  'sweating  system;'  for  the  gradual  and  reasonable  re- 
duction of  the  hours  of  labor  to  the  lowest  practical  point,  with  work 
for  all,  and  for  the  degree  of  leisure  for  all  which  is  the  condition 
of  the  highest  human  life;  for  a  release  from  employment  one  day 
in  seven;  for  a  living  wage  in  every  industry;  for  the  highest  wage 
that  each  industry  can  afford,  and  for  the  most  equitable  division 
of  the  products  of  industry  that  can  ultimately  be  devised;  for  the 
recognition  of  the  Golden  Rule  and  the  mind  of  Christ  as  the  su- 
preme law  of  society  and  the  sure  remedy  for  all  social  ills." 

We  need  make  no  apology  for  the  entire  reproduction  of  that  ad- 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  HON.  C.  W.  FAIRBANKS.  217 

mirable  utterance.  It  i«  the  very  soul  of  i-eligion.  It  is  a  message 
to  the  great  industrial  world  of  America  that  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  has  a  thought  and  sympathy  for  those  who  toil.  But 
I  take  it  that  in  this  utterance  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
has  but  emphasized  that  sentiment  for  which  every  branch  of  Meth- 
odism stands.  This  is  an  assurance  to  the  millions  that  toil  that 
religion  is  something  that  is  not  apart  from  them,  that  religion  is 
not  only  for  those  at  the  top,  but  for  those  at  the  bottom  also.  It 
is  for  all  mankind,  everywhere.  This  should  be  carried  everywhere, 
to  all  who  work,  in  all  branches  of  emploj'ment.  Labor  should  be 
especially  an  object  of  solicitude  upon  the  part  of  the  Methodist 
Church  and  all  Churches;  for  our  Savior  taught  the  true  dignity  of 
labor.  This  great  truth  was  exemplified  in  the  life  of  the  Great 
Teacher,  the  carpenter  of  Nazareth.  The  Church  would  be  false  to 
itself,  recreant  to  the  high  trust  committed  to  it,  if  it  did  not 
do  all  that  lay  in  its  power  to  advance  the  temporal  as  well  as 
the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  great  mass  of  laborers  in  all  coun- 
tries. Religion  has  accomplished  much  in  the  world  of  trade  and 
commerce.  Go  off  into  the  far-away  Orient,  and  visit  China.  For 
years  and  years  that  opium  curse  rested  upon  that  immemorial 
empire.  China's  master-crime  was  fast  leading  her  people  to  death 
and  destruction.  The  great  missionaries  let  in  the  light.  They 
told  the  world  of  the  crime  that  was  being  committed  in  China. 
There  were  those  in  China,  without  China,  beyond  her  borders,  who 
insisted  that  they  had  a  sort  of  vested  right  in  the  opium  traffic, 
although  it  was  carrying  down  to  death  and  destruction  thousands 
upon  thousands  of  China's  subjects.  Mr.  Chairman,  if  the  great  mis- 
sionaries had  accomplished  nothing  else  in  their  work  in  China  than 
the  destruction  of  the  opium  habit,  they  would  have  earned  for  ever 
and  forever  the  gratitude  of  the  Christian  world.  In  due  time  the 
moral  sense  of  all  Christendom  was  aroused,  and  the  opium  business 
in  China  has  practically  come  to  an  end.  China  was  powerless  to 
throw  off  her  bondage,  and  except  for  England  she  would  still 
to-day  be  in  the  cruel  grasp  of  her  master-crime.  A  few  years  ago 
in  the  United  States  the  Louisiana  lottery  existed  under  the  law. 
It  had  the  countenance  of  the  laws,  was  recognized  in  the  courts, 
and  the  public  looked  upon  it  all  with  a  sort  of  indifference  while 
men  grew  rich  out  of  its  operations.  It  extended  its  influence  fur- 
ther and  further.  It  reached  from  one  side  of  the  Republic  to  the 
other.  Colossal  fortunes  piled  up  rapidly.  Finally  the  pulpit  thun- 
dered against  it  its  anathemas,  and  the  religious  press  of  America 
called  the  people  to  witness  their  shame.  And  the  Louisiana  lottery 
in  due  time,  in  God's  providence,  fell  under  the  condemnation  of 
an  aroused  Christian  conscience  of  America,  and  the  Louisiana  lot- 
tery was  destroyed.  These  are  but  typical  instances;  others  could 
be  presented  to  you. 


218  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

I  could  not  close,  however,  without  mentioning  one  more.  It 
presents  a  problem  of  far-reaching  significance;  that  is,  the  liquor 
traffic.  Think  of  the  homes  it  has  destroyed;  think  of  the  wrecks 
it  has  cast  upon  the  shores  of  time.  There  is  no  law,  constitutional 
or  statutory,  found  in  any  country  anywhere  for  the  regulation  of 
the  liquor  traffic,  that  has  not  been  written  there  by  the  command 
of  the  aroused  conscience  of  Christian  people.  Religion  has  de- 
manded that  that  thing  which  strikes  at  all  that  we  hold  most 
dear,  that  that  traffic  which  undertakes  to  undermine  the  founda- 
tions of  the  home  and  to  paralyze  the  moral  fiber  of  the  community, 
shall  be  brought  within  the  restrictions  of  the  political  law.  But 
political  law  is  not  worth — I  do  not  care  whether  it  pertains  tb 
the  liquor  industry  or  the  opium  industry  or  the  lottery,  or  what 
not — is  not  worth  the  paper  upon  which  it  is  written  unless  it  is 
founded  upon  the  moral  law.  Take  out  of  industry  and  commerce 
religion — substitute  for  the  moral  law  the  law  of  avarice,  enthrone 
if  you  will  the  law  of  might  in  place  of  the  law  of  the  Christian 
religion,  and  indeed  we  shall  have  fallen  upon  evil  times. 

The  next  address  was  delivered  by  the  Eev.  S.  S.  Henshaw, 
of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church : 

One  thing  is  clear  to  the  student  of  the  New  Testament,  it 
does  not  develop  a  system  of  economics  any  more  than  it  developes 
a  system  of  theology  or  philosophy,  and  this  is  well.  God  does  not 
heal  men  as  children,  but  as  men.  He  leaves  ample  room  in  the 
economy  of  life  for  the  free  play  of  the  intellect  and  of  the  construc- 
tive faculties  with  which  He  has  endowed  us.  He  does  not  do  our 
thinking  for  us,  nor  provide  us  with  ready-made  machinery  for 
the  running  of  society.  We  are  to  be  the  architects  and  builders 
of  our  own  destinies. 

But  though  no  scheme  is  presented  to  us,  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, with  regard  to  these  things,  we  have  stated  in  bold,  broad 
outline,  the  principles  that  should  govern  us  in  all  our  relations, 
to  which  our  arrangements  and  undertakings  should  strictly  adhere, 
and  whose  light  we  must  follow  in  every  step  we  take,  every  office 
we  fill,  and  every  act  we  perform.  These  principles  are  made  plain 
— flung  into  prominence.  They  are  reflected  in  many  an  eloquent 
passage.  They  crystallize  in  a  hundred  beautiful  precepts.  They 
are  sometimes  elaborately  set  forth  in  parable  and  story.  They  are 
illustrated  by  a  grand  array  of  contrite  examples.  These  principles 
may  be  briefly  summarized: 

1.  Righteousness.  The  golden  rule,  as  it  is  commonly  called; 
men  praise  it  who  unfortunately  do  not  always  practice  it.  They 
think  it  admirable  for  others,  but  seem  to  ignore  it  for  themselves. 
It  needs  to  be  flashed  before  the  eyes,  written  on  the  tables  of  the 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  S.  S.  HENSHAW.  210 

heart  and  over  the  entrance  to  the  workshop  and  the  counting  house. 
"All  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye 
even  so  to  them." 

2.  Brotherhood.  The  whole  race  is  akin,  forms  a  grand  sol- 
idarity. Every  man  is  linked  to  every  other  man,  by  the  divinity 
of  his  origin,  the  nature  of  his  instincts,  the  chain  of  his  blood, 
and  the  sacrifice  of  the  Cross.  In  the  Christian  commonwealth  all 
our  nationalities  and  petty  parochial  distinctions  are  swallowed  up 
in  the  wider,  deeper  interests  of  humanity. 

3.  Love.  Love  is  the  crowning  virtue  of  the  Christian  life. 
It  comprehends  all  other  virtues.  It  is  the  soil  out  of  which  they 
grow,  the  fountain  from  which  they  spring.  Love  is  the  bond  of 
perfectness,  the  fulfilling  of  the  law.  If  you  would  define  religion 
in  one  word,  that  mystic,  magical  word  must  be  love.  All  moral 
and  spiritual  harmonies  and  hei'oisms  have  their  origin,  and  their 
consummation  and  climax  in  love.  "Thou  shalt  love  God."  "Thou 
Shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  And  until  we  have  attained 
this  marvelous  achievement,  whatever  else  we  may  be,  we  are  not 
Christians. 

These  in  brief  are  the  principles  propounded  by  the  Christ  for 
the  guidance  of  human  conduct.  They  are  simple,  sublime.  They 
express  the  very  genius  of  the  Gospel.  They  furnish  universal 
ideals,  ideals  that  are  intended  to  be  translated  into  the  life  and 
laws  of  all  lands,  and  as  they  shall  be  so  translated  we  shall  see 
wonderful  and  blessed  changes  sweep  the  earth.  They  will  create, 
they  are  bound  to  create,  beneficent  revolutions  and  to  introduce 
us  to  a  terrestrial  millennium.  Let  Christ  triumph  and  men  will 
be  happy  and  free. 

A  glance  at  the  condition  of  things  in  the  realm  of  industry 
and  commerce  is  sutRcient  to  convince  us,  that  we  are  far  from  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Selfish,  materialistic  ideas  and  practices  pre- 
vail. The  spirit  of  greed  is  abroad — it  is  no  stranger  in  any  clime. 
The  passion  for  wealth  is  deep  and  widespread.  Men  love  money. 
They  hasten  to  be  rich.  Pernicious  customs  penetrate  the  market. 
Our  foods  are  adulterated,  until  we  are  afraid  to  eat  them,  lest 
we  should  be  poisoned.  Prices  are  put  up  by  artificial  and  unnatural 
means.  Big  combines  and  trusts  hold  the  populations  in  their 
grip.  They  really  assume  the  character  of  the  highwayman.  They 
seize  the  throat  of  the  community,  poke  the  pistol  at  its  head  and 
say,  "your  money  or  your  life,"  and  in  some  cases  do  not  seem 
satisfied  until  they  have  exacted  both. 

Capital  and  labor  are  in  conflict,  whereas  their  interests  should 
be  identical;  they  are  often  opposed  and  we  have  the  clash  and 
disaster  of  industrial  war.  I  think  that  here  in  Canada  you  settle 
your  industrial  disputes  by  arbitration,  as  also  they  do  in  New 
Zealand.    That  is  common  sense — statesmanship.     In  Great  Britain, 


220  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

on  the  continent  of  Europe,  and  I  think  in  the  United  States  we  are 
accustomed  to  strilces  and  lockouts.  Recently  we  have  had  in  England 
a  strilie-epidemic.  The  schoolboys  caught  the  passion,  they  struck  for 
less  care  and  more  holidays.  Not  only  the  trades  that  had  quarrels 
with  their  employers  struck,  but  other  trades  struck  in  sympathy  with 
them,  and  the  general  strike  is  a  terrible  weapon.  Workmen  have 
discovered  in  it  a  power  by  which  they  can  at  any  moment  paralyze, 
transport  and  bring  business  to  a  standstill.  In  a  few  days  they 
can  reduce  our  great  cities  to  the  point  of  starvation  and  famine. 

The  strike  is  a  rough  and  clumsy  instrument.  It  hits  the 
innocent  most  severely.  It  creates  bad  blood — leaves  in  its  trail 
the  spirit  of  bitterness.  Its  results  one  fears  are  frequently  of 
doubtful  value.  Yet  with  all  its  evils  and  disadvantages  I  am  not 
disposed  to  deny  that  it  has  been  a  means  of  social  progress.  It 
has  redressed  many  a  grievance,  avenged  many  a  wrong,  and  care- 
ful, clear-sighted,  level-headed  men  like  the  Right  Honourable 
Thomas  Burt,  M.  P.,  are  not  prepared  in  the  present  state  of  things 
to  abandon  it.  But  surely  the  time  has  come  when  neither  men 
nor  masters  should  be  able  to  force  a  strike  or  lockout,  but  should 
be  compelled  to  refer  their  case  for  final  decision  to  a  Court  of 
Arbitration  that  shall  be  so  constituted  and  conducted  as  to  com- 
mand the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  public  and  of  those 
immediately  concerned  in  its  judgment.  Now,  why  this  restless 
discontent  among  the  workers  of  the  world?  It  is  a  revolt  against 
conditions  that  are  flagrantly  unjust.  They  feel  and  know  that  they 
are  not  getting  their  fair  share  of  profits  and  of  the  wealth  that 
they  create.  Enormously  too  much  goes  to  capital  and  enormously 
too  little — if  you  will  excuse  the  phrase — goes  to  labor. 

Present  conditions  are  not  only  unjust — they  are  tyrannical 
and  oppressive.  They  bear  hardly  and  with  crushing  effect  upon 
vast  sections  of  worthy  and  deserving  toilers.  They  are  shock- 
ingly underpaid.  They  toil  and  toil,  sweat  and  strain  day  after  day, 
through  the  livelong  year,  and  when  they  have  gone  to  the  limit 
of  their  strength  and  have  poured  out  their  last  ounce  and  atom 
of  energy,  they  have  not  earned  enough  to  keep  body  and  soul 
together.  Take  a  case.  The  London  Daily  News,  on  August  23rd, 
last,  told  its  readers  that  in  many  instances,  the  shunters  on  British 
railroads  received  only  a  pound  per  week — less  than  five  dollars. 
Now  the  shunter's  work  is  arduous.  It  requires  care,  promptitude, 
alertness.  It  is  risky  and  dangerous.  He  is  exposed  to  all  weathers 
and  has  little  chance  of  promotion  and  he  receives  the  handsome 
remuneration  of  one  pound  per  week,  and  some  of  the  railway  direc^ 
tors  seem  to  imagine  he  should  be  passing  rich  at  that  high  rate  of 
income.  The  sense  of  injustice  in  the  masses  and  of  the  wretched- 
ness of  their  environment  is  aggravated  and  heightened  by  conti-ast 
with  the  flash  and  glitter,  the  sumptuosity  and  splendour  of  the 
leisured  and  moneyed  classes. 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  S.  S.  HENSHAW.  221 

This  impossible  struggle  for  existence  has  repeatedly  in  history 
goaded  the  people  to  red  rebellion.  It  was  one  of  the  causes  that 
lay  at  the  bottom  of  the  French  Revolution.  The  lack  of  bread 
drove  the  mob  to  madness.  The  frenzied  mothers  of  starving 
families  rushed  out  to  Versailles,  stormed  the  palace,  captured  the 
King,  Queen  and  Dauphin,  and  as  they  dragged  them  through  the 
streets  of  Paris,  shouted,  "we  have  brought  the  baker,  the  baker's 
wife,  and  the  baker's  son." 

"Allah,  allah,"  cries  the  stranger, 

"Wondrous  sights  the  traveler  sees; 
But  the  latest  is  the  p:reatest. 

Where  the  drones  control  the  bees." 

Well,  that  process  will  not  continue  undisturbed  for  ever.  The 
drones  have  had  a  pretty  long  inning.  It  is  time  the  bees  had  a 
turn.  That  is  the  thought  back  of  the  heads  of  the  people.  It  is 
travelling  round  to  the  front.  It  is  becoming  vocal  and  is  finding 
eloquent  and  insistent  expression.  The  people  are  growing  inci-eas- 
ingly  conscious  of  their  power.  In  all  free  states  they  are  the 
supreme  and  final  authority,  government  rests  upon  their  shoulders. 
They  will  assert  their  majesty.  Intolerable  wrongs  will  not  be 
meekly  endured.  The  very  manliness  of  a  man  forbids  him  sub- 
mitting to  anything  that  offends  his  self-respect,  and  the  more 
manly  men  are  the  more  restive  they  will  be  under  circumstances 
that  place  marks  of  indignity  upon  them. 

Now  apply  the  teachings  of  Christ,  in  the  world  of  industry  and 
commerce  and  you  will  silently  and  effectually  alter  a  great  many 
things  that  clamor  for  correction.  You  will  cure  the  contagious 
inequalities  that  exist,  and  hasten  the  time,  which  Herbert  Spencer 
suggested  was  coming,  "when  it  will  become  a  matter  of  wonder 
that  there  should  ever  have  existed  those  who  thought  it  admirable 
to  enjoy  without  working,  at  the  expense  of  crhers  who  worked 
without  enjoying."  The  system  that  produces  abounding  wealth 
for  the  few,  that  spells  abject  want  for  the  many — that  produces 
the  millionaire  on  the  one  hand  and  the  sweated  workman  on  the 
other — cries  for  amendment,  is  not  Christian,  but  heathen.  Given 
a  Christian  system  we  shall  emphasize,  not  the  wealth  of  men  but 
the  worth  of  man.  We  shall  recognize  that  of  all  values,  the  soul 
is  the  highest,  and  under  the  sway  of  Christian  justice,  it  seems 
to  me  that  we  should  at  once  concede,  to  the  honest,  industrious 
workman  five  or  six  things.  1.  The  right  to  suitable  employment. 
2.  Proper  remuneration,  or  a  living  wage.  3.  A  decent  home,  not 
a  stuffy,  stifling  tenement  in  the  slum  or  a  damp,  draughty,  reeking, 
ramshackle  shanty  of  a  cabin  or  cottage,  but  a  place  fit  for  human 
habitation  and  becoming  the  dignity  of  a  man.  4.  A  little  leisure; 
leisure  to  read,  think,  recreate,  rest;  leisure  to  worship,  to  culti- 
vate the  domestic  instincts,  the  spiritual  aspirations  of  his  nature. 


222  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

5.  A  sustained  maintenance  when  the  years  are  growing  long  and 
the  strength  is  fading  away. 

Thank  God  we  have  made  a  start  in  Great  Britain.  Lloyd 
George  has  shown  us  the  way.  He  has  given  us  the  famous  Budget, 
the  foundation  of  mighty  reforms.  We  have  old  age  pensions.  We  are 
discussing  National  Insurance  against  sickness  and  unemployment, 
and  a  new  era  is  dawning  in  our  old  land.  We  shall  yet  colonise 
the  vast  acres  that  are  devoted  to  the  sports  of  the  rich  by  a  flour- 
ishing peasantry. 

In  the  settlement  of  the  great  questions  we  are  discussing  and 
in  the  making  and  moulding  of  the  future  the  organized  forces  of 
religion  must  be  alert  and  active.  The  Churches  must  step  to  the 
front,  raise  their  banners  and  fight,  fight  the  battles  of  their  Lord. 
They  are  designed  to  be  the  real  saviors  of  society  and  to  guide  the 
democracies  of  the  earth  to  their  true  destinies.  They  must  be 
awake  and  alive  to  their  obligation.  What  can  the  Churches  do  in 
these  matters?  What  is  their  duty?  That  is  a  large  subject,  the 
fringe  of  which  we  have  scarcely  time  to  touch.  But  the  Churches 
must  show  the  tenderest  sympathy  with  the  genuine  poor — as  their 
Master  did.  They  must  take  the  defenseless  imder  their  shields. 
They  must  denounce  wickedness,  whether  in  one  man  or  party  or 
another.  You  remember,  how  the  Christ  held  up  the  rich  rascals 
of  his  day.  "Woe  to  you,  scribes,  pharisees,  hypocrites,  who  devour 
widows'  houses  and  for  a  pretense  make  long  prayers."  The 
Churches  must  insist  on  the  law  of  Christ  becoming  the  law  of  our 
civilization.  They  must  not  be  deterred  by  the  charge  of  becoming 
political. 

Mazzini  said,  "Every  political  question  is  rapidly  becoming  a 
social  question  and  every  social  question  a  religious  question." 
That  statement  is  even  truer  in  our  day  than  it  was  in  his  day. 
We  must  urge,  and  urge  persistently  that  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
shall  become  the  basis  and  inspiration  of  every  act  and  every  move- 
ment in  the  life  of  the  individual  or  the  policy  of  the  nation.  I  am 
sorry  to  see  that  Ramsey  MacDonald,  M.  P.,  in  his  new  book  on 
"Socialism"  suggests  that  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  at  present  im- 
possible of  application.  I  do  believe  that  we  could  apply  it,  if 
we  would.  It  ought  to  be  applied.  What  ought  to  be,  can  be,  and 
what  ought  to  be  and  can  be  in  the  name  of  God,  shall  be. 

The  Churches  must  establish  perfect  equality  of  sentiment 
within  the  Churches.  That  would  go  far  towards  helping  us  to 
win  back  the  multitudes  who  have  wandered  from  us.  Social  dis- 
tinctions must  vanish  from  the  gates  of  the  sanctuary.  They  have 
been  perpetuated  far  too  long.  Men  must  be  regarded  not  as  rich 
and  poor,  but  as  men  and  Christians,  and  the  poor  man  of  sense, 
judgment,  capacity,  character  must  stand  a  chance  of  promotion 
and  office. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  R.  W.  ESSEX.  223 

And  finally,  the  Churches  must  not  forget  that  their  mission 
is  to  regenerate  the  hearts  of  men.  Upon  the  regeneration  of  the 
heart  by  the  Spirit  and  power  of  God  depends  the  ultimate  success 
of  the  Christian  commonwealth.  By  serving  the  soul  of  the  indi- 
vidual you  serve  the  soul  of  society.  Put  men  right  with  God,  you 
put  men  right  with  one  another  and  you  send  them  forth  bravely 
to  serve  their  generation  according  to  the  will  of  God  and  to  build 
up  the  city  which  John  saw  descending  from  Heaven — the  city  of 
light  and  healing,  rest  and  happiness,  peace  and  plenty,  music  and 
song  upon  every  shore  and  under  every  sky  beneath  the  sun. 

The  Chairman:  "Mr.  Arthur  Henderson  is  sitting  on  a 
royal  commission  in  London,  and  therefore  can  not  be  present 
to-day.  An  excellent  colleague  has  kindly  consented  to  step 
into  ills  shoes — Mr.  E.  W.  Essex,  M.  P." 

Mr.  Essex  spoke  as  follows: 

Mr.  Chairman,  ladies,  and  gentlemen,  I  am  here,  as  your  chair- 
man has  told  you,  because  my  good  friend  Arthur  Henderson  is 
occupied  in  the  settlement  of  the  labor  question  in  a  far-away  land; 
and  it  was  deemed  that  someone  closely  connected  with  labor  move- 
ments and  representing  a  labor  constituency,  though  not  a  labor 
member  as  we  understand  it  in  London,  should  say  a  few  words 
in  his  stead.  I  do  not  know  that  that  could  have  been  better  done 
than  by  yourself,  sir,  save  that  you  are  a  rich  man.  I  want  to 
say  a  few  words  upon  this  burning  question,  and  to  ask  you  to 
approach  it — you  are  a  particularly  intelligent  audience,  probably 
one  of  the  most  intelligent  audiences  that  Methodism  can  gather 
together  to-day,  and  that  is  saying  a  lot — I  want  to  ask  you  to 
approach  this  question  from  the  standpoint  of  Christianity.  I  re- 
member Sir  Wilfrid  Lawson  saying  that  he  came  aci-oss  a  little 
boy  and  he  said  to  him,  "My  boy,  is  your  father  a  Christian?" 
The  boy  said,  "Well,  I  think  he  is,  sir,  but  he  has  not  been  doing 
much  at  it  lately."  The  root  of  our  trouble  in  this  labor  question 
lies  just  there.  According  to  the  depth  and  quality  of  our  Christ 
likeness  is  the  ease  with  which  we  shall  solve  this  trouble. 

I  do  not  think  I  would  be  dealing  fairly  with  the  audience  if 
I  failed  to  state  as  it  seems  to  me  the  problem  with  which  we 
have  to  deal.  As  a  great  civilized  English-speaking  community 
we  are,  I  believe,  at  the  parting  of  the  ways.  The  time  of  do- 
mestic wars  is  over  and  gone.  But  the  time  of  commercial  wars 
and  rivalry  has  come.  And  it  is  going  to  shake  our  society  from 
top  to  bottom;  and  if  it  is  not  rightly  founded  and  bolted  it  will 
topple  and  crumble  and  fall  with  us  underneath.  Some  years  ago 
away  in  the  sunny  seas  of  South  Europe  stood  an  ancient  building 
admired  and  reverenced  through  the  centuries  as  one  of  the  most 


234  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

beautiful  monuments  of  genius  and  art  that  the  world  could  show. 
There  came  a  time  when  that  Venetian  Campanile  shuddered  and 
fell.  Why?  Because,  beautiful  as  the  design  wag  and  consummate 
as  was  the  labor  thrown  upon  it,  it  was  not  properly  combined 
together  and  there  was  in  it  a  lack  of  coherence.  In  the  testing 
time  it  fell  into  utter  ruin.  I  wonder  whether  our  civilization, 
with  all  its  glory  and  expansion,  has  come  to  a  time  when  it  will 
have  to  meet  with  the  vibrations  that  will  test  its  make-up.  "What 
are  they?  You  are  feeling  to-day  the  full  fruits  of  new  discoveries, 
steam  and  electricity.  They  are  altering  the  relation  of  one  part 
of  the  world  to  another  part.  You  are  making  the  savage  a  civ- 
ilized man,  and  educating  him.  You  are  taking  the  gospel  to  China 
and  Africa.  You  are  preventing  them  from  flying  at  each  other's 
throats  when  you  can.  You  are  introducing  industrialism  into 
their  lands.  You  will  have  to  meet  the  result,  and  you  are  going 
to  feel  the  pinch  of  it  to-day.  I  often  wonder  what  will  come  to 
our  civilization  when  John  Chinaman  gets  fairly  alive.  The  moral 
sense  of  the  world  will  never  allow  you  to  do  with  him  what  you 
have  done  in  the  past.  When  he  sets  out  in  the  world's  business — 
you  only  know  him  as  a  laundry-man  now — if  you  have  not  settled 
this  problem  of  yours  in  its  smaller  form  there  will  be  the  time 
of  our  settling  it  in  the  larger.  For  I  judge  that  the  Chinaman 
in  business  is  going  to  make  even  the  children  of  Israel  sell  their 
very  clothing!  Then  you  have  got  Africa  with  its  virile,  fresh, 
child  people,  capable  of  wondrous  endurance;  and  the  climatic  con- 
ditions that  the  white  man  can  not  handle.  The  African  in  his 
millions  with  his  wonderfully  fertile  soil  is  coming  into  your 
markets  with  his  product.  What  is  that  going  to  mean  for  your 
laboring  man? 

As  a  business  man  I  look  out  to-day  upon  these  troubles,  great 
as  they  are,  as  but  the  first  rumbling  of  the  storm.  I  do  not 
want  to  be  a  Jeremiah  and  preach  a  sad  gospel.  I  believe  that 
that  for  which  you  stand,  in  pith  and  core  and  spirit,  is  equal 
to  facing  this  problem;  but  you  have  to  face  it.  And  you  must 
face  it  with  love.  Our  industrialism  is  built  to-day  largely  upon 
the  old  Manchester  doctrine  of  laissez  faire,  or,  as  we  put  it  in 
cockney  English,  "Every  man  for  himself  and  the  devil  take  the 
last." 

The  Church  has  been  preaching  with  a  new  fervor  and  force 
the  brotherhood  of  man.  There  is  a  man  outside  your  door  and 
he  says,  "The  brotherhood  of  man!  Where  do  I  come?"  We  have 
got  to  settle  that.  Vv'^e  are  saying,  "What  will  the  Church  do  for 
labor?"  That  is  not  the  way  to  get  at  it.  We  are  to  say,  "What 
is  to  be  our  separate  and  individual  share  in  the  great  world  of 
God?"  Who  are  we,  though  we  may  be  highly  respectable  and  in 
the  enjoyment  of  the  good  things  of  this  life,  that  we  say  that 
we  will  give  our  hardhanded  brother  this  or  that — that  we  think 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  ARTHUR  HENDERSON.  225 

he  ought  to  have  fifteen  shillings  in  the  pound  or  ninety  cents 
on  the  dollar?  We  are  not  going  to  get  through  hy  that  road. 
We  have  got  to  face  this  new  problem  from  an  entirely  new  angle. 
Am  I  a  socialist?  I  do  not  know.  I  know  I  am  a  sociableist.  I 
love  my  fellow  men  well  enough  to  say  that  we  need  not  merely 
to  talk  about  this  in  an  eloquent  way,  but  to  pray  over  it,  to 
take  it  about  with  us  and  turn  it  over  and  over  and  over  again 
prayerfully,  rather  than  some  minor  problem. 

Again  I  say,  imderlying  the  fabric  of  our  civilization  to-day  is 
this  great  question  of  the  partition  of  the  gifts  of  God  between 
all  His  children.  Have  I  as  an  employer  of  labor,  or  have  I  as 
a  worker,  been  in  right  relation  to  my  fellows?  I  set  out  in  the 
world  selling  the  labor  of  my  childish  hands  at  eleven  years  of 
age;  and  I  know  what  it  is  to  stay  up  at  night  to  patch  a  too 
meager  education.  I  say  to  the  good  people  of  Toronto,  we  Eng- 
lish-speaking peoples  have  given  to  the  world  many  and  many  a 
priceless  idea.  We  have  stood  up  before  the  sons  of  men  in  times 
of  crisis  and  have  pointed  the  way  out  through  the  darkness  into 
the  light.  To-day  the  world  stands  wondering  in  face  of  a  tre- 
mendous problem.  It  comes  to  the  doors  of  our  sanctuaries,  and 
says  to  you  men  and  women,  "Has  your  God  anything  to  say  for 
this  world  of  sorrow,  and  any  message  for  those  who  are  in  un- 
requited toil  and  suffering?"  When  we  are  whole-heartedly  deter- 
mined that  we  will  take  commercial  failure  rather  than  rob  our 
fellows, — when  we  have  come  to  that  point,  God  may  not  ask  us 
for  that  final  sacrifice.  We  may  not  be  asked  to  move  faster  than 
the  army  with  which  we  are  marching.  But  at  any  rate  we  may 
pray  to  be  faithful.  And  finally,  through  it  all,  we  must  remem- 
ber, and  remember  with  patience,  that  we  are  in  an  imperfect, 
incomplete  world.  The  world  is  in  the  making.  Its  people  are 
but  children.  And  we  shall  try  and  try  again.  Ramsay  McDonald 
was  right  when  he  said  that  the  sermon  on  the  mount  was  im- 
possible in  the  world  of  to-day  as  we  know  it,  that  if  it  were  put 
in  practice  we  should  be  in  a  state  of  abject  misery.  But  in  God's 
good  time  it  will  come.  And  I  want  the  Church  of  my  boyhood 
and  manhood  to  be  holding  wide  open  the  door  for  all  the  sons 
and  daughters  of  Adam  in  all  we  do.  The  solvent  of  all  the 
trouble  is  love.  May  that  love  be  with  us  all.  "The  fashion  of 
this  world  passeth  away."  Let  us  be  faithful  in  the  ante-chamber 
to  this  great  responsibility,  and  amid  these  changing  conditions 
hold  fearlessly  to  the  loving  arm  of  the  Father. 

Mr.  Arthur  Henderson,  M.  P.,  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church,  had  sent  liis  paper,  and  the  presiding  officer  read  it: 

It  would  be  well-nigh  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  urgency 
and  importance  of  the  problem  of  industry.  However,  paradoxical 
15 


236  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

it  may  appear,  it  has  to  be  admitted  that  as  civilization  advances 
the  more  grave  and  acute  does  this  problem  become. 

Recent  events  in  this  and  other  countries  have  revealed  the 
existence  of  a  wide-spread  discontent  that  is  both  profound  and 
deep.  Some  of  its  manifestations  demonstrate  that  it  is  accom- 
panied by  dangers  that  might  easily  become  a  menace  to  social 
order  and  national  security. 

The  comprehensive  character  of  the  unrest  may  be  gathered 
from  reports  of  riots,  agitations,  strikes,  and  threatened  strikes, 
in  France,  Germany,  Belgium,  Austria,  Spain,  Portugal,  United 
States,  Great  Britain,  and  in  some  of  her  oversea  dominions.  The 
menacing  aspect  of  this  situation  should  not  be  measured  exclu- 
sively by  some  lockout,  strike,  or  similar  incident  in  industrial 
life.  Such  incidents  but  serve  to  remind  us  that  in  all  civilised 
communities  the  problem  of  industry  is  inter-related  to  many  of 
our  most  acute  social  evils,  which  not  only  touch  collective  life 
to  its  depths,  but  possesses  a  significance  which  is  both  economic 
and  moral. 

If  the  position  be  examined  with  care,  it  will  not  be  difficult 
to  detect  both  the  primary  and  supreme  causes  of  the  prevailing 
discontent.  It  is  the  direct  and  inevitable  outcome  of  our  modern 
Industrial  system.  Most  civilised  countries  have  solved  the  prob- 
lem of  wealth  production  without  having  sufficient  regard  to  the 
principles  of  equity  and  justice  in  its  distribution.  As  a  conse- 
quence they  are  confronted  with  the  most  awful  extremes  in  life. 
Multitudes  of  our  poor  are  exposed  to  conditions,  altogether  incon- 
sistent with  the  ordinary  standards  of  decent  living,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  high  ethical  code  of  our  Christian  faith.  Under-paid,  under- 
fed, and  badly-housed,  it  can  not  be  any  wonder  that  we  have  occa- 
sional outbursts  of  discontent.  The  workers  are  convinced  that 
they  are  largely  the  victims  of  a  competitive  system,  controlled 
for  profit  and  not  for  service.  Sober,  intelligent  workmen  every- 
where are  giving  evidence  of  their  determination  to  be  no  longer 
satisfied  with  being  regarded  merely  as  wealth-producing  instru- 
ments, to  be  discarded  at  the  arbitrary  dictation  of  a  system  of 
political  economy,  or  willingly  to  suffer  through  the  rigid  appli- 
cation of  the  law  of  supply  and  demand.  They  are  of  opinion 
that  they  are  souls  and  not  machines;  and  in  common  justice  they 
must  be  permitted  to  share  in  larger  measure  the  bounties  of 
nature,  and  enjoy  to  a  greater  degree  the  fruits  of  service  and  devo- 
tion by  which  they  have  contributed  so  largely  to  national  wealth. 

The  Churches  everywhere  must  be  reminded  of  the  existence 
of  this  great  problem  of  industry;  for,  though  it  may  be  difficult 
to  determine  what  exactly  is  the  part  which  the  organized  followers 
of  Christ  should  take  in  settling  industrial  and  economic  questions, 
this  much  is  certain:    the  Churches  can  not  exclude  such  questions 


ADDRESS  BY  MR.  ARTHUR  HENDERSON.  227 

from  the  rightful  sphere  of  their  duty.  We  are  not  suggesting  that 
they  should  ally  themselves  with  any  particular  class  or  political 
party.  Much  harm  has  already  resulted  from  the  impression  that 
the  Churches  are  under  the  influence,  if  not  the  domination,  of 
what  is  called  the  "Capitalist  Class."  Matters  would  not  be  im- 
proved by  going  to  the  opposite  extreme. 

The  Churches  must  see  how  far  commerce  and  industry  are 
carried  on  in  harmony  with  the  high  ethical  principles  which  they 
teach.  They  must  also  recognize  the  marvellous  change  in  the 
public  outlook  with  regard  to  social  wrong  and  economic  inequality. 
They  can  not  profess  deep  concern  with  the  "life"  because  the 
"life"  is  spiritual  and  sacred,  and  remain  indifferent  to  the  means 
of  lt\'elihood,  because  they  are  material  and  secular.  They  Can  not 
continue  to  condemn  the  ideals  and  proposals  of  reformers  as  being 
Utopian  and  extreme,  and  yet  pursue  a  policy  of  inaction  without 
sharing  the  retribution  of  neglect.  If  these  ideals  are  in  them- 
selves right,  if  they  recognize  the  value  of  human  life  and  seek 
to  give  fuller  opportunities  for  maintaining  that  value,  if  the  ap- 
plication of  such  ideals  results  in  finding  a  solution  for  the  sweater's 
den  and  secures  the  removal  of  the  rags  of  Lazarus  at  the  gates 
of  our  civilization,  surely  it  is  Godlike  thus  to  remove  conditions 
so  destructive  of  the  divine  in  human  life. 

The  Churches  must  not  only  condemn  "sweating"  and  similar 
evils  in  the  abstract;  they  must  speak  out  in  terms  that  are  clear 
and  unmistakable,  demanding  that  no  one  is  morally  justified  in 
obtaining  affluence,  luxury  and  ease,  at  the  cost  of  the  necessities 
of  others.  They  must  declare  that  any  system  of  wealth  distribu- 
tion that  grinds  the  face  of  the  poor  and  results  in  extreme  wealth 
on  the  one  hand  and  exacting,  relentless,  cruel  poverty  on  the 
other,  is  inconsistent  with  Divine  Fatherhood  and  human  Brother- 
hood. 

Moreover,  Christianity  must  seek  the  removal  of  all  artificial 
barriers  to  a  full  and  complete  life,  by  asserting  T.ie  value  of  every 
human  life,  and  the  securing  of  an  unrestricted  opportunity  of 
realizing  that  full  life  in  harmony  with  the  great  social,  moral  and 
spiritual  responsibilities  devolving  upon  it.  To  make  this  possible, 
the  Churches  should  make  it  part  of  their  message  to  the  world 
that  a  living  wage  must  be  a  first  charge  upon  the  profits  of 
industry;  and  remembering  that  the  poverty  of  the  poor  often 
means  not  only  physical  but  moral  destruction,  they  must  seek 
to  influence  the  problem  of  wealth  distribution,  having  regard 
to  the  relationship  of  economic  inequality  and  social  degradation. 

The  service  closed  with  the  benediction. 


228  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 


EVENING   SERVICE. 

The  pastor,  Dr.  W.  L.  Armstrong;,  had  charge  of  the  service 
beginning  at  7  o'clock. 

Hymn  24  was  sung, 

"Holy,  holy,  holy.  Lord  God  Almighty," 

and  the  Rev.  Dr.  J.  H.  Moulton  offered  prayer. 
After  the  singing  of  Hymn  668, 

"O  thou,  to  whom,  in  ancient  time," 

the  Rev.  W.  H.  Fitchett,  LL.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Church  of 
Australia,  preached  the  sermon,  as  follows : 

You  had  this  morning  from  this  pulpit  a  sermon  of  very  re- 
markable power  by  Dr.  Day,  that  gave  with  overwhelming  force 
one  side  of  religion,  the  range  and  sweep  of  man's  duty.  To-night 
I  propose  to  give  the  sister  truth,  the  other  section  of  the  great 
circle  on  which  religion  stands,  the  range  and  greatness  of  divine 
power  that  stands  for  man's  help  and  on  man's  side,  and  makes 
all  the  great  attainments  of  religion  possible.  My  text  is  in  the 
fifteenth  chapter  of  the  book  of  Genesis,  part  of  verse  eleven — 
just  two  words.  You  may  forget  my  sermon,  but  you  can  hardly 
forget  my  text — "Doing  wonders."  The  whole  verse  reads,  "Who 
is  like  unto  Thee,  O  Lord,  among  the  gods?  Who  is  like  Thee, 
glorious  in  holiness,  fearful  in  praises,  doing  wonders?"  Doing 
them  to-day,  doing  them  on  every  side;  not  some  God  staying  far 
back  behind  the  stars,  who  once  did  wonderful  things  but  no  longer 
takes  part  in  human  life,  but  a  God  in  our  midst,  a  God  who  in 
every  season  and  at  every  moment  of  our  lives  is  doing  wonders. 
And  the  pity  and  tragedy  of  human  life  is  that  men  stand  blind 
to  God's  wonders.  I  think  that  the  quick  eye  that  can  see  the 
wonder,  and  the  swift  intelligence  that  can  measure  it,  and  the 
quick  imagination  that  answers  to  it,  these  are  gifts  to  be  prayed 
for,  to  be  coveted.  If  some  strange  blindness  touched  your  eye  so 
that  beauty  for  you  did  not  exist — the  grass,  or  flower,  the  glory 
of  the  sunset,  the  face  of  the  little  child, — if  you  could  not  see, 
if  your  eye  lost  the  power  to  discern  beauty;  if  some  strange 
paralysis  touched  your  ear,  and  music  for  you  ceased  to  have 
power  to  reach  your  brain,  why,  you  would  be  a  cripple.  You 
would  walk  among  your  fellow  men  maimed  and  crippled.  O,  to 
stand  in  this  great  world  of  God's  not  with  a  blind  eye  or  a 
deaf  ear,   but  with   a   frozen   soul   that   never   feels   the   touch   of 


SERMON  OF  THE  REV.  W.  H.  FITCHETT.  329 

the  divine  hand,  a  soul  on  which  God's  great  wonders  are  wasted! 
May  God  save  us  from  that  worst  blindness,  the  blindness  to  God's 
wonders! 

We  have  a  child-like  folly,  that  only  that  is  wonderful  which 
comes  in  some  unusual  shape  or  comes  at  some  novel  time.  If 
you  had  stood  on  the  slope  of  Sinai,  and  seen  the  burning  bush 
over  whose  foliage  the  flame  ran  without  burning  it,  you  would 
have  taken  off  your  shoes,  like  Moses.  That  was  wonderful.  But 
yet  every  common  flower  in  your  garden — try  to  realize  its  history, 
how  the  brown  earth,  the  blowing  wind,  the  nourishing  rain,  the 
very  swing  of  the  planets,  have  united  to  bring  that  flower  into 
existence;  and  there  it  stands,  one  of  God's  thoughts,  with  that 
woven  fabric  and  with  its  perfume,  the  flower's  worship!  And 
we  fail  to  see  the  divine  in  the  flower!  We  are  blind!  The 
Imagination  is  shrivelled;  we  lack  the  vision  for  the  wonder.  A 
few  months  ago  there  came  on  the  Western  horizon  every  night  a 
milky  stain  of  light,  and  the  telescopes  of  all  the  obseTvers  in 
the  world  were  turning  to  that  faint  stain  of  light.  It  was 
Halley's  comet,  and  the  world  waited  for  it  and  watched  it.  They 
photographed  it,  reported  it,  and  many  of  you,  I  suspect,  got  up 
at  unnatural  hours  to  see  that  comet.  What  made  it  strange? 
It  comes  only  once  in  seventy-two  years.  If  it  came  every  twenty- 
four  hours  it  would  be  common-place.  My  dear  friends,  if  the  sun 
came  to  this  world  only  once  in  seventy-two  years  you  would  all  get 
up  to  see  it  rise.  I  should  not  like  to  know  when  last  any  of  you  did 
see  the  sun  rise.  It  is  common-place,  the  coming  of  the  sun.  And 
yet  they  tell  of  William  Blake,  poet,  artist,  saint,  that  to  old  age 
he  used  to  climb  every  morning  a  hill  and  watch  until  the  sun 
rose.  He  was  asked  why  he  took  such  pains  seven  days  a  week 
to  climb  that  hill  and  watch  for  the  coming  of  the  sun.  And 
said  Blake,  "Do  you  know  what  I  see  when  the  sun  comes?  I  see 
an  innumerable  company  of  angels  praising  God  and  saying  'Holy! 
holy!  holy!'"  And  don't  you  wish  you  had  a  touch,  if  not  of 
the  poet  or  of  the  artist,  yet  of  the  saint  that  watches  to  see  God 
doing  His  wonders,  and  does  not  cease  to  know  they  are  wonders 
because  they  come  often?  Why,  think  how  upon  the  Eastern  fron- 
tier of  every  common-place  day  God  sets  the  glory  of  the  sunrise! 
On  the  Western  frontier  He  sets  the  splendor  of  the  sunset.  And 
our  common-place  day  is  a  little  section  of  time  set  betwixt  two 
splendors;  above,  the  arching  sky  with  its  stars,  and  beneath,  the 
green  earth,  the  many  colored  earth.  We  are  living  in  God's 
casket  of  beauty,  in  God's  jewel  case,  and  we  can  not  see  it!  We 
look  vaguely,  only  half  discerning  the  wonderful  and  only  half 
moved  by  it. 

I  want  to-night  to  set  before  you,  first,  the  wonders  God  is  doing 
in  the  world  about  us,  in  the  physical  realm.     I  make  no  apology' 


230  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

for  doing  that.  I  think  it  is  part  of  our  religion.  But  your  re- 
ligion is  ignorant,  dark,  imperfect,  if  it  lacks  this  quality,  the 
vision  for  what  God  our  Father  is  doing  in  this  world.  This  world 
is  God's  world  quite  as  much  as  heaven  is.  It  is  quite  true  that 
it  is  equipped,  furnished,  fitted-up  as  a  schoolhouse,  a  training 
ground,  and  not  as  a  heaven.  But  if  you  can  not  see  God's  work 
and  God's  wonders  in  this  world,  I  doubt  whether  you  will  see 
them  in  any  other.  The  quick,  aroused,  vigilant  attention  that 
can  see  God  at  work,  and  that  finds  the  whole  world  lifted  up  into 
significance  and  splendor  and  beauty  by  the  wonders  God  is  doing! 
It  is  the  common-place  mind  that  makes  a  common-place  world. 
And  there  never  was  yet  a  company  of  people  that  ought  to  have 
such  a  sense  of  the  wonders  God  is  doing  in  the  world  around  us, 
as  we  to-day. 

For  I  want  you  to  see  that  science  to-day  is  writing  a  new 
Bible  for  us.  It  will  not  displace  that  Bible,  but  it  is  a  Bible  of 
divine  wonders,  with  psalms  in  it.  And  they  that  write  them  and 
sing  them  do  not  know  they  are  psalms, — but  they  are  revelations 
of  the  works  of  God  around  us,  under  our  feet,  above  our  heads. 
Science  to-day  is,  in  a  degree  without  parallel  in  history,  opening 
one  door  after  another  in  God's  great  world  and  showing  us  God  at 
work.  You  remember  how  Kepler,  when  he  began  to  spell  out  the 
alphabet  of  the  stars,  said,  "I  am  thinking  God's  thoughts  after 
Him."  And  science  everywhere  is  thinking  thoughts  after  Him, 
telling  us  what  they  are.  I  can  never  understand  those  good 
people  who  think  that  science  is  going  to  injure  religion.  I  be- 
lieve that  science  is  about  to  render  to  religion  such  splendid  ser- 
vice as  will  reinforce  faith  in  God  everywhere.  To-day  science 
stands  like  a  little  child  with  pointing  finger,  telling  every  day 
some  story  of  the  wonders  God  is  doing  in  this  world  of  ours. 
Mr.  Armstrong  read  to  you  that  noble  psalm,  one  of  the  great 
poems  of  history,  the  nineteenth  psalm, — "The  heavens  declare  the 
glory  of  God."  But  how  much  did  David  know  of  the  glory  of 
the  heavens?  He  had  never  looked  through  a  telescope.  All  that 
he  saw  was  just  the  six  thousand  stars;  there  are  only  six  thousand 
stars  that  lie  within  the  curve  of  the  natural  sight.  Only  six 
thousand  stars!  But  to-day  go  into  that  great  observatory  and 
look  through  the  equatorial  telescope,  and  that  multiplies  the  sweep 
of  vision  two  hundred  times;  and  where  David  saw  six  thousand 
stars  we  to-day  can  see  sixty  million  stars.  And  then  about  thirty 
years  ago  an  astronomer  tried  a  strange  experiment.  He  put  a 
sensitive  photographic  plate  at  the  eye-piece  of  his  instrument,  and 
let  it  stay  there  all  night.  In  the  morning  the  plate  was  pricked 
with  pin-points  of  light.  Every  tiny  speck  of  white  was  the  ghost 
of  a  star.  Down  the  great  telescope  all  the  night  long  there  came 
images  of  stars  that  the  eye  could  not  see  through  the  telescope; 


SERMON  OF  THE  REV.  W.  H.  FITCHETT.  231 

but  the  sensitized  plate  got  them,  registered  them.  I  have,  myself, 
seen  a  photograph  taken  from  a  tiny  patch  of  what  seemed  the 
empty  sky,  and  on  that  plate  were  fourteen  thousand  stars  that 
the  eye  could  not  see.  Multiply  that  around  the  heavens,  and  think 
of  the  uncounted  hosts  of  the  stars.  If  David  could  write  the 
nineteenth  psalm,  in  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  to-day  would 
not  his  music  take  a  new  sweetness  and  a  new  range?  Some  of  you 
may  have  read  the  story  of  how  Herschel  tried  to  sound  the  depths 
of  the  Milky  Way.  How  deep  is  that  great  cloud  of  stars?  He 
chose  an  apparently  vacant  spot  in  what  they  called  the  "sword- 
handle  of  Perseus,"  smote  through  with  a  telescope  of  a  certain 
power,  and  lo!  the  vacant  patch  grew  milky  white.  Then  he  smote 
through  that  with  a  higher  degree  of  telescopic  power,  and  the 
white  grew  into  suns.  And  again  and  again  he  smote  into  the 
depths  of  the  Milky  Way  until  he  thought  he  broke  through.  He 
did  not  break  through,  but  he  thought  he  did.  And  he  has  trans- 
lated into  arithmetic  what  he  discovered  about  the  Milky  Way. 
You  know  the  foot  rule  of  astronomy  by  which  they  measure  is 
what  they  call  a  "light  night."  Light  travels  twelve  million  miles 
a  minute;  and  the  space  that  light  will  travel  in  a  night,  traveling 
twelve  million  miles  every  minute,  is  the  foot  rule.  Herschel  tells 
us  to  think  of  five  hundred  suns  in  one  vast  line,  each  one  ten 
light  nights  distance  from  the  other,  so  that  a  ray  of  light  begin- 
ning at  one  end  of  the  line  must  take  five  thousand  light  nights 
to  reach  the  other  end;  and  that  he  says  is  the  depth  of  the  Milky 
Way.  We  are  learning  something,  not  only  about  the  numbers  and 
the  spaces  of  the  stars  above,  but  of  their  flight,  their  swift,  meas- 
ured, ordered,  majestic  flight.  Why,  this  little  planet  of  ours  is 
rolling  eastward  at  the  rate  of  a  thousand  miles  an  hour!  It  is 
swinging  around  the  sun  at  the  rate  of  65,000  miles  an  hour;  and 
with  the  sun  and  all  the  sister  planets  it  is  sweeping  toward  an 
unknown  point  in  space  at  the  rate  of  40,000  miles  an  hour.  Since 
we  began  this  service,  this  church,  this  city,  have  swept  during 
these  thirty  minutes  at  that  pace,  and  we  have  never  felt  the 
shock!  How  God's  trains  run — how  smoothly!  But  try  and  realize 
the  wonders  that  in  the  crowded  heavens  above  our  heads,  in  the 
sweep  and  march  of  the  planets,  God  is  doing.  "Great  and  marvel- 
ous are  Thy  works.  Lord  God  Almighty!" 

And  then,  science  is  showing  us  in  another  direction  the  great- 
ness of  God's  wonders.  Darwin  too,  like  Kepler,  learned  to  think 
God's  thoughts  after  Him  though  he  did  not  know  he  was  doing 
it.  In  all  Darwin's  works  I  think  the  only  point  at  which  he 
breaks  into  enthusiasm  is  when  he  is  describing  the  structure  of 
the  working  ant.  You  can  not  imagine  a  less  significant  thing 
than  the  little,  black,  busy  working  ant.  But  Darwin  has  told  how 
he  studied  the  structure  of  the  ant;   and  when  he  broke  open  the 


S32  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

tiny  little  capsule  of  Hs  brain  and  studied  the  brain,  a  little  pin 
point  of  gray  matter,  he  found  it  starred  with  habits,  records,  uses. 
And  he  has  left  on  record  his  notion  that  the  most  wondei'ful 
speck  of  matter  in  the  universe  is  the  brain  of  a  working  ant. 
Darwin  spent  two  years  in  studying  earth  worms.  Can  you  imagine 
anything  less  worth  studying!  A  worm!  He  spent  two  years  in 
that  study,  and  then  he  wrote  a  book  on  earth-worms.  I  have 
read  many  novels,  more  than  I  care  to  confess,  but  I  have  never 
read  a  novel  so  interesting  as  Darwin's  work  on  earthworms.  The 
thousands  of  earthworms  in  every  acre  in  a  given  time  pass  ten 
tons  of  earth  through  their  digestive  systems.  They  are  God's 
plowmen.  As  Darwin  describes  the  nervous  system  of  the  earth- 
worm he  breaks  almost  into  raptures. 

Sir  Oliver  Lodge  has  been  thinking  God's  thoughts  after  Hira, 
and  with  a  touch  of  real  imagination.  He  has  told  us,  for  ex- 
ample, how  in  a  cubic  milli-metre — do  you  know  what  that  is? — 
how  in  a  cubic  milli-metre  of  the  soft,  invisible,  mysterious  ether 
there  is  stored  a  driving  power  that  will  keep  a  mill  of  a  million 
horse-power  going  for  millions  of  years.  This  is  God's  omnipo- 
tence wrapped  round  about  us.  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  has  told,  and 
I  hope  many  of  you  have  read  the  story,  of  how  they  have  tracked 
matter  down  to  its  starting  point,  have  taken  the  ultimate  molecule 
and  broken  it  open,  and  discovered  that  the  ultimate  form  of  mat- 
ter is  force.  In  a  single  drop  of  dew  there  are  molecules  of  hydro- 
gen in  numbers  that  leave  arithmetic  bankrupt.  If  this  whole 
planet  were  made  of  oranges,  think  how  many  oranges  there  would 
be!  And  there  are  as  many  molecules  of  hydrogen  in  a  drop  of 
dew  as  there  would  be  oranges  in  this  planet  if  it  were  made  of 
oranges.  And  in  every  molecule  of  hydrogen  God  has  hung  a  sys- 
tem of  stars,  a  Pleiades  of  tiny  bits  of  light  that  move  in  orbits  like 
stars  with  the  speed  of  light.  The  plain  truth  is  that  the  heavens 
above  our  heads  have  fewer  stars  than  the  dust  under  our  feet. 
As  I  came  across  from  Liverpool,  I  looked  over  the  gray,  wind- 
blown sea  one  night,  and  recalled  this  discovery  of  science,  and 
tried  to  imagine  the  uncounted  stars  that  God  has  hung  in  every 
drop  of  water.  Why,  the  great  sea  was  like  the  golden  pavement 
of  heaven,  full  of  God's  wonders! 

Then,  you  know,  another  prophet  has  been  thinking  God's 
thoughts  after  Him  in  radium.  A  speck  of  bromide  of  radium 
will  expel  twelve  thousand  million  particles  every  minute,  and 
they  travel  at  the  rate  of  ten  thousand  miles  a  second,  and  they 
pass  through  iron,  pass  through  water.  We  are  told  that  in  a 
speck  of  uranium  there  is  a  pulse  of  energy  that  will  beat  a 
thousand  million  years;  yes,  seven  thousand  five  hundred  million 
years  in  that  speck  of  uranium  the  pulse  will  beat.  These  are 
God's  wonders.     There  in  the  dust  under  our  feet  they  are.     And 


SERMON  OF  THE  REV.  W.  H.  FITCHETT.  233 

I  repeat  that  science,  knocking  at  every  door  and  setting  it  wide 
open  before  our  eyes,  is  filling  the  earth  with  the  glory  of  the 
divine  wonders. 

O,  to  look  around!  It  will  change  the  aspect  of  earth.  It  will 
give  a  glory  to  the  dust  under  your  feet.  It  will  make  this  rough 
earth  an  ante-chamber  to  heaven.  Pray  for  it!  Pray  for  it!  For 
the  power  to  see  the  wonders  God  is  doing  in  the  physical  world 
about  us! 

Well  now,  please,  if  God  does  such  wonders  in  the  physical 
world,  do  you  imagine  that  He  will  stand  back  common-place  and 
cease  to  do  wonders  in  the  spiritual  realm?  A  disquieting  feature  in 
religion  to-day  is  the  delight  in  the  common-place.  We  have  re- 
ligious teachers,  sometimes  in  the  pulpit  and  very  often  in  the 
editorial  office,  who  think  they  will  make  religion  credible  by 
emptying  it  of  wonder.  A  common-place  religion,  they  think,  will 
be  credible;  and  so  they  take  the  Bible  and  exhaust  it  of  inspira- 
tion. When  they  have  turned  the  Bible  into  a  cluster  of  unreal 
pamphlets  of  uncertain  date,  have  taken  inspiration  out  of  the 
Bible,  they  think  men  will  more  readily  accept  the  Bible.  They 
take  the  divinity  out  of  Jesus  Christ,  take  the  atonement  out  of 
His  death,  take  the  supernatural  out  of  religion,  turn  Christianity 
into  a  mere  system  of  ethics, — not  a  redemption,  a  deliverance. 
And  when  they  have  exhausted  religion  of  the  element  of  wonder 
they  think  they  have  made  it  acceptable.  My  dear  friends,  you 
must  learn  what  God  is  in  the  spiritual  realm,  by  what  you  see 
Him  to  be  in  the  physical  realm.  Here  is  the  great  chain  of  organ- 
ized life.  It  begins  with  the  insect — and  God  does  wonders  in  the 
insect.  God  hides  wonders  in  the  atom.  A  chain  runs  right  up  to 
the  planet.  At  every  step  God  is  doing  wonders.  And  when  you 
cross  the  borders  into  the  spiritual  realm  do  you  think  God  will 
cease  to  do  wonders?  It  is  the  element  of  wonder  in  religion  that 
makes  it  what  men  need  and  what  men  will  accept.  The  cross 
of  Jesus  Christ!  Is  not  that  wonderful!  It  is  so  wonderful  that 
some  think  it  is  incredible.  The  incarnation  of  Christ,  the  death 
on  the  cross,  the  love  that  gave  His  hand  to  the  nail  that  it  might 
save  the  men  that  were  driving  the  nail!  Yes,  that  is  wonderful; 
but  that  is  just  like  God!  The  key-word  of  the  physical  world 
is  power.  But  in  every  realm  God  is  doing  wonders  of  power. 
The  key-word  of  the  spiritual  realm  is  love.  And  all  through  that 
realm  God  is  showing  splendors  of  love — love  beyond  our  dreams — 
love  sweeter  than  our  hymns — love  loftier  than  our  prayers! 

A  God  doing  wonders!  It  must  be  so.  Realize  this,  that  wher- 
ever God's  power  goes  His  love  goes  with  it.  And  in  the  height 
and  splendor  of  the  heavens  above  us  we  have  the  measure,  one 
measure  in  physical  terms,  of  what  God's  love  is.  You  recited 
together  this  morning  in  the  church  the  great  psalm  that  declares 


234  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

"As  the  heavens  are  high  above  the  earth,  so  great  is  His  mercy." 
You  have  a  right  to  take  the  arithmetic  of  the  universe  and  link 
it  to  God's  love.  With  the  sweep  of  the  planets,  with  the  height 
and  glory  of  the  heavens,  God's  glory  is  set  before  us.  Does  light 
run  twelve  million  miles  a  minute?  How  swift!  But  God's  love 
will  run  as  swiftly  as  the  light  runs.  When  God  traces  the  orbit 
of  a  planet  in  space,  how  His  hand  sweeps  around!  But  when 
God's  hand  draws  the  orbit  of  a  soul.  His  hand  sweeps  in  curves 
as  wide,  surely,  as  when  He  draws  the  orbit  of  a  planet.  Re- 
member this,  too,  that  not  only  does  God's  love  go  where  His  power 
runs,  but  God's  love  and  God's  power  stand  together  in  a  certain 
relationship.  And  power  is  love's  servant.  Love  is  the  imperial 
thing.  It  is  the  master-force.  Power  gives  the  instrument;  but 
loves  determines  the  use.  You  imagine  that  in  the  hand  of  any 
mother  in  this  church  there  was  infinite  power,  and  in  her  brain 
infinite  wisdom,  and  in  her  heart  just  that  plain  love  every  good 
mother  has.  The  mother's  love  in  the  heart  would  take  infinite 
power  and  infinite  wisdom  and  make  them  the  servants  of  her 
child's  happiness.  A  mother's  love  behind  omnipotence  would  make 
omnipotence  the  servant  of  the  child's  happiness.  But  when  be- 
hind the  omnipotence  of  God,  the  infinite  wisdom  of  God,  there 
stands  the  eternal  measureless  love  of  God,  why,  power  is  its  ser- 
vant, wisdom  is  its  servant. 

There  are  three  infinities  in  God.  Infinite  power,  infinite  wis- 
dom, infinite  love.  But  these  three  infinitudes  are  one  quality. 
Love  is  the  master.  The  infinite  power  and  infinite  wisdom  are 
love's  servants.  If  that  is  so,  we  have  a  right  to  expect  that  for 
our  happiness,  in  the  realm  of  character,  in  the  realm  of  human 
life,  God  will  do  for  us  such  wonders  in  skill  and  greatness  as 
He  does  in  the  physical  realm  and  for  physical  purposes.  You 
doubt,  perhaps,  whether  immortality  is  a  real  and  reasonable  hope. 
Dare  we  hope  that  beyond  the  grave  there  shall  come  to  us  a  life 
that  will  run  on  through  the  ages,  never  kndwing  the  shadow  of 
death?  Well,  I  think  God  has  given  to  us  a  physical  symbol  and 
pledge  of  that  great  hope  of  immortality.  In  London  I  made  the 
acquaintance  of  a  man  who  bears  one  of  the  gi'eatest  names  in 
science.  I  do  not  feel  free  to  use  his  name.  I  stood  beside  him 
one  day.  In  the  morning  paper  a  great  scientist  had  said  that 
in  a  speck  of  radium  there  was  power  enough  to  keep  a  bell 
ringing  for  thirty  thousand  years.  I  said  to  my  friend,  "Who- 
ever made  this  universe,  is  it  thinkable  that  He  put  into  a  speck 
of  radium  an  energy  that  will  last  thirty  thousand  years,  and  into 
the  brain  of  man  that  can  read  the  speck  of  radium  has  simply 
put  thirty  years?  Isn't  it  a  scientific  argument  for  immortality 
that  God  has  put  in  uranium  a  pulse  that  will  beat  for  seven 
thousand  five  hundred  million  years?"     And   my  scientific  friend, 


SERMON  OF  THE  REV.  W.  H.  FITCHETT.  235 

not  a  Christian  man,  hesitated,  doubted,  and  at  last  said,  "Yes, 
science  is  making  immortality  credible."  It  is.  And  the  wonders 
God  is  working  in  the  dust  under  our  feet,  in  the  heavens  above 
our  heads,  in  our  own  bodies,  wonders  of  power,  have  made  cred- 
ible all  the  great  facts  of  religion  and  all  the  great  hopes  of  re- 
ligion. 

"I  know  not  where  His  islands  lift 

Their  fronded  palms  in  air; 
I  only  know  I  can  not  drift 

Beyond  His  love  and  care." 

If  we  look  up  into  heaven,  His  power  is  there  and  His  love  is 
there,  in  the  heights  of  heaven.  In  the  depths  of  the  grave, — east, 
west,  north,  south, — wherever  God's  power  runs  His  love  runs  as 
the  master  of  that  power.  Let  us  in  religion  learn  to  speak  of 
wonders,  great  things,  answers  to  prayer  beyond  our  hopes,  revela- 
tions of  goodness  that  transcend  belief!  Let  us  learn  to  expect 
great  things  from  God,  to  plan  great  things  for  God,  to  have  the 
sense  that  He  stands  beside  us,  not  a  little  God  delighting  in  a 
little  gift.  He  is  waiting  to  work  wonders  for  us,  to  work  won- 
ders in  the  Church.  We  have  a  great  history  as  a  Church.  We 
are  the  youngest  child  in  a  great  Protestant  household  of  Churches, 
the  latest  born;  and  yet  God  has  wrought  such  wonders  in  our 
history  that  to-day  we  are  almost  the  greatest  of  all  the  Protestant 
Churches.  Has  God  no  more  wonders  to  do?  He  will  do  great 
things  for  us.  He  may  not  unwrite  the  centuries  and  give  us  an- 
other Wesley.  I  am  not  very  sure  that  we  should  know  what  to 
do  with  him  if  we  had  him.  But  God's  stock  of  great  men  is  not 
exhausted.  He  will  give  us  new  leaders,  new  saints,  new  martyrs, 
new  evangelists.  "Instead  of  thy  fathers  shall  be  thy  children." 
While  I  thank  God,  and  I  do  thank  God,  for  the  great  men  that 
have  gone,  I  have  faith  enough  to  thank  God  for  the  great  men 
that  are  coming,  our  children  whom  God  shall  raise  up.  I  am 
speaking  to-night  to  many  ministers.  My  brethren,  if  I  may  be 
forgiven  for  a  word  to  you,  I  beg  you  to  go  back  to  your  pulpits 
with  the  sense  that  God  is  waiting  there  to  do  wonders.  May 
God  save  us  from  being  content  with  a  common-place  history  of 
the  Church.  We  want  great  things.  And  God  will  do  great  things 
for  us — great  revivals,  great  manifestations  of  His  power,  great 
answers  to  prayer.  The  gladness,  the  joy,  does  not  lie  behind  us. 
It  lies  before  us.  We  are  moving  into  it.  And  the  ever-working 
God  is  keeping  wonders  for  us  such  as  our  fathers  never  saw.  Let 
us  learn  to  have  that  expectation;  and  let  us  take  up  Paul's  great 
doxology,  "Unto  Him  that  is  able  to  do  e.xceeding  abundantly  above 
all  that  we  ask  or  think,  unto  Him  be  glory  in  the  Church" — in 
this  Church,  in  every  Church;   the  glory  of  great  things  achieved, 


236  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

of  great  victories  won.    Let  that  glory  be  in  this  Church  and  every 
Church  "by  Christ  Jesus  and  thi'oughout  all  ages."     Amen. 

The  meeting  closed  with  the  singing  of  Hymn  709, 

"The  heavens  declare  Thy  glory,  Lord, 
In  every  star  Thy  wisdom  shines." 

The  benediction  was  pronounced  by  Dr.  Armstrong. 


SIXTH  DAY. 

Monday,    October    9th. 


Topic:     THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTUEES. 


FIRST  SESSION. 


THE  first  session  of  the  sixth  day  opened  at  10  A.  M.,  the 
Rev.  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  D.  D.,  of  the  British  "Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church,  in  the  chair. 

The  Rev.  W.  W.  Holdsworth^  of  the  same  Cliiirch,  had 
charge  of  the  devotional  services,  which  included  the  singing 
of  Hymn  636, 

"Come,  Holy  Ghost,  our  hearts  inspire. 
Let  us  Thy  influence  prove;" 

the  reading  of  Isaiah  6 :  1-10  and  John  5 :  32-39,  and  praj'er. 

The  Chairman  :  "I  will  call  on  Mr.  Justice  Maclaren  to 
make  a  statement." 

Justice  Maclarex  :  "The  first  announcement  which  many 
of  you  noticed  on  page  14  of  the  hand-book,  is  an  announce- 
ment regarding  the  exhibit  of  Methodist  antiquities  in  con- 
nection with  this  Conference,  a  new  feature,  I  believe,  in  con- 
nection witli  these  Ecumenical  Conferences.  Tliat  page  will 
give  you  particulars  regarding  it.  I  will  read  only  the  last 
paragraph  of  four  lines,  which  will  explain  the  reason  for  my 
making  this  announcement.  It  reads  as  follows :  'As  many  of 
the  more  valuable  will  be  brought  personally  by  delegates,  the 
exhibit  will  not  be  ready  for  delegates  and  visitors  for  the 
first  two  or  three  da3^s  of  the  Conference.'  The  greatest  exhibit 
of  all  which  avc  had  hoped  would  be  found  in  this  collection  was 
granted  to  us  by  the  old  Wesleyan  Conference,  who  sent  us 
many  of  their  appreciated  articles.  They  were  shipped  some 
weeks  ago,  but,  unfortunately,  either  on  account  of  the  strike 

237 


238  THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

that  took  jDlace  in  connection  with  the  shipment  of  goods  from 
England,  or  from  some  other  cause,  they  have  not  yet  arrived  in 
the  city.  However,  we  have  had  the  satisfaction  of  receiving 
some  articles  from  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  to  a  very  much  larger 
degree,  articles  more  interesting  and  valuable,  than  we  had 
expected.  But  we  are  in  daily  expectation  to  receive  this  con- 
signment from  England,  which  I  hope  will  arrive  in  time  to  be 
distributed  and  seen  later  in  the  Conference  by  visitors  and 
delegates.  We  have  received  very  large  contributions  from  the 
Garrett  Biblical  Institute,  of  Evanston,  111. ;  New  York 
City;  the  New  England  Historical  Society;  Victoria  Uni- 
versity, Toronto,  and  some  other  institutions.  Also  contribu- 
tions from  a  great  many  individuals.  One  very  valuable  con- 
tribution we  have  received  (I  understand  it  is  the  best  on  this 
continent),  the  property  of  Bishop  Hendrix,  of  Kansas  City, 
Missouri,  Avhich  has  made  up  for  the  absence  of  many  articles ' 
which  we  had  expected  from  the  Old  World. .  That  exhibit  will 
be  open  at  the  close  of  the  present  session.  It  is  in  the  parlor 
and  four  adjoining  rooms  al)ove  the  schoolroom.  It  is  in  charge 
of  the  Rev.  Samuel  C.  Philp,  Jr.,  as  Curator,  and  of  the  Eev. 
Stephen  Bond,  Assistant  Curator." 

Bishop  Hendrix  :  "A  paper  to  be  referred  without  reading, 
on  arbitration,  signed  by  the  President  and  the  officers  of  this 
Conference." 

The  President:  "I  am  going  to  call  upon  the  reader  of 
the  first  paper.  I  greatly  regret  to  announce  that  Dr.  Peake 
is  prevented  from  being  personally  present  by  the  state  of  his 
health.  His  paper  will  be  read  by  the  Eev.  J.  T.  Barkby.  I  am 
sure  that  Professor  Peake  will  speak  for  himself.  There  is  no 
more  distinguished  man  in  Methodism.  He  is  a  son  of  Merton 
College,  Oxford,  ex-Dean  of  Theology  in  Manchester  University, 
and  Theological  Professor  in  the  great  Primitive  Methodist  Col- 
lege, Manchester.     He  is  also  a  layman," 

The  essay  follows: 

The  subject  that  has  been  assigned  to  me  is  so  large  that  it  can 
be  touched  only  In  the  most  general  and  allusive  way.  The  nine- 
teenth century  was  pre-eminently  an  era  of  criticism.  The  critical 
and  historical  method  was  not  wholly  new,  even  as  applied  to  Scrip- 
ture, but  it  was  now  exercised  with  unprecedented  thoroughness, 


ESSAY  OF  PROF.  ARTHUR  S.  PEAKE.  239 

•with  detachment  from  dogmatic  control,  with  instruments  of  finer 
and  finer  precision,  handled  with  a  dexterity  becoming  ever  more 
skillful  by  practice.  No  tradition  was  too  sacred  for  relentless  in- 
vestigation, no  belief  too  cherished  to  claim  exemption  from  chal- 
lenge. The  process  naturally  evoked  anger  and  violence,  pain,  and 
dismay,  among  those  who  felt  that  the  critic's  knife  cut  at  the  very, 
vitals  of  their  religion;  but  thi'ough  fierce  storms  of  resentment  or 
clouds  of  misrepresentation  the  critic  followed  the  star,  that  he 
might  find  his  way  to  Bethlehem  and  bring  his  gifts  and  his  wor- 
ship to  the  shrine  of  Truth;  for  if  we  may  rightly  deplore  the  icono- 
clastic temper,  which  was  too  often  shown,  and  the  new  dogmatism, 
which  guided  his  quest  and  prejudiced  his  results,  it  is  the  barest 
justice  to  admit  that  the  critical  movement  was  animated  above  all 
by  a  sincere  desire  to  discover  truth.  When  it  was  true  to  its  own 
principles  it  was  free  from  animus  of  every  kind;  it  went  its  own 
way  of  impartial  inquiry,  indifferent  whether  it  helped  or  hindered 
the  cause  of  faith.  And  justly,  for  if  investigation  is  to  be  scien- 
tific it  must  be  free,  and  not  deliberately  conducted  to  reach  a  given 
goal.  Yet  criticism  is  a  special  science,  and  while  it  must  be 
granted  autonomy  within  its  own  domain,  we  have  to  check  and 
combine  its  results  with  the  results  of  other  lines  of  inquiry  before 
we  reach  that  complete  and  rounded  view  in  which  a  due  place  is 
accorded  to  all  the  facts. 

The  wrath  and  dismay  which  criticism  occasioned  was  largely 
due  to  its  negative  character  and  the  uncertainty  in  which  every- 
thing seemed  to  be  involved.  Whether  it  was  in  the  Lower  Criti- 
cism, which  sought  to  restore  the  true  text  of  Scripture;  or  the 
Higher  Criticism,  which  attempted  to  determine  the  problems  of 
date  and  authorship,  to  analyze  composite  documents  into  the  ele- 
ments of  which  they  were  composed,  and  thus  go  behind  the  litera- 
ture we  possess  to  its  sources;  or  Historical  Criticism,  which  esti- 
mated first  the  qualities  of  the  historians  and  their  qualifications  for 
their  task,  and  then  appraised  the  historical  worth  of  the  documents 
themselves, — there  was  always  a  sense  of  uneasiness  aroused  by  the 
mere  fact  that  so  much  which  had  seemed  secure  now  appeared  un- 
settled. It  was  as  if  the  solid  rock  was  changing  into  a  quaking 
morass.  The  text  of  Scripture  for  which  infallibility  had  so  often 
been  claimed  was  shown  to  be  subject  in  multitudes  of  instances  to 
serious  uncertainties.  Many  books  were  denied  to  the  authors  to 
whom  tradition  had  assigned  them,  and  what  had  been  attributed 
to  one  writer  was  frequently  distributed  among  several.  And  the 
results  were  even  more  unsettling  when  the  investigation  passed 
from  Lower  and  Higher  to  Historical  Criticism.  The  early  narra- 
tives of  Genesis  were  judged  to  be  myth,  the  later  to  be  legend, 
and  even  when  real  history  was  reached  with  Moses,  many  of  the 
details  of  the  story  were  regarded  as  unhistorical.     The  same  free- 


240  THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

dom  of  attitude  was  adopted  with  reference  to  the  later  history, 
and  in  particular  the  gospel  story.  Here,  at  the  very  citadel  of  our 
religion,  the  critic  pressed  home  his  scrutiny  for  the  vulnerable 
points. 

It  is  perhaps  even  yet  too  early  to  ask  what  the  permanent  re- 
sults are  likely  to  be.  In  many  departments  investigation  is  still 
proceeding,  and  on  several  questions  there  is  still  a  sharp  divergence 
of  opinion.  But  a  tentative  statement  may  perhaps  be  given  as  to 
some  of  the  results  which  are  likely  to  be  ultimately  established  by 
the  common  consent  of  scholars.  Leaving  aside  the  Lower  Criti- 
cism, so  far  as  the  Higher  Criticism  goes  we  may  include  among  the 
points  which  are  likely  to  secure  general  adhesion  the  analysis  of 
the  Pentateuch  into  four  main  documents,  each  of  which  has  itself 
had  a  history;  the  identification  of  the  Law  Book  of  Josiah  with 
the  kernel  of  Deuteronomy  and  its  composition  in  the  reign  of 
Manasseh  or  Josiah;  the  origin  of  the  Priestly  sections,  at  least  in 
their  present  form,  after  Ezekiel.  Sources  will  similarly  be  recog- 
nized in  the  other  historical  books.  Several  of  the  prophetical  books 
will  be  acknowledged  to  be  composite,  some  of  them,  notably  Isaiah 
and  Jeremiah,  to  be  highly  composite.  Job,  Proverbs,  and  Ecclesi- 
astes,  together  with  a  large  part  of  the  Psalter,  will  be  assigned  to 
the  post-exilic  period;  Daniel  to  the  Maccabean  era. 

In  New  Testament  criticism  we  may  expect  to  see  the  now  gener- 
ally accepted  two-document  theory  hold  its  ground  as  the  solution  of 
the  Synoptic  problem;  the  theory,  I  mean,  that  the  first  and  third 
Gospels  are  based  on  the  Gospel  of  Mark  and  a  collection  of  ad- 
dresses and  sayings  of  Jesus  probably  formed  by  the  Apostle  Mat- 
thew. Those  of  us  who  have  held  to  the  Lukan  authorship  of  the 
third  Gospel  and  the  Acts  are  led  to  hope  that  Harnack's  conversion 
to  this  opinion  will  be  followed  b3^  that  of  German  critics  generally, 
but  at  present  the  signs  are  not  very  encouraging.  As  to  the 
Pauline  Epistles  I  entertain  little  doubt  that  all  will  be  recognized 
as  authentic,  with  the  definite  exception  of  the  Pastorals  and  the 
possible  exception  of  Ephesians.  No  agreement  seems  likely  to  be 
reached  on  James,  Jude,  or  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  and  I  wish 
I  could  feel  more  confident  than  I  do  that  the  authenticity  of 
First  Peter  will  secure  ultimate  recognition.  Nor  can  I  feel  san- 
guine as  to  a  speedy  settlement  of  the  Johannine  problem.  At  pres- 
ent the  current  sets  very  strongly  against  the  traditional  view.  As 
one  who  keenly  recognizes  the  difliculties  of  the  fourth  Gospel,  but 
is  desirous  of  seeing  the  apostolic  authorship  rehabilitated,  it  is 
with  regret  that  I  observe  the  very  negative  trend  of  criticism.  Per- 
manent results  can  not  be  spoken  of  at  present.  I  believe,  how- 
ever, that  such  results  are  nearer  in  the  criticism  of  the  Apocalypse. 
The  positions  with  reference  to  this  enigmatic  book,  which  seem  to 
me   likely   to   stand,   are   its   employment   of   earlier    documentary 


ESSAY  OP  PROF.  ARTHUR  S.  PEAKE.  241 

sources,  both  Jewish  and  Christian;  its  dependence  on  very  ancient 
apocalyptic  tradition;  its  reflection  of  the  contemporary  historical 
conditions;  the  distinction  between  its  author  and  the  author  of 
the  fourth  Gospel. 

So  far  as  Historical  Criticism  is  concerned,  those  who  recognize 
its  legitimacy  as  applied  to  Scripture  will  probably  discover  that 
the  mere  admission  that  the  early  chapters  of  Genesis  can  not  be 
regarded  as  historical  is  wholly  inadequate.  We  must  allow  a 
method  whose  validity  we  have  once  recognized  to  put  the  whole 
literature  through  the  most  searching  scrutiny.  Of  course,  the  sci- 
entific method  must  be  strictly  scientific;  it  must  not  smuggle  in 
illegitimate  postulates,  nor  permit  metaphysics  to  masquerade  as  sci- 
ence; but  it  must  set  itself  in  the  spirit  of  impartial  inquiry  to 
ascertain  the  actual  course  of  events.  It  is  well  to  remember  that 
we  may  apply  altogether  inappropriate  standards  and  treat  an  an- 
cient writer  as  if  he  wrote  history  on  the  same  principles  which 
would  be  followed  by  a  modern  historian.  Much  of  the  difficulty 
which  is  felt  by  modern  Western  readers  in  accepting  the  historical 
criticism  of  Scripture  is  due  to  the  assumption  that  a  Biblical  his- 
torian must  necessarily  have  made  it  a  leading  principle  to  give  an 
accurate  record  of  facts.  They  were  not  writing  for  modern  Western 
readers,  however,  and  one  can  readily  see  from  a  mere  reading  of 
the  text  that  their  conception  of  the  historian's  task  was  very  dif- 
ferent from  that  which  prevails  in  our  own  time.  We  need  no  little 
sympathetic  imagination  to  put  ourselves  back  at  the  appropriate 
standpoint  for  judging  the  Biblical  historians  from  their  contem- 
porary point  of  view. 

I  pass  on  to  the  permanent  results  of  criticism  in  our  estimate 
of  the  Bible.  It  has  in  the  first  place  given  us  a  view  of  Scripture 
which  corresponds  much  more  closely  than  the  earlier  theories  with 
the  actual  phenomena  of  Scripture.  Their  tendency  was  to  be  at 
once  too  narrow  and  too  wide  to  concentrate  the  divine  revelation 
and  inspiration  in  the  written  word,  and  at  the  same  time  to  make 
claims  for  the  individual  parts  in  isolation  which  were  not  really 
juatified.  Owing  to  the  idea  that  Scripture  contained  everywhere 
the  immediate  word  of  God  to  the  soul,  the  theory  of  Scripture  was 
xmduly  atomistic;  and  since  experience  did  not  show  that  all  parts 
of  Scripture  did  convey  a  blessing,  the  inevitable  result  was 
that  large  portions  were  either  not  read  at  all  or,  if  read,  yielded 
profit  only  at  a  few  points.  Even  the  prophets  in  whose  writings 
the  Old  Testament  reaches  its  climax,  were  read  largely  in  frag- 
ments. One  of  the  chief  results  of  our  modern  study  has  been  that 
we  have  learned  to  appreciate  Scripture  as  a  whole,  and  to  recog- 
nize the  permanent  value  of  much  which  in  itself  can  hardly  be 
said  to  convey  any  direct  spiritual  or  moral  lesson. 

The  supreme  achievement  of  our  modern  study  has  been  that 

16 


242  THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

it  has  forced  upon  us  the  fact  that  God  has  revealed  Himself  through 
history  and  experience.  To  bring  out  the  full  significance  of  this 
would  require  a  long  discussion.  I  must  indicate  in  the  briefest  way 
the  positions  which  are  implicit  in  it.  It  has  shown  us  that  the 
action  of  the  Spirit  is  to  be  sought  primarily  in  the  history  itself. 
The  Bible  contains  the  record  of  that  divine  movement  which,  be- 
ginning in  the  dim  antecedents  of  Israel's  history,  worked  alike  in 
the  chosen  people  as  a  whole  and  pre-eminently  in  elect  individuals 
till  it  achieved  its  climax  in  the  person,  the  teaching,  and  the  work 
of  Christ  and  the  interpretation  given  to  these  by  the  New  Testa- 
ment writers.  From  this  standpoint  we  can  give  a  meaning  and 
permanent  significance  to  much  in  the  Bible  which  it  is  diflBcult  to 
claim  for  it  from  the  older  point  of  view.  There  is  much  which, 
when  detached  fi'om  the  whole,  has  little  or  no  value,  but  which 
may  be  indispensable  for  the  appreciation  of  the  whole.  Much  in 
the  Old  Testament,  several  things  in  the  New,  have  to  be  judged 
on  this  principle.  It  is  only  on  this  principle  that  the  permanent 
value  of  the  Old  Testament  can  be  vindicated.  No  doubt  consider- 
able sections  would  alv/ays  hold  their  place  for  their  inspiring  elo- 
quence, their  lofty  morality,  their  soaring  spirituality,  their  fasci- 
nating romance.  But  it  is  not  these  qualities  which  would  insure 
them  a  place  in  the  Canon  of  Scripture,  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
much  of  its  teaching  has  been  rendered  obsolete  by  the  Gospel. 

From  this  point  of  view  we  understand  why  it  has  pleased  God 
that  Scripture  has  included  much  which  from  the  Christian  stand- 
point is  not  simply  obsolete  but  objectionable.  It  is  because  only 
so  can  the  full  import  of  the  Spirit's  action  be  rightly  understood. 
The  answer  to  many  objections  which  have  been  supposed  to  dis- 
credit the  Bible  is  to  be  found  in  a  true  understanding  of  what  the 
Bible  is.  It  is  not  primarily  a  manual  either  of  theology  or  ol  ethics, 
but  it  is  the  record  of  God's  gradual  self-disclosure,  of  the  Spirit's 
leavening  of  a  material  often  too  uncongenial.  It  was  this  too  self- 
willed,  this  too  intractable  medium  which  He  had  to  subdue  to  His 
purpose;  and  the  Old  Testament  records  for  us  the  wonderful  story 
of  His  progressive  mastery  of  His  instrument.  Only  in  fragmentary 
portions,  as  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  has  told  us, 
was  it  possible  for  God  to  speak  to  His  ancient  people;  it  was  only 
in  a  Son  who  was  the  radiance  of  His  glory  and  the  clear-cut  impress 
of  His  essential  being  that  He  could  fully  translate  Himself  into 
human  speech  and  express  Himself  in  a  human  experience. 

And  this  leads  vis  to  the  further  result  that  we  have  come  to 
recognize  the  glorious  variety  of  Scripture.  We  do  not  find  that  the 
Biblical  writers  alwaj's  express  themselves  in  accordance  with  the 
same  scheme  of  doctrine,  not  even  in  the  New  Testament,  still  less 
in  the  Old.  We  can  frame  no  satisfactory  theology  by  an  indis- 
criminate collection  and  arrangement  of  all  the  Biblical  statements 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  V.  A.  GODBEY.  243 

on  each  subject.  The  whole  movement  of  revelation  as  a  historical 
process  must  first  be  studied.  Each  writer  must  be  placed  in  his 
context,  and  his  theology  as  a  whole  so  far  as  possible  reproduced; 
and  only  when  this  has  been  done  can  the  various  types  of  theology 
be  brought  together  and  unified.  Only  in  this  way  can  we  do  justice 
to  the  rich  and  manysided  experience  of  the  writers  and  the  'truths 
which  have  been  conveyed  through  it.  We  can  hardly  over-emphasize 
the  importance  of  the  fact  that,  while  the  Bible  contains  doctrines 
of  the  highest  importance,  it  is  primarily  a  book  of  experimental 
religion,  and  that  tiie  truths  it  enshrines  did  not  come  simply  as 
direct  communications  of  theological  propositions,  but  were  realized 
through  doubts  and  misgivings,  through  wrestlings  of  the  soul  with 
God,  through  long  and  perplexed  groping,  or  through  some  sudden 
and  radiant  flash  of  insight.  And  it  is  this  human  element  which 
gives  the  Bible  so  much  of  its  appeal  to  the  human  heart  and  stamps 
it  with  such  marks  of  authenticity.  If  we  go  expecting  to  find  a 
body  of  doctrine  formulated  with  scientific  precision,  or  an  accurate 
record  of  events  such  as  a  modern  historian  would  give  us,  we  may 
be  disappointed.  But  we  find  something  far  better:  we  find  life 
itself,  the  interaction  of  the  divine  and  the  human  in  a  great  national 
history  and  the  experience  of  many  an  elect  spirit.  We  may  lose  in 
abstract  correctness,  but  we  gain  in  warmth  and  interest.  The 
teaching  may  not  be  so  instantly  available  as  if  the  Bible  had  been 
restricted  to  a  series  of  theological  and  moral  statements  accurately 
expressed  and  duly  co-ordinated  into  a  system;  but  the  difficulty  in 
disengaging  them  from  the  history  in  which  they  are  embedded  is 
far  more  than  balanced  by  the  vital  experimental  quality  conferred 
on  them  by  the  process  through  which  they  have  come.  We  can 
perhaps  hardly  speak  of  the  Bible  as  modern  criticism  gives  it  us, 
for  in  the  hands  of  different  critics  it  becomes  a  different  thing. 
And  it  is  well  to  close  such  a  paper  as  this  with  the  reminder  that, 
wnatever  be  the  conclusions  of  criticism,  the  fact  of  the  Bible  re- 
mains; and  it  may  truly  be  called  a  colossal  fact.  But  speaking 
for  myself,  I  may  truthfully  say  that  my  sense  of  the  value  of  Scrip- 
ture, my  interest  in  it,  my  attachment  to  it,  have  been  almost  in- 
definitely enhanced  by  the  new  attitude  and  new  mode  of  study 
which  criticism  has  brought  to  us. 

The  first  invited  address,  on  "Verification  of  Eevelation  in 
Experience,"  was  given  by  the  Rev.  V.  A.  Godbky^  D.  D.,  of 
the  Metliodist  Episcopal  Church,  South : 

In  this  address  it  is  my  purpose  to  state  the  facts  of  greatest 
importance  upon  which  we  depend  to  prove  that  revelation  may  be 
verified  by  experience.  It  is  assumed  that  the  antecedent  facts  used 
by  Christian  apologists  to  show  that  we  have  a  revelation,  the  the- 


244  THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

istic  philosophy,  and  both  presumptive  and  probable  evidences  will 
be  covered  by  others  on  our  program. 

The  last  and  crowning  evidence  that  God  has  revealed  Himself 
to  men  is  the  evidence  of  experience.  It  is  not  my  purpose  to  en- 
deavor to  show  that  a  satisfactory  evidence  of  God's  self-revelation 
may  be  obtained  apart  from  the  Bible  and  the  Church,  for  in  these 
latter  days  God  has  been  pleased  to  use  these  instruments  as  the 
guides  to  a  knowledge  of  Himself.  Nor  is  it  my  purpose  to  prove 
that  all  of  the  Bible  may  be  verified  in  experience,  since  some  parts 
of  it  are  not  within  the  range  of  present-day  experience.  My  con- 
tention is  that  the  doctrines  of  redemption  and  the  revelation  of 
the  Triune  God  as  related  thereto  may  be  thus  proved. 

I  undertake  this  task  with  a  strong  personal  assurance  of  the 
facts  on  which  we  must  depend  for  the  support  of  this  position. 
Indeed  I  feel  tempted  to  follow  the  example  of  the  Apostle  Paul  by 
introducing  my  own  experience,  or,  what  would  be  better,  to  hold 
an  experience  meeting  here.  The  foundations  of  this  address  are 
the  experiences  of  the  regenerate  host  who  by  word  and  deed  bear 
witness  to  the  perpetual  presence  and  power  of  God  in  the  hearts 
of  His  children.  If  the  facts  which  they  assert  can  be  proven,  it 
seems  to  me  to  be  unquestionably  true  that  to  the  Christian 
the  evidence  of  experience  is  the  greatest  of  all  evidences,  and 
it  is  worthy  of  a  chief  place  in  apologetics.  Methodists  should 
have  a  peculiar  interest  in  this  subject,  since  emphasis  has  been 
laid  on  a  religious  experience  among  us  since  the  days  of  the  Wes- 
leys.  Bishop  H.  N.  McTyeire  began  his  history  of  Methodism  with 
these  luminous  sentences:  "It  was  not  new  doctrine,  but  new  life, 
the  first  Methodists  sought  for  themselves  and  for  others.  To  re- 
alize in  the  hearts  and  conduct  of  men  the  true  ideal  of  Christianity, 
to  maintain  its  personal  experience  and  to  extend  it, — this  was  their 
design;  and  their  system  of  government  grew  out  of  this,  and  was 
accordingly  shaped  by  it.  The  mission  of  Luther  was  to  reform 
a  corrupted  Christianity;  that  of  Wesley,  to  revive  a  dying  one. 
Lutheranism  dealt  more  with  controversy;  Wesleyanism  with  expe- 
rience. The  abuses  and  errors  of  Rome,  its  defiant  attitude  and 
oppressive  rule,  made  combatants  of  the  reformers.  Their  prayer 
was,  'Teach  my  hands  to  war,  and  my  fingers  to  fight.'  The  Metho- 
dists came  forth  as  evangelists.  They  persuaded  men.  With  exist- 
ing institutions  and  creeds  they  had  no  quarrel.  In  their  bosoms 
there  was  no  rankling  grudge  against  authorities;  there  was  no 
particle  of  that  venom  which,  wherever  it  lodges,  infects  and  para- 
lyzes the  religious  affections.  Their  controversy  was  not  with  the 
Church  or  State  authorities,  but  with  sin  and  Satan;  and  their  one 
object  was  to  save  souls.  The  way  of  a  dissenter  is  to  begin  by  find- 
ing fault  with  others.  'We  begin,'  they  said,  'by  finding  fault  with 
ourselves.'    Methodists  never  sympathized  with  those  who  deny  the 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  V.  A.  GODBEY.  245 

'form  of  godliness:'  it  is  decent  in  their  ej^es  and  useful,  and  they 
cared  for  it;  but  they  were  more  careful  to  have  the  power  thereof." 

The  testimony  to  the  power  of  an  endless  life  did  not  begin  with 
Methodism.  The  Methodists  revived  interest  in  this  experience 
and  led  multitudes  into  the  possession  of  it,  but  during  the  cen- 
turies of  Christian  history  prior  to  the  days  of  the  Wesleys  there 
were  devout  souls  whose  utterances  bear  witness  to  the  regenera- 
tion with  which  a  Christian  experience  begins.  And  before  the  days 
of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  the  literature  of  the  Hebrews  gives  evidence 
of  spiritual  longings  which  do  not  come  to  unawakened  souls,  and 
of  spiritual  joys  which  are  found  only  where  God  has  revealed  Him- 
self by  the  work  of  redeeming  grace. 

If  the  Church  has  been  victorious  in  the  past  because  it  has 
been  vitalized  by  the  divine  presence,  and  if  the  redeemed  overcame 
tne  enemy  "because  of  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  and  because  of  the 
word  of  their  testimony,"  it  behooves  the  children  of  the  Church 
to-day  to  use  this  means  of  conquest  and  defense.  The  evidence  of 
Christian  experence,  as  has  been  intimated,  is  based  upon  the  re- 
demption of  mankind,  accomplished  through  the  grace  of  God  in 
in  Christ,  and  immediate  and  present  in  the  Church.  In  dealing 
with  this  question  we  have,  at  first  hand,  spiritual  facts  quite  as  cer- 
tain and  capable  of  verification  as  any  other  facts  in  the  world. 
Those  who  do  not  agree  with  our  views  have  come  to  recognize  that 
the  facts  concerning  which  Christians  testify  are  worthy  of  careful 
study,  and  psychologists  are  giving  the  most  serious  consideration 
to  them.  The  testimony  of  Christians  everywhere  and  in  all  times 
to  the  existence  of  these  facts  increases  the  certainty  of  every  saved 
man  that  his  faith  is  well  founded. 

The  fact  that  the  initiative  in  the  redemption  of  man  is  divine, 
and  not  human,  is  known  to  every  Christian  as  a  part  of  his  spiritual 
history.  The  Bible  represents  God  as  seeking  man  before  man  seeks 
God,  the  outward  agencies  of  grace  preceding  the  inward.  These 
outward  agencies  are  the  Christian  lives  and  testimonies,  separately 
and  collectively,  and  the  general  doctrines  of  redemption  and  grace 
contained  in  the  Bible;  the  word  preached  with  authority  by  men 
who  know  God  as  they  proclaim  Him,  in  the  midst  of  a  people  who 
bear  witness  to  the  truth  of  the  message  by  their  lips  and  lives; 
the  sacraments  of  the  Church  which  abide  as  the  outward  sign  of 
the  inward  grace,  and  the  history  of  the  transforming  power  of  re- 
demption in  the  world.  This  external  revelation  of  God  is  accom- 
panied by  an  internal  consciousness  of  personal  obligation  to  hear 
and  heed.  It  is  the  direct  call  of  God  to  the  sinner,  and  he  be- 
comes conscious  that  the  call  within  does  not  originate  with  himself, 
nor  does  it  proceed  from  any  outward  influence.  As  it  conforms  to 
what  the  Bible  calls  conviction  of  sin,  accomplished  in  him  by  the 
Spirit  of  God,  the  sinner  becomes  conscious  that  he  is  face  to  face 


246  THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

with  God.  He  now  knows  God,  not  as  a  notion  derived  from  tra- 
dition or  from  nature,  but  as  a  living  and  powerful  being,  before 
whom  he  stands,  a  guilty  sinner,  lost  and  helpless.  But  he  is  con- 
fronted also  with  an  offer  of  grace  through  Christ.  It  comes  to  him 
as  a  personal  offer,  with  a  demand  for  a  complete  surrender  to  divine 
leadership. 

Added  to  this  is  a  promise  of  pardon  and  deliverance  from  the 
power  of  sin,  a  new  heart  and  sonship;  and  beyond  this,  under  the 
power  of  an  endless  life,  progress  in  grace  and  in  the  knowledge 
of  God  as  revealed  in  Christ.  This  offer  is  just  what  the  soul  needs, 
and  the  bestowal  of  its  blessings  brings  satisfaction  and  peace  to 
the  otherwise  troubled  and  hungry  heart.  With  this  offer  accepted 
by  the  act  of  the  will — free  to  accept  or  reject — there  comes  a  per- 
sonal knowledge  that  the  facts  stated  and  testified  to  by  the  word  of 
God  and  by  the  Church  are  true;  and  the  conviction  that  they  are 
true,  which  preceded  the  regeneration,  new  becomes  personal  knowl- 
edge, and  he  who  before  said  "I  believe"  now  says  "I  know." 

Simultaneously  with  this  revelation  of  God  as  a  sin-pardoning 
God,  a  Father  and  a  Savior,  is  the  impartation  of  new  life,  so  radical 
and  far-reaching  in  its  effects  as  to  justify  the  language,  "a  new 
creation."  The  whole  being  of  the  man  has  been  changed,  hot  by 
the  destruction  of  the  powers  and  faculties  of  the  soul,  but  by  the 
cleansing  and  emancipation  of  every  part  of  his  nature.  The  will 
now  chooses  unselfish  services  instead  of  selecting  selfish  ends,  as 
in  "the  past.  Under  the  influence  of  the  Spirit  man  seeks  the  King- 
dom of  God  and  His  righteousness.  He  is  interested  in  the  things 
that  pertain  to  the  Kingdom  of  heaven,  and  the  life  he  lives  is  one 
of  trust  in  Christ.  Relying  upon  Him  and  submitting  to  Him  as 
Master,  he  chooses  His  service  as  the  business  of  life.  The  intellect, 
once  darkened  by  sin,  now  sees  new  light  and  has  a  new  view  of  God 
and  man.  The  gospel  story  has  a  new  and  peculiar  interest,  and  the 
Kingdom  of  God  on  earth  has  a  new  meaning.  The  impulses  and 
feelings  are  changed,  and  instead  of  anger,  wrath,  malice,  and  all 
impulses  toward  evil,  there  is  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suffering,  and 
brotherly  kindness.  The  things  which  he  once  loved  he  now  hates, 
and  the  things  he  once  hated  he  now  loves. 

The  darkened  and  sluggish  conscience  has  been  quickened  with 
new  life  and  illumined  with  new  light.  Before  the  offer  of  grace  was 
accepted  the  voice  of  conscience  was  often  heard  in  thunder  tones, 
arraigning  and  condemning  the  sinner,  and  often  it  was  feeble  or 
silent.  After  the  conversion  conscience  approves  and  peace  abides, 
and  when  obeyed  it  acts  only  as  a  headlight  to  show  the  dangers 
in  the  path.  In  addition  to  these  changes  within,  there  is  the  wit- 
ness of  the  Spirit  of  God  to  the  sonship  of  the  believer  and  to  the 
pardon  which  comes  through  the  work  of  Christ.  "The  Spirit  Him- 
self beareth  witness  with  our  spirits  that  we  are  children  of  God." 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  J.  OLIVER  PARKS.  247 

The  evidence  which  these  facts  contain  is  sufficient  for  all  who  are 
thus  "made  partakers  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  have  tasted  the  good 
word  of  God  and  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come." 

But  the  evidence  of  the  truth  of  revelation  has  just  begun  with 
the  experience  of  regeneration.  Prom  that  time  forward  every 
power  of  the  soul  is  slowly  perfected,  growing  in  grace.  In  the  dis- 
cipline and  illumination  which  is  necessary  to  this  perfection  the 
Spirit  of  God  is  as  manifest  as  when  the  new  life  began.  The  love 
of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  the  heart  by  the  Spirit.  The  constant 
attitude  toward  God  and  men  is  determined  by  the  law  of  love. 
The  ambition  to  be  as  great  for  the  Kingdom's  sake  as  it  is 
possible  to  be,  impels  to. high  endeavor.  There  is  a  desire  for 
holiness  of  heart  and  life,  and  a  consciousness  of  progress  toward 
this  ideal.  There  is  an  increasing  purity  of  conduct  and  capacity 
for  service.  There  is  an  enlarging  knowledge  of  spiritual  things 
and  an  increase  of  wisdom  both  in  the  discernment  and  use  of  them. 
There  are  struggles  and  conflicts,  but  there  is  grace  sufficient  for 
the  daily  needs.  And  there  is  the  cumulative  evidence  in  one's  own 
history,  increasing  with  the  years  of  religious  experience,  which 
gives  added  assurance  that  the  work  and  experiences  are  from  the 
God  whose  revelations  the  Bible  records. 

Not  least  among  the  assurances  of  God's  presence  in  the  work  is 
the  answer  to  prayer.  The  bestowal  of  the  Spirit  which  comes  in 
answer  to  prayer,  and  the  granting  of  petitions  for  temporal  bless- 
ings, are  convincing  evidence  that  we  do  not  worship  an  absent 
God,  but  one  whose  car  is  ever  open  to  our  cry.  The  manifest 
guidance  of  His  Spirit  and  the  hand  of  Providence  in  critical  hours 
in  one's  history  as  well  as  in  the  world's  affairs  and  in  things  per- 
taining to  the  Kingdom  of  God  becomes  a  potent  argument  proving 
the  divine  presence.  The  progress  of  the  Kingdom,  with  its  history 
of  victory  over  its  foes,  appeals  to  even  unconverted  men;  but  to 
the  growing  Christian  it  has  a  special  significance.  He  sees  all 
things  working  together  for  good  to  those  who  love  God,  and  the 
world  which  seems  so  full  of  discordant  notes  to  unbelief  has  ce- 
lestial harmonies  for  him.  And  the  fact  that  all  his  experiences  are 
corroborated  by  the  testimony  of  Christians  in  various  ages  and 
lands  confirms  the  more  his  conviction  of  the  divine  origin  of  his 
faith  and  of  the  presence  of  God  in  the  Kingdom. 

The  seeoiul  appointt'd  address  was  by  the  Eev.  J.  Oliver 
Parks,  D.  I).,  of  tlie  Irish  Methodist  Church,  on  the  suhject, 
"Methods  of  Bible  Study :" 

There  is  not  time,  and  it  would  not  be  fitting  for  me  to  under- 
take a  detailed  discussion  of  the  question  now  before  us.  All  that 
is  possible  is  to  indicate  some  general  principles  which  must  guide 
the  student  of  the  Holy   Scriptures   if  his  v/ork  is  to  be  fruitful. 


248  THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

There  may  also  be  an  opportunity  for  making  one  or  two  sugges- 
tions which  arise  out  of  the  exigencies  of  our  times. 

The  first  esential  to  an  effective  method  of  study  is  that  the 
student  shall  set  before  himself  a  clear  and  definite  end.  We  shall 
probably  all  agree  that  the  supreme  aim  in  the  study  of  the  Bible 
should  be  spiritual  reality — the  knowledge  of  God  and  how  to  re- 
produce that  knowledge  in  holy  conduct.  V/henever  the  study  of 
the  sacred  writings  is  approached  on  any  lower  plane  the  results 
inevitably  suffer.  It  will  also  be  recognized  in  presence  of  such  an 
enquiry  that  the  one  word  which  should  characterize  all  methods 
is  reverence — the  bowing  down  of  the  soul  in  profound  humility. 

The  study  of  the  Bible  must  take  its. place  in  the  wider  search 
after  all  truth.  It  must  be  guided  by  the  principles  which  are 
found  to  be  fruitful  in  other  departments  of  knowledge.  Especially 
must  it  recognize  the  different  ways  in  which  the  whole  soul  is 
affected  by  truth.  These  modes  of  the  affection  of  the  soul  are 
interwoven  in  experience,  but  they  are  clearly  distinguishable  in 
thought. 

As  truth  reaches  and  reacts  upon  the  mind  it  creates  ideas,  and 
leads  on  to  judgments  which  become  formulated  in  doctrines.  As 
it  affects  the  heart — using  this  word  popularly — it  awakens  cor- 
responding emotions  and  desires  which  impel  to  activity.  Through 
this  action  of  the  mind  and  the  heart  upon  the  will,  and  the  free 
reaction  of  the  will  itself,  truth  becomes  interwoven  into  the  tex- 
ture of  the  soul  which  gradually  but  surely  takes  that  set,  of  which 
we  heard  on  Saturday,  and  which  creates  the  character  of  the  man. 

This  complete  action  of  truth  on  the  soul  indicates  the  natural 
methods  which  should  be  pursued  in  the  study  of  the  Bible.  For 
want  of  simple  terms  they  may  be  indicated  by  terms  in  common 
use — critical,  historical,  and  practical. 

The  first  of  these  is  represented  by  what  is  known  as  textual 
criticism  which  seeks  for  the  exact  and  actual  text  as  originally 
written  by  the  author  of  the  various  books  which  compose  our 
Scriptures.  This  primary  and  lower  criticism  becomes  the  basis 
of  general  judgments  as  to  the  meaning  of  these  writings,  and 
leads  on  to  broader  theological  generalizations  as  to  the  teaching 
of  the  Bible  as  a  whole. 

The  most  familiar  type  of  the  second  method  of  study  is  that 
known  as  the  higher  criticism.  And  here  I  will  venture,  as  rep- 
resenting the  common  mind  of  the  average  man,  to  say  to  the 
scholars  whom  I  address  that  they  can  not  do  anything  more  in- 
jurious to  the  popular  value  of  their  studies  or  more  fatal  to  its 
effects  upon  Christian  society  than  to  adopt  terms  so  provocative 
as  the  Mglier  criticism.  What  a  blessing  it  would  be  if  our  scholars 
learned  to  clothe  their  teachings  in  simple  words  and  bury  them- 
selves out  of  the  reach  of  the  common  mind. 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  J.  OLIVER  PARKS.  249 

But  in  spite  of  the  terms,  if  we  will  understand  the  Bible,  we 
must  all  be  higher  critics.  That  is,  we  must  seek  to  know  the  men 
who  wrote  the  books,  the  times  and  circumstances  of  the  people 
whom  they  addressed,  and  the  temper  of  each  age  as  far  as  possible. 
For  the  teaching  and  the  pictures  of  life  that  kindle  the  fires  of 
the  soul  must  be  living,  they  must  he  set  in  their  true  human  rela- 
tions. The  messages  of  the  Bible  are  not  meant  to  be  dead  letters 
but  sympathetic  expressions  of  the  life  of  definite  times  and  was 
in  the  history  of  God's  self-revelation  to  man. 

The  third  method  must  not  be  overlooked.  It  is  the  practical. 
We  should  remember  that  the  supreme  end  of  truth  is  conduct,  and 
that  the  first  essential  to  the  attainment  of  truth  is  experience. 
:No  knowledge  is  perfect  that  has  not  been  found  true  in  experience. 
The  mere  theorist  is  nowhere  in  such  danger  as  in  the  realm  of 
the  spiritual.  The  study  of  the  Bible  that  is  not  devotional — that 
does  not  set  itself  reverently  to  do  the  will  of  God,  can  never 
discern  that  holy  will. 

A  further  question  naturally  arises  here  as  to  the  order  in 
which  these  methods  should  stand,  and  the  proportion  in  which 
each  should  enter  into  the  study  of  the  average  minister  of  the 
gospel.  The  answer  will  surely  be  that  the  natural  order,  that 
which  is  elsewhere  universally  pursued,  is  the  true  order.  We 
begin  all  real  matters  of  life  by  doing  something.  Our  next  step 
is  to  criticize  what  we  do,  to  understand  why  it  is  so  done  and 
how  it  may  be  best  done.  And  then  when  we  wish  to  do  it  most 
effectively  we  join  hands  with  other  doers  that  the  full  energy  of 
our  souls  may  enter  into  our  work.  The  true  and  effective  order 
of  Bible  study  is,  therefore,  first  devotional,  then  critical,  and  after 
that  historical. 

Let  me  end  with  a  word  of  respectful  suggestion  to  those  who 
are  leaders  in  the  study  of  the  holy  Scriptui-es.  It  is  that  they 
remember  the  relation  between  the  devotional  study  of  the  Bible 
and  conviction  of  the  divine  authority.  I  venture  to  think  that 
those  who  pursue  the  higher  critical  study  of  the  Bible  do  not 
show  sufficient  regard  for  the  habits  of  thought  of  the  common 
mind,  which  leads  it  Inevitably  to  regard  many  of  their  conclu- 
sions as  destructive  to  the  authority  qf  the  holy  Scriptures,  and  if 
authority  is  weakened  devotion  will  die. 

This  criticism  of  the  Bible  is  employed  in  the  most  serious 
to  which  a  man  can  put  his  hand.  It  is  constructing  a  new  spiritual 
home  for  the  thought  of  the  world.  Has  it  been  as  careful,  as 
tender,  as  humble  as  it  ought  to  have  been  in  this  most  serious 
undertaking?  Has  it  sufficiently  taken  thought  of  the  weak  and 
fearful,  who,  scared  by  the  rough  shaking  of  the  old  house,  have 
fled   from   it   and   have   never   yet   found   another?     The   supreme 


350  THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

question  for  the  leaders  of  Christian  thought  to-day  is  the  restora- 
tion of  the  authority  of  the  holy  Scriptures  in  the  public  mind. 

Mr.  James  L.  Curtis,  of  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church,  opened  the  discussion: 

I  desire  for  a  few  moments  to  address  myself  to  the  proposi- 
tion of  the  critical  study  of  the  Bible.  When  we  come  to  consider 
what  is  the  object  and  purpose  of  criticism,  it  seems  to  me  that 
we  should  be  governed  in  our  criticism  by  whether  the  criticism 
is  to  imperil  or  fortify  the  word  of  God  as  the  record  of  the  rev- 
elation of  God  to  the  children  of  men.  While  it  is  true  that  the 
Old  Testament  in  a  large  measure  receives  its  authority  by  its 
use  by  Jesus  Christ  and  His  apostles,  it  is  also  true  that  the  first 
critic  of  the  Old  Testament  was  Jesus  Christ  Himself.  When  He 
came  to  consider  the  tendencies  of  the  time  that  He  had  to  meet, 
and  their  dealing  with  the  people  who  transgressed  the  law,  it  was 
Jesus  Christ  who  disregarded  the  law  of  His  time;  and  He  said, 
"I  come  not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfill  the  law."  And  at  the  same 
time  He  determined  and  enunciated  what  was  the  law  from  His 
viewpoint;  for,  said  He,  "I  say  unto  you,  love  your  neighbor  as 
yourself,  and  do  good  unto  others  as  you  would  they  should  do 
unto  you.  For  this  is  the  law."  So  we  see  that  in  that  utterance 
Jesus  Christ  took  upon  Himself  to  criticize  the  Bible  and  if  that 
is  true  we  may  do  the  same  with  like  results.  It  is  useless  to 
tell  the  lay  mind  at  this  time  that  everything  in  the  Bible  must 
be  taken  as  literally  true.  If  you  tell  them  that  they  believe  that 
they  must  take  it  all  as  literally  true  and  if  they  can  not  con- 
scientiously do  that  then  they  must  disregard  the  whole.  No  lay- 
man for  a  moment  will  doubt  the  inaccuracies  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment,— the  two  different  descriptions  of  creation  or  of  the  flood, 
the  difference  in  the  descriptions  of  the  original  name  of  Israel, 
and  other  things  of  that  kind.  So  that  it  seems  to  me  the  office 
and  function  of  criticism  of  the  Bible  should  be  to  bring  these 
things  into  consensus  with  the  revelation  of  God  to  man,  in  accord 
with  the  enlightened  condition  of  our  times.  I  believe  that  the 
criticism  of  the  Bible  has  brought  it  to  pass  that  for  men  to  say 
that  they  believe  in  the  literal  inspiration  of  the  Bible  and  that 
every  word  is  inspired  and  that  all  the  authors  named  are  in  fact 
the  authors  of  the  Bible,  and  things  of  that  kind,  is  not  essential 
to  believing  in  the  word  of  God  as  revealing  Himself  to  the  children 
of  men. 

The  Eev.  James  H.  Moulton,  D.  D.,  of  the  British  Wes- 

leyan  Methodist  Church:    . 

I  would  like  just  one  word,  I  would  like  to  say  two  things.  In 
the  first  place  the  five  minutes  limit  is  an  exceedingly  good  parable 
of  the  point  which  I  very  earnestly  desire  to  make  here.  If  it 
would  be  absolutely  ridiculous  for  me  to  try  to  defend  one  single 
point  that  has  been  made  here  by  Professor  Peake  in  five  minutes, 
even  so  it  is  even  more  ridiculous  for  preachers  to  try  to  bring 
such  subjects  into  their  sermons.  The  reason  why  we  can  not 
bring  criticism  in  is  that  it  requires  a  whole  course  of  lectures 
to  explain  to  the  people  the  very  foundations  and  principles  upon 
which  it  is  based.     We  can  not  get  it  into  the  minds  of  careful 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  251 

students  except  by  a  long  course  of  study.  And  to  suppose  that 
you  can  spend  ten  minutes  out  of  the  precious  half-hour  that  you 
have  for  preaching  the  word  of  God  in  the  pulpit  upon  the  wholly 
Irrelevant  matter  as  to  whether  Moses  wrote  the  account  of  his 
own  death  or  anything  of  that  kind,  is  simply  absurd.  But  I 
honestly  trust  that  we  shall  all  of  us,  as  we  do  in  our  colleges  in 
England,  discountenance  our  students  bringing  such  subjects  into 
the  pulpit. 

At  the  present  time  it  is  no  use  trying  to  kill  modern  views  of 
the  Bible.  If  you  are  going  to  try  to  kill  them  you  must  kill 
scholarship  first.  If  you  were  to  turn  all  of  us  out  of  our  chairs 
in  England,  you  could  not  find  other  men  with  adequate  scholar- 
ship holding  different  views  of  the  Bible,  to  fill  them.  They 
would  all  accept  pretty  nearly  everything  that  Professor  Peake  has 
said  this  morning.  I  want  to  plead  with  those  holding  the  other 
view  to  have  charity  with  those  who  have  been  forced  into  these 
views.  Professor  Peake  himself  has  attained  the  unique  position 
he  holds  in  the  great  Primitive  Church  yonder,  simply  by  the 
power  and  fervor  of  his  evangelical  preaching.  I  want  to  remind 
you  how  many  other  preachers  there  are.  You  have  in  your  own 
city  one  whom  we  reverence  on  the  other  side,  Professor  George 
Jackson,  [Applause].  You  remember  he  won  his  place  on  the  other 
side  by  a  long  series  of  years  in  which  he  faithfully  expounded 
the  gospel  in  its  practical  aspect,  in  the  mission  in  Edinburgh. 
It  is  so  with  many  of  us.  And  these  modern  views  of  the  Bible, 
instead  of  making  us  doubt  the  Deity  and  Lordship  and  atonement 
of  Jesus  Christ,  instead  of  making  our  voices  uncertain  in  the 
pulpit  as  we  try  to  tell  of  sin  and  Christ,  have  heightened  our 
power  to  do  it.  The  Bible  means  infinitely  more  to  me  than  before 
I  studied  these  modern  methods.  And  the  real  reason  why  they 
make  it  so  different  to  us  is  that  they  have  restored  the  book  as 
a  human  book.  If  I  want  to  prove  why  I  can  regard  it  as  a 
divine  book  still,  in  the  meetings  of  the  Bible  Society  I  have  evi- 
dence enough  of  its  divinity.  It  has  gone  all  through  the  world 
and  everywhere  transformed  human  lives,  rescued  cannibals  from 
their  cannibalism,  rescued  all  sorts  of  savages  at  home  and  abroad. 
Such  a  book  has  proved  its  divinity.  What  then  if  we  say  that 
there  are  mistakes  of  history  in  it,  that  in  it  there  are  things 
that  we  can  criticize  in  a  historical  sense,  and  that  we  have  to 
study  the  book  in  order  to  find  out  what  its  message  to  us  is? 

Tlie  Eev.  Levi  Gilbert,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church : 

The  time  has  come  on  our  Western  field  to  try  to  overtake  the 
position  of  our  brethren  across  the  sea.  For  we  have  lagged  far  be- 
hind them,  and  we  are  not  yet  quite  out  of  the  state  of  panic; 
but  we  are  beholding  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  it.  We  are  seeing 
that  there  is  no  need  of  consternation.  Coleridge  was  once,  by  an 
old  lady,  asked  if  he  was  afraid  of  ghosts,  and  he  replied,  "No, 
ma'am;  I  have  seen  too  many  of  'em."  And  we  have  seen  too  many 
eras  when  the  Church  seemed  to  be  almost  in  absolute  fright.  But 
here  the  old  Church  is  yet,  and  here  the  old  Bible  is  yet.  Copernicus 
came,  and  Galileo,  and  Newton,  and  Darwin,  and  each  one  brought 
with  him  something  which  to  timid  souls  would  seem  to  bow  God 
quite  out  of  the  universe.  But  God  is  here  yet,  more  magnificent 
and  omniscient  and  omnipotent,  and  the  Bible  means  to  us  infinitely 


25S  THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

more  than  ever  before.  We  can  now  discern  that  the  purpose  of  the 
Scriptures  is  practical.  "All  Scripture  given  by  inspiration  of  God 
is  profitable."  That  is  the  end — "Profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof, 
for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteousness:  that  the  man  of  God 
may  be  perfect,  thoroughly  furnished  unto  all  good  works."  That  is 
the  purpose  of  Scripture;  and  we  want  to  recognize  the  spiritual 
element  and  apply  it  to  our  souls.  It  is  astonishing  to  me  beyond 
expression  that  we  Methodists  who,  in  this  Conference,  as  always  in 
the  past,  have  put  such  emphasis  upon  the  spiritual  element — God's 
speaking  right  to  us,  heart  to  heart,  deep  answering  unto  deep — 
should  be  in  such  fear  and  consternation  to  hear  that  perhaps  Moses 
did  not  write  all  the  Pentateuch,  or  one  Isaiah  write  all  the  book 
ascribed  to  him.  What  difference  in  the  spiritual  realm  does  that 
make?  What  diiference  whether  Job  or  the  psalmists  lived  before 
or  after  Copernicus?  The  eternal  element  is  there  for  that  genera- 
tion and  for  this  generation.  The  only  question  we  ought  to  ask 
concerning  any  finding  of  Biblical  investigators  is,  Is  it  true?  If 
it  is  true,  we  who  believe  in  God  and  Christ  and  the  Bible  ought  to 
be  the  most  interested  and  the  first  to  accept  it;  not  with  alarm,  but 
with  joy.  We  ought  not  to  resemble  the  two  old  ladies  who  heard 
with  dismay  for  the  first  time  of  the  theories  of  Darwin,  Huxley  and 
Spencer:  "Let's  hope  it's  not  so,"  said  one  to  the  other;  "but  if  it 
Is  so,  let 's  hush  it  up."  But  the  policy  of  hushing  up  truth  has 
never  been  pre-eminently  successful;  therefore  we  need  to  go  for- 
ward unhesitatingly  and  unafraid,  saying: 

"Teach  me  the  truth,  Lord,  though  it  put  to  flight 
My  fairest  dreams  and  fondest  fancy's  play; 
Teach  me  to  know  the  darkness  from  the  light, 
The  night  from  day." 

And  let  us  follow  it  absolutely  whithersoever  it  takes  us.  Let  us 
discriminate  between  those  that  simply  follow  hypotheses  out  of 
their  own  speculation,  spinning  like  the  spider  out  of  his  own  bowels, 
and  accept  those  who  build  on  historical  criticism  of  which  they  can 
show  us  the  substantial  proofs.  I  plead  for  the  larger  interpretation. 
The  truth  is  never  dangerous. 

The  Eev.  A.  Carman,  ~D.  D.,  of  the  Metliodist  Church  of 
Canada : 

When  I  hear  these  papers  read  I  feel  like  using  an  adaptation, — 

"Ye  fearful  saints,  fresh  courage  take; 
The  clouds  ye  so  much  dread 
Are  dark  enigmas  and  shall  break 
In  riddles  on  your  head." 

I  believe  in  criticism.  I  believe  in  every  man  standing  on  his 
two  feet  before  God  and  the  world.  I  believe  in  a  proper  use  of 
It.  I  think  there  is  an  improper  use  of  it  in  its  shady  and  cloudy 
and  perplexing  regions.  I  think  our  ministers  do  not  discharge 
their  duty  in  this  regard,  and  I  am  sure  professors  do  not.  Let 
no  man  say  I  would  check  any  man's  freedom.  I  believe  in  abso- 
lute intellectual  freedom.  I  like  to  see  it  applied,  and  I  like  to 
see  it  applied  to  the  holy  Scriptures.  When  I  read  in  the  first 
chapter  of  the  book  "In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  253 

the  earth,"  I  read  an  assertion  against  your  pantheism  and  your 
atheism  and  evohition,  a  great  fact  stated.  "God  created  the 
heavens  and  the  earth."  And  when  I  read  in  John,  "In  the  begin- 
ning was  the  word,  and  the  word  was  with  God,  and  the  word  was 
God;  the  same  was  in  the  beginning  with  God;  all  things  were 
made  by  Him  and  without  Him  was  not  anything  made  that  was 
made,"  I  do  n't  wonder  they  want  to  discount  John.  When  I  read 
in  the  eleventh  of  Hebrews,  "Through  faith  we  understand  that 
the  worlds  were  framed  by  the  word  of  God,  so  that  the  things 
that  were  made  were  not  made  of  things  that  do  appear,"  I  do  n't 
wonder  that  they  come  to  us  and  say,  "The  chapters  are  nil  and 
null  and  void."  "By  faith  Abel  offered  unto  God  a  more  excellent 
sacrifice  than  Cain."  "By  faith  we  understand  Enoch  was  trans- 
lated." The  Bible  is  one  book.  "We  had  in  our  Sunday  school  les- 
son not  long  ago  about  the  king  that  did  not  want  to  receive  the 
prophecies  of  Jeremiah.  He  had  a  penknife  and  he  had  a  parlor 
and  a  place  in  the  royal  palace,  and,  God  help  me,  there  are  things 
that  militate  against  the  face  of  God  that  are  hurtful  to  the  prog- 
ress of  our  Methodism.  He  sat  in  the  parlor.  He  knifed  the  word. 
He  threw  it  into  the  fire.  No!  no!  Jerusalem  will  not  fail.  The 
great  powers  will  not  prevail.  The  king  would  not  receive  it  from 
the  prophet.  I  am  sorry  to  see  anybody  rise  here  on  a  line  of 
special  pleading.  I  am  deeply  sorry  that  our  British  Methodism, 
they  do  say,  is  not  keeping  up  its  old  pace.  It  is  not  reaching  and 
energizing  and  pressing  on.    Perhaps  I  am  misinformed. 

The  Eev.  W.  Eedfern-,  of  the  United  Methodist  Church : 

I  should  like  to  say  how  greatly  I  admire  the  courage  of  Pro- 
fessor Peake's  paper  as  well  as  its  scholarship,  a  courage  wTiich  we 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  know  to  be  simply  a  modest 
characteristic.  I  wish  to  say  that  in  these  days  nothing  is  more 
required  of  scholars  than  courage,  courage  to  accept  the  results 
of  criticism  whatever  those  results  may  be,  the  courage  also  to  give 
to  us  who  are  not  experts  the  results  of  this  criticism  when  they 
are  substantially  unanimous.  I  think  that  in  the  minds  of  the 
common  people,  in  England  at  any  rate,  there  is  a  deep  misgiving 
about  preachers.  It  is  suspected  that  many  of  them  are  hiding 
in  the  pulpit  the  results  of  criticism  which  they  have  accepted  in 
their  own  minds.  That  is  a  misfortune.  Because  if  a  preacher  is 
to  have  power,  he  must  be  straightforward  and  simple  and  down- 
right, speaking  right  out  from  his  heart.  On  Saturday  we  were  told, 
and  no  remark  was  applauded  more  loudly,  that  the  seat  of  authoi'- 
ity  in  the  Methodist  faith  is  not  in  any  outside  tribunal  but  in 
the  spiritual  experience  of  the  believer.  I  should  rather  say  that 
the  seat  of  authority  lies  in  the  personality  of  Christ,  using  that 
word  in  the  largest  evangelical  sense  of  the  word,  our  conception 
of  Christ  as  He  is  interpreted  not  only  in  literature  but  in  history 
and  in  experience.  And  I  say  that  when  a  man  grips  that  thought, 
it  emancipates  him  from  fear  of  higher  criticism.  It  gives  him 
perfect  liberty  in  his  treatment  and  his  study  of  the  holy  Scrip- 
tures. There  is  dynamite  in  that  thought.  It  explodes  and  shatters 
forever  the  superstition  of  verbal  inspiration,  and  makes  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Bible  to  be  a  living  and  permanent  and  spiritual 
expression.  As  I  read  the  story  of  atheism  I  find  that  from  the 
days  of  Voltaire  and  Tom  Paine  right  down  to  Blatchford  and  In- 
gersoll,  this  theory  of  verbal  inspiration  has  been  their  most  formi- 


254  THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

dable  weapon,  and  by  means  of  it  they  have  altogether  misconstrued 
the  character  of  the  Bible,  and  conjured  up  difficulties  which  do 
not  really  exist.  But  if  we  realize  that  Jesus  Christ,  as  He  is  under- 
stood in  spiritual  evangelical  experience.  Is  enthroned  in  the  Bible, 
is  the  authority  for  the  Bible,  is  the  prime  reality  of  the  Bible,  then 
such  views  are  entirely  dispelled.  Of  late  years  (and  perhaps  I 
may  be  forgiven  for  offering  this  personal  testimony),  I  quite  agree 
with  what  Dr.  Moulton  said  about  preaching  higher  criticism  in  the 
pulpit.  Of  late  years  it  has  been  my  habit  to  give  weekly  lectures 
on  the  modern  study  of  the  Bible.  And  in  those  lectures  I  have 
expressed  with  no  concealment  or  misgiving  the  latest  scholarship 
as  far  as  I  can  understand  it. 

The  Eev.  J.  M.  Buckley,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Cliurch : 

Twenty-five  years  ago,  in  editing  the  Christian  Advocate,  I  was 
perplexed.  I  saw  that  a  great  change  was  coming  over  the  pub- 
lic, notwithstanding  Professor  Briggs  was  segregated  from  the 
Presbyterian  body.  I  wrote  to  Professor  Green  of  Princeton, 
thoroughly  orthodox,  and  asked  him  if  he  would  write  three  ar- 
ticles for  the  paper  on  the  higher  criticism.  I  then  asked  a  dis- 
tinguished Congregationalist  minister  if  he  would  write  three.  He 
wrote  them.  Then  I  asked  Professor  Mitchell  to  do  the  same.  He 
wrote  three  and  then  asked  if  he  could  have  two  more.  The  other 
gentlemen  assented  and  he  wrote  them.  Then  I  told  the  Church 
they  had  this  situation  before  them,  and  that  I  should  never  intro- 
duce the  subject  into  the  Christian  Advocate  technically,  because 
the  paper  went  to  the  probationer  and  to  the  dying  saint,  and  to 
trouble  them  with  these  things  would  be  misery  and  poison  to 
their  thought.  Everj^  man  that  believes  in  John  Wesley  and  has 
sense,  must  believe  that  he  was  a  "higher  critic"  in  the  true  sense 
of  that  phrase.  Did  he  not  tell  us  American  people  that  he  had 
left  out  some  psalms  because  they  were  not  fit  for  the  Methodist 
Christian  people?  Did  he  not  himself  change  the  Bible  as  trans- 
lated in  the  common  version  in  his  notes  and  criticise  harshly 
some  passages  as  found  in  the  Bible?  All  these  things  he  did; 
and  all  should  know  it.  Did  he  not  say  that  he  would  not  ask 
any  man  to  say  that  the  Trinity  consisted  of  three  persons?  He 
said  that  he  could  say  it  because  he  had  a  peculiar  point  upon 
"person."  But  if  they  were  not  satisfied,  if  they  believe  in  the 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  he  would  not  call  upon  them  for 
anything  else. 

What  is  the  situation?  When  I  was  admitted  I  was  asked  if 
I  believed  that  every  word  in  the  Bible  was  inspired.  I  said  that 
I  adhered  and  would  adhere  until  I  died  to  the  statement  that 
the  Bible  contained  a  revelation  from  God,  and  that  it  was  the  only 
specific  revelation  of  information  that  there  was  in  the  world  from 
God. 

The  Eev.  Wilfrid  J.   MouLTOisr,  D.  D,,  of  the  AYesle3'aii 

Methodist  Church: 

Mr.  President,  I  would  like  in  the  first  place  to  add  my  testi- 
mony to  what  Dr.  Peake  has  said  in  his  closing  remarks  as  to  the 
enhanced  value  of  the  Bible  to  me.  It  means  to  me  a  hundred 
times  more  since  I  have  learned  to  read  it  in  the  light  of  modern 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  255 

scholarship.  I  think  that  when  the  history  of  modern  scholarship 
comes  to  be  written  it  will  be  seen  to  be  extremely  unfortunate 
that  the  negative  results  of  its  study  were  presented  to  people 
before  the  positive  results.  That  is  to  say,  the  man  in  the  street 
heard  that  scholars  said  there  were  different  writers  in  Isaiah  and 
found  it  disturbing;  when  he  should  have  been  shown  that  certain 
chapters  in  Isaiah  gained  immeasurably  in  value  with  the  Baby- 
Ionian  background  behind  them.  The  Bible  is  the  most  valuable 
thing  that  this  earth  affords;  and  that  will  be  seen  to  be  vastly  more 
true   than  ever  before. 

I  look  upon  the  rise  of  this  criticism  of  the  Bible  as  given  in 
the  providence  of  God  and  having  come  at  the  right  period  in 
the  world's  history.  There  were  two  great  movements  in  human 
thought,  two  great  additions  to  human  knowledge,  that  made  Bible 
criticism  so  necessary.  First,  the  coming  of  the  great  scientific 
movement.  We  have  to  remember  when  people  are  slow  sometimes 
to  understand  all  that  we  want  them  to  understand,  that  it  is  only 
a  little  more  than  fifty  years  since  the  "Origin  of  Species"  was 
published,  and  the  flood  of  knowledge  since  then.  That  saves  us 
from  the  task  of  trying  to  reconcile  the  Bible  with  science,  as  if 
science  were  a  fixed  quantity,  forgetting  that  if  you  reconcile  the 
Bible  with  the  science  of  to-day  it  could  not  agree  with  that  of 
twenty-five  years  before  or  later.  The  second  great  movement  was 
archfeology,  showing  how  immeasurably  long  the  history  of  the 
human  race  is.  I  rejoice  to  think  that  in  devout  Bible  criticism 
we  have  been  given  the  comprehensive  means  by  which  to  grasp 
in  a  whole  all  the  results  of  science  and  archaeology,  and  to  find 
more  of  God  in  the  world  than  there  ever  was  before.  I  would 
like  to  say,  if  I  may,  with  great  respect  and  deference  to  our  dear 
and  honored  father  in  the  Methodist  Church,  Dr.  Carman,  that 
I  hold  the  great  fact  that  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth, 
only  it  seems  nobler  when  science  helps  me  to  understand  how  He 
did  it.  Galileo  has  been  mentioned.  Remember  what  he  said  once 
when  he  was  being  condemned  because  he  had  arrived  at  the 
truth  that  the  earth  went  around  the  sun  and  they  put  him  in 
prison.  He  said  that  the  Bible  was  not  given  to  show  us  how  the 
heavens  go  but  how  to  go  to  heaven.  That  is  one  of  the  wisest 
and  truest  things  ever  said.  I  repeat  the  plea  of  Dr.  James  Moulton, 
with  whom  I  wish  I  might  claim  kinship,  that  we  want  patience 
and  forbearance.  And  we  assure  those  who  do  not  think  as  we  do 
about  the  meaning  and  the  value  of  Scripture,  that  we  also  find 
in  our  Bibles  the  way  to  heaven.  We  believe  that  Bible  criticism 
is  really  preparing  the  way  of  the  Lord  and  making  straight  in  the 
desert  a  highway  for  our  God. 

The  Eev.  Geo.  Elliott,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church : 

I  wish  simply  to  make  my  slight  contribution  to  this  debate 
from  the  standpoint  of  a  working  pastor  and  preacher.  What  Pro- 
fessor MorLTON  has  said  is  true  enough  with  the  limitations  sug- 
gested I  think  by  Mr.  Rkdfkkx.  Every  man  who  studies  should 
have  a  good  smoke-consuming  attachment  to  his  intellectual  ma- 
chinery, and  not  bother  his  j)eople  with  the  process.  If  that  is 
done,  I  think  there  is  no  great  danger  that  the  merely  negative 
results  of  the  freedom  of  scholarship  will  be  brought  into  the 
pulpit  in  any  distressing  form.    When  I  was  in  Washington  a  neigh- 


256  THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIFfURES. 

bor  of  mine,  who  imagined  he  knew  something  about  Biblical  criti- 
cism, which  he  got  second  hand,  tried  to  give  the  results  to  his 
people,  and  told  them  that  the  last  chapter  of  Isaiah  ought  not 
to  be  in  the  Bible.  At  that  time  I  was  delivering  a  series  of  ex- 
positions from  the  great  prophet  of  consolation  in  my  congregation, 
and,  of  course,  I  had  to  assume  the  exilic  background.  Otherwise 
I  could  not  have  interpreted  the  message  in  any  clear  sense.  I 
did  not  tell  them  that  that  ought  not  to  be  in  the  Bible.  I  told 
them  the  Lord  had  been  good  to  us,  and  that  we  had  more  prophets 
than  we  had  ever  supposed,  that  one  of  the  results  of  the  work 
of  devoted  men  in  study  of  the  holy  Scriptures  was  to  show  us 
larger  spiritual  wealth. 

There  are  two  things  in  regard  to  the  reconstruction  of  the  Old 
Testament  history  and  literature  that  I  think  will  abide.  One  is 
the  religious  result.  That  Israel  at  the  time  of  its  full  religious 
consciousness,  and  about  the  time  of  the  exile,  reconstructed  its 
history  and  literature  in  the  light  of  its  fullest  thought  of  God  is 
a  matter  of  highest  religious  gain  to  us.  But  that  they  did  not 
construct  it  so  perfectly  that  we  can  not  unravel  its  seams  is  a 
matter  of  high  import,  and  has  added  to  the  value  of  the  Scriptures 
as  we  have  untwined  the  strands  of  light  and  found  the  many  clear 
colors  of  the  rainbow  which  is  given  us.  The  preacher  is  a  prophet. 
He  comes  with  a  "Thus  saith  the  Lord."  His  message  must  be 
positive.  We  are  there  to  tell  the  things  that  are  most  surely 
known,  and  no  man  can  preach,  or  is  worthy  to  preach,  who  has 
not  convictions  born  of  the  vision  of  God  and  truth.  And  there  is 
a  deep  in  holy  Scripture  that  answers  to  deep  in  the  human  heart. 
It  seems  to  me  that  the  traditional  view  of  holy  Scripture  is  es- 
sentially rationalistic.  For  man  first  by  a  priori  process  to  deter- 
mine what  would  be  a  worthy  revelation  of  God  and  then  try  by 
insecure  harmonies  to  show  that  holy  Scripture  is  such  a  revelation, 
is  essentially  rationalistic.  It  seems  to  me  the  devout  process 
would  be  to  ask  what  sort  of  a  revelation  has  God  in  fact  chosen 
to  give  us.  It  was  Frederick  Macdonald  who  said  in  my  hearing 
that  we  are  not  the  judges  upon  what  mountain  tops  and  through 
what  rivers  God  had  condensed  the  streams  that  go  to  make  up 
this  river  of  life. 

The  Eev.  Joshua  H.  Jones,  D.  D.,  of  the  African  Methodist 

Episcopal  Church: 

Mr.  Chairman,  brethren,  I  have  a  great  deal  of  charity  for  the 
subject  of  higher  criticism  as  it  has  been  presented,  but  I  have 
very  little  sympathy  for  it.  From  my  little  knowledge  and  study 
of  the  subject,  the  situation  seems  to  me  about  like  this:  Men  get 
erroneous  views  of  the  Bible  and  sit  down  critically  to  explain 
those  views  according  to  their  own  view  point,  and  find  great  loads 
of  printed  pages  that  they  can  produce  against  the  book  wrongly 
interpreted.  Everything  depends  upon  the  point  of  view.  If  I  see 
the  Bible  correctly  it  has  two  great  missions  to  us  which  can 
never  be  blotted  out  or  successfully  assailed  by  criticism,  modern 
or  ancient.  The  first  is,  it  is  not  intended  as  a  textbook  on  all 
subjects  that  it  is  criticized  upon,  but  uniquely  it  is  the  history 
of  God's  self-revealing  process.  Secondly,  it  is  the  oldest  book,  the 
greatest  book,  the  clearest  book  upon  the  world's  great  need,  brush- 
ing aside  all  false  gods  and  giving  us  clearly  and  purely  in  the 
sunlight  a  comprehensive  view  of  one  God,  the  Father  of  the  uni- 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  257 

verse,  who  created  it,  who  sustains  it,  and  who  rules  it,  and  who, 
in  spite  of  all  things  else,  ultimately  will  govern  it.  The  Bible 
looked  upon  in  the  light  of  these  two  great  facts  stands  out  beyond 
all  criticism.  No  criticism  can  successfully  assail  it,  and  none  can 
remove  it.  Further,  it  stands  the  test  of  experience  as  no  other 
book.  This  is  the  final  test  that  the  Bible  is  the  book  from  God, 
intended  to  raise  men  to  be  His  children.  I  belong  to  that  un- 
fortunate class  that  has  had  to  struggle  its  way  through  the  African 
jungles,  crossing  the  deep  seas  in  the  slavers  that  fed  America 
with  unrequited  labor,  and  in  the  midst  of  sufferings  indescribable. 
But  in  the  midst  of  that  awful  institution  our  mothers  and  fathers 
trusted  the  God  of  that  Bible,  and  He  made  them  good  unto  this 
day.  "When  the  Bible  is  looked  at  from  the  right  viewpoint  and 
studied  from  that  aspect,  there  is.  nothing  whatever  to  be  feared. 
Let  higher  criticism  come;  but  look  at  the  Bible  in  the  true  light 
that  God  intended,  and  we  have  it  as  an  everlasting  guide  for  the 
sons  of  men. 

The  Eev.  J.  S.  Clemens,  B.  D.,  of  the  United  Methodist 
Church : 

I  am  quite  sure  that  those  who  have  been  familiar  with  the 
study  of  Biblical  criticism  would  agree  heartily  with  the  statements 
of  our  brother  who  has  just  sat  down  with  regard  to  the  spiritual 
use  of  holy  Scripture  and  the  attestation  of  the  value  of  Scripture 
arising  out  of  its  application  to  human  experience.  It  does  not 
seem  to  me  that  what  he  has  said  in  that  respect  takes  away  from 
the  value  and  importance  of  the  work  of  Biblical  criticism.  We 
must  remember  tliat  Bible  criticism  is  perfectly  inevitable.  Here 
are  these  little  books — the  Bible  is  a  collection  of  little  books  pro- 
duced over  a  long  period  of  centuries.  Here  are  these  little  books. 
People  have  a  perfect  right  to  ask  what  are  these  books,  where 
have  they  come  from,  what  significance  have  they  in  the  present 
day?  And  as  soon  as  we  begin  to  do  that  the  work  of  Biblical 
criticism  begins.  Are  we  afraid  that  our  Bible  can  not  stand  the 
investigations  and  inquiries  of  this  kind?  We  ought  to  have  greater 
faith  in  the  Bible  that  has  been  so  fruitful  of  good  results.  Mr. 
Redferx  made  reference  just  now  to  the  theory  of  verbal  inspiration. 
No  doubt  that  theory  of  verbal  inspiration  really  does  lie  behind 
that  attitude  toward  the  Scriptures,  but  the  position  of  verbal  in- 
spiration of  Holy  Scripture  has  been  fruitful  of  all  kinds  of  mis- 
chief in  regard  to  our  religious  life.  There  is  really  the  tacit  as- 
sumption that  somehow  or  other  there  is  an  exact  standard  exemplar 
about  which  you  can  not  have  the  slightest  misgiving.  And  there 
have  been  reformational  statements  of  faith  which  have  even  com- 
mitted themselves  to  this  statement  of  belief,  that  the  very  vowel- 
points  of  the  masoretic  Old  Testament  were  given  by  inspiration  of 
God.  You  can  not  get  much  further  than  that.  It  commits  us  to 
the  idea  of  the  equal  value  of  all  parts  of  Holy  Scripture.  It  com- 
mits us  also  to  that  idea  that  everything  that  is  written  in  the  Bible 
must  be  true  to  fact.  There  is  a  little  story  told  about  some  teacher 
who  asked  those  boys  who  did  not  believe  that  the  whale  swallowed 
Jonah  to  hold  up  their  hands.  There  was  a  little  hero  who  refused 
to  hold  up  his  hand,  because  he  knew  it  was  true.  It  seems  to  me 
that  such  an  attitude  should  be  taken  as  to  make  it  incumbent  upon 
the  little  mind  to  accept  the  idea  that  everything  written  in  the  Bible 
must  be  accepted  as  if  it  had  really  happened,  or  else  the  Bible 
17 


358  THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

itself  loses  its  value  altogether — that  such  an  attitude  is  a  mistaken 
one.  There  is  a  similar  story  told  about  an  old  woman  who  was 
asked  if  she  believed  that,  and  she  said,  "Of  course  I  do;  and  I 
would  believe  the  Bible  if  it  said  that  Jonah  swallowed  the  whale." 

The  Eev.  M.  S.  Terry,  D.  D.,  of  tlie  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church : 

First  of  all  I  would  like  to  emphasize  this  thought,  that  these 
questions  of  higher  criticism  are  not  primarily  matters  of  the  essen- 
tials of  religion.  It  is  not  a  religious  question  whether  Moses  wrote 
the  Pentateuch  or  Paul  wrote  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  There  may 
be  those  here  that  want  to  know,  and  the  question  may  be  important, 
but  primarily  the  question  is  not  of  religion.  I  would  like  to  quote 
the  position  of  Dr.  W.  P.  Davidson,  nomen  venerabile,  expressed  in 
the  Methodist  Times:  "We  can  not  read  these  early  chapters  of  the 
Bible  precisely  as  our  fathers  did.  The  literalist  who  believes  that 
by  a  miracle  the  serpent  spoke  in  the  garden  and  that  the  deluge 
covered  the  whole  globe  is  apt  to  assume  that  he  alone  is  the  one 
who  believes  the  Bible  is  true.  Whereas  his  principles  of  inter- 
pretation are  really  at  fault."  Something  has  been  said  here  about 
John  Wesley's  expression  on  the  Psalms,  that  there  are  psalms  unfit 
for  a  Methodist  Christian  congregation.  Adam  Clarke,  the  great 
Methodist  commentator,  tells  us  that  the  Twenty-third  Psalm  could 
not  have  come  from  David,  and  that  the  Fifty-third  is  another  that 
can  not  have  come  from  David,  and  he  gives  reasons  for  his  judg- 
ment. He  took  the  ground  that  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  is  a  pseudo- 
graph  containing  evidence  of  later  origin.  There  is  an  immense 
library  of  Jewish  and  Greek  pseudepigrapha,  covering  six  hundred 
years,  of  which  we  have  the  Book  of  Enoch  and  not  a  few  biograph- 
ical books,  a  great  body,  which,  if  all  brought  together,  would  be 
greater  than  the  entire  Old  Testament  and  New  Testament  canonical 
books.  There  is  a  fact  to  be  reckoned  with,  a  popular  class  of  lit- 
erature which  was  in  vogue  for  six  hundred  years.  Shall  we  say 
that  in  all  this  there  was  no  inspiration?  Is  the  novel  no  proper 
form  of  literary  composition?  I  would  like  to  speak  of  John  Wes- 
ley's view.  In  his  letter  to  Conyers  Middleton  he  took  the  ground 
that  no  external  evidence  can  outweigh  the  internal.  First,  he  saj's, 
traditional  evidence  is  weakened  by  length  of  time.  It  must  pass 
through  many  hands  in  a  succession  of  ages,  but  no  length  of  time 
can  possibly  affect  the  strength  of  internal  evidence.  Secondly,  tra- 
ditional evidence  is  extremely  complicated,  and  taxes  the  brains  of 
men  of  strong  and  clear  understanding;  but  the  internal  experience 
is  so  plain  and  simple  that  a  child  may  feel  its  force.  Thirdly, 
tradition  stands  a  great  way  off  and  tells  of  what  happened  long  ago. 
The  inward  evidence  is  intimately  present  all  the  time. 

Mr.  E.  G.  Bek,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church : 

I  am  a  layman  from  Germany;  and  you  know  Germany  has  a 
reputation  of  being  a  learned  country,  and  many  of  you  look  toward 
German  professors  as  great  authorities.  Many  of  your  students  come 
over  to  Berlin  and  listen  to  Harnack  and  other  great  authorities. 
Do  you  mean  to  go  with  every  higher  critic  everywhere  he  goes? 
Look  at  the  country  of  Luther.  In  some  States  we  have  fifty  per 
cent  or  seventy  per  cent  of  the  State  Church  ministers  who  do  not 
believe  in  Christ,  as  the  result  of  what  they  have  imbibed  in  the 
universities.     The  Methodist  Church   can  not  go  with   you   there. 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  259 

There  must  be  a  distinction  made.  I  will  tell  you  why  some  people 
are  misled,  and  even  the  highest  authorities.  One  of  the  greatest 
German  authorities  some  twenty  years  ago  wrote  that  the  Gospel 
of  John  was  written  in  the  third  century.  Now  he  is  saying  that 
he  believes  that  it  was  written  in  the  first  century.  There  is  another 
thing:  how  can  a  man,  even  though  he  be  a  professor,  get  at  the 
truth  if  he  has  never  been  converted?  How  can  he  speak  on  that 
subject  of  the  divinity  of  Christ?  I  would  rather  take  a  lay  preacher 
who  has  had  experience  of  a  personal  Savior  for  my  authority,  than 
all  the  professors  in  the  world.  What  has  come  intp  the  secular 
press  of  higher  criticism  is  almost  altogether  negative.  In  our  Ger- 
man secular  press  practically  only  the  negative  results  have  been 
published.  I  do  not  know  whether  you  professors  have  been  careful 
enough  to  publish  the  positive  results.  I  believe  still,  although  so 
much  has  been  pleaded  about  the  Methodist  Church  being  also  a 
gospel  for  the  rich,  that  it  is  a  Church  of  the  people  first — of  the 
masses.  And  I  tell  you  one  other  thing,  I  believe  many  educated 
men  do  not  go  to  Church  because  the  gospel  is  made  too  easy.  I 
believe  j'ou  will  do  much  more  good  and  will  draw  more  men  to 
your  congregations  if  you  preach  a  stronger  gospel  against  sin  and 
for  self-discipline;  because  we  live  in  an  age  when  we  are  so  apt 
to  be  entirely  carried  away  by  the  tendencies  of  the  age,  and  do 
not  practice  that  discipline  which  we  ought  as  the  followers  of 
Christ. 

The  Key.  Joseph  Dinnick,  of  the  Primitive  Methodist 
Church : 

I  have  much  to  say,  but  there  is  no  time  to  say  it.  Only,  I  wish 
to  speak  to  the  lower  critic.  There  is  a  large  multitude  of  seventeen 
branches  who  have  called  in  two  eminent  physicians,  and  they  are 
making  a  diagnosis  of  the  body.  They  have  been  deciding  what  is 
the  matter  with  the  man.  The  wife  is  saying,  "What  is  the  result?" 
The  grandmother  is  saying,  "Is  it  hopeful?"  And  they  are  all  beg- 
ging the  specialists  to  state  the  results  of  the  diagnosis.  But  they 
have  not  come  to  the  end.  The  noble  names  named  hei-e  this  morn- 
ing are  worthy  of  all  consideration  and  our  prayers.  Dr.  Peake  is 
one  of  the  most  eminent  Christians  of  the  earth.  He  possesses  the 
mind  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  has,  in  preaching,  lifted  my  soul  nearer  to 
God  than  almost  any  other  man,  though  I  have  been  privileged  to 
hear  Dr.  Jackson,  who  is  trusted  by  you  and  the  English  people. 
Let  us  go  to  our  Father  in  heaven  and  pray,  for  there  are  no  men 
who  need  the  prayers  more  than  those  men  who  have  risked  their 
all.  The  pain  of  conscience  that  they  feel  in  going  across  their 
brethren!  You  have  no  conception  of  what  a  man  feels  when  he 
is  going  to  depart  from  the  old  in  order  to  investigate  on  your  be- 
half. They  are  not  atheists;  they  are  not  skeptics.  They  are  true 
Christians  of  the  highest  Christian  attainment.  They  are  not  re- 
sponsible for  the  incompetent  students  that  go  out  and  make  rash 
and  injurious  statements. 

On  motion,  tlie  time  was  extended. 

The  liev.  JosKi'ir  'l\  IUrkby,  of  the  Primitive  Methodist 

Church : 

Over  again.st  the  fact  which  has  just  been  related  by  the  reverend 
gentleman  who  has  just  sat  down,  relative  to  the  teaching  of  the 


360  THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

minister  taught  by  Dr.  Peake,  I  would  like  to  put  another.  Some 
time  since  I  had  in  my  study  one  of  our  students  from  our  Hartley 
College  in  Manchester.  I  asked  him  what  Dr.  Peake  was  lecturing 
on  at  that  time.  He  said,  "Yesterday  wo  had  a  lecture  on  Romans." 
I  said,  "What  was  the  effect  on  the  students."  He  said,  "When  we 
got  out  into  the  lobby,  all  the  students  said,  'Can't  we  have  a  prayer- 
meeting?'  "  Mr.  President,  I  sometimes  think  that  much  of  the 
fear  against  higher  criticism  and  much  of  the  passion  excited  against 
it  would  be  obviated  if  there  were  not  so  much  confusion  between 
two  things:  criticism  and  theology.  It  is  sometimes  assumed  that 
because  a  man  is  a  higher  critic  he  must  of  necessity  be  heterodox 
in  theologJ^  That  does  not  follow.  What  is  criticism  but  our  method 
of  interpreting  the  Bible?  What  is  systematic  theology  but  our 
order  of  scientific  presentation  of  our  thought  of  God  and  divine 
things?  But  a  man  may  come  up  to  some  view  of  God  and  to  some 
view  of  divine  things  along  the  way  of  higher  critic  as  well  as  along 
the  way  of  the  lower  critic.  Some  of  my  friends  came  to  Toronto  by 
way  of  Quebec;  others  came  by  way  of  Boston;  I  came  by  way  of 
New  Yoi'k;  but  we  are  all  here  and  deeply  interested  in  this  confer- 
ence. Some  of  my  friends  came  to  their  conception  of  Christ  one 
way;  I  travel  another.  But  in  each  case  Christ  is  the  center  of  our 
theology,  and  the  center  of  our  interpretation  of  Christ  is  His  cross. 
We  sometimes  find  men  most  radical  in  criticism  conservative  in 
theology.  No  man  could  listen  to  Dr.  Peake  without  realizing  that 
the  great  truth  which  he  teaches  his  students  is  the  great  evangelical 
truth  of  Christ,  and  that  without  Him  all  else  is  but  sounding  brass 
and  a  tinkling  cymbal. 

The   Eev.   J.    Lewis,   of   the   British   AVesleyan   Methodist 

Church : 

Mr.  President,  I  can  only  speak  as  an  ordinary  pastor  in  the 
Church  of  God.  I  will  give  you  my  experience.  First,  I  found 
Christ.  I  found  the  tremendous  fact  of  peace  with  God.  Bred  under 
the  old  system  of  thinking,  I  was  being  ti-ained  in  science.  I  found 
myself  at  seventeen  or  eighteen  coming  to  realize  the  fact  of  Christ; 
partly  through  Farrar,  but,  I  am  bound  to  confess,  more  vividly 
through  Renan,  until  I  came  in  the  "Vie  de  Jesus"  to  Jesus  in  Geth- 
semane,  and  then  I  was  shocked  and  horrified.  In  the  course  of 
technical  training  I  also  studied  geology,  and  I  soon  discovered  facts 
that  produced  a  most  profound  mental  confusion.  I  knew  the  fact 
of  my  own  experience,  of  obtaining  a  peaceful  conscience  through 
faith  in  Christ.  I  had  at  the  back  of  my  mind  the  theories  as  to 
the  Bible  in  which  I  had  been  bred;  but  here  were  the  facts  of  na- 
ture, and  they  contradicted  point-blank  the  theories  in  which  I  had 
been  bred.  And  then,  I  confess  to  you,  at  eighteen  years  of  age  get- 
ting as  a  prize-book  "Colenso  on  the  Pentateuch"  was  my  means  of 
intellectual  and  other  salvation  at  that  time.  I  was  saved  again 
from  grave  peril  by  the  higher  criticism.  The  doctrine  of  mechan- 
ical inspiration  of  Scripture  became  to  me  at  that  time  a  profound 
cause  of  confusion,  as  it  had  become  to  myriads.  The  greatest  ca- 
lamity that  has  happened  in  Europe  was  that  doctrine  as  it  played 
upon  the  intellect  of  young  Renan.  As  he  read  his  Hebrew  Bible, 
and  came  face  to  face  with  the  theory  of  mechanical  inspiration  of 
Holy  Scripture,  he  knew  that  it  was  not  true.  Those  who  have  read 
his  "Souvenirs  of  My  Youth"  know  the  struggles  of  that  intellect, 
and  how,  believing  that  that  false  doctrine  represented  the  mind 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  261 

of  the  Church,  his  glorious  French  intellect  went  clean  astray.  I 
confess  to  j-ou  that,  as  far  as  I  am  concerned — and  I  give  my  experi- 
ence as  an  ordinary  pastor — these  ideas  that  have  been  referred  to 
by  these  able  scholars  have  been  to  me  the  means  of  intellectual 
righting,  the  means  of  stability  at  home  and  abroad  in  India.  Men 
must  know  the  truth.  I  want  to  know  the  truth  about  the  text  of 
Scripture;  I  find  it  through  the  lower  criticism.  Also  I  want  to 
discover  under  what  conditions  that  text  came  into  existence,  and 
I  find  that  through  the  higher  criticism.     I  am  bound  to  have  both. 

Bishop    E.    E.    Hoss,    D.  D.,   of   the    Methodist    Episcopal 

Church,  South : 

I  think  that  the  theory  of  verbal  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures has  been  unnecessarily  belabored  this  morning.  I  never  did 
believe  in  it.  That  does  not  argue,  however,  that  I  am  able  to  go 
the  full  length  with  all  the  higher  critics.  The  real  higher  critics 
have  never  disturbed  me.  I  have  been  considerably  disturbed  by 
the  men  who  think  they  are  higher  critics.  They  are  the  people  who 
undertake  to  present  the  fruits  of  criticism  without  understanding  it. 
One  of  these  not  long  ago  assured  his  audience  that  St.  Paul  seri- 
ously interested  him!  I  never  have  believed  in  the  Pauline  author- 
ship of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews;  but  I  could  do  that  much  more 
easily  than  I  could  follow  Professor  Peake  into  his  belief  that  it 
was  written  by  Priscilla.  And  when  he  is  capable  of  believing  that 
I  must  be  a  little  hesitant  about  following  him  on  other  points. 
That  is  my  opinion;  not  yours,  of  course.  These  gentlmen  who 
simply  think  they  are  higher  critics  are  the  worst  traditionalists  in 
the  modern  world.  They  simply  take,  second-hand  from  great  schol- 
ars, certain  utterances,  and  repeat  them  without  inquiry  and  investi- 
gation on  their  own  account.  There  is  a  whole  tribe  and  family  of 
people  of  that  sort  in  our  modern  Churches.  They  are  doing  a  vast 
amount  of  harm.  We  have  had  two  things  said  here  this  morning, 
concerning  which  I  wish  to  say  another  word.  We  have  been  told 
with  tremendous  emphasis  that  ultimate  authority  is  found  only  in 
Jesus  Christ.  I  believe  that  with  all  my  heart.  He  is  the  only  sov- 
ereign voice  in  all  the  world  to  me,  and  has  been  for  a  long  time. 
But  what  Christ  is  it  in  whom  authority  is  centered?  The  Christ 
whose  voice  is  sovereign  to  me  is  not  the  Christ  of  any  man's  dream 
of  fancy,  but  the  historical  Christ  born  in  a  manger,  who  died  upon 
the  cross,  rose  from  the  dead,  and  has  ascended  to  the  right  hand 
of  the  INIajesty  on  high.  We  have  been  told  also  that  the  only  author- 
ity is  found  in  experience.  There  is  a  certain  sense  in  which  that  is 
true.  Experience  is  the  process  of  verification,  more  or  less,  to  the 
whole  range  of  Christian  truth.  But  what  kind  of  experience? 
Simply  every  dream,  fancy,  notion,  or  imagination  that  the  mind 
could  have?  I  have  heard  that  same  thing  in  an  old  Hardshell  Bap- 
tist testimony-meeting.  Now  the  only  Christ  that  I  know  anything 
about  is  the  Christ  of  whom  I  get  my  notion  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment; and  if  you  take  the  historicity  and  authority  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament away  you  have  taken  the  Christ  away,  and  I  know  not  where 
you  have  laid  Him.  And  the  only  experience  which  Wesley  allowed 
to  be  of  any  value,  and  which  any  rational  man  can  allow  to  be  of 
any  value,  is  the  experience  that  is  the  interpretation  and  appropria- 
tion in  life  of  the  truth  of  the  New  Testament  Scripture.  Nobody 
that  knows  me  will  suppose  that  I  am  at  war  with  scholarship.  The 
dream  of  my  life  has  been  that  I  might  be  a  scholar  myself.    I  have 


262  THE  STUDY  OP  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

had  the  scholarly  instincts,  but  have  been  a  hard-working  Methodist 
preacher.  It  has  been  a  real  self-denial  to  be  so  much  kept  from  my 
books.  I  have  followed  all  these  drifts  and  movements  with  interest, 
and  the  old  Bible  is  a  pretty  good  book  yet. 

The  Eev.  J.  G.  Tasker,  D.  D.,  of  the  Britisli  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church: 

I  would  recall  the  Conference  to  a  single  sentence  in  the  paper  of 
Dr.  Peake,  because  I  think  it  contains  the  answer  to  many  problems 
that  have  emerged  in  the  discussion.  God  has  revealed  Himself  in 
history  and  in  experience.  If  you  add  to  this  statement  that  the  rec- 
ord of  that  revelation  is  in  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment, you  have  ground  upon  which  we  can  stand  securely.  I  think 
I  must  say  after  this  discussion  that  the  appeal  to  those  of  us  who 
have  learned  much  from  criticism  of  all  kinds  is  an  appeal  which 
has  an  application  to  those  who  make  it.  I  have  always  advocated, 
and  by  practice  have  illustrated,  my  own  theory  of  keeping  silence 
about  criticism  in  the  pulpit.  But  that  means,  I  think,  also,  in  the 
interest  of  many  of  the  most  intelligent  hearers  in  our  congregations, 
that  there  should  be  silence  in  regard  to  the  critics  themselves. 
Some  have  no  idea  of  the  difficulties  thrown  in  the  path  of  earnest  in- 
quirers by  not  very  well  informed  denunciations,  which  reveal  no 
clear  knowledge  of  the  positions  attacked. 

In  the  course  of  what  has  been  said  this  morning  I  am  bound  also 
to  say  this:  I  hope  we  shall  never  again  hear  the  representation  of 
a  higher  critic  as  a  man  who  exalts  himself  upon  a  pedestal  of  su- 
perior knowledge  and  looks  down  with  scorn  upon  his  fellows.  It 
has  been  made  perfectly  clear  from  many  a  speech  this  morning  that 
we  have  to  live  in  the  atmosphere  of  our  own  times.  And  if  I  under- 
stand that  atmosphere,  this  age  is  determined  to  explore  in  all  realms 
and  to  get  at  origins.  If  you  want  to  do  that  you  must  be  a  higher 
critic;  because  all  that  higher  criticism  means  is  that  you  follow 
the  stream  a  little  higher  towards  its  source.  If  you  have  that 
simple  thought  you  will  never  be  troubled  any  more  with  misleading 
representations  of  higher  critics.  And  it  has  come  out  plainly  that 
most  of  the  speakers  have  been  helped  by  modern  criticism.  Has  it 
not  helped  us  to  understand  the  text  that  has  been  quoted  this  morn- 
ing, "In  the  beginning,  God?"  A  short  time  ago  there  was  excite- 
ment about  the  discovery  of  results  of  Babylonian  excavations. 
What  have  we  learned  by  comparing  those  two  great  narratives? 
A  new  meaning  has  been  given  to  inspiration,  and  we  see  the  tre- 
mendous superiority  of  that  narrative  in  the  beginning  of  Genesis 
to  anything  that  can  be  furnished  by  Babylonian  tablets  with  their 
polytheistic  teachings. 

Secretary  Chapman  made  annoiincemeiits,  and  tlie  session 
closed  at  12 :  45  P.  M.,  with  the  benediction  ^jronounced  by 
the  Eev.  Dr.  Lidgett. 


ESSAY  OF  PROF.  H.  C.  SHELDON.  263 

SECOND  SESSION. 


Topic  :    THE  CIIUIK'II  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

.The  afternoon  session  opened  at  2.30,  with  Bishop  A. 
Walters,  D.  D.,  of  tlie  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion 
Church,  presiding.  "gt 

The  devotional  services  were  in  charge  of  Bishop  C.  R. 
Harris,  D.  D.,  of  the  same  Church. 

Bishop  Harris  read  John  li:  1-21,  and  offered  prayer;  and 
the  Conference  sang  Hymn  661, 

"I  love  Thy  Kingdom,  Lord, 
The  house  of  Thine  abode." 

The  President  announced  that  the  Eev.  Dr.  H.  Maldwyn" 
Hughes,  of  tlie  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church,  to  whom  was  as- 
signed the  first  invited  address,  "Christianity  and  Eecent 
Philosophical  Tendencies,"  was  detained  in  England  hy  the  ill- 
ness of  his  wife,  hut  had  sent  the  suhstance  of  his  address, 
Avhicli  would  be  read  in  due  time  by  the  Rev.  W.  W.  Holds- 
worth. 

The  essay  of  the  afternoon  was  by  Professor  H.  C.  Sheldon", 
D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church ;  subject,  "The  Newer 
Forms  of  Unbelief,  and  How  to  Meet  Them :" 

The  expository  part  of  our  discussion  falls  into  two  main  di- 
visions. In  the  first  place  we  refer  to  those  forms  of  unbelief  which 
assail  the  primacy,  or  pre-eminent  worth,  of  the  Biblical  revelation. 
Since  Christ  is  central  to  the  outcome  of  that  revelation,  this  class 
of  unbeliefs  is  naturally  made  inclusive  of  such  schemes  as  deny, 
or  seriously  discount,  either  His  historicity  or  His  uniqueness.  In 
the  second  place  we  notice  those  forms  of  unbelief  which  assail  the 
integrity  of  the  theistic  conception. 

On  the  side  of  the  tj'pes  of  unbelief  which  make  against  the 
primacy  of  the  Biblical  revelation  no  very  extensive  or  homogene- 
ous school  can  be  mentioned.  The  religio-historical  school  in  Ger- 
many, it  is  true,  has  been  judged  to  hold  points  of  view  which 
logically  imply  that  the  Biblical  religion  is  simply  one  among  nat- 
ural developments  of  the  religious  principle  inherent  in  man.  But 
we  have  not  discovered  that  the  eminent  representatives  of  this 
school  have  as  yet  launched  out  into  any  radical  disparagement  of 
the  religion  of  the  Bible.    On  the  contrary,  to  whatever  degree  their 


264       THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

premises  may  be  adapted  to  serve  the  interests  of  an  anti-Biblical 
radicalism,  they  have  viot  shunned  in  various  connections  to  laud 
the  incomparable  worth  of  the  Biblical  contents.  "We  conclude,  then, 
that  a  summary  criticism  of  the  religio-historical  school  might  pru- 
dently wait  for  a  more  complete  exhibition  of  animus,  though  the 
naturalistic  bent  which  is  reflected  here  and  there  in  the  literature 
of  the  school  does  not  invite  to  a  cheerful  confidence. 

An  unmistakable  curtailment  of  the  significance  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment is  effected  by  the  company  of  firchaeologists  whose  scheme 
has  fitly  been  described  as  Pan-Babylonian,  inasmuch  as  it  makes 
Babylonian  religion,  with  its  prodigal  use  of  astral  myths,  the  foun- 
tainhead  of  sacred  story  and  religious  teaching  in  Israel.  Doubt- 
less some  of  the  scholars  associated  with  this  scheme  have  been  able, 
by  distinguishing  between  the  borrov/ed  forms  and  the  inhabiting 
spirit,  to  conserve  a  certain  pre-eminence  to  the  Hebrew  religion. 
But  a  marked  tendency  has  been  in  evidence  among  its  representa- 
tives to  cancel  real  pre-eminence.  As  one  reads  various  statements 
of  Friedrich  Delitzsch,  Winckler,  and  Jensen,  he  gains  the  impres- 
sion that  Israel  is  to  be  reckoned  in  all  respects,  religion  not  ex- 
cepted, a  mere  dependency  of  Babylonia.  Even  such  a  feature  as 
ethical  monotheism  is  made  to  appear  rather  as  an  importation 
than  a  native  growth. 

Radical  as  are  the  asumptions  of  the  Pan-Babylonians  respecting 
the  dependent  relation  of  the  Old  Testament,  they  are  fully  matched 
by  recent  theories  on  New  Testament  borrowings  from  Gentile  fan- 
cies and  speculations.  At  the  extreme  these  theories  completely 
cancel  the  historical  basis  of  the  New  Testament.  Jesus  is  simply 
banished  by  them  from  the  world  of  fact.  Kalthoff  regards  Him 
as  a  creation  of  poetic  fancy  devised  to  typify  the  experiences  of 
the  community.  Drews  indentifies  Him  with  a  god  whose  cult 
had  been  of  long  standing  among  the  Jews,  going  back  probably  to 
the  fabled  Joshua  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  receiving  various  in- 
crements from  the  heathen  world.  W.  B.  Smith  also  finds  a  pre- 
Christian  basis  for  the  Jesus  of  the  Gospels,  whom  in  like  manner 
he  rates  as  a  pure  fiction.  Grant  Allen,  though  not  quite  ready 
dogmatically  to  deny  that  Jesus  ever  existed,  concludes  that  any 
kernel  of  truth  that  may  possibly  belong  to  His  story  is  imbedded 
in  a  mass  of  myth.  In  essence  He  was  simply  an  agricultural  god, 
a  form  of  the  corn-and-wine  god  who  played  so  conspicuous  a  role 
in  the  lands  bordering  the  Mediterranean.  J.  M.  Robertson  im- 
proves on  Grant  Allen  by  supposing  Jesus  to  represent  not  simply 
a  mythical  agricultural  god,  but  a  mythical  sun-god  as  well.  Finally 
Jensen,  true  to  his  Pan-Babylonian  thesis,  finds  in  the  life-story  of 
Jesus  simply  a  special  version  of  the  Gilgamesch  epic.  Jesus  is 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  an  Israelite  Gilgamesch.  No  historical 
tradition  respecting  Him  is  e>:;.ant. 


ESSAY  OF  PROF.  H.  C.  SHELDON.  265 

The  last-mentioned  group  of  theories  affords  clear  demonstration 
that  academic  foolishness  can  be  as  excedingly  foolish  as  any  other 
sort  of  foolishness.  Much  more  formidable,  as  being  less  fantastic, 
are  the  theories  which  concede  a  historic  basis  to  the  Gospels  but 
rob  Christ  of  all  capacity  for  Saviorhood  by  stripping  Him  of  all 
transcendent  elements,  whether  of  consciousness  or  of  office.  A 
favorite  expedient  for  compassing  this  result  is  to  charge  the 
Christology  of  the  Gospels  to  Pauline  dogmatics,  which  on  its  side 
is  made  to  depend  very  largely  upon  Gentile  speculation  and  myth- 
ology. Pronounced  illustrations  of  this  program  in  New  Testament 
criticism  have  very  recently  been  furnished.  Evidently  the  pro- 
gram is  one  which  logicallj'^  negates  the  right  of  New  Testament 
religion  to  an  existence  in  the  world. 

In  relation  to  the  second  class  of  unbeliefs  which  we  are  to  no- 
tice, namely  those  which  assail  the  integrity  of  the  theistic  con- 
ception, the  emphasis  falls  on  pantheistic  developments.  Very  likely, 
estimated  by  a  mere  count  of  heads,  materialism  would  be  able  to 
show  a  considerable  following.  The  wide  circulation  accorded  in 
the  last  few  decades  to  the  popular  treatises  of  Biichner  and  Haeckel 
implies  as  much.  However,  scholarly  conviction  by  an  overwhelm- 
ing consensus  rates  materialism  as  an  impossible  theory  of  the 
universe.  Haeckel  has  been  constrained  to  confess  that  in  Germany 
most  physiologists  as  well  as  most  of  the  philosophers  in  the  uni- 
versities render  it  scant  respect.  In  short,  it  is  quite  safe  to  con- 
clude that  among  the  forms  of  thought  which  dispute  the  field  with 
theism,  pantheism  takes  precedence.  A  profound  stress  upon  divine 
immanence,  combined  with  the  notion  of  an  all-inclusive  process  or 
evolutionary  movement,  has  tended  to  give  it  a  certain  right  of  way. 
In  estimating  the  force  of  the  pantheistic  current  we  need  not  take 
any  special  account  of  the  fact  that  recent  Theosophy  and  Eddyism 
have  taken  up  pantheistic  premises,  since  the  one  was  born  of  an 
intemperate  appetite  for  a  pretentious  occultism,  and  the  other  of 
a  consuming  ambition  to  exalt  to  a  position  of  sole  legitimacy  a 
monopolistic  scheme  of  mental  healing;  and  both  alike  are  inno- 
cent of  any  real  industry  in  philosophical  construction.  Much 
more  significance  attaches  to  a  tendency  in  scholarly  circles  prac- 
tically to  eliminate  the  notion  of  divine  transcendence  and  to  ob- 
scure the  notion  of  divine  personality.  To  just  what  extent  this 
tendency  has  ultimated  in  downright  pantheism  is  difficult  to  de- 
termine. That  it  has  fallen  little  short  of  that  goal  among  the 
more  radical  exponents  of  Neo-Hegelianism  has  been  made  quite 
manifest.  One  of  the  most  influential  of  these  has  decided  that  the 
absolute  can  not  be  called  personal,  good,  or  beautiful,  and  has  sug- 
gested that  it  is  to  be  described  by  such  unmeaning  categories  as 
super-personal  and  super-moral.  Another  exponent  refuses  to  admit 
the  possibility  that  the  absolute  can  be  personal,  except  by  resort 


266       THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

to  the  barest  and  most  worthless  abstraction  of  possibility.  Various 
exponents  concur  in  the  conclusion,  agreeable  to  pantheism,  that 
man's  sense  of  freedom  is  misleading,  and  that  moral  evil  in  the 
point  of  view  of  metaphysics  is  illusory.  Approaches  to  the  Neo- 
Hegelian  propositions  occur  in  the  domain  of  the  so-called  "New 
Theology."  A  prominent  champion  of  this  theology,  though  formally 
sanctioning  the  theistic  conception  on  the  divine  self-consciousness, 
seems  to  patronize  a  pantheistic  blending  of  the  divine  and  the 
human  in  the  statement,  "Humanity  is  divinity  viewed  from  below, 
divinity  is  humanity  viewed  from  above."  In  other  quarters  a 
blunted  view  of  personality,  quite  agreeable  to  pantheism,  is  some- 
times encountered.  Thus  in  a  recent  exposition  of  Pragmatism  it 
is  said,  "Personality  has  the  same  individuality  that  we  find  in  a 
solenoid  or  in  a  gyroscope." 

A  certain  affinity  between  pantheism  and  polytheism  is  not  with- 
out illustration  in  history.  Curiously  enough  this  affinity  finds  a 
modicum  of  illustration  in  the  midst  of  our  Christian  civilization. 
At  least  one  representative  of  the  Neo-Hegelian  school  has  passed 
the  judgment  that  a  system  of  selves,  functioning  apart  from  any 
directing  mind,  may  serve  every  purpose  of  a  universe — a  conclu- 
sion which  might- have  been  borrowed  from  the  opposing  Pragmatist 
school,  within  which  a  pluralistic  interpretation  of  ultimate  reality 
has  been  rather  conspicuous.  With  logical  conformity  to  this  phase 
of  thinking  a  New  Testament  critic  of  the  advanced  type  speaks 
apologetically  for  a  polytheistic  as  opposed  to  a  monotheistic  con- 
ception. Thus  modern  enlightenment,  at  points  of  special  illumina- 
tion, discounts  theism  proper  and  permits  us,  if  we  can  not  be 
satisfied   with   straight   pantheism,   to   turn   to   polytheism. 

The  movement  toward  pluralism,  so  far  as  it  obtains,  might 
seem  to  be  the  reverse  of  a  tendency  to  pantheism,  with  its  stress 
on  unity;  but  in  its  final  results  it  is  not  improbable  that  it  will 
contribute  somewhat  to  pantheism.  The  distress  incident  to  an 
atomistic  conception  of  reality  is  likely  in  time  to  make  demand 
for  some  form  of  unity,  and  where  the  notion  of  personality  has 
been  blurred  it  is  natural  to  take  unity  in  a  pantheistic  sense. 
A  psychology  that  is  disposed  to  find  in  man  no  other  subject- 
matter  than  sensations,  might  easily,  it  strilves  me,  be  turned  toward 
a  Spencerian  type  of  pantheism. 

As  respects  the  way  to  meet  the  newer  forms  of  unbelief,  we 
summarize  our  convictions  as  follows: 

In  the  first  place  they  are  to  be  met  with  calmness  and  sobriety 
of  spirit,  with  avoidance  both  of  excessive  anxiety  and  of  polemical 
bitterness,  with  care  at  once  not  to  make  a  needless  surrender  of 
doctrinal  treasure  already  possessed,  and  not  to  forfeit  a  chance  to 
improve  that  treasure  by  seizing  some  better  point  of  view.  A  right- 
minded  orthodoxy  will  be  stanch  and  steadfast,  but  it  will  recognize 


ESSAY  OF  PROF.  H.  C.  SHELDON.  2G7 

that  it  needs  provocatives  to  thought,  and  will  take  them  as  part  of 
the  providential  discipline. 

In  the  second  place  the  characteristic  unbeliefs  of  the  age  are 
to  be  met  by  a  proportionate  use  of  the  pertinent  forms  of  evidence. 
It  savors  of  onesidedness  to  lay  the  whole  stress  upon  the  objective 
facts  of  history  or  upon  the  demands  of  consistent  philosophical 
thinking,  to  the  neglect  of  the  proof  which  flows  out  of  the  inner 
religious  experience.  Those  who  taste  and  see  that  the  Lord  is  good 
get  an  assurance  of  the  divine  goodness  that  is  not  to  be  found  in 
the  way  of  exterior  search  or  of  speculative  thinking.  A  large  part 
of  the  response  to  unbelief,  accordingly,  must  lie  in  the  eflScient 
evangelism  which  keeps  on  multiplying  the  evidence  of  religious 
experience.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  to  be  recognized  that  subjective 
experience  is  not  a  substitute  for  historical  verities  or  for  philosoph- 
ical construction.  In  the  long  run  the  possibilities  of  subjective  ex- 
perience are  largely  conditioned  by  historical  facts  recognized  as 
such.  .  Shut  out  positive  revelation,  exclude  the  extraordinary  per- 
sonality and  office  of  the  Christ,  and  you  get  a  world-view  that  is 
incompetent  to  minister  in  perpetuity  the  incentives  that  are  needed 
to  generate  the  higher  and  more  potent  forms  of  inward  experience. 
The  adequate  Christian  apology  then  can  not  ignore  the  demand  to 
enter  the  field  of  historical  criticism.  That  it  is  equally  bound  to 
lespect  the  need  of  philosophical  consti'uction  requires  but  little  re- 
flection to  discover.  Ultimates,  whether  in  the  line  of  antecedents 
or  ends,  tell  powerfully  upon  the  religious  outlook.  Now  it  is  the 
office  of  philosophy  to  give  a  credible  and  consistent  view  of  ulti- 
mates. No  one  of  the  science.^?  does  this,  and  to  allow  any  par- 
ticular science,  such  as  psychology  or  biology,  to  be  intruded  into 
the  place  of  philosophy,  is  to  foreclose  to  religion  the  opportunity 
to  secure  an  adequate  intellectual  basis.  The  experiential,  the  his- 
torical, and  the  philosophical  belong  together,  and  what  God  has 
joined  let  not  man  put  asunder. 

In  the  third  place,  giving  more  direct  attention  to  those  forms 
of  unbelief  which  assail  the  primacy  of  the  Biblical  revelation,  we 
may  fitly  emphasize  the  truth  that  it  is  no  matter  of  a  piHori  cer- 
tainty that  Israel  alone  among  ancient  peoples  had  no  competency 
to  create  the  molds  of  its  own  thinking.  We  may  also  make  bold 
to  aflirm  that  the  fact  of  borrowing  certain  elements  does  not 
necessarily  cancel  the  claim  of  the  Biblical  revelation  to  a  high  de- 
gree of  originality.  The  way  in  which  the  elements  are  taken  up 
and  subordinated  to  ruling  points  of  view  is  of  great  significance. 
Sentences  more  or  less  akin  to  those  spoken  by  Jesus  can  be  dis- 
covered in  extra-Biblical  sources.  But,  as  Edward  Caird  has  re- 
marked, "when  we  look  at  the  ideas  and  the  character  of  Jesus  as 
a  whole  we  can  see  that  all  such  elements  have  there  acquired  a 
new  meaning  as  the  elements  of  a  new  unity — a  new  organic  concep- 


268       THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

tion  of  human  life  in  its  relations  to  nature  and  to  God,  which,  taken 
in  its  entirety,  has  no  previous  counterpart,  and  which  indeed  consti- 
tutes the  greatest  step  that  has  ever  been  gained  in  the  spiritual  de- 
velopment of  man."  What  is  said  here  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  ap- 
plies, if  in  a  less  emphatic  sense,  to  the  general  range  of  the  Biblical 
revelation. 

In  the  next  place  we  may  legitimately  contend  that  a  proper 
parallel  to  the  Old  Testament  revelation,  with  its  culmination  in 
ethical  monotheism,  can  not  be  found  in  the  Babylonian  or  any  other 
antique  system  which  can  be  imagined  to  have  been  contributory  to 
that  revelation.  To  whatever  extent  the  monotheistic  conception 
may  have  been  wrought  out  in  Babylonian  or  in  Egyptian  religion, 
it  was  relatively  a  pale  speculation.  Moreover,  it  was  very  seriously 
compromised  by  the  subordination  of  deity  in  the  order  of  thought  to 
the  world,  by  the  co-existence  of  polytheism,  and  by  a  sweeping  ap- 
plication of  the  notion  of  magic.  As  for  the  Persian  faith,  it  falls 
out  of  the  field  of  a  just  comparison  on  the  score  of  its  dualistic  con- 
ception of  origins. 

Once  more,  as  respects  attempts  to  attenuate  the  historical  basis 
of  the  Gospels,  leaving  aside  the  more  ultra  theories  as  scarcely 
worthy  the  notice  of  a  sane  scholarship,  we  can  accentuate  a  line  of 
evidences  for  the  conclusion  that  a  living  tradition  dominated  the 
gospel  content,  as  opposed  to  the  assumption  of  an  oversloughing  of 
that  content  by  Pauline  dogmatics.  Such  an  evidence  is  found  in 
the  fact  that  the  Gospels  nowhere  reproduce  the  special  form  of 
the  great  central  doctrine  of  Paul  on  justification,  and  are  not  even 
careful  to  exclude  sentences  which  in  their  verbal  sense  could  be 
counted  discordant  with  that  doctrine.  Such  an  evidence  appears 
still  further  in  the  fact  that  the  distinctive  designation  of  Christ 
as  the  "Son  of  man"  is  wanting  in  the  Pauline  Epistles,  and  likewise 
in  the  fact  that  these  Epistles  contain  exceedingly  few  phrases  that 
in  any  wise  remind  of  the  great  theme  of  the  "Kingdom,"  as  that 
is  set  forth  by  the  Synoptists.  And,  supplementing  all  these  tokens 
of  the  effective  working  of  a  living  tradition  as  against  a  dominating 
influence  from  the  side  of  Paul,  we  have  such  a  blending  of  lowliness 
and  loftiness,  of  human  grace  and  transcendent  greatness,  in  the 
portraiture  of  Christ  as  no  mere  theological  bias  could  ever  have 
evolved.  As  Somerville  observes,  "that  such  a  picture  was  or  could 
have  been  the  growth  of  unconscious  theologizing  is  far  more  in- 
credible than  that  it  is  what  it  professes  to  be,  the  record  of  a  sublime 
reality." 

Relative  to  the  unbeliefs  which  assail  the  integrity  of  the  theistic 
conception  there  is  no  time  to  indicate  the  preferred  lines  of  re- 
buttal. We  content  ourselves  with  emphasizing  a  ground  of  con- 
gratulation. This  ground  lies  in  the  truth  that  in  majesty,  intrinsic 
worth,  and  power  of  appeal  to  human  spirits  the  thought  of  the  in- 


ADDRESS  BY  DR.  H.  MALDWYN  HUGHES.  2G9 

finite  personal  God  is  incomparable.  It  is  the  one  thought  that  ade- 
quately founds  the  cential  distinction  of  man  as  a  possessor  of  moral 
freedom.  It  is  the  one  thought  which  provides  for  that  noble  ethical 
fellowship  which  is  the  securest  pledge  of  immortality.  Any  diffi- 
culties which  may  attend  it  leave  one  in  a  far  less  comfortless  con- 
dition than  results  from  any  competing  conception;  for  out  of  the 
high  filial  relation  to  which  it  invites  there  springs  a  confidence 
which  enables  a  man  to  go  on  with  a  stout  heart  in  the  face  of  such 
enigmas  in  the  world  system  as  may  remain  unsolved. 

We  conclude  that,  while  there  may  be  some  clouds  in  the  sky 
of  Christian  faith,  there  has  been  and  will  be  no  real  eclipse,  no 
serious  or  prolonged  obscuration.  On  the  contrary,  the  clouds  will 
pass,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  will  cover  the  earth  as  the  waters 
cover  the  sea. 

Dr.  H.  Maldwyn  Hughes'  paper  on  "Christianity  and 
Eecent  Philosopliical  Tendencies/'  was  read  by  the  Eev.  W.  W. 
HoLDswoRTii.  as  follows: 

The  question  of  the  attitude  of  philosophy  to  Christianity  is  one 
to  which  we  can  not  be  indifferent  if  we  believe  that  the  Divine 
Spirit  is  the  animating  principle  of  all  knowledge.  The  tendencies 
of  modern  philosophy  of  most  importance  from  the  Christian  stand- 
point are: 

1.  The  Revolt  Ag.a.inst  Intellectualism.  The  idealistic  succes- 
sors of  Hegel  have  undoubtedly  rendered  a  great  service  by  their 
vindication  of  a  spiritual  interpretation  of  the  world  against  the 
assaults  of  naturalism;  but  apart  from  other  limitations  which 
might  be  named,  their  method  was  too  intellectualistic.  It  has  been 
said,  for  instance,  that  the  Cairds  only  find  the  supreme  at  two  re- 
moves from  what  can  be  fecognized  as  concrete  experience.  It  is 
not  surprising  that  this  exaggerated  intellectualism  has  evoked  a 
revolt  from  more  than  one  direction;  e.  g..  Pragmatism,  which  starts 
with  human  conditions  and  needs;  Eucken,  whose  fundamental  as- 
sumption is  the  activity  of  a  transcendent  spiritual  life  in  man; 
and  Bergson,  who  denies  the  final  competence  of  the  intellect  in  mat- 
ters philosophical,  and   relies  on  an  ultra-intellectual   intuition. 

2.  The  Recognitiox  of  the  Worth  of  the  Phenomena  of  the 
Spiritual  Life.  This  is  seen  in  the  respectful  treatment  now  ac- 
corded by  psychology  to  the  phenomena  of  spiritual  experience;  as 
e.  g.,  mysticism  and  conversion. 

Perhaps  the  best  course  to  pursue  will  be  to  examine  the  three 
outstanding  movements  of  recent  philosophy  in  their  relation  to 
Christian  truth. 

a)  Pragmatism.  Pragmatism  holds  that  the  truth  of  an  idea  is 
determined  by  its  workability.     A  belief  which,  from  the  standpoint 


370       THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

of  human  needs  and  conditions,  works  is  pragmatically  true.  The 
universe  consists  not  so  much  of  finished  facts  as  of  possibilities. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  absolute  truth.  Truth  is  in  the  making, 
and  we  ai-e  helping  to  make  it.  It  is  evident  that  this  method  can 
yield  nothing  more  than  a  hypothetical  theism.  Indeed,  James  in- 
clines to  a  pluralism  in  which  God  is  no  longer  sovereign,  but  the 
president  of  a  republic,  with  strictly  limited  powers. 

As  a  method,  pragmatism  is  capable  of  both  a  perverse  and  a 
fruitful  application.  An  instance  of  the  former  is  modernism,  which 
reduces  dogma  to  "a  prescription  of  practical  order,"  "the  formula 
of  a  rule  of  practical  conduct."  Inge  quotes  from  Le  Roy  illustra- 
tions of  this  catholic  pragmatism.  To  say,  "God  is  personal,"  means: 
"behave  in  your  relations  with  God  as  you  do  in  your  relations  with 
a  human  person."  To  say,  "Jesus  is  risen  from  the  dead,"  means: 
"treat  Him  as  if  He  were  your  contemporary." 

On  the  other  hand  the  pragmatic  method  is  fruitfully  applied  in 
so  far  as  it  helps  us  to  realize  that  (1)  experience  is  a  vital  factor 
in  the  solution  of  the  truth  problem.  The  higher  we  ascend  in  the 
scale  of  truth,  the  more  scanty  does  theoretical  evidence  become 
and  the  more  dependent  are  we  on  practical  motives.  (2)  Specula- 
tion, even  if  it  yield  an  assurance  of  the  existence  of  God,  can  not 
give  us  an  intimate  knowledge  of  His  nature.  Such  can  only  be 
won  by  experience. 

But  as  a  philosophy,  pragmatism  is  utterly  inadequate,  especially 
when  jvidged  from  the  Christian  standpoint.  (1)  So  long  as  man  is 
conscious  of  the  resistless  power  of  a  spiritual  nature  he  can  be 
satisfied  with  no  interpretation  of  life  which  does  not  "penetrate  be- 
yond the  surface  of  things  to  their  fundamental  nature."  His  spirit 
presses  on  to  the  discovery  of  ultimate  goals.  (2)  If  the  truth  of  a 
belief  depends  on  its  workability  we  are  entitled  to  ask,  what  is  the 
standard  of  workability?  It  is  difficult  to  see  where  this  standard 
is  to  come  from  on  purely  pragmatic  principles.  (3)  There  is  a  wide 
gap  between  the  pluralism  of  pragmatism  and  the  Christian  concep- 
tion of  God  as  the  one  Father  of  spirits,  the  one  Source  of  goodness, 
and  the  one  Refuge  of  humanity.  (4)  Pragmatism  may  easily  be 
used  to  justify  intellectual  indolence  and  an  obstinate  adherence  to 
obsolete  views,  approaching  to  disloyalty  to  the  Spirit  of  Truth.  The 
Goths  in  the  days  of  Ulfilas  maght  well  have  defended  Arianism  on 
the  ground  that  it  worked,  and  obscurantism  might  be  justified  on 
the  ground  of  the  piety  of  many  of  its  professors.  Workability 
can  not  be  judged  from  a  narrow  span  of  time.  That  a  belief  ap- 
pears to  be  workable  does  not  prove  it  to  be  wholly  true,  but  only 
that  it  has  in  it  some  elements  of  truth,  which  can  not  fail  to  bring 
forth  fruit. 

b)  Bergson.  Bergson  has  not  yet  developed  his  philosophy  in 
relation  to  the  religious  life.    He  denies  the  competence  of  the  Intel- 


ADDRESS  BY  DR.  H.  MALDWYN  HUGHES.  271 

lect  in  philosophical  matters  on  the  ground  that  its  outlook  has  been 
shaped  by  practical  needs.  Scientific  knowledge,  valuable  at  it  is, 
is  different  in  kind  from  philosophic  knowledge,  which,  standing  as 
it  were  upon  the  shoulders  of  scientific  knowledge,  attains  to  supra- 
intellectual  intuition,  and  apprehends  reality  as  life,  freedom,  cre- 
ation, progress,  influence,  tendency,  movement,  force,  conscious  ac- 
tivity. Bergson  will  not  admit  that  this  creative  impulse  is  endowed 
with  a  purposive  quality,  and  so  far  separates  himself  from  Chris- 
tianity, which  is  concerned  with  the  realization  of  an  eternal  purpose. 
Nevertheless,  as  Dr.  Garvie  has  pointed  out,  we  may  learn  two  things 
from  Bergson:  (1)  We  may  insist  that  Christian  faith,  like  Bergson's 
intuition,  is  an  immediate  contact  with  reality,  and  not  merely  assent 
to  doctrines  about  reality.  (2)  Just  as  he  finds  reality  in  movement, 
creative  evolution,  vital  impulse,  so  may  we  seek  the  reality  of  Chris- 
tian faith  in  its  abounding  vitality  and  vigor. 

c)  Euckeri.  Eucken  has  called  his  philosophy  Activism.  By  this 
he  means  that  he  postulates  in  man  the  activity  of  a  spiritual  life 
which  has  a  reality  and  independence  of  its  own,  which  "applies  its 
standards  to  the  testing  and  sifting  of  the  whole  content  of  our 
human  life,"  and  which  makes  spiritually  fruitful  the  lives  of  those 
in  whom  its  activity  is  allowed  free  course.  This  spiritual  life  unifies 
and  transforms  our  personalities;  "it  holds  before  us  a  regenerated 
world,  in  the  light  of  which  it  passes  judgment  on  things  as  they 
are;"  it  lifts  us  above  the  narrow  limits  of  our  private  and  par- 
ticular existence,  and  transforms  our  relations  to  our  fellow-men," 
joining  us  to  them  in  the  fellowship  of  a  hidden  life.  It  can  not 
possibly  be  self-originated,  demanding  as  it  does  toil  and  sacrifice, 
and  a  revolution  which  shifts  the  very  life-center.  It  can  only  be 
explained  on  the  assumption  of  the  invasion  of  our  life  by  a  new 
order  of  reality. 

It  will  be  seen  that  this  is  closely  akin  to  Christian  teaching. 
Eucken's  philosophy  offers  a  stimulating  and  helpful  field  of  study 
to  the  Christian  teacher.  But  Eucken  refuses  to  admit  that  Christ 
exercises  a  unique  function  as  the  Mediator  of  the  spiritual  life.  The 
dogma  of  Christ's  Deity,  he  savs  has  been  the  source  of  much  con- 
fusion. The  personality  of  Christ  must  be  recognized  to  be  "simply 
the  high-water  mark  of  a  movement  which  embraces  the  whole  of 
humanity."  Eucken  is  not  alone  in  this.  Philosophy  can  under- 
stand immanence,  but  incarnation  is  a  stumbling-block.  After  all, 
it  is  not  surprising.  Philosophy  is  not  religion,  and  necessarily 
falls  short  of  it  in  spiritual  insight  and  experience.  There  is  a  pro- 
found truth  in  the  saying  of  Ritschl,  "We  know  the  nature  of  Christ 
only  in  His  worth  for  us."  Philosophy  is  not  competent  to  pronounce 
on  the  Person  of  Christ  until  it  has  been  enlightened  by  the  experi- 
ence of  His  indwelling. 


272  THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

The  second  invited  address,  on  "Christianity  and  Modern 
Etliical  Theories,"  was  given  b}^  tlie  Eev.  Francis  J.  McCon- 
NELL,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church : 

At  least  four  great  demands  are  laid  upon  ethical  systems  by  the 
thinking  of  our  day.  The  first  demand  comes  from  the  realm  of 
natural  science  and  is  voiced  in  the  name  of  evolution.  According 
to  this  demand  we  must  have  regard  to  the  origins  of  ethical  ideas 
and  must  judge  them  by  the  vitality  they  show  as  organisms  in  a 
world  where  processes  must  be  explained  largely  in  biological  terms. 
This  demand  has  the  defect  of  at  times  going  to  the  absurd  length  of 
denying  validity  to  an  idea  on  its  own  account  and  of  substituting 
the  natural  history  of  an  idea  for  its  own  rational  and  moral  content 
as  the  supreme  test  of  its  worth.  We  are  coming  to  see  more  and 
more  that  ideas  must  stand  or  fall  by  the  appeal  they  make  in  and 
of  themselves,  but  at  the  same  time  we  must  admit  the  value  of 
the  words  "natural"  and  "growth"  for  moral  conceptions.  No  mat- 
ter how  rational  an  idea  may  seem  in  itself,  we  must  ask  the  further 
question  as  to  the  adaptability  of  the  idea  to  the  world  in  which 
we  live.  The  most  worthy  moral  insight  is  re-enforced  when  it  is 
seen  as  the  outcome  and  growth  of  man's  interaction  with  his  en- 
vironment and  when  it  can  be  called  in  a  profound  sense  natural. 

The  second  great  demand  comes  from  the  progress  of  the  vast 
systems  of  idealisms  which  lay  hold  on  current  thinking.  We  say 
"idealisms,"  for  the  systems  vary  all  the  way  from  the  theory  of  the 
universe  as  a  sort  of  impersonal  thought  unfolding  its  implications 
by  a  spontaneous  logical  movement  to  the  conception  of  the  universe 
as  the  thought  of  a  Personal  Thinker  acted  out  under  the  mental 
forms  of  space  and  time.  Wide  apart  as  these  systems  seem  to  be, 
they  are  at  one  in  the  denial  that  there  is  any  existence  apart  from 
thought.  Things  must  come  within  the  realm  of  thought  or  go  out 
of  existence.  While  no  one  ethical  system  can  claim  a  monopoly  of 
the  categorical  imperative,  the  idealists  of  the  strictest  type  are  apt 
to  speak  of  moral  laws  as  the  absolutely  binding  decrees  of  a  cosmic 
logic  mercilessly  unfolding  itseif.  These  systems  all  have  the  merit 
of  laying  stress  upon  the  truth  that  in  a  universe  constituted  by 
ideas,  ethics  must  be  throughout  rational. 

The  third  demand  comes  out  of  the  extension  of  the  sphere  of 
democracy,  especially  the  extension  of  the  principles  of  democi-acy 
into  the  vast  industrial  realms.  The  demand  is  double.  On  the 
one  hand  it  insists  that  ethical  standards  are  to  be  judged  by  their 
essential  humanity.  Ought  a  man,  or  a  woman,  or  a  child  be  asked 
to  perform  this  or  that  task  demanded  by  modern  society?  If  any- 
thing in  modern  ethics  works  against  a  lofty  human  ideal  and  tends 
to  make  human  beings  either  animals  or  machines,  cast  it  out! 
Hand  in  hand  with  this  passionate  urgency  goes  a  demand  for  the 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  FRANCIS  J.  McCONNELL.        273 

most  exacting  study  of  social  consequences  of  liuman  conduct.  If 
moral  principles  can  be  statistically  proved  to  do  harm  in  any  way 
to  the  larger  number  of  men,  repeal  or  amend  the  moral  law,  no 
matter  how  sacred  it  may  seem  to  be. 

The  fourth  demand  comes  from  a  school  of  constantly  increasing 
importance;  from  those  who  call  themselves  pragmatists.  The  prag- 
matist  believes  that  the  test  of  the  truth  of  any  theory  is  to  be 
proved  in  the  way  it  works  out  into  consequences.  Pragmatism  is 
an  unfortunate  term  in  that  it  suggests  a  rather  severely  practical 
set  of  consequences  which  may  leave  out  of  account  the  inner  con- 
sequences. Humanism  is  a  better  term  as  suggesting  spiritual  as 
well  as  material  consequences  as  a  test  of  moral  code.  Personalism 
is  better  still  as  suggesting  that  persons  are  entitled  to  act  in  such 
a  way  as  to  make  the  most  of  themselves  as  persons. 

It  is  easy  to  see  the  dangers  in  such  a  system.  Some  would  carry 
it  so  far  as  to  deny  the  mind  all  native  moral  insight.  Some  would 
use  it  to  open  the  doors  to  riotous  individualism.  But  on  the  whole 
the  system  is  important  because  it  lays  forceful  stress  on  the  de- 
mands and  worth  of  the  moral  personality  as  an  end  in  itself. 

The  influence  of  present-day  Christianity  upon  the  factors  at 
work  in  shaping  the  current  ethical  demands  is  twofold.  Chris- 
tianity may  be  said  to  give  light  and  heat  to  the  modern  ethical 
movement.  The  great  fact  of  present-day  Christianity  is  the  fact 
of  Christ.  The  persistent  effort  of  our  time  is  to  undei'stand  the 
mind  which  was  in  Christ.  The  four  great  demands  which  we  have 
mentioned  are  in  a  sense  contradictory  to  one  another.  The  evolu- 
tionist does  not  find  much  in  common  with  the  a  priori  idealist, 
and  the  idealist  is  scandalized  at  the  frank  empiricism  of  modern 
social  and  pragmatic  ethics.  Yet  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
the  study  of  the  mind  which  was  in  Christ  throws  light  upon  and 
ever  increases  the  urgency  of  the  great  ethical  demands  of  our  time. 
To  begin  with,  all  systems  practically  agree  upon  the  spirit  of  good 
will — which  is  really  the  Christian  doctrine  of  love — as  the  heart  of 
the  moral  life.  Then  the  modern  approach  to  Christ  discovers  in 
Him  a  profound  conviction  that  the  world  in  which  we  live  is  God's 
world.  In  Christ's  thought  not  a  sparrow  falls  to  the  ground  with- 
out the  notice  of  the  Father  in  heaven.  The  hairs  of  our  heads  are 
all  numbered.  God  sendeth  the  rains  and  ordereth  the  seasons. 
To  set  forth  the  nature  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  the  favorite  analogies 
of  Jesus  were  drawn  from  the  realm  where  the  scientist  finds  de- 
light. The  word  of  God  is  a  seed.  The  kingdom  of  moral  love  ad- 
vances from  the  blade  to  the  ear,  and  thence  to  the  full  corn  in 
the  ear.  The  most  radical  believer  that  moral  ideas  show  their  worth 
as  they  grow  in  harmony  v/ith  the  natural  system  of  things  might 
find  a  good  putting  of  his  clairu  in  the  words  of  Jesus. 

And  familiarity  with  the  mind  of  Christ  would  bring  us  also  to 
18 


274       THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

sympathy  witli  the  idealist's  emphasis  on  the  categorical  imperative 
as  founded  on  the  reason  that  must  be  constitutive  of  the  system  of 
things.  It  would  be  impossible  to  get  a  long  list  of  imperatives 
good  for  all  time  from  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  but  no  force  in  history 
has  strengthened  the  moral  imperative,  the  emphasis  upon  the  spirit 
of  service  as  the  center  of  moral  life,  as  has  the  life  of  Jesus.  The 
impact  of  the  life  of  Jesus  on  the  writer  of  the  fourth  Gospel  was 
such  that  he  saw  in  the  self-sacrificing  Christ  the  Eternal  Reason 
come  forth  to  utterance  in  a  human  life. 

As  for  the  other  demands,  where  but  in  Christ  can  we  find  a 
human  ideal  which  is  above  all  other  ideals?  Where  can  we  find  the 
sins  of  inhumanity  so  unsparingly  condemned  and  the  graces  of 
social  service  so  exalted  as  in  the  words  of  Jesus?  His  chief  outcry 
was  against  those  systems  of  his  day  which  bound  men's  shoulders 
with  burdens  grievous  to  be  borne,  and  his  chief  praise  was  for 
those  who  bore  the  cross  for  men.  In  a  sense  Jesus  may  be  said 
to  have  endowed  the  full  human  life,  moving  toward  that  abundant 
life  which  rises  out  of  moral  service,  with  a  sort  of  eminent  domain. 
The  life  of  men  has  right  of  way.  It  must  give  itself  to  systems 
which  nourish  its  life.  It  must  tear  loose  from  systems  which  would 
cramp  it  within  unhealthy  limits. 

Upon  all  these  moral  demands,  then,  the  life  of  Jesus  throws 
light.  But  light  is  not  our  only  need  in  the  realm  of  ethics.  We 
need  the  heat  of  a  powerful  dynamic.  This  also  comes  from  Christ. 
If  the  fact  of  Christ  is  central  in  the  life  of  Christianity  to-day,  the 
fact  of  God  is  central  in  the  life  of  Christ.  Through  Christ  we  have 
come  to  a  new  realization  of  the  truth  that  God  is  the  God  of  nature 
and  that  natural  laws  are  as  sacred  as  the  Decalogue.  Through 
Christ  we  feel  that  moral  laws  are  not  arbitrary  and  artificial,  but 
that  they  are  constitutional — the  deepest  facts  in  our  minds  and  the 
deepest  facts  in  God's  mind.  Through  Christ  we  feel  that  our  life 
has  the  right  of  way  because  it  is  set  towards  Gpd's  own  life — that 
we  are  the  children  of  God  called  to  the  liberty  of  love.  And  the 
law  of  moral  service,  which  is  the  deepest  fact  in  our  lives,  is  the 
deepest  fact  in  God's  life  also.  He  lives — rather  we  should  say  re- 
joices— under  the  heaviest  moral  obligations  in  the  universe.  No 
being  is  obligated  as  is  He.  All  the  laws  upon  us  are  gathered  up 
into  one — self-sacrificing  love;  and  the  God  of  Christ  is  the  leader 
of  all  in  self-sacrifice.  The  cross  of  Christ  lays  bare  the  law  of 
moral  love,  which  is  central  in  the  universe.  In  Christian  thinking 
God  and  men  find  companionship  in  service  under  the  same  moral 
law,  and  in  that  companionship  is  the  dynamic  which  is  the  great 
contribution  of  Christianity  to  ethics.  Ideals  seem  as  far  distant 
as  ever,  but  they  no  longer  mock  us,  for  One  is  at  our  side  to  aid 
in  the  moral  progress — One  who  takes  our  intention  for.  our  deed 
and  judges  us  by  the  direction  in  which  we  are  traveling.     Com- 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  275 

panions  of  the  eternal,  we  can  move  and  more  look  at  life  under  the 
form  of  eternity.  With  an  inspiration  from  the  Heart  of  Things 
we  labor  patiently  to  make  all  the  details  of  life  glow  with  moral 
purpose.  More  important  still,  we  can  be  patient  with  the  hard 
facts  of  the  universe  and  with  the  shortcomings  of  neighbors  and 
of  ourselves  and  with  the  Inadequacies  of  our  moral  theories  while 
the  moral  purposes  of  the  God  of  Christianity  slowly  but  surely  un- 
fold themselves.  We  give  ourselves  up  to  the  fact  of  the  moral  life 
of  God  increasingly  communicated  to  men,  and  let  that  lead  us 
whithersoever  it  will.  As  of  old,  the  Life  is  the  light  of  men,  and 
in  the  Life  the  great  contradictions  of  moral  theory  vanish  and 
others  are  seen  to  be  harmless.  Moreover,  we  discover  that  we  can 
get  along  without  a  formally  consistent  moral  theory,  provided  the 
moral   life  be  strong  within  us. 

The  general  discussion  was  opened  b}'  the  Eev.  H.  M. 
DuBosE^  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  EjDiscopal  Church,  South,  who 
spoke  as  follows: 

I  had  the  honor  to  propose  in  the  Committee  on  Program  the  sub- 
ject of  the  discussion  of  this  morning,  out  of  which  the  subject  of 
the  afternoon  has  grown.  I  can  not  say  that  the  discussion  has 
taken  exactly  the  turn  that  I  hoped  it  might,  though  many  things 
sighted  thus  far  have  been  pretty  clearly  stated.  I  do  not  count  my- 
self a  master.  I  am  only  a  student.  But  I  do  believe  that  fi'om  the 
great  multitude  of  students  who  are  now  at  work  studying  the  re- 
sults of  Biblical  criticism,  and  whatever  else  may  be  related  to  it, 
there  is  to  come  a  final  and  satisfactory  solution,  rather  than  from 
the  masters  of  the  present  day. 

I  was  pleased  that  in  Dr.  SiiELDoisf's  paper  there  should  have  been 
a  harking  back  to  the  subject  of  the  morning,  the  question  which  was 
so  ably  but  not  fully  discussed.  Especially  was  I  pleased  and  in- 
structed that  he  should  have  discussed  at  such  length  the  matter  of 
pan-Semitism,  or  pan-Babylonianism,  the  indefensible  claim  that  the 
stories,  doctrines,  and  much  of  the  history  of  the  Old  Testament  ai-e 
but  selections  from,  and  evolutions  out  of,  the  star  myths  of  the 
Babylonians.  I  have  engaged  myself  in  an  humble  way  during  the 
past  summer  in  studying  the  whole  question,  as  far  as  I  was  able 
to  reach  it,  and  this  pan-Semitism  or  pan-Babylonianism  was  not 
the  source  or,  in  any  sense,  the  Inspiration  of  the  Jewish  revelation. 

I  can  well  remember  when  I  was  a  theological  student  that  the 
background  of  Genesis  was  a  black  night.  If  any  one  declared  that 
the  Jewish  religion  was  an  evolution  out  of  the  ideals  of  pantheism 
and  paganism  or  whatever  else,  there  was  no  means  of  successfully 
denying  it.  But  the  years  during  which  the  Pentateuch  was  written 
are  now  surrounded  by  a  blaze  of  light.  Turn  towards  the  Accadians, 
the  Babylonians,  the  Assyrians,  the  Hittites,  or  Egyptians,  and  there 
are  a  thousand  years  illumined  by  archseologj'.  As  a  student  I  will 
challenge  any  one  to  define  clearly  any  line  of  evolution  that  crosses 
that  broad,  blazing  zone  of  light  and  indicates  that  these  doctrines 
and  historical  statements  of  Genesis  were  evolved  out  of  figments 
of  ancient  heathen  literature.  I  know  very  well  the  points  of  re- 
semblance between  the  Assurbanipal  account  of  the  deluge  and  the 


276       THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

Scripture  account.  I  know  what  is  claimed  for  Sumerian  Shaman- 
ism, and  for  the  code  of  Hammurabi;  but  I  can  not  believe  that  the 
Mosaic  books  are  indebted  in  any  original  sense  to  these,  any  more" 
than  I  can  believe  that  the  account  of  the  first  transgression  is  a 
selection  from  the  Babylonian  story,  or  that  Jewish  monotheism  is 
a  survival  or  development  out  of  Babylonian  polytheism.  But  there 
is  a  new  form  of  unbelief  that  vexes  us  to-day,  particularly  because 
it  has  obtained  recognition  among  a  very  large  body  of  the  younger 
members  of  the  clergy,  which  is  to  be  dealt  with  and  answered  in 
some  form.  It  is  an  old  note  of  unbelief,  to  be  sure;  but  I  believe 
that  it  follows  out  of  the  misuse  of  criticism.  It  is  not  the  fact  of 
criticism  to  which  we  object,  but  the  spirit  of  criticism,  as  we  have 
seen  its  operations  on  this  side  of  the  water.  I  cast  no  reflection 
upon  my  Wesleyan  brethren,  whose  books  I  have  read  with  interest 
and  profit;  but  only  repeat  that  it  is  the  spirit  of  criticism,  and  not 
the  facts  of  criticism,  about  which  we  complain.  The  spirit  is  this: 
that  unbaked  theologues  and  misguided  students  find  themselves  in 
possession  of  vague  theories  and  ideas,  and  jump  to  the  conclusion 
that  they  possess  a  mastery;  and  this  leads  them  to  a  false  interpre- 
tation of  many  of  the  vital  doctrines  of  Christianity.  To  be  specific, 
one  of  the  most  widely  obtaining  forms  of  unbelief  is  the  misstate- 
ment concerning  the  personality  of  Jesus  Christ  Himself.  A  large 
body  of  younger  men,  and  some  older  men,  have  gone  to  the  point 
of  boldly  denying  the  virgin  birth  of  Jesus;  and  there  are  serious 
questions  with  them  as  to  the  resurrection,  and  consequently  serious 
questions  as  to  the  merits  of  the  blood  atonement.  These  are  the 
newer  forms  of  unbelief  that  must  be  dealt  with,  gently  and  kindly, 
but  firmly.  If  you  can  transport  to  us  over  the  seas  something  that 
will  even  up  these  matters  and  prevent  our  younger  men  from  falling 
into  the  false  spirit  of  criticism,  and  can  guarantee  us  against  that 
evil,  then  we  can  listen  more  attentively  and  perhaps  be  instructed 
more  by  reason  of  your  learning  and  great  scholarship. 

The  Eev.  Wilfrid  J.  Moulton,  D.  D.,  of  the  British  "Wes- 
leyan Methodist  Church: 

I  must  apologize  for  asking  again  to  speak  to  this  Conference, 
only  the  Arrangements  Committee  has  put  on  one  day  the  two  sub- 
jects in  which  I  am  most  interested.  "When  one  begins  to  speak 
about  modern  forms  of  unbelief,  one  always  thinks  of  this  point: 
that  between  the  scholar  and  the  people  there  is  nearly  always  an 
Interval  of  about  thirty  years.  That  is  to  say  that  the  forms  of  un- 
belief which  are  found  among  the  people  at  any  particular  time  were 
current  among  scholars  about  thirty  years  before,  and  so  I  suppose 
it  is  true  that  at  present  in  popular  thought  that  is  current  which 
was  current  in  scholarly  circles  when  Huxley  and  Tyndall  were  put- 
ting forth  their  theories.  "When  we  turn  away  from  this  materialism 
and  try  to  look  at  higher  regions  of  thought,  it  seems  to  me  that 
we  have  to  deal  with  negative  criticism  about  the  historicity  of 
Christ,  to  which  Professor  Sheldon  has  referred.  One  of  the  finest 
New  Testament  scholars  in  Germany  I  was  reading  the  other  day, 
who  said  that  he  could  wait  with  patience  until  some  of  his  friends 
had  come  back  to  a  saner  and  more  balanced  view  of  such  questions. 
So  can  we.  The  historicity  of  Jesus,  of  course,  remains  absolutely  un- 
shaken. But  turning  from  that,  what  signs  are  there  to-day  that  the 
spiritual  is  coming  back  again?    In  England  one  of  the  greatest  and 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  277 

most  influential  leaders  of  thought.  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  stands  squarely 
against  materialism  and  in  defense  of  the  rights  of  the  spiritual 
and  of  our  right  to  pray  to  God.  And  he  has  behind  him  a  great 
body  of  influential  thought  And  then  in  the  religio-historical  school. 
In  a  most  popular  series  of  books  for  the  people,  the  editor  says, 
"Among  the  German  people  estrangement  from  religion  is  no  longer 
regarded  as  a  mark  of  progress."  In  this  country  take  that  Quaker, 
Dr.  Rufus  Jones,  who  says  in  one  of  his  books  that  men  are  sick 
of  formality  and  religion  and  of  pretense,  but  will  still  listen  on 
their  knees  to  any  one  who  can  make  God  real  to  them,  so  that  they 
can  say  with  St.  John,  "We  have  seen  His  glory."  I  believe  that 
is  the  spirit  of  higher  thought  to-day,  a  hungering  after  the  spiritual, 
and  a  turning  toward  it.  And  as  Christians,  in  presentation  of  the 
full  Christian  philosophy  we  have  the  perfect  answer  to  these  needs. 
In  the  Christian  doctrine  of  God  in  all  its  fullness,  combining  both 
the  immanent  and  the  transcendent,  and  above  all  in  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  Christ  in  the  fullness  of  its  presentation,  again  the  ques- 
tion is,  "What  think  ye  of  Christ?"  How  many  here  will  have  read 
"The  Quest  of  the  Historical  Jesus"  and  followed  the  history  given 
there  of  the  attempt  to  explain  our  Lord  and  Master,  and  will  have 
seen  at  the  end  that,  though  the  author  has  thrown  much  light  upon 
the  question  of  the  real  Christ,  He  is  still  far  above  his  reach.  Evo- 
lution did  not  produce  Him.  Evolution  can  not  produce  Him.  We 
believe  that  in  the  full  preaching  of  Him  we  have  a  philosophy  that 
is  absolutely  adequate  to  all  the  needs  of  the  time. 

Bishop  E.  CoTTRELL,  D.  D.,  of  tlie  Colored  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church : 

So  much  has  been  said  about  higher  criticism  that  I  will  ask 
your  pardon  if  I  leave  that  subject.  If  I  leave  the  text  I  have  plenty 
of  preachers  to  sympathize  with  me.  I  am  in  sympathy,  however, 
in  doing  so,  with  the  purpose  and  spirit  of  this  Ecumenical  Confer- 
ence. I  have  been  in  all  the  Ecumenical  Conferences.  This  is  the 
first  time  that  I  have  had  an  opportunity  to  come  before  this  great 
body.  I  have  been  in  possession  of  some  literature,  and  am  trying 
to  keep  in  touch  with  this  great  body.  Some  literature  now  in  my 
possession  said  that  the  prime  and  ultimate  purpose  of  this  body 
was,  looking  towards  a  universal  Methodism — for  Methodists  to  get 
together.  We  have  met  for  four  sessions,  and  are  discussing  great 
questions  of  every  phase  of  interest  affecting  our  social  and  religious 
lives;  and  very  little  has  been  said  about  the  prime  and  ultimate 
purpose  of  these  meetings  Avhen  they  were  first  begun.  Thirty-six 
years  ago  I  began  to  present  this  simple  message  of  Jesus  to  the 
people.  I  have  not  had  any  study  of  that  higher  criticism  during 
these  thirty-six  years,  and  am  simply  desirous  to  present  these  truths 
that  have  been  effective  among  the  people;  so  much  so  that  I  will 
still  have  very  little  dealing  with  higher  criticism,  but  I  will  still 
present  that  simple  story  of  the  cross  and  save  the  people.  What  is 
the  great  mass  of  ignorant  and  illiterate  people  for  whom  Christ 
died  going  to  do  for  the  sincere  milk  of  the  Word?  What  are  they 
going  to  do  who  are  suffering  for  the  simple  story  of  the  cross,  while 
we  are  in  these  higher  critical  schools?  I  suggest  that  you  higher 
critics  get  by  yourselves  and  discuss  these  questions,  and  do  not 
interfere  with  our  simple  method  of  saving  souls;  for  that  is  the 
prime  object  of  our  mission. 


278       THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

The  Eev.  H.  L.  Cloud^  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church : 

I  have  been  listening  with  great  interest  to  the  discussions.  As 
an  aborigine  of  America  I  have  been  looking  to  these  for  light  and 
life  and  inspiration  and  intellectual  food.  I  find  that  by  sitting  in 
your  body  as  a  member  I  am  getting  it.  In  the  course  of  study, 
as  I  pursued  it  in  our  Annual  Conference  in  Oklahoma,  I  found 
many  things  that  seemed  to  be  hidden  from  my  vision;  for  instance, 
in  systematic  theology,  I  said,  "Isn't  this  marvelous?"  Our  boys 
in  the  schools  and  universities  in  Oklahoma  in  too  many  instances 
are  becoming  skeptical.  When  a  man  comes  to  me  preaching  that 
there  is  no  Holy  Spirit,  I  ask  him  for  the  evidence.  If  he  has  it 
I  will  take  it.  If  he  tells  me  that  we  have  got  into  the  realm  of 
higher  life,  I  ask  him  for  the  evidence.  To-day  we  have  a  gospel 
that  is  suitable  for  the  Pentecostal  age,  and  that  age  Is  suitable  for 
this  century. 

The  Eev.  J.  M.  Buckley,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church : 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  what  is  called  "New  Thought."  It  must 
be  considered;  in  America,  at  least.  In  New  York  there  are  twelve 
persons,  ten  of  them  women  of  culture  and  ability,  v/ho  have  large 
audiences  Sunday  afternoons,  and  frequently  in  the  week.  Christian 
Science  is  modern  enough,  and  there  has  been  a  great  deal  of 
thought  about  it.  St.  Paul  said  such  things  would  come  up,  for  he 
spoke  of  elderly  women  who  had  not  anything  else  to  do  but  bring 
in  errors  of  various  kinds,  and  he  declared  that  they  would  lead 
many  men  away.  If  we  look  at  this  kind  of  modern  thought,  it 
is  very  dangerous  for  a  short  time. 

No  two  great  fanaticisms  in  religion  can  arise  in  the  same  time 
and  prosper.  When  Christian  Science  rose,  spiritualism  went  down, 
and  a  large  number  of  spiritualists  became  Christian  Scientists. 
There  never  have  been  two  large  fanaticisms  both  prospering  in 
the  same  period  and  in  the  same  place;  and  I  prophesy  now  that  in 
less  than  ten  years  spiritualism  will  rise  again. 

Sir  Oliver  Lodge  has  done  great  good,  but  considerable  evil,  in 
what  he  says.  We  ought  to  look  upon  the  Church  and  upon  the 
people  in  a  light  such  as  this;  but  modern  thought  is  not  a  real 
measure.  What  a  name!  Modern  thought!  At  one  end  of  the  line 
you  will  find  fanatics.  And  at  the  other  end  another  set  of  fanatics. 
The  great  body  of  people  in  the  middle  want  to  be  Christians.  Our 
ideas  ought  to  be  centered  thoroughly  on  this  great  eight-tenths 
between  the  two-tenths  at  the  extremes,  to  prevent  the  persons  who 
incline  toward  the  fanatic  end  of  extreme  belief,  and  at  the  other 
end  to  underbelief.  A  man  graduated  with  great  fame  in  a  medical 
college,  but  he  had  no  success.  His  father  had  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  and  set  him  up  well,  but  he  could  not  succeed.  Why? 
When  he  went  into  a  sickroom  he  said:  "I  can  not  be  sure  whether 
you  have  typhoid  fever  or  scarlet  fever  or  some  other  kind  of  fever; 
but  I  can  give  you  something  that  is  very  popular.  Personally,  I 
do  not  know  whether  it  is  good  or  bad.  I  have  tried  it;  but  having 
dyspepsia  at  that  time,  I  do  n't  know  whether  it  worked  or  not. 
However,  I  '11  give  it  to  you.  You  may  get  well.  I  am  rather  puz- 
zled about  the  whole  thing." 

There  are  many  ministers  of  the  same  kind.  One  of  them,  per- 
haps the  most  distinguished  in  our  country,  published  in  a  pam- 
phlet that  he  did  not  know  what  he  would  believe  in  two  years. 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  279 

Must  we  preach  our  doubts?  No;  not  a  moment;  but  preach  with 
force  what  we  believe.  A  man  who  will  go  into  the  pulpit  and 
suggest  doubts  should  be  criticised  severely,  and  generally  dis- 
credited as  a  safe  religious  guide. 

Mr.  Thomas  Worthington,  of  the  Independent  Methodist 

Church : 

It  is  with  great  diffidence  that  I  address  this  great  assembly  in 
connection  with  this  great  subject.  The  cry  to-day  is  an  old  cry, 
and  I  am  going  to  try  to  speak  on  behalf  of  the  man  on  the  street. 
The  cry  of  old  was,  "Show  us  the  Father;"  and  the  answer  was, 
"He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father."  The  workingman 
of  to-day  utters  that  cry.  He  says,  "I  asked  for  fish,  and  you  are 
giving  me  a  stone.  I  am  not  coming  in."  We  must  go  back  to 
the  beginning.  What  I  object  to  is  that  higher  criticism  is  often 
put  first.  If  the  gospel  is  to  have  its  place,  its  first  address  is  to 
sinners.  Until  people  acknowledge  that  they  are  sinners,  it  has  no 
message  to  them;  but  when  one  admits  that  he  is  a  sinner,  he  is 
not  long  in  finding  the  Father.  What  then?  They  are  to  follow  on 
to  know  what?  All  the  things  He  has  made  them  for.  I  am  glad 
that  God  has  placed  the  ether  waves  in  the  air,  and  in  consequence 
of  it,  when  my  friend  and  I  were  on  the  ocean,  hundreds  of  miles 
from  each  other,  we  spoke  to  each  other  through  those  waves.  If 
a  man  is  going  to  give  up  the  salvation  of  which  he  is  assured  by 
the  Holy  Spirit,  I  should  say  that  that  man  is  not  quite  right.  Let 
us  go  on  to  know  what  God  has  done. 

Bisliop  E.  E.  Hendrix,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church,  South : 

I  was  in  San  Francisco  a  day  or  two  after  the  recent  earthquake. 
I  asked  a  district  superintendent  what  the  earthquake  did.  Point- 
ing to  a  portrait  of  John  Wesley  that  had  fallen  to  the  floor,  he 
said,  "It  brought  John  Wesley  to  the  floor."  I  said:  "Thank  God! 
We  need  him."  I  venture  to  say  that  if  Wesley  were  here  to-day 
he  would  be  marked  by  great  intellectual  hospitality.  He  would 
welcome  such  a  work  as  James'  "Varieties  of  Christian  Experience," 
"Twice-born  Men,"  and  the  like.  Look  at  his  letters  in  the  Arminian 
magazine,  where  he  insisted  on  men's  rightly  citing  to  him  the  story 
of  their  religious  experience.  Benson  narrated  in  one  of  these  let- 
ters the  account  of  a  man  who  had  every  symptom  of  demoniacal 
possession.  I  want  to  give  a  case  such  as  would  have  delighted 
the  heart  of  Mr.  Wesley,  showing  the  response  of  Christian  expe- 
rience to  attacks  upon  the  very  citadel  of  our  faith.  It  occurred 
in  the  very  decade  in  which  Tyndall  made  his  famous  attack  upon 
prayer,  proposing  to  segregate  in  a  certain  hospital  ward  those  who 
should  be  prayed  for.  In  1S76  I  was  requested  by  the  superintend- 
ent of  a  hospital  to  have  a  talk  with  a  suicidal  patient  who  had 
made  several  attempts  on  her  life.  He  said,  "I  have  done  every- 
thing that  medical  science  can  do  for  that  woman;  but  there  is 
something  you  can  do  that  I  can  not."  I  knew  him  for  a  skeptic — 
an  intelligent  one.  He  said,  "She  has  a  beautiful  home  and  a  de- 
voted husband,  but  has  ceased  to  pray,  and  never  reads  the  Word  of 
God."  It  drove  me  to  my  knees.  I  thought,  "I  am  to  have  a  prayer- 
test,  and  it  may  recover  this  man  to  the  faith."  The  woman  came 
down,  and  the  physician  left  the  room.    I  said  to  her,  "I  have  heard 


280       THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

of  your  beautiful  home  and  your  devoted  husband."  She  said,  "I 
never  want  to  see  either  of  them  again,"  I  said:  "Do  you  ever 
pray  now?  Do  you  read  God's  Word  now?"  "No;  there  is  but  one 
thing  I  thinls;  of,  and  that  is:  how  to  end  my  life.  I  have  tried 
seven  times  and  I  will  succeed  yet."  I  said:  "Do  you  know  that  if  I 
were  living  as  you  are  I  would  want  to  end  my  life?  Do  you  know 
that  the  ranks  of  the  German  army  are  almost  decimated  by  the  sui- 
cides of  godless  men?  God  never  intended  any  of  us  to  live  that 
way.  We  need  His  help.  Would  you  mind  kneeling  with  me  and 
talking  with  God?"  "No,"  said  she.  And  there,  as  I  pleaded  with 
God  for  this  tempted  and  almost  self-destroyed  soul,  I  became  con- 
scious that  she  had  begun  to  pray  earnestly.  And  when  t.  saw  that 
she  had  touched  God,  I  left  her  alone,  only  to  ascertain  by  the  official 
records  after  thirty-five  years  that  she  was  restored  that  very  day 
by  the  power  of  prayer  and  by  the  gracious  help  of  God.  The  official 
record  of  that  asylum  number  2  of  the  State  of  Missouri  contains 
the  whole  story  of  her  Insanity,  and  of  how  she  was  restored  to 
reason  immediately  and  restored  to  her  home.  That  is  the  best 
answer  to  the  attack  on  the  very  citadel  of  our  religion. 

Tlie  Rev.  Wm.  BeadfiEld,  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church : 

I  sympathize  very  deeply  with  the  appeal  that  has  been  made  in 
this  Conference  on  behalf  of  present  evangelistic  work.  A  member 
told  us,  with  great  sympathy  of  many  here,  that  he  did  not  want  to 
be  stopped  in  his  evangelistic  work  to  get  tangled  up  with  higher 
criticism.  We  must  keep  on  evangelistic  work,  and  we  must  do  it 
to-day.  But  I  want  the  Conference  to  reflect  upon  this  fact,  that 
that  has  been  true  all  the  days,  and  that  it  has  pleased  Almighty 
God  to  raise  up  one  difficult  question  after  another  that  has  upset 
the  minds  of  men.  What  a  tremendous  upset  it  was  when  Coper- 
nicus discovered  what  he  did  discover  about  the  relation  of  the 
earth  to  the  sun!  All  through  those  times  the  evangelistic  need 
was  a  pressing  need.  In  our  day  it  is  still  the  pressing  need,  but 
we  also  have  to  face  these  great  questions  that  are  raised  up  in 
the  providence  of  God. 

The  methods  of  higher  criticism  are  the  methods  of  modern 
science,  which  has  opened  the  world  to  us  and  has  given  man  at 
last  the  power  to  replenish  the  earth  and  subdue  it.  I  want  to  ask 
why  we  should  be  afraid  of  the  operations  of  modern  science  when 
they  touch  the  Book  of  God,  any  more  than  when  they  touch  the 
electric  current  or  any  other  force  of  nature.  We  must  be  prepared 
to  give  modern  science  way,  and  expect  that  it  will  advance  by  the 
very  mistakes  it  makes.  You  must  not  expect  students,  scholars, 
using  the  methods  of  science,  to  arrive  at  once  at  truth,  which  is 
absolute  and  certain.  They  never  have.  They  have  always  marched 
over  the  dead  bodies  of  their  own  discredited  hypotheses.  But  they 
have  always  got  there;  and  they  are  going  to  get  there  with  regard 
to  the  Book  of  God. 

I  have  read  a  story  of  a  man  who  had  very  bad  nerves,  and  the 
thing  that  got  on  his  nerves  was  the  advertising  of  Holloway's  pills. 
He  went  everywhere  to  get  out  of  the  reach  of  those  advertisements. 
At  last  he  got  to  Central  Africa,  and  there  he  was  at  rest  for  a 
month  or  two;  but  then  a  native  tribe  captured  him  and  were  going 
to  offer  him  up  befoi'e  a  great  poster  of  Holloway's  pills.  He  got 
away  and  came  home  to  die;  but  a  friend  suggested  that  he  should 
take  Holloway's  pills.    He  took  them  and  got  better.     I  suggest  that 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  281 

method  to  all  those  people  who  are  so  dreadfully  frightened  about 
higher  criticism.  And  I  plead  that  you  should  begin  wifh  your 
Bible  itself.  Read  it.  I  am  perfectly  sure  that  any  man  that  uses 
his  Bible  to  win  souls  for  Christ  will  never  come  up  against  any 
doctrine  of  the  higher  critics  that  are  true.  And  the  people  that 
read  their  Bible  in  simple  faith,  and  trust  in  God,  do  not  get  up 
against  anything  that  modern  science  has  discovered  so  as  to  con- 
tradict it  and  oppose  it. 

The  Eev.  J.  G.  Tasker,  D.  I).,  of  the  Briti^=]i  Wesleyan  Metli- 
odist  Church : 

One  word  more  in  response  to  the  appeal,  "Let  us  preach  what 
we  believe."  Let  us  all  do  it.  Let  us  not  speak  so  much  about  re- 
statements of  truth  as  confine  ourselves  to  reaffirmation  of  the  truth 
as  truth  is  in  Jesus.  Yesterday  I  listened  to  two  sermons;  and  both 
the  sermons  concluded  with  the  same  hymn,  "All  hail  the  power  of 
Jesus'  name."  We  ought  to  be  speaking  about  the  newer  forms  of 
unbelief,  and  how  to  meet  them.  I  am  sure,  and  Dr.  Siieldox  re- 
minded us  of  it,  the  newest  form  of  unbelief  is  the  attack  upon  the 
article  in  the  Creed,  "I  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  His  only  Son  our 
Lord."  We  can  affirm  this,  that  there  is  no  opposition  between  the 
historical  Jesus  and  the  Christ  of  experience;  laut  both  are  the  Lord 
of  Glory. 

W'e  have  heard  something  about  the  denial  of  the  historicity  of 
Jesus.  Our  friends  are  very  much  afraid  of  German  criticism.  My 
friend  from  Germany  gave  us  a  pessimistic  account  of  what  Ger- 
man newspapers  say.  I  can  give  him  names  of  German  papers  that 
will  give  him  the  positive  side  of  criticism.  Dr.  Philip  Schaff  said 
that  if  the  bane  came  from  Germany,  the  antidote  would  come  from 
Germany  too.  Let  us  bring  our  people  face  to  face  with  this:  that 
there  is  no  historical  criticism  that  has  invalidated  Paul's  gospel 
of  grace,  the  substantial  trustworthiness  of  the  portrait  of  Christ 
in  the  Gospels,  the  testimony  of  the  early  Church  to  the  saving 
power  and  the  great  effect  of  Christianity,  which  all  the  critics  have 
failed  to  account  for.  In  the  end  the  dilemma  about  "Jesus  or 
Christ"  comes  to  this:  Jesus  or  Paul;  that  is,  is  Jesus  the  Church's 
foundation  or  did  Paul  invent  Christianity?  And  Paul  would  say: 
"Is  Christ  divided?     Was  Paul  crucified  for  you?" 

The  Rev.  Enoch  Salt,  of  tlie  British  AVesleyan  Methodist 
Church : 

I  desire  to  give  expression  to  one  or  two  thoughts  that  have  been 
passing  through  my  mind  as  I  have  been  listening  to  the  discussions 
to-day.  The  first  is  the  splendid  unity  which  I  believe  to  be  existent 
in  this  Conference.  And  I  make  bold  to  say,  on  the  strength  of 
what  I  have  heard  to-day,  that  the  vast  unity  represented  by  this 
Conference  is  emphatically  Christo-centric,  and  that  universal  Metho- 
dism was  never  more  truly  Christo-centric  than  it  is  to-day.  Jesus 
as  Savior  and  Lord  is  looked  up  to  by  Methodism  through  the  world 
and  is  proclaimed  from  its  pulpits  with  no  faltering  and  with  abso- 
lute conviction.  Another  thought  is  as  to  the  variety  of  material 
upon  which  the  Church  to-day  has  to  work  and  which  it  is  endeavor- 
ing to  work  up  into  Christian  manhood.  There  are  those  among  us 
who  have  no  intellectual  difficulties  in  regard  to  the  Bible  or  the 
Christian  faith;  and  there  are  those  who  have  intellectual  difficulties. 


282       THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

Perhaps  there  are  more  of  them  in  our  pews  than  sometimes  we  are 
aware  of — people  who  desire  to  find  their  way  to  the  center,  and  to 
live  Christian  lives,  but  are  hindered  by  mental  difficulty  through 
which  they  can  not  see  their  way.  If  this  is  true,  what  is  to  be  our 
attitude  in  regard  to  these?  Are  we  to  ignore  their  difficulty?  Or 
are  we  to  recognize  them  and  face  them?  It  is  not  enough  to  deal 
with  difficulties  that  the  former  generation  experienced.  I  hold  that 
the  old  answer  to  the  old  object  will  no  more  meet  modern  difficulties 
than  old  firearms  would  be  effectual  in  modern  battle.  We  must  ad- 
dress ourselves  to  the  modern  age,  not  by  polemical  preaching,  but 
making  us  acquainted  with  a  trend  of  thought  and  with  the  actual 
life  of  the  people  that  we  seek  to  minister  unto.  And  we  must  so 
address  our  positive  gospel  to  them  that  these  difficulties  will  not  be 
accentuated  in  their  minds,  but  removed  by  the  methods  which  we 
adopt. 

The  Rev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.  D.,  of  tlie  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church : 

I  am  a  little  in  doubt  as  to  what  is  meant  by  the  term  "modern 
thought."  What  is  modern  thought?  If  you  turn  to  the  scientific 
world  you  will  find  that  the  men  of  science  are  in  great  confiict. 
And  what  is  regarded  as  science  one  day  is  discarded  as  science  the 
next  day.  And  there  is  no  consensus  of  thought  to-day  in  the  scien- 
tific world  except  on  some  great  questions.  You  turn  to  philosophy, 
and  the  same  is  true  again.  The  philosophers  are  in  conflict  one  with 
another.  One  maintains  one  theory,  and  another  maintains  another 
theory.  There  are  volumes  that  have  been  written  on  philosophy 
that  were  once  regarded  as  being  safe  and  sound,  that  are  now 
absolutely  discarded.  And  when  we  come  into  the  realm  of  re- 
ligion we  find  the  same  condition  of  things.  There  is  confusion  of. 
thought.  You  turn  to  the  men  who  are  called  higher  critics,  and 
no  two  of  them  agree.  And  if  you  should  undertake  to  follow  the 
teaching  of  men  that  are  called  higher  critics — take  the  great  lead- 
ing lights  of  the  world,  of  Germany,  and  of  America — and  attempt 
to  follow  the  lead  of  each  one,  you  will  go  in  all  directions  and  land 
nowhere.  You  talk  about  some  difficulties  in  the  thought  concerning 
religion,  but  I  declare  to  you  that  there  is  no  such  confusion  among 
the  people  on  great  moral  and  religious  questions  as  you  find  among 
the  so-called  scientists,  philosophers,  and  theologians.  What  are 
we  going  to  do?  I  think  we  will  have  to  wait  until  these  eminent 
men  of  science  and  philosophy  and  theology  get  together.  When 
they  can  agree  on  the  systems  that  they  represent,  then  it  will  be 
time  enough  to  call  the  attention  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  people 
to  these  systems  as  worthy  to  be  received  and  relied  on.  At  this 
point,  I  think,  is  the  weakness  in  large  degree  of  the  modern  pulpit; 
I  will  say,  of  the  modern  Methodist  pulpit.  Too  many  of  us  are 
preaching  about  the  Bible  rather  than  preaching  the  truth  that  is 
in  the  Bible.  We  have  a  great  many  ministers  who  tell  the  people 
who  did  not  and  who  did  make  the  Bible,  and  when  a  portion  was 
written,  and  another  portion  was  written.  And  they  do  more  to 
create  doubt  than  they  do  to  confirm  faith.  And  a  Church  under 
that  kind  of  ministry  will  never  grow  strong  in  the  great  truths 
of  the  gospel.  And  there  is  too  much  preaching  about  Christ  and 
not  enough  preaching  Christ  aggressively  for  the  salvation  of  a  sin- 
ning and  a  ruined  race.  In  some  quarters,  in  a  Church,  what  would 
be  called  an  old-fashioned  sermon  would  be  an  absolutely  sensational 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  033 

sermon.  If  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  needs  one  thing  more 
than  another,  it  is  to  adhere  to  the  gospel  teaching,  the  New  Testa- 
ment teaching,  the  doctrines  of  salvation  through  faith  in  .Jesus 
Christ,  and  of  entire  sanctification  as  taught  by  .John  Wesley.  These 
are  the  great  truths  that  we  need  to  bring  to  the  thought  of  the 
people.    And  if  we  do,  the  people  will  not  fail  to  respond. 

On  motion  of  Dr.  James  Chapman,  it  was  voted  to  adjourn. 

Announcements  were  made,  and  the  session  closed  at  4.30 

P.  M.,  with  the  benediction  jDronounced  by  tlie  presiding  officer. 


SEVENTH  DAY. 

Tuesday,    October    10 th, 


Topic:     THE   CHUECH  AND   MODERN  LIFE. 


FIEST  SESSION. 


THE  first  session  of  the  seventh  day  began  at  the  appointed 
time,  10  o'clock,  with  tiie  Jlcv.  W.  Williams,  D.  D.,  of 
the  Methodist  Churcli  of  Australia,  in  the  chair. 

The  devotional  services  were  in  charge  of  the  Eev.  Albert 
Stubbs,  of  the  same  Church. 

The  Conference  sang  Hymn  No.  189, 

"Come,   Holy   Ghost,  all-quickening  fire; 
Come  and  in  me  delight  to  rest." 

Mr.  Stubbs  read  for  the  Scripture  selection  tlie  twelfth  chap- 
ter of  Eomans,  and  offered  prayer. 

Secretary  Carroll:  "The  Local  Committee,  quick  to  re- 
spond to  any  request  to  promote  the  convenience  and  comfort 
of  the  Conference,  has,  at  the  request  of  the  Secretary,  provided 
pages,  one  for  each  aisle  and  one  for  the  platform." 

The  Eev.  Simpson  Johnson,  Secretary  of  the  Business  Com- 
mittee, said:  "We  had  handed  in  at  the  Conference  yesterday 
by  Bishop  Hendrix  a  very  important  resolution  bearing  on  the 
proposed  arbitration  treaty,  and,  of  course,  strongly  in  favor  of 
arbitration.  That  resolution  was  supported  by  five  of  the  most 
prominent  members  of  this  Conference.  According  to  the  rule 
of  the  Conference,  it  ought  to  go  before  the  Business  Committee 
for  consideration  in  the  first  instance.  That  Committee  v,'ill 
meet  this  afternoon  at  4.30.  Many  of  us  feel  that,  seeing  that 
this  very  question  will  be  discussed  in  the  Conference  in  the 
afternoon  session,  it  would  be  a  great  pity  to  defer  the  passing 
that  resolution  to  a  subsequent  day.     It  would  create  a  kind  of 

284 


BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS.  285 

anti-climax.  Tliis  afternoon  we  are  to  consider  international 
relations  and  responsibilities,  the  Church  and  secular  righteous- 
ness, the  Church  and  the  world's  peace.  I  have  seen  all  the 
members  of  this  Business  Committee  that  I  could  see,  and  we 
are  of  tlie  opinion  that  the  best  course  to  take  will  be  to  suspend 
that  standing  order,  in  order  that  Bishop  Hendrix  and  Dr. 
Henry  Haigh  may  move  this  resolution  in  the  afternoon  ses- 
sion. I  move  that  we  suspend  the  standing  order,  and  give 
permission  to  tliese  two  brethren  to  move  this  resolution  that  it 
may  come  when  the  question  is  being  discussed." 

Secretary  Snape:  "I  would  like  to  put  in  a  slight  amend- 
ment, and  that  is  that  the  resolution  should  be  addressed  by  a 
layman  as  well  as  a  minister." 

The  President  :  ''That  does  not  touch  the  question  of  sus- 
pension of  our  standing  order.  In  this  case  there  must  be  a 
specific  majority  of  three  fourths." 

A  Delegate:  "May  I  ask  whether  the  moving  and  second- 
ing of  that  resolution  precludes  it  being  spoken  to  by  other 
members  of  the  Conference?  If  not,  there  seems  to  me  to  be  no 
need  for  the  protest  of  Mr.  Snape." 

The  President:    "We  must  have  a  three-fourtlis  majority." 

The  motion  was  put  and  carried  without  dissent. 

A  Delegate:  "Anticipating  such  action  on  the  part  of  tins 
body,  would  it  not  be  proper  to  have  that  resolution  now  read  ?" 

Secretary  Johnson:  "If  the  Conference  wishes  it,  I  may 
read  it  now :" 

We  hail  with,  pleasure  and  profound  gratitude  the  deepening 
and  growing  spirit  of  good-will  and  peace  among  the  leading  nations 
of  Europe  and  America.  The  noble  work  of  The  Hague  Conference 
as  promoted  by  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches  of  Christ  in  Am.er- 
ica,  and  the  Free  Church  Council  in  England,  is  already  bearing 
fruit  in  the  Arbitration  Treaty,  which  agrees  to  submit  questions  of 
national  honor  to  the  proper  tribunal  for  arbitration.  We  heartily 
indorse  this  signal  advance  in  the  interest  alike  of  peace  and  uni- 
versal brotherhood.  We  strongly  urge  the  Christian  nations  repre- 
sented in  this  Ecumenical  Conference  speedily  to  take  necessary 
legislative  action  to  consummate  the  arbitration  treaty  which  has 
been  signed  by  the  representatives  of  the  British  Empire  and  of  the 
United  States  of  America.  By  every  proper  means  we  will  seek  to 
promote  it  in  His  holy  name  who  is  the  Prince  of  peace. 


28G  THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  LIFE. 

A  Delegate:  "May  I  ask  this  question?  Is  the  Business 
Committee  likely  to  bring  forward  any  resolution  respecting  the 
ne  tetriere  decree?  We  are  anxious  to  know  that,  and  if  the 
Business_  Committee  does  not  bring  forward  a  resolution,  some 
of  us,  as  members  of  the  Conference,  would  like  to  do  so;  but 
we  greatly  prefer  that  the  Business  Committee  should  look  at 
the  whole  question  and  report  to  the  Conference." 

Secretary  Johnson  :  "If  Mr.  Sharp  will  hand  in  a  reso- 
lution on  the  subject,  I  will  see  that  it  comes  before  the  Business 
Committee.     It  must  be  signed  by  two  members." 

A  Delegate  :  *'As  I  listened  to  the  resolution  this  morning, 
there  is  no  reference  in  it  to  the  proposal  for  a  definite  treaty 
of  arbitration  between  the  United  States  and  England.  We 
ought  not  merely  to  draw  up  a  general  resolution,  but  if  such 
a  proposal  is  now  in  existence — " 

The  President:  "Allow  me  to  point  out  tliat  the  necessity 
of  referring  this  to  the  Business  Conunittee  has  been  destroyed 
by  the  resolution  already  passed.  So  that  it  is  not  now  in  order 
to  move  that  that  resolution  be  referred  to  the  Business  Com- 
mittee. We  have  decided  not  to  do  so,  but  to  take  it  as  submitted 
to  us  this  afternoon.  When  a  resolution  is  handed  in,  it  is 
competent  for  any  member  of  the  Conference  to  move  an  amend- 
ment if  he  desires.  This  touches  the  subject  matter  of  the 
resolution,  and  not  the  mode  of  procedure." 

A  Delegate:  "I  think  that  the  Business  Committee  ought 
to  have  a  resolution  brought  in  by  unanimous  consent." 

Secretary  Johnson  :    "That  matter  is  in  the  resolution." 

The  essay  of  the  morning,  on  "Adaptation  of  the  Church  to 
the  Needs  of  Modern  Life,"  was  presented  by  the  Rev.  S.  D. 
Chown,  D.  D.,  General  Superintendent  of  tlie  Methodist  Church 
of  Canada,  and  herewith  follows : 

Of  the  many  adaptations  of  the  Church,  the  need  of  which  has 
been  emphasized  by  the  conditions  of  modern  life,  we  shall  have 
time  to  trace  but  two  or  three,  and  must  omit  many  of  the  most 
obvious  and  most  essential  character. 

We  remark  first  that  the  Church  must  increase  its  activities  in 
the  direction  of  social  service.  It  must  translate  into  action  all 
that  it  finds  in  the  spirit  of  Christ.  Christianity  has  a  gospel  for 
all  sorts  of  suffering  as  well  as  all  degrees  of  sin.     If  the  Church 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  S.  D.  CHOWN.  287 

does  not  practically  illustrate  its  gospel  for  the  sufferer  it  will 
slide  down  out  of  its  place  of  authority  in  the  modern  world.  The 
core  of  the  problem  is  not  giving  charity,  but  securing  social  jus- 
tice. However  earnest  or  eloquent  he  may  be,  the  preacher  can 
not  do  this.  He  should  know  the  life  of  the  classes  and  the  needs 
of  the  masses.  He  should  also  know  well  and  speak  with  tender 
sympathy  and  fearless  force  the  social  message  of  Jesus;  and  he 
should  live  so  that  he  may  utter  it  with  untrammeled  conscience. 
That  is  his  part.  The  love  of  money  will  canker  every  high  minis- 
terial ambition  and  change  the  sweet  influence  of  his  life  into  apples 
of  Sodom.  There  is  for  him  at  least  a  high  ethical  imperative  behind 
the  full  assurance  of  faith  and  the  baptism  of  power  from  on  high. 

But  I  say,  with  all  the  emphasis  of  deep  conviction,  that  it  is 
the  layman's  special  function  to  secure  social  justice.  The  preacher 
is  but  a  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness  unless  the  laymen  he  repre- 
sents combine  to  do  business  in  the  spirit  of  the  cross.  The  political 
economy  of  the  iron  heel  is  dominating  our  civilization  and  Chris- 
tianity. Competition  is  not  ethically  just  or  religiously  practicable 
if  it  confer  upon  the  toiler  only  a  living  wage.  Human  creatures 
must  be  treated  as  though  they  had  human  natures.  It  is  not  a 
great  thing  to  make  money,  but  it  is  a  sublime  thing  to  make  it 
right.  There  is  a  call  to-day,  beyond  expression  in  words,  to  Chris- 
tianize commercial  life.  Such  a  purpose  would  elevate  all  worthy 
business  to  the  level  of  a  profession.  Under  the  peculiar  stress  of 
modern  labor  conditions  one  prominent  layman  doing  business  in 
a  large  way  and  in  accordance  with  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  can 
commend  the  Church  to  the  common  people  more  than  a  whole  Con- 
ference of  preachers.  We  know  the  laymen  of  Methodism  are  men 
of  good  will,  but  they  need  more  than  that.  They  need  faith  that 
can  remove  mountains  to  enable  them  to  believe  that  the  law  of  the 
cross  is  practicable  in  commerce.  The  complexities  and  perplexities 
of  modern  commercial  life,  if  met  faithfully,  require  resources  of 
spiritual  power  incomparably  vaster  than  were  necessary  to  enable 
a  member  of  our  Church  to  keep  Wesley's  rules  fifty  years  ago.  The 
supreme  problem  in  this  connection  is  to  fill  the  Church  with  such 
a  pervading  and  impelling  sense  of  divine  power  that  all  who  be- 
long to  it  will  feel  themselves  fortified  for  every  necessary  sacrifice. 
The  residue  of  the  dynamic  is  with  God,  and  if  the  Church  is  to 
meet  the  demands  of  modern  life,  new  baptisms  of  power  must  be 
received  by  the  laymen,  and  by  them  applied  to  the  economic  re- 
lations of  life.  Oh,  that  our  good  men  could  see  the  pinching  poverty 
of  merely  material  wealth  and  the  abounding  richness  of  the  conse- 
crated life! 

But  we  must  proceed  swiftly  to  speak  of  an  adaptation  of  the 
Church  to  the  needs  of  modern  life,  which  is  the  special  function 
and  duty  of  the  ministry.     I  refer  to  the  note  of  spiritual  authority 


288  THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  LIFE. 

in  the  pulpit.  By  spiritual  authority  I  mean  that  magnetic  quality 
which  is  recognized  in  a  preacher's  utterances  when  it  is  felt  that 
he  has  been  in  deep  communion  with  the  spirit  of  truth,  fn  these 
days  the  people  care  little  for  the  credential  of  a  miter,  a  peculiar 
garb,  or  an  official  chair,  and  they  regard  it  as  a  fiction  of  the  imag- 
ination to  suppose  the  Most  High  reveals  truth  to  a  Church  organi- 
zation as  such.  In  the  revelation  of  His  will  God  speaks  to  the  in- 
dividual soul. 

The  problem  thus  imposed  upon  the  Church  is,  while  securing 
the  effective  cohesion  of  its  ministry,  to  develop  within  it  men  who 
will  speak  with  spiritual  authority;  an  authority  which  can  not  be 
possessed  without  the  exercise  of  a  considerable  degree  of  personal 
liberty.  If  it  can  not  do  both,  it  is  out  of  joint  with  modern  life. 
How  shall  this  be  done? 

In  reply  let  me  say  that  the  fundamental  beliefs  of  the  Church 
lie  deep  in  the  normal  consciousness  of  the  common  people;  such, 
for  instance,  as  the  existence  and  providence  of  God.  These  intu- 
itions need  not  be  sustained  by  argument.  In  the  nature  of  the  case 
every  minister  must  believe  in  these.  Without  this  faith  the  Church 
is  bankrupt. 

But  above  these  lies  a  realm  of  truths  which  are  known  and 
verified  by  experience,  such  as  the  new  birth,  the  witness  of  the 
Spirit,  and  the  sanctifying  power  of  the  grace  of  God.  These  ex- 
periences presuppose  belief  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins,  that  He 
rose  again,  and  that  the  Holy  Spirit  has  been  given  to  men.  These 
truths  are  the  marrow  of  the  apostolic  message.  In  this  realm  every 
preacher  must  have  experience  to  speak  with  authority;  otherwise 
he  is  a  weakling  and  has  no  place  in  the  pulpit.  The  affirmations 
of  testimony  are  worth  a  thousand-fold  more  than  the  triumphs  of 
controversy.  Certainly,  then,  all  who  enter  into  organized  effort 
for  the  conversion  of  men  should  have  a  heartfelt  experience  of  the 
great  salvation. 

Above  these,  again,  in  the  sense  of  being  less  fundamental,  other 
truths  are  found,  which  are  related  to  the  Christian  system  as 
profitable  for  teaching,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  and  for  instruc- 
tion in  righteousness.  The  truths  referred  to  contribute  to  the  de- 
velopment of  character,  to  the  proper  conduct  of  life,  and  to  the 
establishment  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  or  they  may  have  little 
more  than  an  intellectual  interest  being  without  much,  if  any, 
moral  content.  Concerning  these  a  more  complex  method  than  either 
intuition  or  experience  is  necessary  to  attain  to  that  deep  conviction 
of  a  direct  message  from  God  which  breathes  a  sense  of  authority 
into  the  hearts  of  all  who  hear.  It  is  in  this  field  the  gift  of  inter- 
pretation finds  its  fullest  exercise;  and  here  the  important  question 
must  be  answered,  "How  shall  the  Church  preserve  its  autonomy 
and  at  the  same  time  maintain  such  sympathetic  touch  with  the  in- 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  S.  D.  CHOWN.  289 

tellectual  world  as  will  stimulate  its  ministers  to  strenuous  search 
for  completer  views  of  truth?"  This  problem  is  of  immense  im- 
portance in  these  modern  days,  when  the  pulpit,  in  some  quarters, 
is  dry-rotting  with  formal  homiletic  exercises  and  languishing  for 
the  vital  messages  of  the  gospel. 

On  all  hands  it  is  admitted  that  to  speak  without  conviction  is 
fatal  to  success.  A  parrot  preacher  is  a  parasite.  The  sense  of 
authority  in  the  pulpit  7nust  be  increased.  Yet  we  are  face  to  face 
with  the  fact  that  this  can  not  be  done  except  in  harmony  with  the 
spirit  of  the  age.  Our  ministers  must  reach  their  convictions  by 
methods  in  which  the  people  to-day  believe. 

Now,  the  modern  world  is  permeated  with  faith  in  the  inductiva 
method  of  seeking  and  understanding  truth.  This  method  has  won 
the  day  in  science  and  philosophy,  and  it  is  unthinkable  that  it 
should  not  prevail  in  the  study  of  theology.  It  must  do  so  if  the- 
ology is  a  science.  It  is  essential  to  the  inductive  method  in  the 
sphere  of  religious  truth,  not  only  that  it  obtain  facts,  but  that  the 
facts  should  be  apprehended  through  such  psychological  avenues  as 
will  make  them  the  peculiar  personal  possession  of  the  finder.  Truth 
so  found  entails  an  intimate  responsibility  upon  the  receiver  for  its 
safeguarding  and  promulgation.  This  will  be  admitted  by  any 
Church  having  a  particle  of  prophetic  spirit.  Such  a  Church  will 
recognize  the  soul  agony  of  the  sincere  truth-seeker,  and  will  sym- 
pathize deeply  with  the  profound  sense  of  personal  responsibility 
just  referred  to,  lest  it  be  found  guilty  of  converting  men  into  ma- 
chines. 

What  course  may  the  Church  reasonably  take  in  the  presence  of 
these  conditions?  At  the  outset  the  Church  has  a  right  to  hold  that 
no  real  progress  is  possible  by  sinking  into  a  sea  of  forgetfulness 
the  treasures  of  the  past.  Just  as  reasonably  could  one  hope  to 
build  himself  up  mentally  by  divesting  himself  of  his  personal  mem- 
ory. It  is  foolish,  if  not  wicked,  to  kick  down  the  ladder  by  which 
we  have  climbed  thus  far. 

But  as  the  organ  of  human  progess  the  Church  is  in  duty  bound 
to  recognize  that  the  ladder  which  fails  to  reach  the  heights  of  truth 
this  age  demands,  is  too  short.  The  ladder  of  past  ecclesiastical 
declarations  can  not  reach  the  present  need.  Each  seeker  after 
truth  must  add  the  rungs  of  personal  experience,  of  observation, 
of  historic  insight,  and  give  heed  to  the  messages  of  the  spiritual 
giants  of  the  age,  who  must  be  regarded  as  exponents  of  the  special 
aspects  of  truth  necessary  to  build  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  our  time. 

Let  us  not  think  that  theology  is  an  inanimate  thing  which  can 
be  handed  down  unchanged  from  generation  to  generation.  It  is  the 
ripening  fruit  of  truth  and  thought,  and  its  process  is  never  complete. 

"Mohammed's  truth  lay  in  a  holy  book, 
Christ's  in  a  sacred  life. 
19  i 


290  THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  LIFE. 

So  while  the  world  rolls  on  from  change  to  change. 

And   realms  of  thought  expand. 
The  letter  stands  without  expanse  or  range 

Stiff  as  a  dead  man's  hand. 

While  as  the  life-blood  tills  the  growing  form. 

The  spirit  Christ  has  shed 
Flows  through  the  ripening  ages   fresh  and   warm, 

More  felt  than  heard  or  read." 

If  theology  be  a  growing  science,  it  follows  that  the  Church 
should  assist  its  ministers  to  investigate  all  truth,  irrespective  of 
the  label  it  bears.  The  sense  of  restraint  here  not  only  contracts  the 
mental  horizon,  but  reduces  the  vital  influence  of  truth  in  the  heart 
and  life  of  the  seeker.  The  opposition  to  modernism  within  the 
Church  of  Rome  is  not  directed  against  scientific  investigation  in 
itself.  It  operates  only  when  investigation  trenches  upon  the  pro- 
claimed dogmas  of  the  Church.  If  true  to  itself,  Protestantism  will 
not  erect  such  compartments  in  the  human  mind,  and  it  would  be 
fatal  for  Methodism  to  attempt  it.  Protestantism  is  a  movement  for 
intellectual  freedom  and  general  progress.  But  John  Wesley  went 
further  than  the  founders  of  Pi'otestantism.  He  taught  not  only 
the  right,  but  the  duty  of  using  private  judgment  in  the  interpre- 
tation of  the  Scriptures.  Up  to  the  measure  of  the  critical  lore  of 
his  times  he  revealed  the  origin  and  interpreted  the  meaning  of  the 
Bible  with  a  remarkably  free  hand.  In  his  conferences,  to  use  his 
own  expression,  "every  question  was  bolted  to  the  bran."  In  them 
they  concluded  that,  as  to  speculative  matters,  every  man  was  to 
submit  only  so  far  as  his  judgment  should  be  convinced,  and  in 
every  practical  point,  so  far  as  he  could  do  so,  without  wounding 
his  conscience.  In  this  freedom  he  discerned  the  hidings  of  power. 
His  policy  was  to  submerge  the  irritation  of  difference  of  opinion 
in  an  ocean  of  love,  and  to  keep  his  preachers  so  busy  saving  souls 
that  they  would  have  little  time  and  less  disposition  for  controversy. 
Methodism  adapts  itself  to  the  needs  of  modern  life  so  far  as  it 
assures  its  preachers  an  undisturbed  opportunity  for  mental  ex- 
pansion and  spiritual  growth  while  they  remain  true  to  the  saving 
doctrines,  the  joyous  experiences,  and  the  dynamic  forces  of  the 
Christian  faith.  Liberty  of  thought,  accompanied  by  trueness  of 
spiritual  perspective,  is  the  very  genius  of  our  Church. 

The  Church  should  also  stimulate  the  loyalty  of  its  ministers. 
This  can  be  well  done  by  assuring  the  truth-seeker  not  only  a  wide 
range  in  his  search,  but  also  conscious  liberty  in  reaching  his  con- 
clusions. The  over-seas  dominions  of  the  British  Empire  are  en- 
thusiastically loyal  to  the  crown  and  constitution  of  Great  Britain 
because  they  are  consciously  free.  One-fourth  of  the  surface  of  the 
globe  is  ruled  by  free  democracies  owning  allegiance  to  the  British 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  S.  D.  CHOW^.  291 

crown.  Their  loyalty  flames  like  the  burning  bush;  while  the 
greatest  Republic  in  history  by  its  very  existence  bears  testimony 
to  the  folly  of  coercion.  This  loyalty,  inspired  by  liberty,  represents 
the  ideal  relation  between  the  minister  and  his  Church.  Such  loyalty 
will  bring  untold  accessions  of  power  and  strengthen  the  Chui'ch 
to  meet  the  needs  of  modern  life 

Another  qualification  for  obtaining  the  note  of  spiritual  authority 
is  perfect  sincerity.  The  Church  has  a  right  to  claim  this  from  all 
its  ministers  and  is  in  duty  bound  to  remove  every  artificial  hin- 
drance thereto.  The  final  test  of  sincerity  is  a  willingness  to  live 
the  ultimate  implications  of  any  truth  that  may  dawn  upon  the 
mind.  Sincerity  is  an  open  sesame  for  the  reception  of  truth.  For 
truth  after  all,  be  it  said,  is  not  simply  conformity  to  fact.  That 
is  only  the  shell  of  it.  The  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  is  a  spiritual 
essence  within  knowledge  that  has  power  to  transform  character. 
Truth  is  the  vital  principle  of  knowledge.  It  has  the  same  relation 
to  knowledge  that  spirit  holds  to  body.  Jesus  says:  "I  am  the  Way, 
the  Truth,  and  the  Life.  He  that  is  of  the  truth  [hath  its  spirit] 
heareth  My  words."  When  the  perfectly  sincere  soul  opens  the 
Bible,  deep  calleth  unto  deep.  The  depths  of  his  soul  call  unto  the 
depths  of  the  word,  and  there  is  a  conscious  response.  Often  it 
comes,  to  use  the  phrase  of  Brownmg,  "as  though  stung  by  the 
splendor  of  a  sudden  thought."  In  this  experience,  more  than  in 
any  other  way,  one  enters  into  a  profound  conviction  of  the  su- 
premacy and  divinity  of  our  Scriptures.  The  antennae  of  the  soul 
feel  down  into  the  depths  of  their  truth,  appropriate  it,  and  it  be- 
comes the  very  fiber  of  character.  Thus  equipped  and  mightily  bap- 
tized by  the  Spirit  of  God,  the  preacher  speaks  with  a  conquering 
note  of  authority,  and  an  absolute  need  of  modern  life  is  met  and 
satisfied. 

When  loyalty  and  sincerity  mark  a  preacher's  approach  to  truth, 
the  Church  in  this  age  is  well  advised  if  it  give  him  cordial  fellow- 
ship; and  it  may  do  so  without  any  danger  of  ultimate  loss  to  the 
organization  We  say  this  with  some  confidence,  because  we  are 
persuaded  that  true  loyalty  and  sincerity  will  forbid  any  utterance 
for  the  sake  of  novelty  or  sensation,  and  debar  any  teaching  which 
would  tend  to  destroy  the  high  imperatives  of  really  religious  con- 
viction. A  preacher  possessed  of  these  graces  wilt  not  willingly 
provoke  hostility,  nor  use  knowledge  in  a  destructive  spirit.  He 
will,  if  possible,  burn  his  own  smoke,  and  be  careful  not  to  blind 
or  make  sore  the  eyes  of  others  with  it. 

In  the  final  analysis,  then,  liberty  tempered  by  loyalty  and  in- 
spired by  sincerity  is  the  ideal.  Yet  until  the  ideal  is  universally 
reached,  law  will  not  be  without  its  distinct  and  necessary  function. 
It  must  protect  the  Church  of  Christ  by  guarding  against  teaching 
other  than  that  which  inspires  the  purest  morality  and  the  highest 


292  THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  LIFE. 

Christian  life.  Law  must  stand  within  the  shadow,  keeping  watch 
above  its  own.  But  in  these  modern  days  the  criterion  of  orthodoxy 
should  be  the  ultimate  effect  of  any  teaching  upon  life,  rather  than 
its  harmony  with  any  theory,  literary  or  theological. 

My  last  remark  is  that  the  greatest  need  of  the  Church  to  adapt 
it  to  modern  life,  the  need  that  stretches  through  the  whole  diameter 
of  every  department  of  its  work,  the  need  that  is  higher  than  our 
highest  heaven  of  thought,  and  deeper  than  our  deepest  sea  of  feel- 
ing, is  that  of  spiritual  leaders  who  are  men  first  and  clergymen 
afterward;  the  leadership  of  mighty,  magnetic  souls  who  impress 
the  world  as  being  but  one  remove  from  God. 

How  shall  we  get  them?  Certainly  not  by  the  development  of 
the  machine  ecclesiastic.  The  measure  of  a  man's  greatness  is  the 
measure  in  which  he  loses  sight  of  the  institution  and  is  constrained 
only  by  the  splendid  mission  for  v/hich  the  institution  stands.  We 
shall  get  our  leaders  when  our  young  men  believe  that  the  Church 
is  out  to  do  great  things  in  human  service;  when  we  make  them 
believe  that  the  Church  stands  as  the  greatest  stimulus  on  earth 
toward  intellectual  breadth;  when  by  giving  them  liberty  we  gen- 
erate unswerving  loyalty;  when  we  make  them  feel  that  the  very 
atmosphere  of  the  Church  is  surcharged  with  sincerity,  and  that 
in  it  they  can  enjoy  fellowship  with  the  spiritual  giants  of  the  age. 
These  are  the  things  that  ai'e  of  consquence  in  the  growth  of  the 
soul.  These  are  the  things  that  will  help  great  souls  out  into  a 
great  life.  These  are  the  things  that  will  enable  Methodism  to 
realize  John  Wesley's  ideal  of  a  "manly,  noble,  generous  religion, 
equally  removed  from  bigotry  and  superstition." 

Our  conclusion  then  is,  in  a  word,  that  the  Church  is  adapted  to 
the  needs  of  modern  life  when  she  is  filled  with  a  spirit  of  unity; 
when  she  responds  with  service  to  every  otherwise  unheeded  cry  of 
human  need;  when  her  foundation-truths  lie  deep  in  the  unfailing 
intuitions  of  the  common  people;  when  she  bears  joyful  testimony 
to  the  saving  truths  of  the  gospel;  when  she  accords  the  genial 
stimulus  of  liberty  to  every  loyal  and  sincere  student;  and  when, 
for  leaders,  she  has  men  of  great  intellectual  grasp  and  sweeping 
spiritual  vision,  who  see  the  holy  city  New  Jerusalem  coming  down 
from  God  out  of  heaven  prepaied  as  a  bride  adorned  for  her  hus- 
band, whose  foundation-stones  are  laid  in  the  fair  colors  of  every 
virtue,  human  and  divine,  and  whose  Builder  and  Maker  is  God. 

The  first  invited  address  was  given  by  Sir  George  Siniith, 
of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church,  on  the  subject,  "Function  of 
the  Church  in  the  Life  of  the  Community :" 

The  vastness  of  our  subject  and  the  brevity  of  allotted  time  jus- 
tify my  waiving  all  introduction  and  appealing  immediately  to  the 
Highest  Source  of  Wisdom  for  our  guidance. 


ADDRESS  BY  SIR  GEORGE  SMITH.  293 

I.  For  the  Voice  which  spake  as  never  man  spoke  has  answered 
for  us  the  question  implied  in  the  title  of  our  subject. 

What  is  the  "function  of  the  Church  in  the  life  of  the  commu- 
nity?" It  is  to  be  "the  salt  of  the  earth;  "the  light  of  the  world;" 
"the  city  set  on  a  hill.'" 

That  is  our  calling;  so  that,  however  we  may  express  our  duties 
and  privileges  in  modern  phrase,  and  however  we  may  be  impelled 
to  fill  in  the  Master's  majestic  outline,  our  conception  of  the  Church's 
function  must  never  conflict  with  or  fall  short  of  this  "pattern  shown 
us  in  the  Mount." 

No  modern  ideas,  no  anxiety  to  broaden  or  popularize  the  Church 
must  be  allowed  to  lead  us  into  the  abdication  of  this  solemn  po- 
sition— to  be  God's  appointed  society  for  the  reclamation  of  the 
world. 

As  unwavering  Protestants  we  should  promptly  repudiate  any 
intervention  between  God  and  man  by  any  particular  caste  or  order 
of  men.  But  of  His  Church  as  a  whole,  ministry  and  laity,  this 
thing  is  true;  that  the  man  or  body  of  men  who  know  God  in  Christ 
must  intervene  to  represent  Him  and  make  Him  known  to  the 
world  which  knows  Him  not.  The  Bride  as  well  as  the  Spirit  must 
ever  say,  "Come;"  and  he  that  heareth  must  be  a  standing  invitation 
to  the  spiritually  deaf. 

The  function  of  the  Church,  then,  is  first  of  all  to  see  God,  and 
to  testify  of  what  it  sees;  to  hear  God,  and  to  repeat,  in  word  and 
life.  His  truth  to  men. 

It  may  be  that,  as  a  condition  of  that  seeing  the  old  Vision 
which  our  fathers  saw,  for  the  hearing  of  the  Heavenly  Voice,  "which 
only  faithful  souls  can  hear,"  we  must  forego  some  of  the  world's 
glamour  and  din;  but  if  thus  we  may  quicken  our  own  spiritual  eyes 
and  ears,  and  receive  a  new  '"ephphatha'  for  this  generation,  that 
new  loosing  of  the  Church's  tongue  for  laity  as  well  as  ministry 
would  surely  be  the  most  glorious  evidence  of  the  new  Pentecost  for 
which  we  wait  and  pray. 

II.  It  will  probably  be  expected  that  even  the  briefest  utter- 
ance on  our  great  subject  will  include  some  reference  to  the  Church's 
duty  in  leading  and  inspiring  the  great  works  of  social  reform. 

We  admit  that  duty — first,  because  Christ  began  his  ministry  by 
care  for  the  bodies  of  men,  and  second,  because  the  remarkable  uni- 
versality of  the  world's  cry  for  help  may  well  be  one  of  the  signs 
of  the  times  whicli  He  would  have  us  discern. 

The  Church's  conviction  of  this  duty  seems  to  us  now  so  deep 
and  so  general  that  the  present  speaker  feels  it  to  be  less  needful 
to  insist  on  it  than  to  indicate  two  limitations  or  qualifications  of 
our  sociological  zeal. 

I  submit  that  in  striving,  as  we  ought  to  strive,  for  social  better- 
ment and  cleansed  environment  we  should  never  even  seem  to  forget 


294  THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  LIFE. 

that  in  the  twentieth  century,  as  in  tlie  first,  the  life  is  more  than 
meat  and  the  man  himself  than  raiment;  that  character  makes  its 
own  environment,  and  that,  as  one  of  your  Western  philosophers  has 
taught  us,  "the  soul  of  all  improvement  is  the  improvement  of  the 
soul." 

I  will  not  ask,  as  some  have  done,  whether  the  fathers  of  our 
Church  did  not  achieve  as  much  even  towards  the  solution  of  social 
problems  by  striving  directly  and  almost  solely  for  cleansed  hearts 
as  we  in  our  regard  for  conditions  and  envii'onment;  but  I  will  ex- 
press my  assured  conviction  that  in  our  proper  enthusiasm  for  social 
reform  and  increasing  war  against  human  wrong  we  must  not,  any 
of  us,  abate  one  jot  of  our  evangelistic  solicitude  for  "the  sin-sick 
soul."  And  secondly,  I  am  convinced  that  the  function  of  the  Church 
as  a  whole  in  relation  to  social  reform  should  be  to  inspire  and 
spiritualize  the  ideals  of  the  community  and  proclaim  sound  prin- 
ciples of  action,  as  did  Christ  and  St.  Paul,  rather  than  to  work  out 
and  apply  details  of  procedure.  The  latter  course  might  not  only 
involve  our  being  cumbered  with  much  serving,  as  I  fear  some 
Churches  are  at  this  moment,  but  might  overlap  the  province  of  the 
State,  the  municipality,  or  the  individual  conscience.  And  it  will 
be  wise  to  remember  that  there  are,  and  probably  always  will  be, 
varying  schools  of  thought  amongst  us  with  respect  to  methods  and 
details  of  human  betterment,  and  that  it  is  no  duty  of  the  ecumeni- 
cal Church,  nor  of  particular  Churches,  to  assume  a  papal  infalli- 
bility of  reforming  methods  or  means,  thereby  often  endangering 
the  peace  of  Churches  and  alienating  those  of  its  members  who  hold 
differing  views. 

Perhaps  this  word  of  warning  is  needless  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  but  it  will  be  understood  by  many  working  under  Old-World 
conditions. 

III.  The  Church's  calling  and  function  is  immeasurably  higher 
than  that  of  the  statesman  or  political  economist,  though  she  may 
well  be  the  friend  and  counselor  of  both. 

The  Church  must  be  the  inspiring  and  uplifting  force  in  every 
branch  of  a  nation's  life.  Hers  must  be  the  prophet  vision  of  "The 
Watcher  on  the  mountain  height,"  discerning  God's  signals  in  the 
signs  of  the  times  and  interpreting  them  to  men. 

She  must  be — and  the  urgency  increases  daily — the  advocate  and 
exemplar  of  the  spiritual  in  an  age  materialized  beyond  any  prece- 
dent in  the  history  of  Christendom. 

She  must  be  the  witness  for  the  soul  to  a  ^generation  seemingly 
conscious  only  of  a  body  to  be  pampered  and  a  mind  to  be  amused. 

She  must  be  the  mentor  to  this  age  that  the  mere  pursuit  and 
misuse  of  wealth  forebodes,  by  every  historic  analogy,  national  de- 
moralization, and  decay. 

And  observe  that  the  Churches  represented  here  have  this  mes- 


ADDRESS  BY  MR.  N.  W.  ROWELL.  295 

sage  to  the  two  richest  nations  upon  earth.  How  shall  we  deliver 
it?  Shall  we  cheaply  and  glibly  rail  at  wealth  as  essentially  evil, 
and  its  possessors  as  devotees  of  Mammon  and  Belial,  or  shall  we 
leave  such  denunciation  to  the  philosophers  and  satirists,  whilst  we 
proclaim  and  exemplify  the  Scriptural-  doctrine  of  stewardship,  of 
faithful  stewardship,  to  God?  for,  in  our  view,  the  material  re- 
sources of  the  Anglo-Saxon  peoples  and  the  energy  which  develop 
them  are  both  God's  own  talents  delivered  to  these  nations  for  His 
gracious  purposes  amongst  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

The  Church  must  be  a  witness  for  eternity  in  an  age  deafened 
by  the  noisy  wheels  of  time. 

But  if  we  find  that  heaven  seems  too  remote  to  exercise  its  old 
attraction  on  the  modern  mind,  and  man's  self-complacency  too  im- 
perturbable to  be  moved  by  future  terrors,  then  must  we  witness, 
and  demonstrate  with  our  lives,  that  here  and  now  there  are  riches 
immeasurably  greater  than  material  possessions  and  satisfaction  be- 
yond its  enjoyment,  the  treasure  of  redeemed  souls,  and  ennobled 
characters. 

Does  that  demonstration  seem  a  hopeless  task — to  ask  our  fel- 
lows to  "look  on  this  picture  and  on  that;"  "sorrowful  because  he 
had  great  possessions;"  "glad  when  they  saw  the  Lord?"  I  see  with 
you  the  mountain  of  difficulty,  but  I  believe  it  is  no  greater  than  that 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost;  I  believe  in  "the  expulsive  force  of 
a  new  affection;"  and  I  believe  that,  if  we  truly  proclaim  God's 
purpose  and  our  aim  to  redeem  this  present  life,  as  well  as  the  life 
to  come,  and  if  we  approach  it  with  a  vision  of  Christ  and  of  His 
crown-rights  over  all  we  have  and  are,  the  mountains  will  yet  flow 
down  at  His  presence  and  souls  awaken  to  His  voice. 

Brethren,  shall  not  the  twentieth-century  Church,  faithful  to  its 
traditions  and  clothed  with  Pentecostal  power,  so  fulfill  its  high  call- 
ing that  a  world  groaning  and  travailing  in  its  iron  or  golden  chains 
may  yet  be  reclaimed  for  its  Lord,  and  not  only  for  a  future  in- 
heritance in  light,  but  that  here,  in  a  society  regenerated  beyond  the 
reformer's  dream,  a  paradise  regained,  in  this  world's  eventide,  man 
shall  walk  again  with  God,  unafraid,  in  the  garden  of  the  earth? 

Mr.  ¥.  W.  EowELL,  K.  C,  of  tlie  Methodist  Church  of 
Canada,  ofave  the  second  invited  address,  on  "Interdenomina- 
tional Co-operation,"  as  follows : 

Let  us  hear  the  words  of  John  "Wesley:  "I  desire  to  form  a  league, 
offensive  and  defensive,  with  every  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ."  "If  thy' 
heart  be  as  my  heart,  give  me  thy  hand." 

On  this  broad  and  catholic  platform  let  us  stand.  For  this  great 
ideal  of  co-operation  and  unity  let  us  unceasingly  strive.  It  is  well 
to  remind  ourselves  that  Methodism  was  born  not  to  formulate  a 


a&6  THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  LIFE. 

new  faith  or  to  establish  a  new  type  of  ecclesiastical  organization, 
but  to  call  men  to  a  new  life;  and  we  are  never  truer  to  our  origin 
than  when  joining  hands  with  all  other  communions  and  organiza- 
tions engaged  in  similar  work. 

On  Thursday  last  we  had  our  decennial  Methodist  stocktaking. 
Considering  the  magnitude  of  the  investment  of  men  and  money, 
the  result,  so  far  as  it  has  been  registered  in  Church  membership 
on  the  home  field,  has  been  very  disappointing,  and  it  is  little  com- 
fort to  know  that  other  denominations  are  passing  through  a  similar 
experience.  It  is  not  without  significance  that  side  by  side  with  a 
decreasing  ratio  of  increase  in  Church  membership  in  the  home- 
lands, the  great  things  for  which  the  Church  stands,  the  great  prin- 
ciples which  prompt  men  to  right  living  and  right  acting,  are  finding 
increasing  expression  in  the  lives  of  multitudes  of  men  outside  the 
Church,  and  the  past  ten  years  furnish  a  record  of  unparallelled 
achievement  in  the  foreign  mission  field.  Why  does  not  the  Church 
as  an  organization  more  largely  grip  the  heart  and  intellect  of  men 
in  the  homelands?  Why  is  it  that  leadership  in  great  movements  of 
social  and  moral  reform,  which  of  right  belongs  to  the  Church,  has 
in  many  cases  passed  into  other  hands?  Why  is  it  that  so  many 
who  need  the  helping  hand  of  the  Good  Samaritan  look  not  to  the 
Church,  but  outside  the  Church  to  find  it?  No  doubt  many  causes 
contribute  to  produce  present  conditions.  But  is  it  not  true  that 
multitudes  of  men  outside  the  Church  are  not  hostile  to  the  Church? 
They  are  simply  indifferent  to  it.  It  does  not  interest  them.  Life  all 
around  them  is  of  such  absorbing  interest  that  the  Church  makes  no 
particular  appeal  to  them.  Why  is  it?  I  want  to  suggest  for  your 
consideration  simply  one  of  many  contributing  causes:  the  lack  of 
a  direct,  commanding,  and  compelling  appeal  to  the  deep  and  vital 
things  in  life  by  men  of  faith  and  vision,  men  of  Christlike  sympathy 
and  sacrifice.  WTierever  you  find  such  an  appeal  by  such  a  man  the 
multitudes  respond. 

Our  ministry  is  the  product  of  the  system.  So  large  a  propor- 
tion of  the  time  of  the  ministry  is  required  to  keep  the  machinery 
of  their  Church  organizations  in  operation  that  too  many  come  to 
look  upon  this  as  their  work,  rather  than  simply  a  means  to  enable 
them  to  present  more  effectively  the  living  Christ  to  men.  Great 
opportunities  and  great  causes  develop  great  men.  Operating  Church 
machinery  never  will.  Has  not  the  multiplication  of  our  denomina- 
tions, the  competition  between  one  denomination  and  another  in 
small  centers  of  population  greatly  accentuated  this  difficulty  and 
'increased  the  peril  to  our  ministry? 

One's  attitude  toward  interdenominational  co-operation  depends 
upon  one's  conception  of  the  real  function  of  the  Church  and  the 
vital  character  and  urgency  of  its  message  to  the  world.  If  we  be- 
lieve in  the  sufficiency  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  and  the  insufficiency 


ADDRESS  BY  MR.  N.  W.  ROWELL.  297 

of  all  other  gospels  to  meet  human  needs;  if  we  believe  that  the 
living-out  in  daily  life  and  the  world-wide  presentation  of  tliis  gos- 
pel are  the  central  and  commanding  obligations  resting  upon  the 
Church,  we  must  realize  that  the  more  fully  we  make  it  possible  for 
the  ministry  of  the  Church  to  devote  themselves  with  whole-hearted 
endeavor  to  this  great  task,  the  more  speedily  and  effectively  will 
it  be  accomplished.  How  can  we  make  this  possible?  Assuredly 
not  by  the  spendthrift  policy  of  competition,  but  pending  the  time 
when  unity  is  possible,  by  the  brotherly  policy  of  co-operation.  It  is 
only  thus  that  the  world  will  feel  the  impact  of  the  combined 
strength  and  energy  of  the  whole  Church  of  Christ.  Is  it  any  wonder 
that  the  Church  has  been  comparatively  ineffective  in  the  execution 
of  its  commission  when  we  realize  that  in  the  life-and-death  struggle 
in  which  she  has  been  engaged  each  battalion  of  the  army  has 
marched  to  its  own  tune  under  the  direction  of  its  own  commander, 
and  ofttimes  these  battalions  have  trained  their  guns  upon  each 
other  rather  than  the  enemy? 

Modern  life  demands  of  the  Church  sincerity  and  efficiency.  In 
view  of  the  magnitude  and  urgency  of  the  spiritual,  intellectual,  and 
social  problems  confronting  the  Church,  and  which  urgently  call  for 
solution,  how  small  and  almost  trivial  seem  most  of  the  matters  that 
divide  us  as  denominations!  The  great  fundamentals  upon  which 
we  all  agree  are  the  real  things,  and  the  world  to-day  has  little 
patience  with  the  men  or  the  Church  that  would  exalt  non-essentials 
into  articles  of  faith.  So  long  as  we  spend  our  energies  in  magni- 
fying or  perpetuating  these  differences,  so  long  will  men  doubt  the 
sincerity  of  our  professions  and  the  efficiency  of  our  work.  Our 
differences  are  not  due  to  our  perfections,  but  to  our  imperfections; 
and  is  it  not  suggestive  and  significant  that  the  men  through  whom 
the  Church  is  expressing  her  devotion  to  her  Lord's  great  command 
in  the  foreign  mission  field  get  much  closer  together  than  we  in  the 
home  Churches? 

The  Church's  efficiency  is  greatly  impaired  by  its  divisions.  Our 
sacrifices  are  often  to  serve  denominational  ends  rather  than  im- 
mediately and  effectively  to  serve  humanity.  Such  sacrifices  make 
no  effective  appeal  to  the  men  of  our  day. 

Must  we  not  frankly  admit  that  among  our  home  Churches,  par- 
ticularly in  villages  and  small  towns,  there  is  an  entirely  unneces- 
sary multiplication  of  churches,  and  the  energy  that  should  be  ex- 
pended in  real  service  to  the  community  is  largely  exhausted  in  the 
effort  to  keep  the  machinery  in  operation?  In  these  villages  and 
small  towns,  and  in  many  country  places,  two,  three,  and  four  men 
called  of  God  to  preach  tlie  gospel  are  compelled  to  devote  most  of 
their  energy  to  the  operation  of  two,  three,  or  four  sets  of  Church 
machinery,  where  one  would  serve  the  religious  needs  of  the  com- 
munity.    This   multiplication   of   preachers   in   small   communities 


298  THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  LIFE. 

where  not  one  of  them  has  a  man's  opportunity  to  make  his  life 
tell  to  the  utmost,  not  one  has  a  man's  work  to  do,  has  a  dwarfing 
and  deteriorating  influence  upon  the  character  of  the  preacher  him- 
self, as  a  prophet  of  God.  One  of  the  most  pathetic  and  tragic  events 
I  have  witnessed  is  that  of  a  young  minister  who  feels  that  he  has 
in  him  great  possibilities  for  service,  and  yet  he  finds  that  by  the 
organization  of  his  Church  he  is  compelled  to  spend  his  life  com- 
peting with  brother  ministers  of  other  denominations  for  the  sup- 
port of  a  community  which  one  could  adequately  serve.  This  un- 
necessary multiplication  of  Churches  in  small  communities  also 
tends  to  develop  among  the  people  narrow  denominational  rivalry 
rather  than  broad  Christian  charity.  How  dare  we  as  Christians 
perpetuate  this  condition  if  it  can  be  avoided?  If  any  great  business 
enterprise  confronted  with  competitors  such  as  confront  the  Church 
to-day,  squandered  its  resources  as  the  Church  does,  it  would  de- 
serve bankruptcy,  and  bankruptcy  probably  would  be  its  portion. 
This  waste  of  men  and  money  leads  thinking  men  to  ask  the  ques- 
tion, "Can  the  Church  be  sincere;  can  she  believe  herself  in  the 
mighty  import  of  her  great  message  when  she  thus  squanders  her 
resources?"  This  ineffective  use  of  the  resources  of  the  Church  dis- 
courages many  men,  alienates  others,  and  prevents  the  Church  from 
commanding  the  confidence  and  enlisting  the  service  of  multitudes 
who  are  to-day  outside  the  Church. 

The  difficulties  of  securing  co-operation  are  undoubtedly  very 
great,  but  Christian  charity,  patience,  and  common  sense  should 
overcome  them. 

In  Canada  v>re  are  now  trying  a  very  important  experiment  in  co- 
operation. Presbyterian,  Methodist,  and  Congregational  Churches 
have  agreed  upon  a  plan  for  occupying  certain  new  districts  in 
Western  Canada  in  such  a  way  that  they  will  not  duplicate  each 
other's  work,  and  have  also  agreed  that  one  of  these  Churches 
should  withdraw  from  certain  districts  already  occupied  where  the 
duplication  of  the  work  is  so  evidently  unnecessary  as  to  make 
continuation  entirely  unjustifiable.  Co-operation  is  no  doiibt  more 
difficult  in  some  respects  than  actual  union;  but  if  we  can  not  get 
union,  or  until  we  get  union,  we  must  endeavor  to  co-operate.  No 
movement  for  co-operation,  however,  can  succeed  unless  there  is  a 
large  measure  of  Christian  charity  and  of  brotherly  confidence  and 
sympathy  between  the  leaders  and  the  membership  of  the  Churches. 
There  are  indications  that  this  brotherly  confidence  and  sympathy 
are  steadily  growing,  and  the  movement  for  co-operation  may  ex- 
tend and  other  Churches  may  yet  see  their  way  clear  to  join  in  a 
general  plan  at  least  for  occupying  new  territory. 

There  appears  to  be  every  reason  why  there  should  be,  and  no 
good  reason  why  there  should  not  be,  continued  and  effective  co- 
operation between  all  branches  of  the  Christian   Church   in  great 


ADDRESS  BY  MR.  N.  W.  ROWELL.  299 

religious,  social,  and  moral  reform  movements.  In  Canada  we  are 
steadily  working  in  this  direction.  At  the  present  time  we  have 
our  Dominion  Council  of  Moral  Reform,  consisting  of  representa- 
tives of  our  Protestant  Churches,  the  Trades  and  Labor  Council, 
and  the  farmers'  organizations  of  Canada,  and  through  this  council 
and  other  agencies  and  organizations  the  influence  of  the  Churches 
in  social  and  moral  reform  movements  is  teing  rendered  more  ef- 
fective. We  have  also  succeeded  through  our  Laymen's  Missionary 
Movement  in  establishing  thorough  and  systematic  co-operation  be- 
tween all  our  Protestant  Churches  in  the  cultivation  of  the  mission- 
ary spirit  in  the  home  Churches.  For  three  years  all  our  Mission 
Boards  have  co-operated  in  holding  interdenominational  missionary 
meetings  and  conventions  throughout  Canada,  educational  and  in- 
spirational in  their  character,  and  we  are  just  now  entering  upon 
another  series,  the  meetings  extending  from  Vancouver  on  the  west 
to  Sydney  on  the  east.  No  single  feature  of  the  recent  remarkable 
development  of  missionary  interest  among  the  Churches  in  Canada 
has  made  a  deeper  impression  upon  the  mind  of  the  man  on  the 
street,  as  well  as  the  man  in  the  Church,  than  this  co-operation. 
For  the  first  time  in  the  religious  work  of  our  country  men  have 
seen  all  branches  of  Protestant  Christianity  meeting  on  the  same 
platform,  proclaiming  the  same  message,  inspired  by  the  same  mo- 
tive, drawn  together  by  the  same  love  for  the  same  Savior  and  Lord. 

We  all  know  that  at  the  present  time  the  principle  of  co-opera- 
tfon  is  being  much  more  extensively  and  effectively  applied  on  the 
foreign  field  than  in  the  homeland.  It  should  be  everywhere  ap- 
plied; there  should  be  no  such  thing  as  overlapping  in  the  foreign 
field.  The  problem  of  Christian  education  in  the  foreign  field  is  so 
vast  and  so  urgent  that  we  can  not  seriously  attempt  its  solution, 
except  by  a  union  of  effort  in  the  establishment  of  institutions  of 
higher  education.  This  is  the  settled  policy  of  our  Canadian  Meth- 
odist Church.  In  China  we  have  united  with  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  the  American  Baptist  Church,  and  the  English  Society 
of  Friends  in  the  founding  of  the  West  China  Union  University. 
We  are  all  combining  our  resources,  and  we  hope  to  make  this  Union 
I'niversity  one  of  the  great  institutions  for  Christian  education  in 
China. 

It  was  stated  at  the  World  Missionary  Conference  in  Edinburgh 
that  by  effective  co-operation  the  efficiency  of  the  present  missionary 
force  could  be  doubled.  With  this  fact  staring  us  in  the  face,  and 
with  countless  millions  as  yet  unreached  by  the  gospel,  how  can 
we  remain  Christian  if  we  refuse  to  co-operate?  The  truth  having 
been  made  known  to  us,  we  have  no  further  excuse  for  our  sin.  If 
we  would  win  the  world  for  Christ  we  would  show  the  world  that 
the  Churches  love  one  another.  The  dominant  note,  the  most  in- 
spiring  note   of   the   Edinburgh   Conference   was   co-operation   and 


300  THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  LIFE. 

unity  through  the  spirit  of  Christ.  The  Continuation  Committee  of 
this  Conference  is  in  itself  an  expression  of  this  spirit  and  of  the 
necessity  and  urgency  for  co-operation. 

What  are  the  differences  between  the  various  denominations  of 
the  Church  of  Christ,  compared  with  the  differences  of  Christianity 
and  the  non-Christian  religions?  Do  we  realize  that  a  great  world- 
conflict  is  on?  In  every  part  of  the  world  a  battle  is  being  drawn 
between  Christ  and  His  followers  and  the  non-Christian  religions, 
and  instead  of  combining  our  forces  and  resources  so  as  to  utilize 
to  the  utmost  their  combined  strength  and  energj',  we  are  expending 
much  of  our  energy  in  striving  one  with  the  other  for  supremacy. 
Until  the  spirit  of  Christ  has  so  taken  possession  of  His  Church  in 
all  Its  branches  that  they  can  work  together  in  the  spirit  of  love 
and,  forgetting  their  differences,  live  and  proclaim  His  gospel  to 
men  in  the  spirit  of  sacrificial  service,  men  will  not  heed  the  call 
of  the  Church. 

But  after  all  co-operation  is  only  an  expedient  to  obviate  some 
of  the  worst  effects  of  our  unhappy  divisions.  The  drift  of  our  time 
and  the  demand  of  modern  life  is  unitj'.  The  unity  of  the  Christian 
Church  would  be  one  of  the  strongest  testimonies  to  her  divine 
origin  and  one  of  her  most  compelling  appeals  to  our  humanity.  It 
would  be  the  realization  of  our  Lord's  prayer  "that  they  all  may 
be  one  .  .  .  that  the  world  may  believe  that  Thou  hast  sent  Me." 
For  this  unitj'  let  us  all  earnestly  pray.  The  unity  of  all  the  Prot- 
estant denominations  would  be  a  great  advance  toward  this  larger 
unity,  and  would  strengthen  the  Church's  testimony  to  the  world. 
Every  union  in  the  divided  family  of  our  Lord  brought  about  in 
His  spirit  is  a  measurable  advance  towards  the  perhaps  far-off  di- 
vine event  to  which  the  Church  of  Christ  is  steadily  moving.  Let 
us  thank  God  for  the  unions  in  the  Methodist  family  in  the  past. 
In  Canada  we  have  demonstrated  the  practicability  of  the  union 
of  all  branches  of  the  Methodist  Church,  and  we  know  the  great 
spiritual  inspiration  and  impulse  that  come  from  this  union.  In 
Canada  we  have  demonstrated  the  practicability  of  the  union  of 
all  branches  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  we  know  the  great 
spiritual  inspiration  and  impulse  that  come  from  this  union.  It 
may  be  that  in  Canada  we  shall  yet  demonstrate  the  practicability 
of  a  still  larger  union;  and  who  will  set  limits  to  the  mighty  spir- 
itual inspiration -and  impulse  which  shall  come  from  such  larger 
union? 

The  general  discussion  was  opened  by  Sir  Egbert  W".  Perks, 

of  the  British  "Wesleyan  ]\[ethodist  Church: 

May  I  say  that  I  have  listened  with  some  surprise  to  the  de- 
scription which  Mr.  Rowell  has  given  of  Canadian  Methodists?  I 
did  not  know  that  there  was  this  professional  spirit  among  the 
Methodist  clergj-  in  such  a  keen  foi-m  as  he  has  indicated,  or  that 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  301 

there  was — in  the  Northwest,  I  presume — that  fierce  competition 
among  the  different  religious  denominations.  In  tlie  Old  Country 
we  have  tried  to  solve  that  difficulty  by  appointing  a  joint  commit- 
tee, whose  duty  it  has  been  during  the  last  twenty  years  to  prevent 
the  establishment  of  a  Methodist  Church  in  a  place  where  already 
there  are  Churches.  I  am  a  sort  of  product  of  Methodism  and  Pres- 
byterianism.  My  father  was  a  Methodist  preacher.  My  mother,  in 
her  early  and  unregenerate  days,  dated  everything  from  the  disrup- 
tion, and  when  she  became  a  Methodist  preacher's  wife  she  put  the 
Shorter  Catechism  on  the  shelf;  otherwise,  if  I  had  been  between 
the  two  catechisms,  I  might  have  been  here  as  a  higher  critic.  The 
speaker  from  Canada  indicated  that  while  he  would  regret  that 
you  should  lose  the  Methodist  sentiment  and  history  and  associa- 
tions and  spirit,  tliat  would  be  a  comparatively  small  loss.  I  want 
to  urge  that  we  can  do  better,  that  that  great  Presbyterian  Scotch 
Church  can  do  better  and  preserve  its  integrity,  its  independence, 
its  evangelistic  aggressive  fervor,  its  glorious  Presbyterianism,  its 
tradition,  better  by  co-operation,  by  close  identity  of  action  in  the 
home  field  and  in  the  Northwest,  than  by  organic  union.  Sir,  I 
can  not  understand,  as  I  look  back  upon  my  early  days  and  study 
the  history  of  families  that  I  could  name,  how  the  Methodism  in 
this  country  is  going  to  cut  the  connection  with  Methodism's  glorious 
aggressive  activity  and  become  a  sort  of  nondescript  religious  com- 
munity. 

The  Hon.  A.  J.  Wallace,  of  the  Metliodist  Episcopal  Church: 

I  find  in  the  title  of  the  first  address  the  words  "Adaptation  to 
Modern  Life;"  later,  in  another  address,  I  find  "Adaptation  to  the 
Life  of  the  Community."  What  community?  These  well-to-do,  pros- 
perous men  who  gather  here  in  this  great  church  and  other  great 
churches?  What  community?  One  branch  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  last  year  spent  more  money  in  pastoral  salaries  than 
John  Wesley  and  aU  his  preachers  had  spent  on  them  from  the  time 
he  went  to  Georgia  to  the  time  he  went  to  heaven.  And  John  Wes- 
ley had  more  sweat-stained  shirts  in  one  audience  than  we  had  in 
ten  States  last  Sunday  listening  to  Methodist  preachers.  He  had 
more  hard-handed,  grimy-faced  men  in  some  of  his  big  audiences 
than  you  had  last  Sunday  in  half  a  dozen  of  the  biggest  cities  in 
Canada.  "Adaptation  to  the  Needs  of  Modern  Life!"  We  have  not 
met  it  yet.  Thirty-five  thousand  men  dropped  out  of  the  shop  of 
one  of  the  great  railroads  of  the  United  States  the  other  day!  How 
many  of  the  men  who  took  their  place  are  found  in  our  Methodist 
churches  on  the  Sabbath  day?  The  millions  in  our  shops  and  the 
great  factories  and  other  institutions — how  many  of  them  have  we 
got  in  our  Churches  to-day?  Did  not  Dr.  Biucos  tell  us  the  other 
day  that  there  were  two  and  a  half  million  dollars  in  Methodist 
churches  in  this  city?  How  many  of  the  hard-working  toilers,  such 
as  listened  to  John  Wesley,  do  these  churches  house?  I  am  no 
pessimist.  I  love  Methodism  and  its  work.  If  John  Wesley  were 
here  he  would  be  broken-hearted  to  find  that  men  gather  and  spend 
their  time  in  the  great  Ecumenical  Conference  talking  of  everything 
but  the  great  fact  that  the  men  who  ar3  doing  the  work  of  the 
world  are  passing  us  by  on  the  other  side,  that  our  churches  are 
empty,  that  everywhere  in  the  United  States  and  this  country  and, 
I  think,  largely  in  Great  Britain,  we  have  lost  our  grip  on  the 
kind  of  men  John  Wesley  talked  to.  But  what  can  you  do?  I  don't 
know,  and  you  do  n't  know.     We  have  got  the  wrong  idea  in  our 


302         THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  LIFE. 

ministry.  You  put  hundreds  of  young  Methodist  ministers  to  work 
last  year,  graduated  them,  and  told  them  to  go  forth  and  preach 
salvation  to  suffering,  sorrowing  men  in  these  great  shops  and  es- 
tablishments. They  do  n't  know  how  to  preach  to  them.  Wliat  did 
Jesus  do?  Did  He  go  to  a  Church  established  on  Mt.  Sinai  and  say, 
"You  men  are  already  trained;  you  go  and  do  the  work?"  No;  He 
took  Peter  and  other  fishermen,  and  when  Peter  preached  at  Pente- 
cost, men  listened  to  him.  John  Wesley  went  to  the  factory  and 
farm  and  foundry,  and  he  talked  to  men  as  one  who  knew  how  and 
where  they  lived. 

The  Eev.  J.  Peaece,  of  the  Methodist  Cluirdi  of  Australia : 

I  want  to  put  additional  emphasis  on  the  note  which  has  been 
already  struck.  I  sincerely  trust  that  the  supremacy  of  the  gospel 
message  will  be  practically  acknowledged  by  Methodist  Churches  as 
a  whole.  I  sincerely  trust  that  there  will  be  an  endorsement 
of  a  thought  already  quietly  expressed.  Notwithstanding  what 
has  been  said  by  the  previous  speaker,  I  have  a  growing  con- 
viction that  the  great  essential  in  the  world's  salvation  in  the 
social  and  political  as  well  as  other  realms  is  the  religion  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  We  have  been  given  a  little  autobiography 
now  and  again.  Will  you  bear  with  me  while  I  state  my  quali- 
fications to  speak  on  this  subject?  I  went  to  work  in  the  mines 
at  the  age  of  ten;  at  the  age  of  eighteen  I  helped  my  father  to 
subdue  the  forest  and  cultivate  the  soil;  since  then  I  have  done 
a  good  deal  of  pioneer  work  for  the  Church  in  the  frontier  settle- 
ments of  our  great  country,  and  in  recent  years  have  been  asso- 
ciated with  the  Rev.  H.  Howard  in  city  mission  work.  I  go  to  men, 
the  working  men,  the  struggling  men,  with  this  message,  "Most 
of  all,  you  need  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

I  am  glad  for  all  that  is  done  in  the  direction  of  social  reform; 
but  do  n't  pin  undue  faith  to  the  efforts  of  the  social  reformer  or 
the  legislator.  He  can  do  much,  but  is  not  omnipotent.  I  want 
to  place  emphasis  on  the  ordinary  things.  Sometimes  undue  stress 
is  put  upon  the  potency  of  the  big  battalions.  By  ordinary  things 
I  mean  sociability,  cordiality,  love;  the  working  man  is  hungering 
for  these  evidences  of  sympathetic  interest.  Get  down  by  his  side 
and  make  him  feel  that  you  are  one  with  him,  that  you  are  his 
friend  and  brother.  I  did  not  find  just  that  cordiality  in  England. 
I  esteem  the  brethren  there  highly,  but  some  of  them  are  very 
frigid.  I  have  not  a  strong  desire  to  renew  their  acquaintance, 
because  I  share  the  mariner's  dread  of  icebergs.  You  know  as 
well  as  I  that  warmth  and  friendliness  count  for  much.  Let 
warmth  also  characterize  our  pulpit  utterances.  In  music  expres- 
sion is  the  essential  element.  The  technique  may  be  faultless  but 
if  it  is  not  vibrant  with  musical  feeling  the  expert  will  refuse 
to  call  it  music.  Passionate  utterance  is  always  effective.  I  think 
that  test  should  be  applied  to  our  pulpit  oratory. 

The  Eev,  J,  Alfred  Shaep^  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church: 

Mr.  President,  I  have  felt  very  strongly  that  the  points  brought 
before  us  this  morning  are  vital  to  the  very  existence  of  the 
Church.  I  am  certain  that  in  the  coming  years  a  Church  will  be 
judged  and  will  have  to  stand  or  fall  according  to  its  power  to 
touch  the  conditions  of  modern  life.     The  Church  of  the  future 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  303 

will  not  be  that  Church  that  exceeds  in  boasting  about  its  wealth 
or  equipment,  or  even  about  the  greatness  of  its  numbers,  but  the 
one  that  succeeds  in  infusing  into  the  great  heart  of  the  world's 
democracy  some  feeling  of  love  and  loyalty  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
And  it  seems  to  me  the  question  we  ought  to  face  this  morning 
as  Methodists  is  this.  How  far  can  Methodism  claim  its  part  in 
the  accomplishment  of  this,  how  far  can  we  as  part  of  the  great 
Church  catholic  do  our  share  in  infusing  into  the  heart  of  the 
world's  democracy  this  feeling  of  love  and  loyalty  to  the  Master 
and  Savior?  I  believe  we  can  do  a  great  deal,  and  I  believe  we 
can  do  it  better  as  we  are,  than  by  mixing  up  with  others  whose 
opinions  may  differ  from  ours.  I  am  not  at  all  enamored  of  the 
views  enunciated  by  Mr.  Rowell.  I  have  lived  all  my  ministerial 
life  in  the  closest  friendliness  with  ministers  of  other  Churches,  and 
with  the  other  Churches  themselves,  but  I  hold  that  there  is  more 
virtue  in  a  unity  of  spirit  than  in  a  cast-iron  formality.  Looking 
at  it  from  a  Methodist  standpoint,  I  do  not  believe  that  a  cold, 
stiff,  formal  Methodism  can  play  its  part  in  the  work  that  needs 
to  be  done  in  these  times;  but  a  Methodism  true  to  itself  can 
do  more  than  any  other  Church  to  uplift  the  life  of  the  people. 
To  be  able  to  face  these  modern  problems,  we  must  as  a  Church 
hold  the  faith  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  we  must  make 
that  faith  one  of  divine  heat  and  power.  A  Methodism  of  this 
kind,  full  of  adaptation,  in  my  opinion,  will  be  one  of  the  great 
regenerative  influences  in  the  world's  life.  Let  me  go  a  step 
further.  The  world  needs  to-day,  as  nothing  else,  the  regenerative 
influence  and  uplifting  power  of  the  Church.  There  is  nothing  that 
appalls  me  more  than  to  go  into  the  slum  areas  of  our  great  cities. 
What  do  we  see  there?  We  see  humanity  flung  upon  the  human 
scrap-heap,  and  this  human  scrap-heap  of  our  great  cities  is  the 
despair  of  the  politician  and  philanthropist.  In  England  we  have 
that  despair  finding  expression  in  a  plea  for  a  legal  chamber.  Let 
Jesus  Christ  have  His  chance.  I  have  seen,  my  brethren  here,  all 
of  us,  have  seen  the  power  of  Jesus  Christ  to  take  humanity  from 
this  scrap-heap,  and  make  it  bright  and  pure  and  glorious.  The 
function  of  the  Methodist  Church  is  this,  that  both  by  playing  upon 
the  individual  and  by  influencing  civic  administration,  we  must 
help  to  give  a  chance  to  Jesus  Christ  and  His  uplifting  gospel. 

Bishop  Collins  Dexxy,  T).  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South: 

There  is  a  question  which  this  Conference  ought  carefully  to 
consider,  and  which  it  seems  to  me  lies  a  little  deeper  than  some  of 
us  heretofore  have  looked.  Has  Methodism  a  mission?  I  shall 
not  be  guilty  of  the  impertinence  of  attempting  to  answer  that  for 
other  countries;  yet  it  does  seem  to  me  to  fall  within  the  province 
of  a  delegate  to  this  Conference,  to  ask  a  question  or  two  about 
it.  Has  Methodism  a  mission  in  Canada?  If  so,  how  can  it  ac- 
complish that  mission?  By  merging  itself  with  other  denomina- 
tions, and  thus  losing  all  that  is  distinctive  of  it?  Has  Memodism 
a  mission  in  Australia?  For  myself,  and  for  the  Church  to  which 
I  have  belonged  from  my  infancy,  I  desire  to  say  that  we  have  a 
mission.  There  is  a  mission  for  Methodism.  It  has  not  yet  ful- 
filled its  evangelistic  mission — certainly  not  in  the  part  of  thS 
country  from  which  I  come.  Revivals  are  still  held  among  us. 
People  are  still  invited  to  turn  to  the  Lord.     Thousands  of  them 


304  THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  LIFE. 

are  still  turning.  From  the  sunny  land  to  the  south  there  have 
come  thousands  who  have  turned  to  God  and  to  Christ.  But  this 
is  not  the  whole  mission  of  Methodism.  Methodism  goes  bej^ond 
simply  the  evangelistic  department  of  its  work.  Our  purpose  is 
to  spread  Scriptural  holiness  over  these  lands.  I  apprehend  that 
that  purpose  will  never  be  fulfilled  so  long  as  there  is  one  who 
needs  to  be  made  holy,  so  long  as  thfere  are  those  who  have  not 
yet  turned  to  the  living  God.  For  our  own  Church,  we  are  still 
holding  on  to  this  evangelism.  We  believe  in  it  with  all  our  hearts. 
It  is  what  brought  our  fathers  out  of  darkness.  It  kindled  the 
light  in  our  own  hearts.  And  we  believe  that  it  is  equal  to 
kindling  that  light  in  the  hearts  of  those  to  whom  we  carry  the 
gospel. 

But  there  is  another  feature,  and  that  is  the  spirit  which  is 
characteristic  of  any  denomination  of  Christians.  The  loss  of  their 
spirit,  if  there  be  anything  distinctive  about  it,  would  be  a  great 
loss  to  Methodists.  The  distinctive  characteristic  of  the  people 
among  whom  I  live  and  work  is  this,  that  we  have  got  clearly 
the  vision  of  the  separation  of  Church  and  State,  that  we  do  not 
infringe  upon  the  province  of  the  State,  that  we  are  not  a  political 
party,  but  a  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  whose  fundamental  purposes 
are  the  conversion  of  sinners  and  the  leading  of  them  ultimately 
into  the  condition  of  saints  in  God,  and  so  we  stand  forth  before  the 
world  with  the  marks  of  early  Methodism  still  unobliterated  from 
our  lives,  and  with  this  continual  purpose  set  in  our  hearts  that 
by  the  blessing  of  God  we  shall  leave  to  Csesar  the  things  that 
belong  to  Caesar,  and  give  to  God  the  things  that  belong  to  God.  And 
we  are  not  ready  to  surrender,  on  the  call  of  any  man,  that  inde- 
pendence, that  spirit,  those  early  marks,  or  the  mission  that  God 
has  given  to  us  to  perform  in  the  world. 

Chancellor  Burwash,  S.  T.  D.,  of  tlie  Metliodist  Church  of 
Canada : 

I  am  afraid  that  many  of  our  brethren  do  not  understand  our 
position  in  reference  to  this  union  question.  The  spirit  of  Meth- 
odism has  been  very  well  described  by  the  last  speaker — evangelism, 
holiness,  and  the  separation  of  Church  and  State.  The  separation 
of  Church  and  State  is  an  understood  thing  in  Canada.  We  have 
no  longer  to  contend  with  that;  and  the  Presbyterians  and  Con- 
gregationalists  are  one  with  the  Methodists  from  the  beginning  in 
respect  to  that.  Evangelism — I  can  remember  fifty  years  ago  when 
the  Presbyterian  looked  askance  upon  our  Methodist  revival  ser- 
vices. But  when  in  response  to  the  calls  from  India  a  little  later 
we  began  to  meet  together  in  our  noon  prayer-meetings,  our  week 
of  prayer,  etc.,  we  found  that  when  we  prayed  together  we  were 
all  of  one  spirit.  Calvinist  and  Arminian  alike  poured  out  their 
hearts  to  God  with  unity  in  the  love  of  Christ.  Presently  a  great 
evangelistic  movement  began  in  the  Fulton  Street  prayer  meetings 
in  New  York,  in  the  Ulster  meetings  in  Ireland,  in  the  Moody  and 
Sankey  meetings  in  America  and  Europe.  And  to-day  evangelism 
is  just  as  much  characteristic  of  Presbyterians  as  of  Methodists. 
We  have  learned  in  Canada  to  unite  in  our  revival  services,  and  the 
most  glorious  revivals  I  have  seen  for  many  years  past  have  been 
those  in  which  we  stood  side  by  side,  Presbyterians  and  Congrega- 
tionalists  and  Methodists,  and  some  times  Church  of  England  peo- 
ple, and  worked  together,  and  saw  the  people  converted  by  scores 
and   hundreds.     We   must   not  think   that  our   brethren   of   other 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  305 

Churches  are  any  less  zealous  or  earnest  than  we.  And  as  for 
holiness  of  heart  and  life,  from  time  immemorial  a  pure  family,  a 
high  ideal  of  right  and  wrong  and  duty,  have  been  characteristic 
of  Presbyterians  and  of  the  old  Puritans,  who  formed  the  basis 
of  Independents  or  Congregational ists  in  the  Old  Country,  just  as 
they  are  the  characteristic  of  Methodism.  If  you  will  look  at  our 
basis  of  union  you  will  find  there  the  doctrine  of  Christian  per- 
fection in  as  clear  and  definite  statements  as  anywhere  else.  We 
are  not  giving  up  the  old  ideas  or  standards,  but  are  finding  that 
our  brethren  of  all  Churches  are  coming  together  with  one  idea 
and  one  standard,  and  we  think  we  can  do  our  work  better  together. 
Competition  is  no  better  in  Church  affairs  than  it  is  in  the  ordi- 
nary business  life.  It  means  that  each  one  is  grasping  for  himself 
instead  of  all  combining  in  one  common  effort  to  build  the  King- 
dom of  Christ  and  make  our  young  country  what  we  desire  it  to 
be,  permeated  by  the  faith  of  I'eligion,  living  under  the  influence 
of  the  highest  conception  of  duty  to  God,  and  not  for  ourselves  but 
each  for  the  other  and  for  the  well-being  of  the  world. 

The  Rev.  Wm.  Flint^  D.  D.,  of  the  South  African  Methodist 
Church : 

I  represent  South  Africa.  I  should  like  to  speak  of  the  address 
of  Mr.  RowELL  from  the  colonial  standpoint.  I  am  afraid  that  many 
of  our  friends  from  the  Old  Country  do  not  understand  the  colonial 
spirit.  I  also  fear  that  many  of  our  friends  from  the  South  have 
forgotten  the  tea  party  in  Boston  harbor.  There  is  in  our  colonies 
a  spirit  which  is  essentially  colonial,  and  in  many  of  its  most  im- 
portant aspects  it  differs  from  the  spirit  of  the  Old  Country,  and 
in  some  respects  from  the  older  parts  of  this  continent  of  North 
America.  Speaking  for  the  young  life  of  these  new  lands,  I  have 
the  privilege  from  time  to  time  in  my  ordinary  vocation,  in  our 
parliament  which  I  look  upon  daily,  of  seeing  men  who  are  sitting 
together  on  the  same  benches,  working  together  in  co-operation, 
seeking  to  promote  the  interests  of  that  youngest  child  in  the 
British  Empire,  who  less  than  ten  years  ago  were  opposing  each 
other  in  arms,  seeking  to  take  each  other's  life.  The  spirit  of 
union  in  Canada  is  much  akin,  I  believe,  to  the  spirit  of  union  in 
Australia  and  South  Africa,  because  it  is  based  upon  conditions 
with  which  our  friends  in  the  older  countries  are  not  altogether 
familiar.  In  our  colonies  we  live  nearer  to  each  other  in  our  social 
life.  We  are  in  closer  relation  in  our  Church  life.  Our  sympathies, 
our  fears,  our  hopes,  are  more  intimately  brought  into  union  and 
communion  in  our  daily  operations  than  in  the  old  land  bejond 
the  sea;  and  we  have  a  generation  growing  up  around  us  who  are 
not  interested  in  your  points  of  division.  We  may  maintain  the 
Methodist  tradition,  but  we  maintain  the  positives  of  it  as  dis- 
tinguished from  its  negative.  I  fear  very  much  that  the  things 
which  prevent  union  in  the  old  countries  is  the  emphasis  upon 
negatives  rather  than  upon  positives.  And  where  we  come  together 
in  an  emphasis  of  positives,  as  we  do  in  the  closer  fellowship  of 
our  colonial  life,  there  rises  up  within  us  a  colonial  spirit  which 
makes  us  realize  that  we  have  a  destiny  of  our  own.  Our  colonies 
are  determined  to  work  out  their  destinies,  politically  and  other- 
wise. We  do  not  wish  to  repeat  again  the  story  with  which  our 
United  States  friends  are  so  familiar.  But  there  are  impulses  in 
our  principles,  and  a  spirit  working  in  our  minds,  which,  if  we 
are  to  be  faithful  to  our  country,  ourselves,  and  our  God,  we  must 
20 


306         THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  LIFE. 

take  in  our  hands  and  work  out  for  ourselves.  But  have  patience 
"With  us,  and  give  us  credit  not  only  for  having  this  colonial  per- 
sonality, but  for  honest  purpose  and  heartiness  of  conviction,  and 
of  loyalty  to  those  from  whom  we  have  sprung,  and  for  a  continued 
desire  to  be  in  the  future  only  one  in  the  common  faith  and  hope 
which  are  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  We  have  union,  but  our 
Primitive  Methodist  friends  in  Australia  and  Canada  have  not  lost 
touch  altogether  with  our  Primitive  friends  beyond  the  sea  because 
that  name  is  no  longer  in  the  title  of  their  Church.  They  are 
still  one  with  their  fathers  and  brethren  across  the  sea.  If  you 
give  to  our  younger  colonies  this  opportunity  of  working  out  the 
destiny  and  the  spirit  which  God  has  put  in  them,  we  are  not  going 
to  separate  from  you.  But  there  is  a  larger  thing  than  Methodism 
in  the  world.  I  know  we  have  differences  between  ourselves  and 
the  Congregationalists  and  Presbyterians  and  Anglicans  and  some 
other  Churches,  but  what  are  the  differences  compared  to  the  points 
in  which  we  are  in  agreement?  Is  there  a  man  here  who  would 
make  any  great  sacrifice  for  the  difference  between  his  Church 
and  the  other  great  evangelical  Churches  of  Christendom?  While 
the  things  we  hold  in  common  we  would  even  die  for  if  need  be. 

The  Tier.  T.  J.  Moppins,  of  the  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal 
Churcli : 

I  am  not  familiar  with  Methodism  in  Canada.  I  know  the 
things  of  my  beloved  Southland.  I  know  the  value  of  co-operation, 
interdenominational  co-operation,  national  co-operation.  I  repre- 
sent the  youngest  daughter  Methodism  in  the  States,  and  the  most 
vigorous.  We  are  Methodists  from  top  to  bottom,  and  yet  we  are 
willing  to  recognize  and  appreciate  the  value  of  co-operation  that 
we  have  had  with  our  ecclesiastical  mother,  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South.  There  are  few  people  beyond  the  borders 
of  our  Southland  who  really  know  and  appreciate  the  efforts  of 
that  great  Church  in  co-operation  with  the  Colored  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  in  maintaining  Christian  schools,  in  developing  Chris- 
tian character  in  the  members  of  my  race  by  their  influence  and 
by  giving  of  their  men  and  women,  the  choicest  members  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  as  teachers  in  our  schools  and  as  missionaries 
to  us,  the  result  of  which  to-day  is  that  one  of  the  Methodist  world- 
leaders.  Bishop  Lambuth,  together  with  one  of  the  scholars  of  my 
Church,  may  possibly  be  on  the  high  seas  on  their  way  to  Africa 
together.  I  believe  that  the  rapid  progress  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Jesus  Christ  among  my  people  in  the  South  would  be  enhanced  if 
we  as  Methodists  north  and  south  would  co-operate  as  one  Church 
under  one  God,  and  use  every  lawful  means  under  Christ  to  elevate 
a  people,  who  after  a  while  will  shake  the  world  with  the  preach- 
ing of  Christ.  I  believe  that  we  should  be  in  the  lead.  Unfortu- 
nately we  are  behind.  The  States  of  the  North  and  South  co-operate 
politically.  We  have  a  national  spirit  that  knows  no  North  or  South 
when  Spain  seeks  to  destroy  a  weak  people  at  our  doors.  And  if  the 
States  in  civic  affairs  can  co-operate  to  strike  down  evils  and  resist 
the  wrong,  how  much  stronger  would  be  the  forces  of  Jesus  Christ  if 
these  two  great  bodies  would  co-operate  in  every  effort  to  lift  higher 
the  standard  of  public  morals  and  come  in  closer  touch  with  the 
common  people  of  my  race,  making  them,  as  they  are  destined  to  be 
under  Christ,  worthy  of  our  splendid  Christian  civilization.  I  be- 
lieve that  Methodism  will  lose  nothing  of  its  energy  in  bringing 
closer   together    its    wonderful    resources.      The    great    masters   of 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  307 

finance  bring  their  wealth  together  for  proteqtion  and  aggregation 
along  other  lines.  We  preach  unity  in  the  pulpit  and  practice  sepa- 
ration in  the  street.  We  say  that  God  is  the  Father  of  us  all.  We 
talk  about  universal  brotherhood.  The  only  way  to  emphasize  this 
is  to  place  the  proper  emphasis  upon  the  Fatherhood  of  God. 

The  Eev.  George  P.  Mains,  J).  D.,  of  tlie  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Cliurch : 

Mr.  President,  when  I  came  to  this  Conference  it  was  with  the 
tacit  purpose  to  be  simply  a  silent  absorber.  But  I  can  hardly  be 
satisfied  without  expressing  my  very  grateful  and  well-nigh  un- 
bounded appreciation  as  a  whole  of  the  papers  read  this  morning. 

Their  discussion  thus  far  has  been  devoted  largely  to  a  single 
phase  of  the  subject  embraced.  And,  however  important  this  phase, 
it  seems  to  me  that  we  ought  to  emphasize  broadly  in  our  thought 
the  educational  and  inspirational  values  of  the  chief  themes  discussed 
in  these  papers.  I  have  never  more  believed  in  the  fact  of  inspired 
prophets  for  our  own  day  than  in  this  very  hour.  The  papers  were 
prophetic  in  their  spirit.  They  carry  in  themselves  a  sufficient  char- 
ter for  the  march  of  Christianity  into  the  future.  They  gather  into 
themselves  a  wise  conservation  of  the  best  lessons  of  the  past,  stand- 
ing at  the  high  tide  line  to  which  history  has  brought  us,  while  at 
the  same  time  they  face  in  a  prophetic  spirit  a  widening  future — 
a  future  which  more  than  any  past  is  to  be  fraught  with  great  ques- 
tions which  must  work  for  the  weal  or  woe  of  our  Western  civiliza- 
tions. I  am  happy  to  believe  that  as  we  may  more  leisurely  study 
these  papers  in  printed  form,  we  shall  come  to  feel  that  if  we  had 
received  no  other  inspiration  to  our  Christian  endeavor  than  that 
furnished  in  these  alone,  we  should  still  have  ample  compensation 
for  all  the  cost,  effort,  and  study  which  the  preparation  of  this  great 
Conference  has  required. 

Unless  I  greatly  mistake,  we  are  to  face  in  the  futui'e  questions 
more  difficult  of  solution  possibly  than  any  which  the  past  has  en- 
countered. We  must  not  live  in  the  past,  nor  be  content  with  the 
methods  of  the  past.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  world  which 
Christianity  faces  to-day  is  a  more  wicked,  a  more  hopeless  world 
than  that  faced  by  St.  Paul  nineteen  centuries  ago;  but  I  do  mean 
to  assert  that  the  Christianity  of  the  present,  with  its  great  history, 
with  its  splendid  organizations,  with  its  well-nigh  unlimited  re- 
sources, ought  more  effectually  to  beleaguer  every  stronghold  of  sin, 
more  triumphantly  to  solve  every  dark  moral  problem  of  the  race, 
than  was  at  all  possible  in  the  days  of  St.  Paul.  But  all  this  will  re- 
quire a  spirit  of  wisdom  and  of  conquest  on  the  part  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  such  as  has  never  been  exceeded  in  any  age. 

Standing  on  the  heights  of  the  world,  we  must  gird  ourselves  for 
great  achievements.  In  the  most  utter  dependence  upon  God,  in 
the  spirit  of  broadest  catholicity  and  of  fullest  consecration,  we  must 
face  the  future  girding  ourselves  for  mightiest  spiritual  conquest. 
To-day  in  the  weltering  humanity  around  us  in  the  great  city,  there 
are  opportunities  ripe  for  rescue,  reformation,  and  transformation 
in  a  sense  never  before  so  true  in  the  Christian  centuries.  I  listened 
with  intense  interest  to  the  grave  arraignment  of  present  Christian 
conditions  by  my  friend,  Governor  Wallace,  of  .California.  There 
is  doubtless  too  much  truth  in  the  dark  picture  which  he  set  before 
us.  But  I  believe  that  in  the  practical  enactment  of  the  spirit  and 
policies  of  the  papers  read  before  us  this  morning  there  would  be 


308  THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  LIFE. 

found  the  effective  sohxtion  of  the  darkest  and  most  sovereign  prob- 
lems now  confronting  the  evangelization  of  the  world. 

The  Eev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church : 

There  have  been  sounded  through  the  discussion  of  this  hour 
two  notes;  one  hopeful,  and  one  almost  of  despair.  The  Church 
has  been  criticized  very  sharply  for  not  meeting  its  responsibilities. 
I  think  we  are  in  danger  of  losing  sight  of  what  has  been  done. 
Less  than  two  hundred  years  ago,  in  1738,  John  Wesley  entered 
upon  his  great  career.  To-day  there  are  thirty  millions  of  people 
in  this  land  that  feel  the  influence  of  the  movement  that  he  in- 
augurated. That  is  no  small  matter.  In  less  than  two  hundred 
years  more  than  thirty  millions  of  people  have  been  reached  by 
this  evangel.  Now,  who  are  we?  Where  did  we  come  from?  Are 
the  Methodists  of  to-day  men  and  women  who  have  come  out  of 
palaces,  out  of  the  wealth  of  the  world?  They  have  come  from 
the  lower  ranks  of  this  world,  very  largely.  Methodism  has  been 
reaching,  through  all  its  history,  the  poorer  people  of  the  world, 
the  laboring  people  of  the  world,  and  we  have  come  out  of  that 
position  in  society.  To  discount  what  the  Church  has  done  seems 
to  me  rather  to  prophesy  failure  for  the  years  that  are  to  come. 
Not  all  has  been  accomplished,  probably,  that  might  have  been 
accomplished;  but  I  undertalve  to  say  that  the  accomplishments  of 
Methodism  are  the  joy  to-day  of  heaven,  very  largely.  Not  only 
are  there  thirty  millions  of  people  under  our  influence  here,  but 
there  are  other  millions  over  there  that  were  brought  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth  through  this  Methodist  evangel  that  has 
gone  forth  into  the  world.  I  believe  in  co-operation.  I  believe  that 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  has  always  been  one.  It  has  never 
been  torn  asunder.  It  is  to-day  just  what  it  has  always  been,  a  unit 
in  Jesus  Cnrist.  Denominationalism  is  one  thing;  unity  in  Jesus 
Christ  is  another  thing.  I  should  deprecate  that  in  the  future  all 
denominations  should  become  one  single  organization.  That  hap- 
pened once,  and  the  dark  ages  followed.  It  was  schism  in  the 
Church  that  liberated  the  cause  of  Christ  and  set  it  going  in  the 
world.  Let  us  seek  for  close  co-operation.  It  is  being  carried 
forward  more  and  more.  There  is  a  Church  Congress  in  the  United 
States  that  meets  once  in  three  years.  At  its  last  session  forty 
denominations  were  represented,  and  they  sat  in  council  for  days 
studying  this  question  of  denominationl  co-operation.  For  the  last 
fifteen  years  the  officers  of  the  various  missionary  boards  of  Can- 
ada and  the  United  States  have  held  sessions  for  the  purpose  of 
considering  this  question  of  co-operation.  We  are  planning  every- 
where and  always  to  co-operate.  On  the  foreign  field  to-day  there 
is  a  co-operation  that  is  simply  wonderful  and  most  inspiring.  In 
a  journey  around  the  world,  visiting  our  missions,  in  the  very 
recent  past,  one  of  the  great  joys  that  came  to  my  soul  was  the 
united  action  on  the  part  of  Christian  missionaries  in  all  the  lands 
of  the  world. 

Councilor    A.    Shaw^   J.  P.,    of   the    Primitive    Methodist 

Church : 

t 

I  want  to  make  one  brief  observation  in  reply  to  something  that 

was  said  by  one  of  my  brothers  from  the  colonies,   I   think  from 

South  Africa.     He  intimated  to  us  that  perhaps  the  British  mind 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  309 

was  unable  to  comprehend  the  colonial  mind.  I  respectfully  suggest 
to  him  that  the  colonial  does  not  understand  the  British  mind. 
Also  I  offer  my  humble  protest  against  that  reference  to  the  tea 
in  Boston  harbor.  I  had  that  rubbed  in  quite  sufficiently  by  a 
cowardly  observation-car  conductor  when  I  wont  to  see  Bunker 
Hill.  I  am  not  ashamed  of  Bunker  Hill.  I  had  no  part  in  it,  or 
else  things  might  have  been  different!  Does  the  colonial  mind  un- 
derstand the  British  mind?  Does  the  colonial  Methodist  know  what 
the  British  Methodist  has  had  to  contend  with  in  all  the  ages? 
Do  they  know  anything  about  an  entrenched,  established  Church? 
About  a  great  powerful  aristocracy  that  has  been  entrenched  in 
the  seats  of  the  mighty  for  the  past  thousand  years?  Have  they 
had  anything  to  do  with  the  indignities  that  have  been  pressed 
home  again  and  again  upon  the  humble  Methodists  of  the  home 
land?  Many  of  our  men  have  been  haled  to  prison,  and  have 
gone  to  prison  gladly  for  preaching  the  gospel.  I  have  myself 
stepped  from  the  magisterial  bench  and  taken  my  stand  beside 
an  ordinary  criminal  in  the  police  court,  as  a  protest  against  wnat 
I  consider  to  be  an  unjust  sectarian  rate.  These  are  the  things 
that  make  Methodism  dear  to  us  in  the  Old  Country.  And  we  are 
not  going  to  part  with  the  distinctive  character  of  our  denomina- 
tion so  easily  as  some  of  you  think  we  may  be  inclined  to.  I  am 
proud  of  the  mission  of  the  Church,  as  a  Primitive  Methodist — of 
the  names  of  Hugh  Bourne  and  "William  Clews.  I  know  something 
of  the  genius  of  that  marvelous  system  which  has  been  the  means 
of  bringing  210,000  souls  into  the  light.  I  associate  myself  with 
the  remarks  of  Sir  Robert.  I  believe  that  the  Free  Church  Councils 
of  England  are  doing  a  great  work  for  the  co-ordination  of  our 
work.  It  is  the  very  soul  of  our  existence  in  the  Old  Country. 
We  believe  in  free  trade.  Why  should  we  not  have  free  trade  in 
religion?  There  is  room  in  the  world  for  the  Methodist  bodies  not 
to  be  unholily  against  each  other.  I  believe  we  can  have  a  holy 
competition,  and  so  do  our  distinctive  work  that  the  Lord  has 
brought  us  into  being  to  do. 

The  Eev.  J.  S.  Ross,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Church  of 
Canada : 

I  have  listened  with  great  attention  to  several  remarks  made 
by  brethren  who  seemed  to  think  that  the  Methodist  Church  of 
Canada,  if  union  takes  place  with  the  Presbyterian  and  Congre- 
gational bodies,  will  be  sacrificing  something  very  vital  to  Meth- 
odism, and  especially  to  Methouist  doctrine.  We  are  interested,  as 
Methodists,  in  regard  to  doctrine.  We  are  not  sacrificing  any  doc- 
trine that  is  vital  to  Methodism,  if  such  a  union  takes  place.  We 
are  reminded  from  time  to  time  of  a  "mechanical  union."  This 
phrase  has  been  brought  in  several  times.  If  a  union  takes  place 
between  these  three  Churches  it  will  not  be  a  "mechanical  union." 
There  may  be  in  some  little  localities,  here  and  there,  conditions 
where  they  would  not  naturally  unite.  But,  taking  the  bodies  of 
the  three  Churches  concerned  as  a  whole,  it  will  be  a  union  of 
heart.  We  have  tested  this  matter  through  many  long  years,  in 
interchange  of  ministers  in  pulpits,  and  in  ministerial  associations; 
and  for  five  years  we  have  come  together,  face  to  face,  and  gone 
over  paragraph  by  paragraph,  the  basis  of  union.  And  when  each 
of  the  bodies  separated  for  a  few  minutes,  each  one  decided  for 
itself  to  accept.  While  some  can  hardly  imagine  how  it  could  be 
possible  to  make  a  basis  of  doctrinal  union  and  preserve  all  the 


310  THE  CHURCH  AND  MODERN  LIFE. 

vital  elements,  say  of  the  Methodist  theology,  I  am  prepared  to 
say  that  it  can  be  done.  If  anyone  is  interested  enough  he  can  go 
back  to  the  lecture  room  and  find  the  nineteen  articles  that  are 
the  basis  of  union;. and  I  will  be  surprised  if  any  good  Methodist 
sees  that  anything  vital  to  Methodist  doctrine  is  left  out.  Uni- 
versal atonement,  repentance,"  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  regeneration, 
the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  are  all  there.  And  we  can  preach  the 
doctrine  of  perfect  love.  It  is  all  there  in  black  and  white  in  the 
basis  of  union.  Regarding  a  practical  question,  we  are  sending  to 
England  now,  and  have  been  for  years,  hunting  up  preachers  by 
the  score.  The  Presbyterian  Church  has  been  doing  the  like.  If 
union  should  take  place,  we  have  the  possibility  of  liberating  scores 
of  men  who  are  contending  against  each  other  in  little  villages. 
There  is  a  great  deal  of  satisfaction  in  federation;  but  when  a 
"Four  Corners"  of  to-day  may  become  a  town  or  city  inside  of 
three  years,  it  is  pretty  hard  for  one  Church  to  say  that  it  will 
pull  out  and  never  exist  as  a  denomination  there. 

Bishop  W.  A.  Candler^  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South: 

I  think  it  improper  that  in  the  discussion  of  questions  that  have 
been  before  us  this  morning,  even  by  implication,  we  should  bring 
pressure  upon  the  discussion  of  local  matters  in  the  different 
countries  from  which  we  come.  I  had  the  honor  of  going  as  a 
fraternal  messenger  to  the  British  Wesleyan  Conference,  and  I  saw 
some  things  that  1  thought  might  be  better,  but  I  found  that  the 
brethren  there  knew  more  about  their  matters  than  I  did.  I  dare 
say  that  the  Canadian  brethren  know  some  things  about  Canada 
that  I  do  not  know,  and  I  hope  that  you  will  agree  that  we  down 
South  know  some  things  that  you  do  not  know.  Yet  I  will  say 
in  reference  to  the  matter  of  unity  and  co-operation,  I  think  very 
often  we  are  praying  for  unity  which  we  already  have.  We  have 
co-operation,  and  a  great  deal  of  it.  I  doubt  whether  in  the  apos- 
tolic age  the  question  of  fusion  ever  entered  their  minds,  and  yet 
they  did  have  Christian  unity.  If  we  love  each  other  well  enough 
to  get  along  in  one  body,  we  don't  need  organic  unity;  and  if  we 
do  n't  love  each  other  well  enough  for  that,  we  would  not  keep  it. 
I  wish  to  recall  the  very  admirable  discussion  of  Sir  George  Smith, 
a  perfect  classic,  which  ought  to  go  to  all  the  young  preachers. 
Problems!  You  talk  about  "questions  of  the  day!"  There  is  but 
one  question,  and  that  is  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  We  have  a 
super-calendered  conscience.  We  talk  of  this  age — of  the  twentieth 
century.  There  have  been  other  centuries!  There  is  not  in  this 
century  any  question  more  difficult  of  solution  than  that  which 
confronted  Paul,  when  without  a  missionary  board  behind  him,  or 
a  sympathetic  Church,  he  went  forth  to  his  work.  Those  ques- 
tions were  solved  by  Christianity.  James  Martineau  said,  "There 
are  some  people  who  are  very  inclined  to  offer  Jesus  Christ  as  a 
chief  of  police."  We  do  not  offer  Him  as  a  police  officer,  but  as 
the  Savior  of  the  world.  When  men  have  accepted  Christ  you  will 
have  solved  every  other  question.  In  my  State  we  are  very  much 
addicted  to  prohibition,  closing  the  saloons.  There  are  more  Meth- 
odists and  fewer  saloons  in  the  Southern  States  than  probably  on 
any  similar  area  on  the  planet.  On  one  occasion  Senator  Colquitt 
and  myself  undertook  to  carry  prohibition  in  a  county  in  Georgia. 
We  did  n't  carry  it.  We  spoke  unanswerably,  but  they  did  not 
vote  with  us.     Later  I  got  a  telegram  one  morning  that  the  county 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  J.  SCOTT  LIDGETT.  311 

had  gone  dry.  I  called  at  the  Governor's  mansion  to  talk  with  him 
about  it  He  asked  why  It  went  dry  when  he  and  I  could  nots 
carry  it  I  said,  "Nothing  has  happened,  except  they  have  had  a 
great  Methodist  revival,  which  has  made  them  all  sober." 

Secretary  Carroll  made  announcements. 

The  printed  journal  of  yesterday's  session  was  accepted  as 
the  journal  of  the  Conference. 

The  session  closed  at  12.30  P.  M.,  with  the  benediction  pro- 
nounced by  the  presiding  officer. 


SECOND  SESSIOX. 
Topic  :    THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  NATION. 

Bishop  E.  E.  Hendrix^  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  presided  at  the  afternoon  session,  Avhich  began 
at  2.30  o'clock. 

The  Eev.  IT.  V.  W.  Darlington"^  D.  D.,  of  the  same  Church, 
read  a  portion  of  the  sixty-fifth  chapter  of  Isaiah,  and  led  in 
prayer,  and  Hymn  27  was  sung, 

"Come,  Thou,  Almighty  King," 

The  British  and  American  national  anthems  were  sung. 

The  President:  "As  you  see  by  the  printed  program,  it 
was  anticipated  that  3^ou  were  to  have  an  address  by  a  memlier 
of  the  British  Government,  but  unfortunately  he  can  not  be 
present.  But  I  am  sure  that  3'ou  will  be  delighted  to  hear  from 
the  Eev.  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  and  I  take  pleasure  in  presenting 
him  to  give  a  paper  on  'International  Eelations  and  Eesponsi- 
bilities :' " 

The  subject  of  International  Relations  and  Responsibilities  must 
needs  occupy  the  most  serious  attention  of  any  great  Christian  con- 
ference in  the  present  day;  above  all,  of  any  conference  that  can 
be  called  ecumenical.  Catholicity,  in  a  twofold  sense,  is  the  indis- 
pensable mark  of  every  Christian  Church.  Its  outlook  can  not  be 
narrower  than  mankind;  the  end  of  its  prayer  and  effort  can  not 
be  less  than  that  "coming  into  a  perfect  man,"  which  embraces,  in 
an  indissoluble  unity,  the  fulfillment  of  each  individual  part  in  and 
through  the  fulfillment  of  the  universal  whole.  The  spiritual  and 
eternal  attainment  of  this  ideal  prescribes  and  inspires  an  untiring 


312         THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  NATION. 

secular  striving  after  its  earthly  realization.  In  this  endeavor  the 
Church  must  be  beforehand  in  considering  the  new  phases  of  Inter- 
national Relations,  concentrating  her  energies  on  furthering  all  that 
can  hasten  and  on  checking  all  that  can  hinder  the  coming  of  the 
glorious  vision  towards  which  her  face  is  set. 

On  many  grounds  it  would  have  been  well  that  this  subject 
should  have  been  presented  to  the  Conference  by  a  Christian  states- 
man, who  could  have  told  us,  out  of  practical  experience  of  public 
affairs,  what  the  Christian  Church  should  do,  and  under  what  con- 
ditions its  endeavors  may  be  most  wisely  and  fruitfully  carried  on. 
This  duty  had  been  assigned  to  the  Right  Hon.  Walter  Runciman, 
M.  P.,  the  British  Minister  of  Education,  who  would  have  fulfilled 
it  with  admirable  lucidity  of  judgment.  Owing  to  his  inability  to 
discharge  this  office,  the  task  has  been  thrown  at  the  last  moment 
upon  one  whose  treatment  of  the  issues  involved  must  be  theoretic 
rather  than  practical;  confined  to  such  a  survey  of  the  obvious  facts 
of  the  situation  as  may  help  the  Conference  to  apprehend  more 
clearly  its  responsibilities  at  a  most  momentous  epoch  of  human 
history. 

The  international  events  of  the  present  year  have  emphasized  the 
importance,  while  they  have  in  some  respects  increased  the  difficulty 
of  the  subject.  Of  foremost  importance  has  been  the  great  proposal 
of  President  Taft  to  enlarge  the  scope  of  international  arbitration 
so  as  to  include  questions  of  honor  and  of  vital  interests  that  have 
hitherto  been  excluded  from  such  reference.  The  response  of  the 
British  Foreign  Secretary,  Sir  Edward  Grey,  to  this  noble  initiative 
brought  the  matter  within  the  range  of  practical  politics.  With 
absolute  unanimity  and  with  profound  thankfulness  to  God  the 
Christian  Churches  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  acclaimed  the  ac- 
tion thus  boldly  taken  by  the  statesmen.  They  have  watched  the 
progress  of  the  negotiations  with  breathless  interest.  Whatever 
difficulties  the  projected  arbitration  treaties  may  have  to  encounter, 
the  Churches  will  be  constrained  by  the  most  solemn  obligations  to 
join  with  all  the  friends  of  peace  in  insuring  such  a  result  as  will 
convince  the  whole  world  that,  where  sufficient  good-will  exists,  it 
is  possible  to  banish  once  and  forever  not  only  the  terrible  fact  but 
also  the  hideous  menace  of  war. 

The  enthusiastic  hopes  that  were  raised  by  this  magnificent 
initiative  have  since  been  tempered  by  the  international  complica- 
tions in  regard  to  Morocco  and  by  the  critical  negotiations  that  arose 
out  of  them.  The  raising  of  this  issue  has  already  precipitated  war 
between  Italy  and  Turkey  on  account  of  Tripoli.  It  is  clear  that 
the  reconciliation  of  the  conflicting  aims  and  interests  of  the  great 
European  powers  will  only  be  effected  by  arrangements  which  will 
illustrate  afresh  how  entirely  tlie  weaker  peoples  and  the  backward 
races  are  at  the  mercy  of  the  ambitions,  enterprise,  and  convenience 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  J.  SCOTT  LIDGETT.  313 

of  the  leading  empires  of  the  world.  Finallj-^  the  renewal  of  the 
Anglo-Japanese  alliance  puts  the  seal  of  permanence  upon  the  recog- 
nition that  the  East  has  come  into  new  relations  with  the  West, 
and  that  a  place  in  the  comity  of  nations  may  be  successfully 
claimed  by  all  peoples  that  combine  against  might  with  acceptance 
of  the  recognized  standards  of  Western  civilization.  This  succession 
of  events  brings  vividly  before  us  all  the  possibilities,  good  and 
evil,  of  the  system  of  international  relations  that  is  now  coming 
into  being. 

It  is  necessary  at  the  outset  briefly  to  survey  the  development 
of  international  relations,  Vv'hich  sets  to  us  our  problem  and  our 
task.  International  relations,  as  the  modern  world  has  known  them, 
have  until  recently  only  existed,  in  any  strict  sense,  within  the 
limits  of  Christendom.  The  sphere  of  these  relations  was  until  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  by  the  United  States  defined  by  the 
Roman  Empire  with  its  Pax  Romana.  Yet,  while  the  empire  cre- 
ated an  international  structure,  it  was  the  negation  of  international 
relations;  for  while  it  left  peoples,  it  destroyed  nations;  while  it 
respected  usages,  it  set  its  face  against  patriotism.  Eventually  its 
universal  citizenship  was  a  prize  to  be  gained  only  by  the  sacrifice 
of  more  particular  and  more  vital  loyalties.  With  the  fall  of  Im- 
perial Rome  the  Church  at  once  entered  upon  its  inheritance  and 
confronted  the  insurgent  races,  out  of  which  our  modern  nationali- 
ties have  grown.  Its  ideal  of  a  universal  order,  based  on  spiritual 
principles  and  made  effective  by  ecclesiastical  authority,  was  limited 
by  the  rising  patriotism  which  involved  the  breaking-up  of  the  sys- 
tem of  relations.  Such  comity  as  could  exist  under  the  new  coali- 
tions was  the  result,  in  part,  of  common  dread  for  authority,  which, 
despite  all  its  shortcoming  and  excesses,  yet  stood  for  a  spiritual 
universalism,  in  part  of  the  gradual  dawn  of  a  Christian  conscience, 
and  in  part  of  the  slow  growth  of  a  body  of  common  interests,  which 
united  allied  sections  from  time  to  time,  and  on  occasions  Christen- 
dom as  a  whole.  The  break-up  of  the  mediaeval  system  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  great  wars  of  religion,  liberty,  and  imperial  expansion, 
which  succeeded  one  another  up  to  the  downfall  of  Napoleon.  Since 
then  complex  movements  of  nationalism,  imperialism,  federation, 
and  alliance  have  checked  and  counterchecked  one  another.  In  this 
way  particular  patriotism  has  been  at  once  intensified  and  from 
time  to  time  transcended.  The  fuller  realization  ot  national  life  has 
necessitated  the  development  of  more  intimate  international  rela- 
tions. National  integrity  and  the  realization  of  national  aims  has 
been  safeguarded  by  the  conclusion  of  international  alliances.  Such 
alliances,  in  their  turn,  have  created  the  need  for  yet  wider  agree- 
ments. The  upshot  of  it  all  is  that  just  as  the  conflicting  claims  of 
the  individual  and  of  the  society  have  to  be  harmonized  in  the  use- 
fully developed  life  of  the  community,  so  the  rightful  claims  of  pa- 


314  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  NATION. 

triotism  have  yet  to  be  adjusted  to  and  satisfied  within  the  wider 
commonwealth  of  mankind. 

This  ultimate  problem  has,  moreover,  to  be  tried  under  novel 
and  as  yet  incalculable  conditions.  The  world  of  the  old  interna- 
tional relations  is  passing  away.  The  international  relations  of  the 
future  will  concern  mankind  as  a  whole  and  deal  with  every  in- 
terest of  man's  practical  activity.  The  time  will  soon  arrive  when 
the  whole  earth  will  have  been,  in  succession,  discovered,  fought 
for,  colonized,  and  exploited.  Traveler,  missionary,  soldier,  and 
trader  have  all  played  their  part.  The  advance  of  science  has  both 
guaranteed  the  permanence  of  their  achievements  and  is  now  sup- 
plying the  means  of  turning  them  to  account  on  a  scale  undreamed 
of  hitherto.  New  desires  have  been  awakened ;  new  powers  of  satis- 
fying them  have  been  discovered.  The  contact  of  the  more  pro- 
gressive races  with  the  more  backward,  still  more  the  pressure  ex- 
erted through  such  contact  has  stirred  hitherto  stationary  races 
with  new  aspirations  after  a  progress,  which  carries  as  its  imme- 
diate consequence  an  entrance  upon  the  stage  of  international  re- 
lations. Hence  new  aptitudes  and  new  devices  go  hard  indeed;  new 
desires  create  new  ties,  and  as  the  result  of  manifold  interests  and 
influences  the  discovered  world  becomes  the  home  and  the  instru- 
ment of  what  I  just  called  the  commonwealth  of  mankind. 

This  state  of  things  contains  immense  probabilities  and  equally 
immense  dangers.  On  the  one  hand,  it  brings  out  far-reaching 
agreements  and  makes  them  the  starting-point  of  a  common  civili- 
zation. It  creates  a  new  interest  in  peace  and  a  new  demand  for 
international  law.  On  the  other  hand,  the  new  proximity  replaces 
the  old  antipathies  of  strangeness  by  the  new  incompatibilities  of 
national  temperament  and  of  commercial  rivalry.  The  entire  world 
is  so  intimately  bound  together  that  a  new  movement  in  any  part 
disturbs  the  balance  of  the  whole.  The  pressure  of  race-expansion 
and  of  commercial  competition  invalidate  old  agreements  and  make 
it  difficult  to  effect  new  ones.  Economic  forces  exert  ceaseless  pres- 
sure upon  governments,  and  a  quickly  aroused  mass-feeling  is  be- 
hind them.  The  uneasiness  that  results  from  all  this  is  a  peculiar 
peril  to  the  weak,  for  the  irreconcilable  interests  of  formidable 
rivals  too  often  find  at  best  temporary  adjustment  by  the  sacrifice 
of  those  who  are  not  strong  enough  to  defend  themselves. 

The  cruder  warfare  of  the  past  has  given  place  to  the  vaster, 
more  intangible,  but  not  less  carnal  array  of  hostile  forces  in  diplo- 
matic encounter,  backed  by  the  ultimate  sanction  of  military  power. 
The  collisions  of  the  past  were  between  foreigners;  now  that  man- 
kind has  become  one  again,  the  foes,  actual  or  potential,  of  the  pres- 
ent age  will  be  of  the  same  household. 

It  becomes  clear  from  all  this  that  what  is  wanted  is  so  to 
complete  the  international  system  that  a  univei'sal  law  may  eventu- 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  J.  SCOTT  LIDGETT.  315 

ally  banish  war  between  nations  as  civil  law  has  banished  private 
feuds  within  civilized  communities.  Two  supreme  blessings  are 
needed:  a  universal  peace  and  a  co-operative  civilization.  The  for- 
mer is  the  ambition  of  the  latter;  the  growing  desire  of  the  latter 
will  be  the  most  effective  means  of  securing  the  former.  As  these 
two  are  one  supreme  need,  so  they  are  fast  becoming  our  most  com- 
manding ideals.  Many  influences  must  conspire  to  bring  about  both 
the  one  and  the  other.  But  of  them  all  the  lead  should  be  taken  by 
the  Christian  Churches  by  means  of  a  supreme  realization  of  Christ's 
religion,  and  of  its  commanding  relations  to  civilization  and  prog- 
ress as  a  whole. 

To  declare  such  a  program  is  to  stand  committed  to  a  vast  project 
of  which  no  man  can  predict  the  immediate  prospects  or  the  precise 
means  by  which  it  will  be  carried  out.  The  obstacles  are  most  for- 
midable. Such  obvious  difficulties  as  the  constitution  of  the  organ- 
ized means  of  securing  universal  peace,  and  negatively  the  overcom- 
ing of  passion,  of  pessimism,  of  unscrupulous  ambition  and  greed 
are  easily  stated.  Human  nature  must  be  transformed  and  its  pres- 
ent limitations  ti'anscended  before  man  replaces  warfare,  in  all  its 
forms,  by  peaceful  co-operation.  Governments  may  make  great  con- 
tributions to  the  cause  of  peace,  yet  the  endeavors  of  governments 
are  limited  and  molded  by  a  multiplicity  of  forces  they  can  not 
control. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  surest  means  of  checking,  and  eventually 
eliminating,  the  warlike  instincts  of  mankind  may  be  found  in  so 
moralizing  commercial  and  economic  relations  that  the  abatement 
or  unregiilated  desires  in  that  sphere  may  remove  some  of  the 
gravest  dangers  that  confront  diplomacy  in  its  endeavors.  More- 
over, just  as  we  have  to  learn  the  secret  of  harmonizing  the  inter- 
ests of  the  family  with  those  of  the  community,  so  we  have  to  learn 
to  preserve  the  special  virtues  of  patriotism  and  to  combine  them 
with  the  wider  humanity.  Yet,  while  the  task  seems  infinite,  and 
may  conceivably  never  be  completely  discharged  under  earthly  con- 
ditions, the  cause  of  religion  and  of  civilization  in  conjunction  stands 
or  falls  with  its  unwavering  and  fearless  prosecution. 

What  contribution,  then,  can  the  Christian  Churches  make  to- 
wards this  triumph  of  peaceful  and  co-operative  civilization?  In 
the  first  place,  they  must  take  the  greatest  care  to  develop  their  own 
catholicity.  They  must  knit  together  bonds  of  fellowship  between 
fellow-Christians  of  ev^ery  denomination  and  every  race.  By  this 
means  they  must  proceed  to  constitute  a  league  of  peace  and  good- 
will, the  full  force  of  which  will  be  instantly  called  into  action 
when  warlike  passions  burst  forth.  They  must  be  as  instant  in  en- 
forcing the  obligation  of  the  Christian  graces,  as  against  the  pagan 
virtues,  in  the  realm  of  international  relations  as  in  that  of  private 
conduct.     Their  whole  influence  must  be  given  to  substitute  in  the 


316  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  NATION. 

public  sphere  the  standards  of  right  for  that  of  might.  They  must 
confront  all  selfish  interests  with  the  principles  of  humanity,  must 
uphold  the  honor  of  international  comradeship  against  the  barbar- 
ous ideals  of  the  martial  pride.  They  must  ally  themselves  with  the 
industrial  classes,  who  are  everywhere  asserting  the  supreme  inter- 
est and  obligation  of  peace.  They  must  keep  a  ceaseless  watch  over 
the  rights  of  the  weak  and  the  oppressed.  They  must  realize,  as 
never  before,  that  only  through  such  endeavor  can  the  spiritual  tem- 
per for  which  Christ  stands  be  produced  and  perfected  here  below. 
They  must  set  themselves  to  obtain  the  substitution  of  the  ideals 
and  achievements  of  peace  for  those  of  war  in  the  education  of  the 
young. 

If  the  Churches  would  but  fulfill  this  great  mission  they  would 
become  the  standpoint  and  inspiration  of  the  new  civilization;  they 
would  reassert  their  hold  upon  the  peoples,  and  would  be  an  in- 
valuable support  to  rulers  and  statesmen;  seeking,  often  amid  ex- 
treme difficulties,  to  preserve  the  peace  of  the  world,  or  to  secure 
for  it  ampler  guarantees.  Such  practical  services  the  Churches 
should  render  in  the  direct  fulfillment  of  their  responsibilities  in 
regard  to  international  relations. 

Yet,  if  their  religion  be  enlarged  by  such  ideals  and  fulfilled  in 
such  Service,  the  Churches  will  transcend  their  immediate  inter- 
national influence  by  one  yet  more  powerful,  though  indirect.  The 
realization  and  propagation  of  evangelical  religion,  undaunted  in  all 
"the  length  and  breadth  and  heighth  and  depth"  of  its  true  mean- 
ing, will  of  necessity  supply  the  most  powerful  inspiration  to  inter- 
national good-will.  Christianity  stands  for  ideas  that  contain  within 
them  world-embracing  and  world-transforming  ideals;  for  ideals 
which  faith  translates  into  an  enthusiasm  of  humanity.  The  "one 
God  the  Father,  who  is  above  all,  and  through  all,  and  in  all;"  the 
"one  new  man"  to  be  revealed  and  realized  in  and  through  the  Son 
of  man  enthroned  in  the  heavenly  places;  the  Kingdom  ever  mani- 
festing itself  among  men  according  to  the  law  of  Fatherly  and  re- 
demptive love;  "as  in  heaven,  so  in  earth," — what  are  all  these  but 
the  spiritual  realities,  which,  as  they  become  real  to  man's  faith, 
must  needs  transform  both  his  individual  and  his  collective  life? 
The  international  needs  of  the  age  can  only  be  met  and  its  possi- 
bilities be  fulfilled,  so  we  are  asked  to  convey  this  faith  to  mankind. 
The  world-religion  of  Christ  is  the  indispensable  stay,  as  it  is  also 
the  creative  energy,  of  a  world-civilization. 

Does  any  one  ask  that  all  this  may  be  founded  not  on  reasoning, 
but  on  the  authority  of  prophets  and  apostles?  Let  such  a  one 
study  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  in  all  its  implications,  re- 
membering that  that  Epistle  is  the  last  and  greatest  word  of  an 
intense  patriot,  who  yet  touched  the  whole  world  of  his  time  through 
the  Roman  civilization  that,  in  some  degree,  anticipated  our  present 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  WM.  F.  CONNER.  317 

world-contact,  and  through,  his  contact  with  it  came  to  realize 
Christ's  purpose  and  power  for  the  whole.  Or  let  him  turn  back  to 
the  great  prediction  of  Isaiah,  who  sees  that  the  true  religion  will 
become  universal,  and  that  thereby  it  will  disarm  the  most  deeply 
rooted  antagonisms,  tame  the  most  warlike  spirit,  and  drive  out 
all  exclusiveness  before  a  human  brotherliness  that  rests  upon  a 
Divine  Sonship. 

"In  that  day  shall  there  be  a  highway  out  of  Egypt  to  Assyria, 
and  the  Assyrian  shall  come  into  Egypt  and  the  Egyptian  into  As- 
syria: and  the  Egj'ptians  shall  worship  with  the  Assyrians.  In  that 
day  shall  Israel  be  the  third  with  Egypt  and  with  Assyria,  a  bless- 
ing in  the  midst  of  the  earth;  for  that  the  Lord  of  Hosts  blessed 
them,  saying.  Blessed  be  Egypt  My  people,  and  Assyria  the  work  of 
My  hands,  and  Israel  Mine  inheritance." 

The  President:  "The  first  invited  address  is  on  'The 
Churcli  and  Civic  Eighteousness/  by  the  Eev.  AVisr.  F.  Conner, 
D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church :'" 

In  my  endeavor  to  preserve  coherence  and  unitj'  of  spirit  and 
purpose  during  this  session,  I  am  compelled  to  enlarge  the  sphere 
of  this  subject. 

The  word  civic  has  quite  an  elastic,  if  not  elusive,  meaning. 

In  recent  literature  it  is  used  principally  in  relation  to  city  life, 
civic  commissions,  civic  clubs,  civic  reforms,  having  to  do  with 
the  corporate  city  and  its  welfare. 

But  the  general  theme  for  the  hour  is  "The  Church  and  the 
Nation,"  and  the  essay  preceding,  "International  Relations  and  Re- 
sponsibilities," with  the  address  to  follow,  "The  Church  and  the 
World's  Peace,"  do  surely  suggest  world  problems,  globe-circling 
questions.     They  bid  us  work  and  wait  and  hope, 

"Till   the   war   drum   throbbed   no   longer, 

And  the  battle-flags  were  furled. 
In  the  parliament  of  man. 

The  Federation  of  the  World." 

Between  these  themes  of  so  vast  import  I  am  called  to  consider 
the  more  immediate  task,  the  next-door  duty.  Probably  the  purpose 
is  to  rest  your  too  strained  attention,  to  relieve  the  over-tenseness 
of   your  thought. 

I  would  first  define  that  I  may  be  definite  for  the  purposes  of 
this  discussion: 

The  Church  is  the  organized  body  of  those  who  accept  Jesus 
Christ  as  Lord  and  Master. 

Righteousness  is  conformity  to  the  highest  rule  of  right  conduct 
the  wisdom  of  the  age  approves. 


318  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  NATION. 

Civic  righteousness  is  conformity  of  the  laws  and  administration 
of  them  in  city,  state  and  nation.  To  this  rule  of  righteousness  I 
recall  Frederick  W.  Robertson's  classic  definition  of  the  Church, 
in  which  he  eliminated  the  idea  of  organization  and  instead  de- 
scribes a  "Church  which  has  passed  through  the  centuries  absorbing 
silently  into  itself  all  that  the  world  ever  had  of  great  and  good 
and  noble." 

Very  beautiful  thought,  and  very  true  as  defining  an  invisible 
body,  as  seeing  things  unseen. 

We  are,  however,  concerned  with  the  visible  body,  the  organized 
Church.  It  may  not  be  so  ideally  perfect  a  body;  its  flaws  and 
failings  may  be  quite  evident,  but  it  is  with  this  body  visible  we  now 
have  to  do. 

Now  what  is  the  duty  of  this  Church,  as  defined,  in  bringing  to 
pass  and  maintaining  this  civic  righteousness? 

It  were  but  a  truism  to  say  the  Church  must  stand  for  right 
conduct.  Matthew  Arnold's  saying,  that  "conduct  is  three-fourths 
of  life,"  is  false  to  the  amount  of  a  fraction  one-fourth. 

When  it  is  the  individual's  righteousness  that  is  urged,  that  per- 
sonal relation  between  man  and  man,  the  truth,  honesty,  justice, 
kindness,  of  each  to  each,  then  we  are  dealing  with  a  plain,  prac- 
tical question  and  know  what  we  are  talking  about,  and  are  under- 
stood, if  not  obeyed,  by  those  who  hear  us. 

And  so  the  Church,  through  its  pulpit,  its  literature,  its  Sunday 
schools,  all  its  agencies,  backed  by  the  plain  teaching  of  Jesus 
Himself,  declares  to  the  one  man,  keep  the  commandments,  deal 
justly,  love  mercy,  love  right,  be  good.  More,  the  Christian  gospel 
brings  a  new  motive  and  a  new  help  to  the  leading  of  this  life  of 
righteousness. 

But  mark  you  well,  it  is  primarily  and  purely  individualistic. 

No  wrested  scripture,  nor  twisted  logic,  nor  turgid  rhetoric  can 
change  that  fact.  Jesus  began  to  get  men  to  live  the  new  life  with 
the  personal  appeal,  Matthew,  Andrew,  Zaccheus,  man  by  man. 

Now  the  problem  is  this:  Is  it  possible  to  align  these  indi- 
viduals who  have  conformed  their  own  lives  to  the  rule  of  right- 
eousness, the  Church  that  represents  these  individuals  in  an  organ- 
ized capacity,  in  favor  of  righteous  laws  and  righteous  administra- 
tions? 

What  is  the  function  of  the  Church  in  making  a  city,  a  state, 
a  nation  attain  and  maintain  this  civic  righteousness? 

First,  righteousness  in  administration  of  affairs  of  government, 
both  in  interpretation  of  the  courts  and  in  execution. 

To  secure  this  righteousness  is  a  question  of  the  personal  char- 
acter of  the  oflBcials.  These  must  be  more  than  good  men,  more 
than  exemplary  citizens,  more  than  exemplary  church  men,  or  even 
exemplary  Christians.    Jethro  described  them  as  "able  men,  such  as 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  WM.  F.  CONNER.  319 

fear  God;  men  of  truth,  hating  covetousness."  Not  even  truthful, 
unselfish,  religious  men  can  be  righteous  administrators  unless 
they  be  "able  men,"  talented  and  educated. 

Assuming,  for  the  moment,  the  righteousness  of  our  modern 
economic  system,  I  believe  we  have  in  the  main  good  laws. 
Whether  it  be  under  Great  Britain's  limited  monarchy  or  the  de- 
mocracy of  the  United  States,  the  laws  make  for  the  people's  rights 
and  protection.  True,  we  may  note  some  notable  exception,  but 
the  spirit  and  purpose  of  our  legislative  bodies  is  toward  conserv- 
ing the  interest  of  the  citizen  and  the  curbing  of  the  power  of  great 
corporate  interests  atid  keeping  them  from  infringing  upon  the 
individual's  rights  and  opportunities. 

And  more,  there  is  without  any  question  a  marvelous  awakening 
among  those  in  office,  not  only  for  the  enactment  of  new  laws,  but 
more,  for  the  enforcement  of  laws  already  on  the  books,  but  dead 
letters. 

And  the  Church's  part  in  this?  Well,  as  an  organization,  not 
very  great.  The  Church  has  spent  more  of  its  energy  collecting 
money  for  tottering,  near-to-bankrupt  colleges,  for  missions  in  India 
and  Brazil,  for  ecumenical  conferences  and  forward  movements 
which,  alas,  too  often  arrive  nowhere.  Yet  I  would  give  full  credit 
to  the  Christian  pulpit  for  setting  forth  those  high  ideals  for  the 
individual's  life  which  have  done  much  to  make  possible  the  higher 
national  morality. 

But  second,  righteousness  in  laws;  and  this  drives  me  back  to 
the  concession  a  moment  ago  that  the  economic  system  of  Christen- 
dom was  righteous.  That  what  we  need  are  only  some  special 
adjustments  and  corrections  in  legislation,  and  then  secure  right- 
eous administration.     Is  that  concession  justifiable? 

In  plain  terms,  is  the  capitalistic,  competitive,  industrial  system 
of  to-day  a  possible  righteous  system?  I  recognize  that  to-morrow's 
session  is  to  consider  this  problem  specifically.  But  in  a  general 
way  it  thrusts  itself  into  all  discussions.  Some  among  us  believe 
there  will  never  be  a  permanent  world  peace  so  long  as  there  is  an 
industrial  world  v.'ar,  that  battleships  will  be  built  so  long  as  civil- 
ization keeps  to  competitive  trade;  that  the  whole  spirit  of  our 
commercial  system  is  war,  war  to  the  knife  and  the  knife  to  the 
hilt. 

Now,  I  can  agree  that  the  competitive  system  is  nature's  rule. 
It  is  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  not  always  the  strongest,  hut  the 
most  crafty.  Carlyle  is  right,  the  king  is  the  man  who  can— the 
canning  man  and  the  cunning  man.     For  why?     Because 

"The  good  old  rule 
Sufficeth   them,   the  simple   plan. 
That  they  should  take  who  have  the  power, 
And  they  should  keep  who  can." 


320         THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  NATION. 

"I  had  not  known  sin  but  for  the  law,"  It  is  not  sin  to  be  nat- 
ural until  we  know  a  higher  law.  The  theory  and  practice  of  com- 
petition are  good  for  the  active,  the  vigilant,  the  brave;  but  alas, 
alack!  it  is  a  poor  one  for  the  slow,  the  dull,  the  timid.  They  go 
to  the  wall,  but  they  too  are  God's  sons  and  daughters  and  are  in 
the  majority. 

Oh,  but  we  say,  "That  is  nature's  way.  You  can't  fight  against 
nature.  Brains,  pluck,  industry,  must  have  their  reward.  You 
can't  by  any  human  device  escape  the  law.  The  fittest  survive." 
Spencer  says,  'Tne  superior  shall  have  the  good  of  his  superiority 
and  the  inferior  the  evil.'  "  But  is  it  always  to  be  a  law  among 
men  made  in  the  image  of  God  because  it  is  a  law  of  that  lower 
world  of  nature,  "red  in  tooth  and  claw?"  Are  men  always  to  fight 
to  live  because  they  did  so  as  brutes?  Sin,  most  of  us  believe,  is 
man's  failure  when  he  strives  to  conquer  and  rise  above  his  animal 
and  natural  instincts.  It  is  "missing  the  mark"  when  he  aims 
at  a  better  kind  of  conduct  than  the  ferocity  of  the  tiger,  the  cun- 
ning of  the  fox,  the  selfishness  of  the  wolf,  or  the  deceit  of  the  ape. 

Sin,  in  a  word,  is  our  personal  failure 'to  conquer  the  brute  in 
us  after  we  have  come  to  know  it  ought  to  be  conquered;  and 
righteousness  is  our  success  in  conquering  the  brute  after  we  know 
it  ought  to  be  conquered.  Yet,  forsooth,  that  which  in  the  person 
is  sin  becomes  righteousness  and  virtue  when  sanctified  by  our 
system  of  economics.  The  very  ferocity,  cunning,  craftiness,  self- 
ishness, deceit,  which  are  sin  in  the  person,  are  the  sure  and  only 
way  to  that  survival  and  large  success  in  the  business  world  which 
we  strive  for  and  commend,  and  are  the  making  of  our  modern 
captains  of  industry  and  kings  of  finance. 

If  our  economic  system  is  wrong;  if  it  is  natural  instead  of 
Christlike;  if  it  does  little  to  repair  nature's  inequalities;  if  it  is 
all  in  favor  of  the  strong  and  brainy,  and  against  the  weak  and 
dull;  if  it  stands  in  defiant  opposition  or  scornful  contempt  of  the 
Golden  Rule,  then  we  ought  to  begin  to  right  the  wrong. 

For  generations  we  have  said,  the  Christian  Church  has  been 
saying,  "Get  men's  hearts  right  and  you  will  cure  every  ill  in  the 
state."  We  have  said,  "The  state  is  but  the  individual's  larger  self; 
get  the  individual  man  to  obey  the  Golden  Rule,  and  then  business 
and  national  life  will  adjust  themselves  to  it." 

It  is  time  we  examined  these  claims  to  see  if  they  contain  all 
of  the  truth.  They  come  trippingly  from  our  tongue  and  sound 
well.  But  it  is  time  we  began  to  inquire  whether  it  is  not  possible 
— and  if  possible,  then  our  duty — to  begin  an  adjustment  of  the  eco- 
nomic and  national  system,  so  as  to  make  a  better  environment  for 
these  regenerate  men.  No  wonder  so  many  go  back  to  the  beggarly 
elements  of  the  world. 


ESSAY  OF  ALD.  T.  SNAPE.  321 

The  state  ought  to  be  a  good  example  instead  of  a  bad  one  to 
the  individual.     I  submit  that  it  is  not  a  good  example  now. 

I  ask  in  anxiety  and  fear  whether  it  be  not  true  that  this  great 
trade  system  of  our  Christian  civilization  has  been  a  constant 
menace  and  hurt  to  the  personal  Christian  life?  Whether  the  ine- 
qualities which  the  system  fosters,  the  great  poverty  which  it 
permits  and  promotes,  the  great  wealth  which  it  makes  possible, 
the  constant  and  growing  contest  between  employer  and  employee 
— "chronic  war?"  Whether  such  a  system  does  not  stand  opposed 
to  the  law  of  Christ  and  whether  our  business  may  not  be  to  be 
looking  toward  the  correction  of  the  system  through  evolution,  lest 
it  be  revolution;  so  that  we  may  be  the  better  and  more  surely 
serve  the  man  and  help  to  such  environment  that  he  can — 

"Arise   and   fly 

The  reeling  faun,  the  sensual  feast. 

Move  upward,  working  out  the  beast. 

And  let  the  ape  and  tiger  die." 

The  President  next  introduced  Ald.  T.  Sn.vpe,  J.  P.,  of 
the  "United  Methodist  Cliurcli,  wlio  gave  tlie  second  invited  ad- 
dress, on  "The  Church  and  the  World's  Peace:" 

The  subject  of  International  Peace  has  been  before  each  of  the 
preceding  conferences.  Each  has  revealed  remarkable  progress  in 
the  expressions  and  appreciation  of  the  importance  of  the  question. 
But  even  yet  the  Church  seems  scarcely  alive  to  the  fact  that 
Christ's  mission  is  to  bring  peace  on  earth  and  good  will  fo  men. 
On  the  contrary,  even  the  military  spirit  in  some  cases  is  being 
associated  with  Church  efforts  in  the  military  training  of  boys  as 
cadets  and  members  of  boys'  brigades.  The  idea  is  still  proclaimed 
that  war  is  a  necessity.  It  is  called  a  necessary  evil,  and  part  of 
the  Church  does  not  seem  to  realize  the  glaring  inconsistency  of 
admitting  that  any  evil  can  be  necessary  and  that  all  evils  ought 
in  the  strength  of  the  Almighty  to  be  destroyed. 

Unless  the  Church  does  take  the  matter  seriously  in  hand  she 
will  speedily  be  left  behind  in  the  effect  that  is  being  produced 
upon  the  public  mind.  Already  our  statesmen  are  considering  the 
question  of  international  peace  far  more  earnestly  and  practically 
than  until  recently  has  ever  been  known.  The  working  classes  are 
more  and  more  determined  and  are  energetically  assisted  in  their 
determination  by  Socialism,  that  they  will  no  longer  be  parties  to 
battle  against  other  nations  between  whose  peoples  no  difficulties 
and  no  enmities  ought  to  exist. 

It  has  been  stated  that  the  one  man  who  has  given  more  munifi- 
cently of  money  and  time  than  any  other  person  towards  the  pro- 

21 


333  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  NATION. 

clamation  of  international  peace  can  scarcely  be  persuaded  to  enter 
into  an  ordinary  place  of  Christian  worship.  The  Church  has  not 
been  too  strenuous  in  its  duty.  The  utilitarian  system  of  ethics  is 
gaining  in  power  and  the  Church  is  proportionately  losing  ground. 
The  objection  which  has  been  urged  by  so  many  good  Christian 
men  against  the  introduction  of  politics  into  religious  considera- 
tions shows  how  little  they  appreciate  the  intention  of  Christianity. 
Everyone  knows  that  theoi'etical  science,  if  it  is  not  accompanied 
by  its  application  in  practical  use,  is  of  little  or  no  service,  and  it 
ought  long  ago  to  have  been  suggested  forcibly  to  each  section  of 
the  Church  that  applied  Christianity,  like  applied  science,  must  be 
more  and  more  kept  in  view  as  a  part  of  the  active  work  of  the 
Church  at  large.  How,  for  example,  can  we  be  said  to  apply  our 
Christianity  to  this  subject  whilst  we  maintain  in  our  various 
nations  the  enormous  armaments,  the  wasteful  and  wicked  expendi- 
ture of  toil  and  money  which  they  involve?  Hundreds  of  millions 
of  treasure  are  expended,  millions  of  lives  are  in  danger,  whilst  this 
system  continues. 

"We  read  the  prophecy  which  tells  us  that  the  weapons  of  war 
are  to  be  converted  into  the  implements  of  peace.  But  some  Chris- 
tians give  the  quotation  as  though  it  ended  "Nations  shall  make 
war  no  more."  The  words  of  the  Old  Book  are,  that  "Neither  shall 
the  nations  learn  war  no  more."  If  Christians  are  to  learn  war  no 
more,  then  the  manufacture  of  armaments  should  be  pi'oportion- 
ately  diminished,  the  training  of  boys  in  military  exercises  should 
cease.  Their  continuance  is  a  distinct  hindrance  to  the  fulfillment 
of  this  prophecy,  for  we  are  teaching  and  preparing  the  nations 
for  the  practice  of  war  that  we  profess  to  denounce,  and  whilst  the 
Church  continues  in  its  present  state  of  comparative  apathy  it 
simply  gives  occasion  to  the  scoffers  to  ridicule  and  the  enemy  to 
blaspheme,  and  affords  the  unbeliever  ground  for  denial  that  "God- 
liness has  promise  for  the  life  that  now  is." 

Fortunately  the  subject  of  peace  is  becoming  not  only  popular 
but  fashionable.  King  Edward  the  Peacemaker  fostered  every  influ- 
ence that  tended  to  peaceful  relations  with  other  governments.  He 
literally  fulfilled  the  promise  that  kings  should  become  the  "nurs- 
ing fathers"  of  peace.  The  proposition  of  President  Taft  that  a 
treaty  be  entered  upon  betwixt  the  American  Government  and  that 
of  Great  Britain  for  the  arbitration  of  great  questions  without 
reserve,  is  one  of  the  most  courageous  and  magnificent  that  any 
statesman  has  ever  made  in  the  history  of  our  world.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  as  this  proposition  has  been  welcomed  by  the  British 
Government  it  will  be  ratified  by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 

A  similar  but  more  restricted  treaty  that  my  friends,  the  late 
Sir  Randall  Cremer  and  an  appointed  delegate  to  this  conference. 
Dr.  John  Wilson,  M.  P.,  of  Durham,  whose  absence  we  regret,  with 


REMARKS  OF  MR.  JOHNSON.  323 

the  aid  of  the  then  British  Ambassador,  Sir  Julian,  afterwards  Lord, 
Pauncefote,  proposed,  was  laid  before  President  Cleveland.  Though 
it  was  supported  by  President  Cleveland  and  approved  by  the  House 
of  Representatives,  it  failed  by  three  votes  in  securing  adoption  by 
the  Senate.  We  pray  that  it  may  be  accomplished  and  we  hope  the 
American  Churches  will  influence  their  Senate  to  adopt  the  treaty 
so  that  it  may  become  an  accomplished  fact.  Then  will  have  been 
established  our  example,  that  Europe  and  the  civilized  world  will 
inevitably  have  to  follow.  Then  we  shall  rejoice  because,  in  the 
words  of  a  recent  American  poet, 

"Two  empires  by  the  sea. 
Two  nations  great  and  free. 

One  anthem  raise. 
One  race  of  ancient  fame, 
One   tongue,   one   faith    we   claim, 
One  God  whose  glorious  name 

We  love  and  praise." 

The  war  system  is  one  of  the  most  formidable  obstacles  to  Chris- 
tian progress  and  the  extension  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  upon 
earth.  Against  this  system  the  Church  will  have  to  struggle  in  the 
spirit  of  Him  who  is  her  Great  Head.  In  the  struggle  we  shall 
ultimately  succeed,  perhaps  at  a  less  distant  date  than  we  dream 
of,  for  our  weapons  are  more  than  material,  more  than  physical. 
They  are  the  implements  supplied  to  us  by  the  Everlasting  and  Al- 
mighty Arms.  And  in  His  strength  "whose  strength  is  ours"  we 
will  go  forth  full  of  faith,  full  of  hope.    For — 

We  wield  no  murderous  battle-axe. 

We  wave  no  banners  gory; 
Along  our  line  of  march  there  breaks 

The  light  of  peace  and  glory. 
No  roar  of  guns,  no  crash  of  towns. 

With  moans  and  curses  blending. 
But  quiet  joy  in  humble  homes. 

And  prayer  and  praise  ascending. 

The  President  then  gave  tlie  floor  to  Secretary  Sr^iPSON" 
Johnson,  saying  he  would  bring  forward  inatters  presented  by 
the  Business  Committee  for  immediate  consideration;  a  resolu- 
tion recommended  to  the  Conference  by  its  own  action  this 
morning  and  prepared  liy  the  Business  Committee, 

Mr.  Johnson:  "I  will  not  move  the  resolution,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, because  I  think  we  agreed  that  it  should  be  moved  by 


324  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  NATION. 

yourself  and  seconded  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Haigh^  President  of  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference.    Tlie  paper  is  as  follows :" 

We  hail  with  pleasure  and  profound  gratitude  the  deepening 
and  growing  spirit  of  good-will  and  peace  among  the  leading  nations 
of  Europe  and  America.  The  noble  work  of  The  Hague  Confer- 
ence, as  promoted  by  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America  and  Great 
Britain,  is  already  bearing  fruit  in  the  arbitration  treaty,  which 
agrees  to  submit  questions  of  national  honor  to  the  proper  tribunal 
for  arbitration.  We  heartily  endorse  this  signal  advance  in  the 
interest  alike  of  peace  and  universal  brotherhood.  We  strongly 
urge  the  men  and  nations  represented  in  this  Ecumenical  Con- 
ference to  take  speedily  the  necessary  legislative  action  to  con- 
summate the  arbitration  treaty,  which  has  been  signed  by  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  British  Empire  and  of  the  United  States  of 
America.  By  every  proper  means  we  will  seek  peace  and  pro- 
mote it  in  His  name  who  is  the  Prince  of  Peace. 

The  President: 

We  resume  temporarily  an  early  Methodist  custom  that  Bishop 
Asbury  and  Bishop  Coke  brought  with  them  to  this  country. 
When  a  resolution  was  read,  it  used  to  be  moved  by  the  chair. 
This  not  being  a  legislative  matter,  it  is  perfectly  proper,  therefore, 
that  this  old  Methodist  custom  should  for  the  moment  be  renewed, 
and  I  deem  it  a  sacred  privilege,  my  brethren,  to  be  in  the  chair 
at  this  juncture. 

It  so  occurs  that  I  am  the  only  surviving  member,  save  one, 
the  Rev.  F.  W.  Macdonald,  of  the  original  Committee  which 
met  in  Cincinnati  in  1880  to  arrange  for  the  first  Ecumenical  Con- 
ference. William  Arthur  was  there.  We  know  now  where  to  find 
him.  Matthew  Simpson  was  there.  Atticus  G.  Haygood  was  there. 
David  S.  Doggett  was  there.  Bishop  McTyelre  was  there.  James 
H.  Carlisle  was  there.  John  B.  McFerrIn  was  there.  Charles  W. 
Miller  was  there.  All  of  these  men  have  now  answered  to  the  great 
roll-call.  God  has  buried  his  workmen,  but  has  graciously  carried 
on  His  work.  What  we  are  about  to  do  this  afternoon  is  in  no 
small  measure  the  fruit  of  the  counsels  and  prayers  and  labors  of 
these  eminent  men  of  God  from  Canada,  from  the  States,  from  Aus- 
tralia, from  Great  Britain,  that  first  considered  and  arranged  for 
the  first  Ecumenical  Conference. 

Another  arrangement  that  makes  it  apparently  fitting  that  I 
make  this  motion  this  afternoon  is  the  fact  that  I  happen  to  repre- 
sent at  this  time,  as  the  President  of  the  Federal  Council  of  the 
Churches  of  Christ  in  America,  more  than  one  hundred  thousand 
Protestant  ministers  and  more  than  sixteen  million  of  Protestant 
communicants  of  all  the  great  Churches  in  this  country. 


REMARKS  OF  THE  PRESIDENT.  325 

Dining  with  the  President  of  the  United  States  the  week  before 
last,  and  seeing  how  mucli  his  great  heart  and  judicial  mind  were 
interested  in  this  matter  of  arbitration,  I  assured  him  that,  so  far 
as  I  know,  and  I  think  1  have  large  opportunity  of  knowing  this, 
it  is  to-day  meeting  the  heartiest  encouragement  of  the  Christian 
sentiment  of  the  country  over  which  he  rules.  Ninety  millions 
of  people  rejoice  in  a  President  with  vision  enough  and  courage 
enough  to  bring  before  the  world  for  the  first  time  this  broad 
idealism,  this  high-minded  statesmanship,  this  spirit  of  universal 
peace.     [Great  applause.] 

When  this  matter  was  first  brought  before  the  British  Parlia- 
ment, you  remember  the  chord  it  struck  in  the  heart  of  Sir  Ed- 
ward Grey,  representing  the  Government  in  England,  and  in  the 
heart  of  Arthur  J.  Balfour.  Never  before  has  the  English  Parlia- 
ment been  more  agreed  than  for  this  proposition  for  a  type  of 
peace  that  should  submit  to  arbitration  even  questions  of  national 
honoi',  while  hitherto  questions  simply  of  national  property  had 
been  involved.  And  when  Sir  Edward  Grey  discovered  the  hearty 
response  in  the  minds  of  the  Bi'itish  people,  he  made  it  known  to 
certain  Christian  leaders  there,  pre-eminently  Dr.  F.  B.  Meyer,  the 
honorary  secretary  of  the  Free  Church  Council ;  and  now,  this  move- 
ment having  been  inaugurated,  it  received  at  once  the  approval, 
the  sympathy,  the  prayers,  and  endorsement  of  the  Christian  people 
of  Great  Britain.  Dr.  Meyer  cabled  the  approval  across  the  sea, 
and  I  have  this  cable  now  in  my  possession.  Instantly  there  was 
the  heartiest  accord  with  this  shown  by  the  Federal  Council  of  the 
Churches  of  Christ,  and  a  Sabbath  was  arranged  for  when  on  both 
sides  of  the  sea  sermons  should  be  preached  on  this  great  subject, 
and  prayers  should  go  up  to  the  Prince  of  Peace  for  the  happy  con- 
summation of  this  great  purpose.  And  so,  my  brethren,  this  after- 
noon we  are  to  take  action,  I  beg  you  to  know,  that  shall  sound 
round  the  v.'orld  and  make  speedier  the  realization  of  this  great 
purpose.  It  did  not  begin,  I  beg  you  to  know,  in  national  councils, 
but  in  Christian  assemblies.  Your  former  great  Ecumenical  Con- 
ference gave  us  a  deliverance  on  this  subject. 

Who  of  you  does  not  remember  the  President  of  the  United 
States  appearing  before  us  in  the  Ecumenical  Conference  in  the 
City  of  Washington  in  1891,  when  his  theme  was  "Arbitration?" 
In  the  great  Lake  Mohonk  Conference  which  meets  in  our  country 
annually  in  the  interests  of  arbitration,  the  leaders  of  the  world 
meeting  year  by  year,  many  of  the  deliverances  of  that  great  body 
are  beginning  to  find  expression  in  our  national  legislation.  Out 
of  the  Christian  sentiment  of  this  country  has  come  this  great 
desire  and  prayer  for  universal  arbitration,  the  submitting  of  all 
questions  to  proper  adjustment  under  these  conditions.  And  out 
of  the  gracious  influences  and  prayers  of  these  godly  men  pleading 


326  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  NATION. 

for  this,  it  will  be  brought  to  a  most  perfect  maturity.  We  recog- 
nize the  British  judiciary  as  the  consummate  flower  of  the  world's 
civilization.  No  life  and  property  are  so  safe  as  that  guarded  by 
conscientious  men,  for  the  most  part  Christian  men,  not  only  in 
Great  Britain,  but  throughout  the  British  Empire,  its  colonial  sys- 
tem, all  its  dominions  everywhere.  "He  shall  set  up  judgment  in 
the  earth."  And  when  you  trace  the  crowning  high-water  mark 
of  our  civilization  illustrated  by  the  British  judiciary,  I  beg  you 
to  note  it  is  a  sign  of  the  reign  of  the  Prince  of  Peace  on  the  earth. 
[Great  applause.]  We  well  know  how  in  certain  great  international 
claims  the  British  nation,  through  its  judges,  decided  even  against 
itself,  when  they  were  guided  by  the  sense  of  justice  and  right 
which  is  so  pre-eminent  among  them.  So  we  rejoice  that  we  are 
your  kindred  and  can  look  into  each  other's  English  eyes,  English 
for  the  most  part,  and  see  there  the  purpose  to  do  right  in  the 
sight  of  God.  I  am  happy  indeed  that  we  have  such  a  great  object 
lesson  here  on  this  continent  of  nations  dwelling  together  in  peace 
and  amity.  From  sea  to  sea  and  from  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence even  to  Vancouver  there  is  not  a  gun  fronting  either  way 
on  either  side  of  the  line.  The  spirit  of  Christ  is  the  peace-keeper 
of  this  continent.  May  it  be  so  of  all  continents!  Glad  are  we 
indeed  to-day  that  this  body  of  brave,  courageous,  Christly  English- 
men, for  the  most  part,  are  to  give  voice  to  this  sentiment  which 
shall  sound  around  the  world.  It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  move 
from  the  chair  this  resolution  on  the  subject  of  arbitration. 

I  call  now  upon  the  President  of  the  Wesleyan  Conference, 
Dr.  Haigh-^  to  second  the  resolution. 

The  Rev.  Henry  Haigh,  D.  D.  : 

Mr.  President,  after  the  address  which  you  have  delivered  in 
moving  this  resolution,  it  seems  almost  unnecessary  that  any  other 
sentiment  or  voice  should  be  heard.  And  yet  there  is  a  propriety 
in  having  that  resolution  seconded  by  one  who  comes  from  the 
old  land.  You,  sir,  have  spoken  on  behalf  of  the  United  States 
and,  I  think  I  may  say,  on  behalf  of  the  whole  of  North  America. 
I  am  sure  that  this  afternoon  I  may  with  perfect  confidence  speak 
as  the  representative,  not  only  of  the  Methodists  of  Great  Britain, 
but  as  the  representative  of  Great  Britain  itself.  If  there  is  one 
criticism  that  I  would  pass  vipon  the  resolution  as  read  to  us, 
it  is  that  there  is  an  omission  in  it.  I  see  that  there  is  a  sentence 
of  this  sort:  "The  noble  work  of  The  Hague  Conference  as  pro- 
moted by  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America 
and  the  Free  Church  Council  of  England  is  already  bearing  fruit 


REMARKS  OF  THE  REV.  HENRY  HAIGH.  327 

in   the   arbitration   treaty,    wliich    agrees    to    submit    questions   of 
national  honor  to  the  proper  tribunal  for  arbitration." 

That  is  true — absolutely  true — But  I  should  like  to  claim  that 
in  this  movement  the  great  Anglican  Church  has  taken  its  proper 
and  whole-hearted  share.  We  are  not  singular,  as  members  of  the 
Non-conformist  Churches  of  England,  in  our  determination  that  all 
great  questions  of  honor  shall  be  submitted  to  arbitration.  Side 
by  side  with  us  in  every  step  of  the  way  stands  the  Anglican 
Church.  In  that  matter  I  personally  and  officially  rejoice,  and  I  am 
anxious  that  that  should  be  widely  made  known  in  connection 
with  the  passing  of  this  resolution  this  afternoon.  The  fact  is, 
Mr.  President,  that  in  the  goal  toward  which  we  are  starting  it  is 
necessary  that  all  the  Christian  Churches  should  run  together,  and 
I  may  say  that  in  the  British  Islands  that  is  the  case  to-day.  We 
are  all  one  In  this  matter.  We  are  all  anticipating  with  an  eager- 
ness that  can  hardly  find  fitting  expression  the  time  when  as 
between  England  and  America  there  shall  be  no  possible  appeal 
to  the  arbitrament  of  the  sword.  We  have  often  said  that  it  is 
unthinkable;  we  want  to  make  it  impossible.  [Great  applause.] 
And  yet  in  this  matter  I  think  we  must  counsel  one  another  to 
practice  patience.  It  has  been  said  this  afternoon  that  for  the 
moment  the  course  of  this  movement  has  been  temporarily  ar- 
rested by  the  action  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  I  believe, 
Mr.  President,  that  it  is  only  temporarily.  I  do  not  myself  antici- 
pate that  there  is  anything  more  than  a  mere  technical  difficulty 
which  is  capable  of  speedy  adjustment.  I  am  given  to  understand 
by  some  who  have  a  right  to  speak  that  when  once  that  technical 
difficulty  is  out  of  the  way,  the  Senate  will  gladly  encourage  all 
that  we  mean  in  the  movement  which  we  have  undertaken.  That 
is  great,  good  news.  I  should  like  that  from  this  Ecumenical  Con- 
ference there  should  go  forth  such  a  strong,  clear  note,  such  as  has 
been  spoken  before,  a  note  spoken  under  circumstances  which  are 
peculiarly  auspicious — I  should  like  a  strong,  clear  note  to  be 
sounded  out  from  this  Ecumenical  Conference  saying  to  the  nations 
on  both  sides  of  the  water  that  henceforth,  please  God,  we  will 
never  stand  face  to  face  in  a  conflict  of  war.  [Great  applause.] 
And  when  that  has  been  assured,  we  shall  have  taken  a  prodigious 
step  towards  the  insuring  of  the  final  peace  of  the  world.  Let 
America  and  Great  Britain  clasp  hands  in  a  treaty  of  peace,  and 
any  other  nation  of  the  worhl  will  think  once,  twice,  and  again 
before  it  challenges  that  compact.  I  think  greater  days  will  imme- 
diately begin  to  dawn,  and  that  that  which  we  have  heard  of  in 
the  magnificent  paper  of  my  friend.  Dr.  Scott  Lidgett,  that  which 
we  heard  of  as  the  issue  of  peace,  a  glorious  co-operation  of  the 
nations  in  civilization,  will  speedily  be  brought  about.  I  trust  this 
Conference  as  one  man  will  rise  when  this  resolution  is  being  put 


338  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  NATION. 

with  a  solemn  determination  that  we  and  all  whom  we  represent 
will  bate  not  one  jot  of  effort  or  of  hope  until  this  has  been  brought 
about. 

Sir  EoBEET  W.  Peeks,  Bart.,  England: 

Mr.  President,  I  would  like,  on  behalf  of  the  laymen  of  British 
Methodism,  and  to  some  extent  representing  the  commercial  classes 
of  our  country,  to  say  just  one  word  in  support  of  this  most  im- 
portant resolution.  The  Christian  Churches,  I  think,  are  sometimes 
apt  to  draw  a  line  between  the  work  of  the  Church,  and  the  work 
of  capitalists,  and  the  work  of  industrial  labor.  But  in  the  great 
cause  of  peace  these  three  great  branches  of  human  industry  and 
progress  are  all  firm  allies.  The  mere  fact  that  we  have  between 
our  country  and  the  United  States  a  permanent  treaty  of  absolute 
arbitration  is  one  of  the  greatest  charters  of  progress  that  the  com- 
mercial  classes  of  our  countries  can  possibly  secure.  Because  we 
can  not  shut  our  eyes  to  the  enormous  industrial  and  financial 
losses  which  are  brought  upon  nations  and  countries  when  war  is 
even  in  the  loom,  when  there  is  a  chance  of  war,  when  the  news- 
papers begin  to  talk  of  war,  when  a  large  class  of  manufacturers 
who  are  interested  in  producing  warlike  implements.  Dreadnoughts, 
and  ammunition  and  all  sorts  of  warlike  material,  directly  war  is 
imminent,  are  arrayed  in  the  interest  of  war.  Then  what  happens? 
Industry  is  stopped,  great  commercial  orders  are  arrested,  the 
traffic  between  our  two  great  continents  stops,  the  losses  prelim- 
inary by  the  mere  whisper  of  war  are  gigantic  and  almost  immeas- 
urable. And  the  fact  that  we  have  between  our  two  greatest  com- 
mercial nations  an  absolute  pledge  that  war  is  impossible,  the  fact 
that  disputes  are  referable  to  a  board  of  arbitration,  is  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  working  classes  and  the  manufacturers  and  the  finan- 
cial classes,  and  is  of  greatest  import. 

Again,  men  can  not  go  to  war  without  money.  When  the 
nations  would  fling  their  battalions  across  the  frontier,  they  can 
not  do  so  unless  they  are  backed  by  the  bankers.  This  is  not  merely 
a  Christian  movement.  Among  the  foremost  supporters  of  this 
great  project  of  international  peace  and  amity  are  two  of  the 
greatest  banking  firms  on  the  two  continents.  A  great  authority 
has  pointed  out  that  if  the  financiers  of  the  world  would  agree  not 
to  make  great  loans  to  countries  about  to  plunge  into  war,  war 
would  be  impossible.  The  other  day  when  war  was  imminent 
between  two  great  nationalities,  what  put  a  stop  to  the  beginning 
of  the  war?  The  common  sense  of  the  working  classes  of  those 
two  countries.  They  went  to  the  bank  and  drew  out  their  savings. 
Another  thing  was  that  one  of  the  great  banking  institutions  refused 
to  renew  the  loans  of  bankers  in  those  great  countries  and  so 
the   treasuries   had   to   remain   empty.     As   a   commercial    man   I 


REAMKKS  OF  THE  REV.  GEO.  ELLIOTT.  339 

make  this  observation  in  support  of  this  most  important  measure. 
I  hope  the  time  will  come  when  the  Churches  will  make  a  great 
protest  against  surrendering  the  heavens  as  a  field  of  warfare. 
It  is  enough  to  have  Dreadnoughts  on  the  ocean  and  armed  millions 
of  people  on  the  land;  and  we  ought  to  protest  to  our  respective 
Governments  against  having  the  sky  darkened  with  the  engines  of 
war. 

The  Eev.  Geo.  Elliott,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church : 

At  the  Ecumenical  Conference  in  Washington,  Benjamin  Har- 
rison, then  President  of  the  United  States,  appeared  before  the 
Conference  in  the  interest  of  international  peace.  Not  all  of  5^ou 
knew  that  he  went  the  same  day  to  the  inspection  of  the  Navy  Yard 
and  to  look  into  the  mouth  of  some  of  the  thirteen-inch  guns. 

At  London  ten  years  ago  we  came  to  the  discussion  of  this 
question,  when  the  United  States  had  just  completed  its  triumph 
against  Spain — a  war  which,  whatever  may  have  been  its  justice, 
and  whatever  may  have  been  the  righteousness  of  its  final  results, 
was  brought  on  by  the  jingoes  and  jobbers  and  journalists.  At 
that  very  moment  Great  Britain  was  concerned  in  the  South  African 
struggle,  about  which  I  understand  there  are  differences  of  opinion 
among  my  brethren  across  the  sea.  I  went  to  the  Conference  in 
London  with  a  clear  conviction  that  there  could  not  be  for  Christian 
people  any  more  such  a  thing  as  a  righteous  war.  I  was  confirmed 
in  that  opinion,  and  got  new  light  from  a  remarkable  address  made 
by  the  gentleman  who  has  just  spoken,  Sir  Robert  Perks,  who  gave 
me  this  thought — I  think  valuable  in  discussion  of  this  question — 
that  no  nation  can  be  free  in  times  of  war.  War  is  made  by  secret 
tribunals.  The  mouth  of  every  man  who  objects  to  war  is  stopped 
in  time  of  war  lest  he  be  considered  unpatriotic,  and  the  nation  loses 
its  power  of  free  expression.  To-day  the  present  project  for  arbitra- 
tion of  questions  of  all  sorts  between  Great  Britain  and  America 
is  halted,  partly,  by  those  who  think  that  questions  of  honor  can 
not  be  submitted  to  such  adjudication.  One  of  the  greatest  of 
American  publicists,  and  one  of  the  greatest  names  in  all  the  world 
to-day,  has  come  into  the  arena  against  this  proposition.  With 
a'll  his  faults  I  love  him  still.  He  is  one  of  the  most  interesting 
and  one  of  the  most  irritating  of  personalities.  I  have  to  forgive 
him  something  every  morning,  and  generally  do  so  before  sunset,  as 
I  think  of  his  courage,  patriotism,  and  transparent  sincerity  of 
purpose.  But  when  he  intimates  that  the  American  people  love 
righteousness  rather  than  peace,  we  ought  to  remember  that  the 
American  people  also  believe  that  the  judgment  of  wise  statesman- 
ship can  secure  righteousness  more  certainly  than  can  be  done  by 
those   infernal    engines   which   we   call    warships.     The    time   has 


330  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  NATION. 

come,  it  seems  to  me,  when  the  Christian  Churches  and  the  Chris- 
tian world  and  tlie  civilized  world  should  protest  against  the 
brutality  and  the  barbarism  of  war.  When  I  say  that,  it  is  to  be 
remembered  that  we  have  in  modem  times  injected  into  war  by 
the  invention  of  these  infernal  machines  elements  of  cruelty  and 
destructiveness  which  the  brutes  in  their  struggles  do  not  know 
and  which  barbarism  never  discovered.  To  be  sure  we  are  told, 
and  a  recent  article  in  one  of  the  great  British  reviews  tells  us, 
that  war  is  the  regenerator  of  nations;  that  somehow  there  is  a 
fine  feeling  of  courage  and  patriotism  and  devotion  that  comes 
from  the  blood-soaked  fields  of  war.  It  may  be  true  that  the  frenzy 
of  the  nations  has  been  the  statesmanship  of  God.  It  may  be  that 
civilization  gets  forward  on  a  powder  cart.  But  v/oe  to  that  man 
by  whom  offenses  come!  We  shall  find  out  that  peace  has  its 
opportunities  for  manly  courage.  There  are  wastes  to  be  redeemed. 
There  are  heroic  quests  for  the  knightly  soul  in  the  twentieth 
century  to  be  entered  upon,  without  brethren  on  this  side  and 
brethren  on  that  side  facing  each  other  again  upon  the  bloody  fields 
of  war.  I  am  glad,  with  those  who  have  spoken,  again  to  second 
the  resolution. 

Tlie  President:  "We  are  happy  to  say  that  on  this  side 
of  the  Atlantic  the  great  Anglican  Church  is  co-operating  with 
the  Federal  Council  of  Churches  in  this  great  work.  It  has 
been  my  duty  to  appoint  Bishop  Lawrence,  of  Massachusetts, 
who  is  the  successor  of  Bishop  Brooks,  and  Bishop  Greer,  of 
New  York,  and  a  number  of  the  foremost  prelates  and  divines 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  America,  to  this  Peace 
Commission,  representing  the  Pederal  Council  before  the  na- 
tions." 

The  motion  to  adopt  the  resolution  was  carried  by  a  unani- 
mous rising  vote. 

The  Conference  joined  in  singing, 

"Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds," 

Bishop   E.   E.   Hoss,   D.  D.,   of   the   Methodist   Episcoptil 

Clmrch,  South: 

There  is  great  danger  that  when  a  Church  undertakes  to  deal 
with  economic  and  civic  questions  it  will  do  so  in  a  sort  of  general, 
wholesale,  and  unwise  way;  and  we  must  put  ourselves  on  guard 
against  any  such  possibility  as  that.  Now  I  am  coming  to  the 
point.  Take,  for  example,  the  question  of  the  tariff.  Individually, 
I  am  a  free  trader,  thank  God!  Personally,  I  do  not  see  how 
anybody  since  Adam  Smith's  day  can  fail  to  be  a  convinced  free 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  331 

trader.  I  would  allow  no  limitations  in  the  way  of  the  tariff, 
except  first  of  all  the  limitations  in  the  interest  of  necessary  reve- 
nue for  the  support  of  the  government,  limitations  in  the  interest 
of  the  public  health,  and  limitations  in  the  interest  of  public 
morality.    Whatsoever  is  more  than  this  cometh  of  the  evil  one. 

But,  Mr.  President,  I  should  object  very  much  to  the  Church 
taking  a  pronounced  attitude  one  way  or  another  in  the  settlement 
of  the  tariff.  Moral  questions  are  not  like  mathematical  questions, 
which  are  either  absolutely  true  or  absolutely  false.  In  this  world 
they  are  mixed  up,  more  or  less,  together.  The  fact  that  one  is  a 
good  man  is  no  proof  that  he  is  an  authority  on  mathematics.  The 
mere  fact  that  one  is  in  the  pulpit  is  no  sign  that  he  is  competent 
to  instruct  the  public  in  these  matters. 

Another  illustration;  a  few  years  ago  the  question  of  free  silver 
was  up.  I  have  been  a  Democrat  all  my  life,  but  I  could  not  vote 
for  free  silver.  It  seemed  to  me  like  an  attempt  to  revise  the 
multiplication  table,  or  to  abolish  the  laws  of  mathematics.  Be- 
tween voting  for  free  silver  on  the  one  hand,  which  is  lunacy,  and 
for  a  protective  tariff  on  the  other  hand,  which  is  highway  robbery, 
I  had  to  take  to  the  woods.  That  question  settled  itself  in  due 
process  of  time.  As  individual  Christians  we  have  a  right  to  our 
opinions  on  it.  But  I  should  have  been  very  sorry  if  any  Church  as- 
sembly had  undertaken  to  pass  judgment  on  the  question  of  free 
silver. 

The  Eev.  E.  G.  B.  Mann,  D.  D.,  of  tlie  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church,  South : 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  want  to  speak  on  the  subject  of  the  Church 
and  civic  righteousness.  There  are  two  things  that  hold  men  on 
their  way  in  this  world;  a  pure  womanhood,  and  a  pure  Church. 
Whenever  either  one  departs  from  that  pathway,  men  are  dis- 
couraged and,  to  some  extent,  turned  out  of  the  way.  I  do  not 
believe  that  the  Church  will  any  more  purify  civic  affairs  by  going 
into  politics  than  I  believe  that  womanhood  will  purify  public  affairs 
by  going  into  politics.  I  believe  that  the  highest  function  and 
largest  sway  of  womanhood  is  in  training  and  impressing  the  in- 
dividual. The  hand  that  rocks  the  cradle  rules  the  world.  And 
I  believe  that  womanhood  has  impressed  the  woi-ld  more  by  train- 
ing up  pure  and  true  and  noble  individuals  than  she  ever  has,  or 
ever  will,  by  taking  a  public  platform,  or  coming  into  the  political 
field.  And  what  I  believe  concerning  womanhood,  I  believe  con- 
cerning the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ.  She  must  maintain  an  even 
balance,  and  she  must  minister  to  all  mankind.  Her  pulpit  must 
preach  to  all  parties.  And  there  must  be  no  political  bias  in  the 
man  who  stands  to  represent  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  he 
must  inculcate  the  principles  of  righteousness  and  impress  the 
individual  with  the  necessity  of  godlikeness.  And  when  he  is  made 
a  man  of  pure  principles,  a  man  of  clean  honor,  he  will  come  to 
the  exercise  of  his  prerogatives  as  a  voter  in  the  interest  and 
direction  of  righteousness.  The  Church  often  mistakes  its  mission 
when  it  undertakes  to  purify  civic  affairs  by  preaching  entirely 
to  the  officer,  by  abusing  men  in  public  life.  Let  me  say  that  the 
pulilic  officer,  the  public  ofl[icial,  who  even  disregards  the  law  him- 
self, is  not  the  worst  offender  against  society.  The  trouble  lies  not 
so  much  with  the  men  who  hold  office  as  with  the  men  who  make 
office  holders.     I   tell   you   that  these  great   captains   of   industry. 


333         THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  NATION. 

these  malefactors  of  great  wealth,  who  are  behind  the  politics  of 
the  country,  who  make  judges,  who  carry  legislators  in  their  vest 
pockets,  are  the  greatest  sinners  against  the  law.  If  you  can  get 
at  these  men  you  will  purify  politics  a  great  deal  faster  than  by 
abusing  public  officers  from  the  pulpit. 

Mr.  Marvin  Campbell^  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Churcli : 

I  agree  most  thoroughly  with  Bishop  Hoss  that  a  man  may  be 
a  great  and  good  man,  and  yet  be  very  far  off  on  political  and 
economic  questions — and  I  class  Bishop  Hoss  as  a  great  and  good 
man.  I  want  especially  to  speak  a  moment  before  this  body 
which  can  go  out  into  the  economic  world  and  exercise  more 
power  by  its  direct  and  indirect  influence  than  probably  any  other 
body  that  can  be  gathered  together  anywhere — because  I  believe 
that  the  Methodist  Church,  when  it  is  out  in  any  position  where 
it  really  takes  a  heart  interest,  exercises  a  larger  influence  upon 
the  policy  of  the  world  than  any  other  body — I  want  especially  to 
speak  of  that  reference  of  Dr.  Conner  to  the  fact  that  we  have 
excellent  laws,  but  they  are  poorly  executed.  I  believe  that  that 
obtains  almost  throughout  the  world.  Why  are  they  poorly  exe- 
cuted? Because  of  the  men  that  we  elect  to  execute  them.  Why 
do  we  elect  improper  men  to  execute  the  laws?  I  appeal  to  you, 
brethren,  Methodists,  I  appeal  to  you  bishops  and  preachers,  to  you 
doctors  of  Divinity;  I  believe  that  the  responsibility  very  largely 
for  the  election  of  improper  men  is  due  to  lack  of  care  in  the  selec- 
tion of  those  men  in  the  primary  or  caucus.  That  man  exercises 
but  a  very  small  part  of  the  responsibility  which  rests  upon  him 
as  a  citizen  when  he  simply  goes  to  the  ballot  box  and  votes  for 
a  man  whom  some  irresponsible  mob  has  put  up  for  him  to  vote 
for.  When  the  time  shall  come  that  the  preacher  says  tb  every 
member  of  his  Church,  "Your  responsibility  is  not  first  at  the  ballot 
box,  but  at  the  primary,"  things  will  be  better.  There  is  little 
power  in  voting,  tmless  we  have  first  exercised  that  first  power. 
I  came  here  expecting  to  do  nothing  except  to  perform  the  part 
of  filling  one  seat  in  the  atidience.  I  am  asking  you  to  do  as  I 
have  done.  I  have  always  appreciated  that  citizenship  is  not  only 
a  privilege,  but  a  responsibility;  and  if  from  this  body  can  go  out 
that  feeling  of  responsibility  that  will  lead  us  to  exercise  our  power 
in  the  primary,  our  power  in  moulding  sentiment,  and  our  power 
in  selecting  at  the  caucus  men  to  be  voted  for,  those  conditions 
that  Dr.  Conner  so  justly  deplores,  will  cease. 

The  Hon.  A.  J,  Wallace^  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church : 

I  am  pained  because  the  three  things  in  which  I  am  especially 
interested  are  all  on  the  program  to-day.  Civic  righteousness  made 
me  a  local  preacher,  and  then  the  Churcli  did  not  give  me  much 
of  an  opportunity  to  preach,  when  they  broke  up  the  circuits,  and 
a  few  years  ago  I  went  out  as  a  preacher  of  civic  righteousness. 
I  was  fifty  years  of  age  before  I  took  up  politics,  and  I  took  it  up 
because  it  compelled  me  as  a  matter  how  most  to  help  men.  The 
last  brother  spoke  of  going  to  the  primaries  and  caucuses.  Do 
away  with  them.  Do  what  we  have  done  in  a  few  states.  What 
is  that?  Act  cranky?  No.  The  big  papers,  owned  by  the  corpora- 
tions and  trusts,  will  make  you  believe  that  it  is  heretical  to  do 
away  with  caucuses  and  primaries.     We  elected  a  governor  of  Cal- 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  333 

ifornia  this  last  year.  How?  We  elected  a  man  that  could  not 
have  been  nominated  in  any  Republican  or  Democratic  convention. 
We  had  a  primary  law,  although  a  poor  one.  Every  voter  had  a 
right  to  nominate,  within  his  party  lines,  such  and  such  a  man, 
and  he  voted  his  choice.  And  so  some  of  us  who  could  not  have 
been  nominated  in  a  thousand  years  in  the  ordinary  political  con- 
vention were  nominated  by  people  who  said,  "That  man  satisfies 
me  pretty  well."  I  do  not  agree  with  Bishop  Hoss  in  his  position. 
The  Church  does  not  touch  the  question  of  the  tariff,  etc.,  but  the 
Church  can  teach  the  people  that  it  is  up  to  them  to  nominate 
clean  men  for  public  office. 

The  Eev.  Enoch  Salt^  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist 

Church : 

I  want  to  take  up  the  topic  where  Bishop  Hoss  left  it.  It  was 
known  to  all  of  us  that  it  was  the  gavel  that  brought  his  speech 
to  an  end.  No  doubt  we  should  consider  the  positive  side.  I  do 
not  think  it  is  the  contention  of  the  Bishop  or  of  anyone  else  that 
the  Church  has  no  voice  in  regard  to  the  great  question  of  public 
war.  I  will  mention  two  things  in  which  I  think,  without  going 
into  any  realm  which  the  ministers  of  the  Church  are  not  com- 
petent to  enter,  they  may  nevertheless  take,  and  should  take,  a  very 
distinct  and  decisive  and  influential  part.  I  think  we  should  en- 
deavor, especially  in  times  of  peace,  to  preach  down  the  spirit  of 
war.  I  do  not  think  it  is  of  much  use  to  preach  against  war  in 
times  of  war;  but  when  it  is  possible  we  ought  to  proclaim  the 
principles  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  and  create  such  a  spirit  and 
conviction  among  our  own  people,  that  when  great  excitement  and 
great  danger  arise  in  the  relations  of  nations,  they  will  be  on  their 
guard,  and  will  not  rush  headlong  into  the  arena  of  international 
strife.  Also  I  think  it  is  the  mission  of  the  Church  to  create  good 
will  and  friendly  relations  between  the  people  of  different  nations. 
There  are  newspapers  that  have  an  interest — at  any  rate  have  some 
motive — that  leads  them  to  favor  war.  In  England  we  have  a  press 
which  is  continually  promoting  strife  and  bad  blood  between  our 
country  and  some  other  country.  Lately  it  has  been  between  Ger- 
many and  our  country,  and  there  is  no  end  to  the  effort  made  by 
that  press,  and  by  a  correspondent  press  in  Germany,  to  set  the  two 
peoples  in  antagonism,  to  lead  them  to  build  Dreadnought  after 
Dreadnought,  and  spend  millions  upon  millions  in  preparation  for 
war,  which  ought  never  to  be  made,  because  the  danger  ought  never 
to  be  apprehended.  It  is  the  business  of  the  Christian  Church  to  pro- 
mote good  will  not  only  among  the  people  of  the  nation  in  which  the 
Church  is  ministering,  but  between  the  nations  and  the  peoples 
of  tlae  world — to  communicate  and  proclaim  what  is  true  and  what 
is  good.  I  am  persuaded  that  the  vast  multitudes  of  people  in 
England  and  Germany  have  no  ill  will  toward  each  other.  I  have 
no  doubt  that  they  desire  peace,  and  have  no  desire  for  war.  It 
will  be  wicked  if  they  are  driven  into  it  by  the  influences  to  which 
I  have  alluded. 

Secretary  Carroll  moved  adjourniiieiit,  after  the  notices 
should  be  given,  and  it  was  so  voted. 

Dr.  E.  B.  RYCKA[A>f,  of  the  Canadian  Methodist  Church, 
sent  up  to  the  Secretary  a  letter,  which  was  read,  stating  that 


334  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  MESSAGE. 

he  also  was  a  member  of  the  Committee  which  drafted  and 
issued  the  first  call  for  the  first  Methodist  Ecumenical  Confer- 
ence. 

Secretary  Carroll:  "I  had  the  honor  to  be  a  delegate  to 
the  first  Ecumenical  Conference,  and  have  been  a  member  of 
the  Committee  of  each  succeeding  Conference." 

The  session  closed  with  the  benediction,  pronounced  bj^  the 
Eev.  E.  B.  Ryckman,  D.  D.,  of  the  Metbodist  Church  of  Canada. 


THIED  SESSION". 
Topic:     THE  CHUECH  AND  THE  MESSAGE. 

Mr.  NoRVAL  W.  Helme^  M.  P.,  of  the  British  Wesle^^an 
Methodist  Church,  presided. 

The  Eev.  Edward  Davidson,  of  the  same  Church,  had  charge 
of  the  devotional  service. 

Hymn  687  was  sung, 

"Give  me  the  faith  which  can  remove," 

The  Scripture  selections  were  Acts  4 :  8-14  and  1  Cor.  1 : 
18-31.    Prayer  was  offered  by  the  Eev.  Mr.  Davidson. 

The  essay  of  the  evening,  on  "Ideal  Evangelism — Formative 
and  Eeformative,"  was  written  by  the  Eev.  Franklin  N. 
Parker^  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  but 
in  his  absence  was  read  by  the  Eev.  Frank  M.  Thomas,  D.  D., 
of  the  same  Church : 

Effective  evangelism  is  one  of  the  indispensable  functions  of 
a  spiritually  vital  Church.  A  Church  which  does  hot  evangelize 
has  fallen  out  of  the  true  apostolic  succession,  for  where  apostolic 
power  exists,  there  souls  will  be  added  to  the  company  of  those  who 
believe.  The  primary  work  of  the  Church  is  seeking  and  saving 
the  lost.  A  lukewarm  or  apostate  Church  is  both  indifferent  and 
ineffective  in  soul-winning.  Bringing  souls  into  the  experimental 
knowledge  of  faith  in  Christ  must  precede  their  instruction  and 
training  as  members  of  the  household  of  faith. 

This  first  work  of  the  Kingdom  is  not  merely  a  recruiting  move- 
ment. It  aims  at  something  more  than  members  added  to  the  rolls 
of  the  Churches.  The  after  life  of  the  convert  bears  the  impress  of 
the  first  work.     To  a  large  extent  the  evangelist  and  his  message 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  FRANKLIN  N.  PARKER.  335 

types  the  faith  and  character  of  the  convert.  It  does  signify  in 
what  way  Christ  is  preached.  It  is  a  matter  of  profound  concern 
to  the  Church  whether  those  who  come  into  her  fellowship  have 
fully  believed  that  gospel  which  was  first  believed  on  in  the  world. 
Conformity  to  the  essential  type  is  the  law  of  its  preservation  and 
propagation. 

We  have  not  lacked  evangelists  of  a  certain  sort.  For  years 
past  professional  evangelism  has  had  many  recruits,  especially  in 
America.  They  have  multiplied  exceedingly.  They  have  devised 
methods,  sought  them  out  artificial  manipulations,  published  song- 
books,  and  numbered  many  professed  converts  in  the  course  of 
their  operations.  Inat  there  have  been  notable  exceptions  is  un- 
questioned. But  in  many  instances  certain  types  of  evangelism 
have  been  followed  by  a  singular  spiritual  sterility  and  religious 
apathy  in  the  Churches  which  compels  the  conclusion  that  the  work 
was  inherently  defective  in  both  message  and  method.  For  this 
reason  both  methods  and  results  are  the  subject  of  legitimate  criti- 
cism. 

Any  movement  which  aims  to  propagate  a  faith  or  create  and 
develop  a  society,  is  liable  to  perversion  and  excess.  Evangelism 
has  suffered  from  false  or  inadequate  emphasis  in  doctrine  and 
positively  vicious  methods  of  work.  An  ideal  evangelisni  will  main- 
tain a  steadfast  course,  following  the  precedents  of  the  great  typical 
and  formative  ministries  whose  work  has  reformed  nations,  wrought 
righteousness  in  the  earth  and  penetrated  society  with  a  sure  and 
certain  conciousness  of  the  presence  of  God. 

The  fundamental  fact  in  evangelism  is  the  substance  of  the 
evangelical  message.  An  ideal  evangelism  will,  first  of  all,  be  true 
to  the  divine  call  to  men  to  repent  and  believe  the  gospel.  It  is  the 
proclamation  of  a  faith  as  well  as  a  call  to  repentance.  It  is  the 
declaration  of  a  law  as  well  as  an  offer  of  pardon.  It  affirms  his- 
toric and  objective  fact  as  the  foundation  of  its  appeal  and  presents 
distinct  and  articulated  doctrines  to  the  moral  reason  of  men. 

The  evangelism  of  apostolic  days  was  rooted  in  profound  convic- 
tions created  by  the  events  and  teachings  of  our  Lord's  life  and 
ministry.  There  were  things  most  surely  believed.  These  men 
were  persuaded  that  they  had  not  followed  cunningly-devised  fables 
or  created  a  system  of  beliefs  upon  vague  judgments  and  hypothet- 
ical stories  containing  the  nucleus  of  a  divine  revelation.  These 
men  were  witnesses  of  certain  divine  facts,  facts  which  wrought  a 
profound  change  in  their  own  characters  and  gave  them  an  entirely 
new  outlook  on  the  world.  St.  Paul's  example  bears  witness  to  the 
tenacity  of  early  evangelism  upon  the  fundamental  facts  of  the 
gospel.  He  delivered  that  which,  first  of  all,  he  had  received,  "that 
Christ  died  for  our  sins  according  to  the  scriptures;  and  that  He 
was  buried;  and  that  He  hath  been  raised  on  the  third  day  accord- 


336  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  MESSAGE. 

ing  to  the  scriptures;  and  that  he  appeared  unto  Cephas;  then  to 
the  twelve;  then  he  appeared  to  above  five  hundred  brethren."  In 
Antioch,  Corinth,  Rome,  he  presented  Jesus  Christ  as  the  historic 
manifestation  of  God  for  the  world's  salvation.  For  Jev/  or  Gentile, 
the  historic,  objective  gospel  was  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation. 

Whatever  challenges  the  authority  of  Jesus  Christ  or  excites 
suspicion  concerning  the  record  which  we  have  concerning  the  life 
of  God's  Son  is  the  deadly  foe  of  effective  evangelism.  Paul  affirmed 
the  continued  existence  of  Jesus  as  the  risen  Lord;  he  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  offer  the  resurrection  as  tlje  supreme  ground  of  his  evan- 
gelistic appeal.  He  had  not  merely  a  philosophy  or  ethical  system 
to  transmit.  His  call  to  repentance  came  from  Jesus  Christ,  who 
had  done  certain  things  and  was  still  doing  them. 

The  central  power  of  a  great  evangelism  is  its  consciousness  of 
the  power  of  the  living  Christ.  It  is  animated  by  intense  loyalty  to 
Christ,  but  it  is  the  Christ  of  historic  power  and  universal  signifi- 
cance. A  merely  institutional  movement  or  ecclesiastical  organi- 
zation cannot  be  evangelistic  because  it  Interposes  a  priesthood,  a 
system  or  social  order  between  Christ  and  the  souls  of  men.  An 
evangelized  man  is  not  one  who  has  been  swept  into  an  organization 
or  drilled  into  acquiescence  to  a  creed;  he  has  been  brought  by 
inward  renewal  and  spiritual  elevation  into  a  definite  experience 
of  the  saving  power  of  the  Son  of  God. 

Nevertheless,  the  Christ  of  the  gospels  is  not  simply  a  trans- 
cendent religious  personality;  he  is  a  being  sustaining  relations  to 
the  moral  universe.  His  relation  to  God  must  be  exhibited  in 
rational  terms.  His  relation  to  man  must  be  stated  in  terms  of 
sufficient  precision  to  be  clearly  apprehended  by  the  religious  con- 
sciousness of  men.  This  is  to  say  that  evangelism  must  be  doc- 
trinal. It  cannot  effectually  move  men  by  mere  appeals  to  religious 
sentiment.  The  gospel  of  power  should  never  be  confused  with  the 
emotional  or  psychical  phenomena  which  have  been  incidentally 
manifested  in  connection  with  certain  types  of  religious  experience. 

The  great  evangelism  of  the  past  has  been  clearly  and  persist- 
ently doctrinal.  Such  great  doctrines  as  the  universality  of  sin, 
justification  by  faith,  regeneration,  and  the  witness  of  the  Spirit, 
have  been  the  truths  which  have  searched  the  moral  consciousness 
of  men  in  all  ages.  And  these  truths  have  been  sealed  in  the 
crowning  work  of  our  Lord's  vicarious  suffering  and  death  and  the 
sending  forth  of  the  Spirit  of  life  by  the  power  of  his  resurrection 
and  ascension  to  the  right  hand  of  God.  There  has  been  no  real 
evangelism  apart  from  this  fundamental  gospel.  Indeed,  it  may 
be  said  that  the  touchstone  of  a  true  evangelism  is  the  atoning  life 
and  death  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  holy  of  holies  of  every  great  revival 
must  have  its  Gethsemane  and  its  cross.  The  streams  of  living 
water  arise  at  the  altar.     Here  the  incense  of  prayer  ascends  and 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  FRANKLIN  N.  PARKER.  337 

the  broken  and  contrite  heart  is  fused  into  newness  of  life  by  the 
power  of   a  love   revealed    in   suffering  and    death. 

The  doctrinal  content  of  Methodism  has  been  the  basis  of  its 
mighty  appeal  to  the  world.  It  is  the  great  evangelistic  theology, 
and  has  justified  itself  by  its  influence  on  the  world  in  creating  an 
evangelism  unsurpassed  since  apostolic  days.  It  has  modified  the 
beliefs  and  enriched  the  contents  of  the  religious  life  of  the  Protest- 
ant world.  Our  greatest  peril  is  the  possible  loss  of  emphasis  upon 
our  great  doctrinal  statements. 

A  want  of  precision  in  the  statement  of  evangelical  truth  is  fol- 
lowed by  a  lack  of  definiteness  in  religious  experience.  The  moral 
judgment  of  men  is  not  convinced  by  uncertain  or  vague  presenta- 
tions of  religious  truth  nor  the  will  moved  to  definite  action.  The 
depth  and  permanence  of  a  man's  religious  character  is  due  to  his 
experimental  knowledge  of  God,  and  the  knowledge  of  God  is  not 
mere  sensation,  it  is  a  definite  knowledge  of  moral  and  spiritual 
relations,  and  these  cannot  be  expressed  save  in  doctrinal  terms. 
A  man  must  be  induced  to  think  on  his  ways  and  the  ways  of  God. 
Eternal  things  must  be  impressed  upon  a  thoughtful  heart.  Jesus 
Christ  is  eternal  and  his  appeal  is  to  the  eternal  in  man.  And  we 
can  do  no  less.  Time  does  not  change  the  essential  truths  of  the 
gospel.  The  emphasis  must  fall  upon  the  fundamental  truths  which 
strike  at  the  center  of  the  religious  nature  of  men.  As  in  Jerusa- 
lem, Antioch,  Rome,  the  great  evangelism  won  its  convei'ts  to  a 
faith  having  definite  and  eternal  meaning,  so  in  London,  New  York, 
and  Toronto,  and  the  far  reaches  of  heathenism,  the  evangelism 
that  will  be  formative  and  reformative  will  be  strong  in  the  em- 
phasis it  places  on  the  fundamental  truths  which  inhere  in  the 
kingdom  that  cannot  be  moved. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  evangelistic  message  is  the  evangel- 
istic program  and  method.  The  evangel  must  be  brought  to  the 
unevangelized.  Agents  and  methods  are  as  necessarj'^  as  the  gospel 
itself,  for  how  shall  the  people  hear  imless  they  have  a  preacher? 
There  is  an  ideal  to  be  aimed  at  here.  The  work  should  not  be 
left  to  self-constituted  heralds  of  a  truncated  gospel  or  swamped 
in  a  sea  of  shallow  emotionalism.  There  was  order  and  method  in 
our  Lord's  training  of  his  apostles;  miracles  were  not  wrought  at 
haphazard;  the  multitude  were  made  to  sit  down  in  companies  on 
the  grass.  He  gave  thanks  and  brake  the  bread. 

Because  of  this  fact,  the  key  to  the  evangelistic  situation  is  an 
evangelistic  leadership.  The  great  evangelists  have  been  repre- 
sentative men.  They  have  been  the  embodiment  of  a  movement 
and  the  interpreters  of  the  religious  needs  of  their  times.  Paul, 
Luther  and  Wesley  were  evangelists  after  an  ideal  type  because 
they  were  constructive  forces.  Any  evangelistic  movement  is  typed 
by  its  leaders.     It  is  a  part  of  their  function  to  call  into  activity 

22 


338  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  MESSAGE. 

men  like-minded  with  themselves.  It  is  a  day  of  decline  when  the 
intellectual  leaders  of  any  Church  cease  to  be  evangelistic.  These 
men  and  their  talents  are  needed  to  give  form  and  coherence  to  the 
efforts  of  devout  souls  who  are  eager  to  see  sinners  converted  to 
God.  It  is  one  of  the  perils  of  a  great  and  successful  ecclesiastical 
organization  that  its  leaders  may  become  so  involved  in,  matters 
of  administration  as  to  lose  their  sense  of  evangelistic  opportunity 
and  service. 

It  is  no  doubt  true  that  there  will  always  be  men  of  exceptional 
ability  in  the  field  of  evangelism.  Nor  should  their  work  be  dis- 
counted. The  work  of  a  Moody  calls  for  devout  thanksgiving.  Still 
these  occasional  voices,  however  great,  do  not  and  never  have  pro- 
duced an  ideal  evangelism.  An  ideal  evangelism  must  be  the  ex- 
pression of  the  normal  and  continuous  life  of  the  Church.  It  is 
probably  a  mistake  to  identify  revivalism  with  evangelism.  The 
one  contemplates  a  periodical  spiritual  decline  in  the  life  of  the 
church;  the  other  is  or  should  be  the  Church  in  perpetual  effort  to 
save  the  world.  In  the  very  nature  of  the  case  this  must  be  pre- 
supposed. The  vital  efficiency  of  the  local  Church  is  dependent  upon 
this  governing  idea.  The  pastor,  the  Sunday  school  teacher  and 
the  young  people's  societies  all  exist  to  evangelize.  There  is  no 
evangelism  comparable  to  efficient  pastoral  and  church  evangelism. 
But  the  needs  of  evangelistic  method  require  a  more  extensive  sur- 
vey of  the  work  than  we  have  yet  taken.  Ideal  evangelism  must  be 
characterized  by  great  adaptability. 

A  first  requirement  is  the  presentation  of  the  gospel  in  terms 
which  all  men  can  understand.  Perhaps  the  greatest  need  of  our 
times  is  the  power  to  express  our  great  doctrines  in  terms  which 
appeal  to  the  modern  mind.  A  great  evangelism  will  not  ignore 
the  intellectual  and  social  ideals  with  which  it  comes  in  contact, 
but  will  endeavor  to  find  some  fundamental  relation,  kinship  of  idea 
or  sympathetic  association.  The  evangelism  of  each  age  has  ex- 
pressed itself  in  the  current  ideas  of  the  age,  and  has  been  forma- 
tive because  it  has  used  the  intellectual  and  social  susceptibilities 
of  the  people  for  spiritual  purposes.  The  gospel  which  prevails  is 
the  same,  yet  different.  There  is  a  sense  in  which  it  must  become 
all  things  to  all  men. 

The  evangelistic  message  must  address  the  intellectual  needs  and 
problems  of  the  times.  The  primary  condition  of  reaching  a  hea- 
then or  civilized  man  is  to  know  what  he  thinks  and  how  he  thinks. 
His  words  must  be  mastered,  his  ideas  of  life,  the  range  and  con- 
tent of  his  conceptions  as  they  are  related  to  God  and  moral  re- 
sponsibility. So  to-day  we  must  preach  Christ's  gospel  as  it  is 
related  to  the  thought  of  our  time.  Whatever  of  truth  there  may  be 
in  current  religious  ideas  must  be  respected  and  utilized  in  the 
effort  to  persuade  men  to  accept  the  Lordship  of  Jesus  Christ.     It 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  FRANKIJN  N.  PARKER.  339 

is  true  that  the  gospel  must  bring  every  thought  into  captivity  to 
the  obedience  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  Christ  must  be  offered  to  men  as 
the  vital  and  determining  fact  in  their  thinking  on  life,  its  mean- 
ing, its  obligations  and  destiny. 

It  must  speak  with  authority,  for  no  evangelism  w^ill  have  force 
without  it.  But  this  authority  comes  from  the  sure  conviction  that 
Christ  has  a  claim,  His  coming  has  created  an  obligation,  and  His 
truth  has  a  right  to  challenge  the  immediate  submission  of  all  men. 
Much  modern  evangelism  is  defective  because  it  refuses  to  recog- 
nize its  obligation  to  deal  with  the  intellectual  needs  of  the  times. 
It  presumes  to  ignore  the  large  results  of  a  clearer  knowledge  of 
its  own  history. 

The  past  twenty-five  years  or  more  have  been  marked  by  a  con- 
stant effort  to  reinstate  the  person  and  place  of  Christ  in  the  thought 
of  the  world.  This  has  partly  been  the  result  of  a  needed  defense 
of  the  Christian  position,  but  it  has  been  largely  the  answer  of  the 
Church  to  an  intellectual  need  which  the  world  has  felt.  Probably 
no  other  movement  has  exercised  so  large  an  influence  upon  the 
character  and  subject  matter  of  our  preaching.  This  is  but  an 
example  of  the  working  principle  which  must  determine  the  method 
of  evangelistic  effort.  It  must  appeal  to  some  inherent  moral  and 
intellectual  want  which  is  characteristic  of  the  times. 

There  is  another  requirement  for  a  great  evangelism,  and  that 
is  its  recognition  of  the  social  forces  at  work.  Individualism  is  not 
the  sum  of  the  gospel.  It  deals  with  man  as  social.  It  must  so 
address  him  and  utilize  social  forces  to  propagate  itself.  A  careful 
survey  of  early  Christianity  brings  out  the  fact  that  social  forces 
were  a  large  factor  in  the  evangelization  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
Great  names  and  conspicuous  doctrinal  contests  naturally  stand 
out  more  prominently  than  the  more  unobtrusive  social  forces 
which  bound  man  to  man.  But  the  work  of  Jesus  was  largely  social 
in  its  method.  The  person  first  dominated  the  society  and  minis- 
tered to  a  great  social  unrest  and  a  profounder  social  distress.  The 
fundamental  social  problems  stand  out  in  the  history  of  the  apos- 
tolic Church.  Our  Lord  fed  the  multitudes  incidentally  that  He 
might  bring  them  into  the  Kingdom  of  God.  There  is  no  separating 
the  social  order  from  fundamental  religious  beliefs.  They  must 
blend.  Religion  comes  to  man  as  social  and  it  must  strike  him  in 
the  plane  of  his  social  life.  The  incarnation  and  the  collateral 
truths  of  that  tremendous  event  must  operate  upon  men  as  social 
and  reach  them  tnrough  the  channels  of  social  help  and  sympathy. 
Men  will  not  be  godly  in  isolation. 

An  ideal  evangelism  is  not  simply  the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the 
wilderness,  but  it  is  as  the  sound  of  many  voices  proclaiming  a 
common  faith  and  fellowship,  and  announcing  with  divine  assur- 
ance to  weary,  sin-stricken  men  that  there  is  a  community  of  souls, 


340  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  MESSAGE. 

a  city  of  God,  a  commonwealth  of  the  holy  whose  fellowship  is  with 
the  Father  and  with  His  Son,  Jesus  Christ;  and  that  this  evangel- 
izing ecclesia  is  the  home  of  the  souls  of  men;  that  here  is  a  living 
faith,  a  fellowship  of  worship  and  service  whose  work  is  the  abol- 
ition of  sin  and  death,  and  helping  men  into  the  inheritance  of  faith 
and  hope  here  on  earth  and  the  future  blessedness  of  the  city  of 
God.  It  is  for  this  cause  that  an  ideal  evangelism  takes  knowledge 
of  the  social  needs  of  the  day.  It  approaches  men  in  that  social 
situation  and  takes  knowledge  of  their  sicknesses  and  Infirmities, 
their  poverty  and  their  ignorance.  So  it  comes  with  social  power 
because  it  reveals  the  higher  social  sympathies  of  the  new  life  in 
Christ  Jesus.  It  presents  the  truths  of  Jesus  in  relation  to  the 
social  sins  and  needs  of  men.  It  is  in  this  way  that  a  true  evange- 
ism  has  ever  been  formative  and  reformative  in  influencing  the 
social  conscience.  It  needs  hardly  to  be  said  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
the  Creator  of  the  true  social  conscience.  For  it  is  this  very  fact 
which  makes  every  great  evangelistic  movement  a  mighty  factor  in 
the  reformation  of  manners. 

An  ideal  evangelism  will  be  the  work  of  the  whole  Church,  as 
has  already  been  intimated.  We  shall  have  an  ideal  evangelism 
when  every  professing  Christian  becomes  an  evangelist.  The  great 
power  of  evangelism  is  its  result  in  making  every  convert  an  evan- 
gelizing agent.  Every  Christian  is  or  should  be  a  potential  evan- 
gelist. The  business  of  the  Church  is  to  train  this  tremendous 
social  force  upon  the  world.  It  remains  for  men  in  every  walk  of 
life  to  feel  the  call  to  personal  service  in  the  world's  evangelization. 
These  times  and  all  times  need  the  united  work  of  all  who  are 
united  in  Christ  Jesus. 

But  what  power  is  suflBcient  to  fuse  into  life  the  unused  forces 
of  the  Church  of  Christ?  We  have  an  eternal  gospel,  a  vast  organ- 
ization and  an  accessible  world.  What  remains?  Precisely  the 
power  which  animated  the  Church  at  the  beginning.  It  is  the 
leadership  and  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  which  gives  the  evangelism 
that  we  need.  And  need  we  doubt  that  it  is  the  Holy  Spirit  that 
has  stirred  the  lay  conscience  of  the  Church  in  recent  years?  Can 
we  doubt  the  source  of  the  missionary  movement  which  has  awak- 
ened the  intelligence  and  started  the  liberality  of  the  laymen?  Who 
indeed  is  it  that  is  shifting  the  sense  of  responsibility  for  the 
world's  salvation  so  that  now  we  ministers  feel  that  our  brethren 
of  the  laity  are  beginning  to  share  a  burden  which  neither  we  nor 
our  fathers  were  able  to  carry  alone? 

A  perverted  sacerdotalism  has  failed  to  evangelize  the  world,  a 
reformed  and  devout  ministry  has  made  slow  progress  because  of 
its  isolation.  But  we  do  believe  that  a  universal  Church,  animated 
by  evangelistic  zeal  and  empowered  by  the  Spirit  of  Pentecost  and 
fully  persuaded  that  the  world  is  its  parish,  will  surely  hasten  His 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  HENRY  T.  SMART.  341 

coming  who  still  moves  among  the  Churches,  and  whose  Spirit  still 
cries  in  the  Church:  "The  Spirit  and  the  bride  say,  Come.  And 
he  that  heareth,  let  him  say,  Come.  And  he  that  is  athirst,  let  him 
come;  he  that  will  let  him  take  of  the  water  of  life  freely  *  *  *  He 
who  testifleth  these  things  saith.  Yea,  I  come  quickly.  Amen: 
Come,  Lord  Jesus." 

The  fii-st  invited  address,  "Characteristics  of  Early  Meth- 
odist Preaching,"  was  delivered  by  the  Eev.  Henry  T.  Smart^, 
of  the  British  Wesley  an  Methodist  Church: 

Nothing  was  more  characteristic  of  early  Methodist  preaching 
than  potency.  Methodism,  like  the  American  continent,  is  a  huge 
fact.  Some  one  discovered  the  continent,  and  some  one  made  Meth- 
odism. It  may  be  said  with  truth  that  John  Wesley  was  not  the 
founder  of  Methodism,  but  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Nevertheless  it 
is  equally  true  to  say  that  the  Lord  did  not  create  Methodism  as, 
for  example.  He  created  the  world.  He  Himself  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  the  world  and  gave  to  the  sea  its  decree,  that  the  waters 
should  not  pass  His  commandment,  there  being  no  one  with  Him  to 
see  which  way  the  light  was  parted.  Not  so  did  He  found  Metho- 
dism. It  was  the  Lord  who  founded  the  apostolic  Churches,  yet  the 
book  which  contains  the  history  of  their  founding  is  properly  called 
"The  Acts  of  the  Apostles." 

What  the  Book  of  Acts  is  to  the  apostolic  Church,  that  "the  Lives 
of  the  Early  Methodist  Preachers"  are  to  the  Methodist  Church.  We 
speak,  as  I  have  just  done,  of  the  early  Methodist  preachers,  and 
we  do  well,  for  they  were  preachers  above  everything  else.  They 
were  not  priests,  nor  men  of  letters,  nor  organizers  (though  the 
first  of  their  order  was  a  supreme  organizer).  They  were  preachers. 
And  we  may  justly  inscribe  on  Methodism  this  legend:  "Methodist 
Preachers — Their  Mark."  Preaching  is  not  like  the  singing  of  a 
lark — it  is  an  action,  or  it  is  nothing.  Paul's  preaching  created  the 
Churches  which  he  founded;  the  proof  that  it  was  Christ  who  spoke 
in  him  is  seen  in  the  signs  and  wonders  that  followed,  when  forni- 
cators, idolators,  adulterers,  the  effeminate,  inventors  of  evil  things, 
thieves,  covetous,  drunkards,  revilers,  extortioners  were  washed 
and  sanctified  and  justified  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
and  in  the  Spirit  of  our  Lord.  Paul's  preaching  was  potent,  if 
any  man's  ever  was.  His  enemies  themselves  being  judges.  It  was 
an  enemy  who  said  of  Paul  that  "almost  throughout  all  Asia"  he 
had  "persuaded  and  turned  away  much  people;"  i.  e.,  from  idolatry. 
The  preaching  of  the  early  Methodists  resembled  that  of  Paul,  be- 
cause, like  his,  it  was  potent. 

John  Foster  desiderated  some  means  whereby  the  practical  effect 
of  the  preaching  of  his  day  might  be  measured;   we  may  measure 


342         THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  MESSAGE. 

the  practical  effect  of  early  Methodist  preaching  by  the  Methodism 
it  produced.  The  two  Wesleys,  Whitefield,  Nelson,  Walsh,  Benson, 
Clarke,  Smith,  Stoner,  and  their  followers,  were  all,  like  Gideon, 
mighty  men  of  valor,  and  for  much  the  same  reason;  namely,  the 
Spirit  of  God  clothed  Himself  with  them,  so  that  it  was  not  they, 
but  the  grace  of  God,  which  was  with  them.  God  gave  them  not  a 
spirit  of  fearfulness,  but  of  power  and  love  and  discipline,  and  the 
Methodist  Church  was  the  result.  They  were  men  of  might  and 
found  their  hands;   hence  the  thirty  million  of  Methodists  to-day. 

Early  Methodist  preaching  was  evangelistic.  Paul  said  to  Tim- 
othy, "Preach  the  Word."  It  was  a  large  order,  for  the  Word  of 
God  is  like  its  Author.  So  much  like  its  Author  is  the  Word  of 
God  that  it  has  long  been  a  moot-point  whether  the  well-known 
passage  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  which  describes  the  Word  of 
God  as  being  "quick  and  powerful"  refers  to  the  Son  of  God  Himself 
or  to  "the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus."  If  I  refer  to  St.  Paul  again,  it 
must  not  be  supposed  that  I  wish  to  institute  a  comparison  between 
that  great  apostle  and  the  early  Methodist  preachers,  much  less  to 
assume  that  Paul  and  they  were  on  a  par.  But  it  was  St."  Paul's 
method  to  open  the  Scriptures,  and  then  to  allege  therefrom,  than 
which  there  is  no  higher  form  of  preaching  possible  to  man.  The 
first  Methodists  followed  this  example,  notably  Wesley  himself,  in 
a  less  degree  his  helpers,  some  of  whom  had  a  remarkable  knowl- 
edge of  the  Scriptures.  Walsh,  Benson,  Clarke,  and  in  a  later  day 
Watson,  Bunting,  and  others,  were  mighty  in  the  Scriptures.  They 
preached  nothing  else  but  the  Word.  You  might  have  gone  to  hear 
any  one  of  them  any  day  in  the  week,  and  you  would  have  heard 
nothing  about  astronomy,  the  milky  way,  radium,  and  ants,  but  you 
would  have  heard  much  about  saving  grace,  justification  by  faith, 
assurance,  and  perfect  love. 

In  Christ  Jesus  they  begot  thousands  of  souls  through  the  gos- 
pel, which  is  indeed  the  only  means  of  the  procreation  of  spiritual 
children.  They  gave  no  organ  recitals  at  the  close  of  their  services; 
they  had  too  much  business  on  hand  for  that;  they  were  always 
plucking  brands  from  the  fire.  They  took  heed  to  the  ministry  they 
had  received  in  the  Lord,  and  fulfilled  it,  watching  over  themselves 
as  did  that  preacher  who  wrote  in  his  Bible,  "Thou  art  a  minister 
of  the  Word:   mind  thy  business." 

This  preaching  was  inevitable  in  this  sense:  the  resurrection  of 
our  Lord  was  inevitable,  it  not  being  possible  that  He  should  be 
holden  of  death.  The  preaching  of  the  early  Methodists  was  inevi- 
table, it  not  being  possible  that  men  whose  ears  had  been  opened 
by  the  Divine  Ephphatha  and  whose  tongues  had  been  loosed  should 
be  silent  concerning  their  Savior.  Like  Paul  again,  these  men  were 
"constrained  by  the  Word."  They  did  not  preach  for  the  morsel 
of  bread  they  received;   for  sometimes  they  dined  off  the  hedges. 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  HENRY  T.  SMART.      343 

satisfying  their  hunger  with  blackberries;  nor  because  they  were 
appointed  or  expected  to  preach ;  but  because  they  could  not  forbear, 
the  "Word  of  God  being  as  a  fire  in  their  bones.  They  could  do  no 
other;  necessity  was  laid  upon  them.  They  were  peripatetic  preach- 
ers, propagandists,  apostles  of  the  Christian  faith. 

You  have  just  had  an  election  in  Canada,  and  your  leading  men 
a  week  or  two  ago  were  engaged  in  firing  the  zeal  and  carrying  the 
vote  of  the  electors.  It  was  a  strenuous  conflict  while  it  lasted. 
Now,  however,  the  hubbub  is  over  and  the  Canadians  have  settled 
down  to  the  ante  status  quo.  But  Wesley's  campaign  did  not  close 
till  his  life  ended.  For  fifty  years  he  contested  the  United  Kingdom 
in  the  interests  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  also  did  his  helpers 
and  immediate  successors.  They  never  accepted  the  ante  status  quo. 
They  were  revolutionary  preachers,  as  was  Christ  Himself,  of  whom 
it  was  said  "He  stirreth  up  the  people."  In  England  at  the  present 
time  it  is  thought  by  some  that  conventional  and  aimless  preaching 
is  greatly  retarding  the  progress  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  But  that 
Kingdom  was  greatly  increased  daily  by  the  incessant  evangelistic 
preaching  of  the  early  Methodists.  We  must  imitate  their  methods 
if  we  would  enjoy  their  success. 

Early  preaching  was  a  demonstration.  In  our  science  schools 
teachers  give  demonstrations  to  their  scholars.  Such  teachers  are 
not  content  to  theorize  and  philosophize:  they  demonstrate  the 
truths  they  teach.  The  early  Methodist  preachers  were  "converted 
under  the  old  act,"  as  we  have  heard  Gipsy  Smith  say  he  was.  They 
had  known  "every  one  the  plague  of  his  own  heart;"  they  had 
proved  for  themselves  the  efficaciousness  of  the  death  of  Christ,  and 
as  such  they  demonstrated  the  gospel  which  they  preached. 

Scientists  are  fond  of  what  they  call  original  work — of  research, 
as  they  call  it — and  the  doing  of  it  makes  them  experts.  The  early 
Methodist  preachers  were  "experts."  What  they  said  concerning 
Christ  was  not  what  some  one  else  told  them,  no  matter  how  distin- 
guished that  some  one  else  might  be;  they  said  it  of  themselves. 

"What   we   have   felt   and   seen 

With  confidence  we  tell, 
And  publish  to  the  sons  of  men 
The  signs  infallible." 

That  was  the  religion  that  made  Methodism;  is  it  not  the  religion 
that  we  may  expect  will  conquer  the  world? 

Early  Methodist  preaching  was  initiative.  I  do  not  mean  that 
these  men  initiated  new  doctrines;  not  at  all:  they  simply  rediscov- 
ered old  ones.  But  I  mean  that  their  propaganda  was  marked  by 
initiative.  Modern  British  Methodism  has  produced  a  Stephenson, 
and  he  initiated  the  Children's  Home.  It  produced  a  Hugh  Price 
Hughes,  and  he  initiated  the  West  London  Mission.     It  produced  a 


344  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  MESSAGE. 

Thomas  Champness,  and  he  initiated  the  Joyful  News  Mission,  of 
which  our  Cliff  College  is  the  permanent  memorial. 

A  horse  in  a  gin  knows  nothing  of  initiation.  He  continues  to 
go  round  and  round,  and  leaves  off  where  he  began.  A  good  custom 
can  corrupt  the  world,  as  Hezekiah  thought  when  he  broke  in  pieces 
the  brazen  serpent  which  Moses  had  made,  calling  it  "Nehushtan." 
Custom  often  lies  upon  the  Church  "heavy  as  frost;"  and  it  did  so 
in  England  in  the  eighteenth  century.  But  Wesley  broke  away  from 
custom,  saying,  "Church  or  no  Church,  souls  must  be  saved."  He 
traveled  thousands  of  miles  on  horseback  every  year,  and  paid 
more  toll-gate  money,  probably,  than  any  other  man  who  ever  lived. 

Early  Methodism  knew  nothing  about  dwelling  in  a  citadel;  it 
was  always  in  a  camp,  and  always  going  forth  in  light,  foraging 
order,  constraining  people  to  come  to  the  marriage-feast.  The  angel 
of  the  Apocalypse  was  not  tethered  to  any  particular  station;  St. 
John  beheld  him  flying  through  the  earth,  having  the  everlasting 
gospel  to  preach.  Bold,  daring,  reckless  evangelism  marked  the 
early  Methodist  preachers,  and  should  mark  their  successors  to  the 
end  of  the  world.  Wesley's  earnest  prayer  was  that  God  would  de- 
liver him  from  what  the  world  called  Christian  prudence.  His  re- 
quest was  granted. 

Early  Methodist  preaching  was  pervaded  by  the  element  of  fear. 
Knowing  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  these  men  persuaded  their  fellows 
to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come.  A  modern  Nonconformist  minister 
once  complained  to  Dr.  Dale  that  no  one  fears  God  nowadays.  Cer- 
tainly our  fathers  feared  God,  and  they  taught  their  hearers  that 
it  was  a  fearful  thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  living  God. 
Spurgeon  remarks  in  one  of  his  sermons:  "I  want  to  get  Lot  out 
of  Sodom;  that  done,  you  can  black  his  boots  if  you  like.  But  I 
must  get  him  out."  The  first  Methodist  preachers  made  it  their 
business  to  do  the  same.  Sodom  was  a  reality  to  them,  and  hence 
they  literally  plucked  their  hearers  out  of  the  fire.  They  taught 
their  people  to  sing: 

"I    must   be   born   again   or    die. 
To  all  eternity." 

With  cries,  entreaties,  and  tears  they  sought  to  save  the  people 
and  snatch  them  from  the  gaping  grave.  When  their  hearers  lin- 
gered, like  Lot,  they  took  them  by  the  hand,  as  the  angels  did  Lot, 
and  hastened  them  out  of  danger.  They  beheld  the  goodness  of  God, 
few  men  more  so;  but  they  also  beheld  the  severity  of  God;  and  in 
preaching  Christ  they  ceased  not  to  warn  every  man,  lest  he  should 
find  his  way  to  that  place  of  torment  of  which  the  Lord  Himself 
spoke.  It  is  impossible  for  us  to  reproduce  this  element  of  early 
Methodist  preaching  in  its  entirety,  because  we  no  longer  believe  in 
the  infliction  of  physical  torture*  on  the  impenitent.     But  I  can  not 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  HENRY  T.  SMART.      345 

believe  that  Methodism  prospered  because  it  had  a  lie  in  its  right 
hand. 

"Sin  is  the  worm  of  hell,  the  lasting  fire; 
Hell  would  soon  lose  its  heat  should  sin  expire. 
Better  be  found  sinless  in  hell  than  be  where 
Heaven  is  and  be  found  a  sinner  there." 

So  said  Bunyan,  and  we  can  not  go  beyond  that  word,  either  less 
or  more.  I  once  heard  an  old  IMethodist  preacher  say,  whose  father 
had  entertained  John  Wesley,  "Methodism  can  not  live  without  hell." 
My  answer  is,  Methodism  need  not  live,  and  it  were  better  for  it 
to  die  than  that  we  should,  like  Job's  friends,  "speak  wickedly  for 
God,"  But  we  may  learn  something  ever  from  that  exaggeration, 
which  in  its  bluntness  may  seem  shocking  to  us.  Our  Redeemer 
has  said  that  some  will  go  away  into  eternal  life  and  some  into 
everlasting  punishment,  and  the  early  Methodist  preachers  believed 
Him  and  preached  accordingly.  And  their  hearers  fled  from  the 
wrath  to  come. 

Early  Methodist  preaching  was  complete.  "Ye  are  complete  in 
Christ,"  said  Paul  to  his  converts,  and  his  aim  was  to  present  every 
man  perfect  in  Christ  Jesus.  These  Methodist  preachers  were  like- 
minded.  No  doubt  (to  use  Spurgeon's  figure)  their  first  anxiety 
was  to  get  Lot  out  of  Sodom;  but  when  this  was  done  they  were 
careful  to  "shine  his  boots,"  as  Spurgeon  said.  Wesley  was  an 
ethical  preacher,  if  ever  there  was  one;  witness  his  published  ser- 
mons. There  is  a  story  told  of  John  Nelson,  who  had  to  give  evi- 
dence in  some  court  of  justice  concerning  a  woman.  Nelson  de- 
scribed the  kind  of  teaching  he  and  his  brethren  gave  on  matters 
of  honesty,  and  elicited  from  the  judge  the  compliment,  "And  very 
good  morality,  too,  Mr.  Nelson." 

Fletcher's  checks  to  Antinomianism  must  be  remembered  in  this 
connection.  These  preachers  tried  to  make  their  people  Christlike 
Christians,  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  they  had  no  mean  success. 
Their  doctrine  of  entire  sanctification  has  in  it  immense  possibili- 
ties. Dr.  Dale,  one  of  our  greatest  modern  theologians  in  England, 
saw  this,  and  though  he  was  disappointed  that  the  doctrine  has  not 
been  developed  since  Wesley's  day,  he  realized  that  it  is  capable  of 
producing  greater  ethical  changes  than  almost  any  previous  event 
in  the  history  of  Christianity. 

Since  the  Reformation  the  early  preachers  of  Methodism  antici- 
pated our  modern  Keswick  and  Southport  conventions.  They  re- 
membered that  "every  one  that  partaketh  of  milk  is  without  expe- 
rience of  the  word  of  righteousness;  for  he  is  a  babe.  But  solid 
food  is  for  full-grown  men,  even  those  who  by  reason  of  use  have 
their  senses  exercised  to  discern  good  and  evil." 

I  must  say  only  one  word  more.     We  can  not  believe  that  wis- 


340  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  MESSAGE. 

dom  died  with  these  early  preachers,  and  that  their  preaching  was 
perfect.  They  believed  that  this  world  was  created  much  as  we 
now  see  it,  within  one  week  of  seven  days;  that  the  Bible  was 
without  human  flaw,  every  word  being  literally  inspired  of  God; 
that  mankind  was  utterly  depraved  and  incapable  of  any  good 
things;  and  that  the  finally  impenitent  would  be  punished  forever 
with  physical  tortures. 

We  do  not  follow  them  in  these  respects.  The  treasure  was  in 
earthen  vessels.  But  God  was  with  them  in  a  remarkable  degree, 
and  men  took  hold  of  their  skirts  and  said,  "We  will  go  with  you, 
for  we  have  heard  that  God  is  with  you." 

Let  us  pray  that  the  God  of  our  fathers  may  be  the  Lord  of  their 
succeeding  race.    Amen. 

The  second  invited  address,  "Modern  Evangelistic  Meth- 
ods," was  delivered  by  the  Eev.  J.  Ernest  Eattenbury,  of  the 
British  Wesleyan  Methodist  Chnrch : 

Many  of  the  older  evangelistic  methods  are  antiquated;  some  are 
discredited:  the  new  method  waits  to  be  born.  After  all,  methods 
are  secondary:  it  is  the  spirit  that  matters.  Methods  are  like 
canals,  mechanical  human  contrivances,  which  in  England  get 
choked  up  with  weeds;  the  river  of  God  makes  its  own  watercourses. 
"The  method  killeth,  but  the  Spirit  giveth  life."  The  supreme  am- 
bition of  the  evangelist  is  to  bring  men  to  Christ  and  Christ  to  men; 
the  method  is  of  little  importance  as  long  as  the  end  is  accom- 
plished. 

The  methods  of  the  future  will  no  more  be  those  of  early  Meth- 
odism than  they  were  the  methods  of  Francis  of  Assisi.  The  world 
we  live  in  is  larger  and  more  complex:  the  psychological  Christ  has 
altered. 

Our  fathers  were  possessed  of  certain  splendid  certainties;  but 
all  their  certainties  were  not  splendid,  but  only  dogmatic.  Their 
knowledge  of  things  in  heaven  and  things  on  earth  staggers  their 
more  modest  descendants.  Take,  for  instance,  their  certainty  of  the 
lurid  planes  of  a  material  hell;  not  only  was  this  a  great  matter 
in  their  evangelism,  but  the  people  they  taught  believed  things 
about  the  future  that  seem  to  us  wild  as  the  nightmare  of  a  dis- 
ordered brain.  No  audience  of  sane  men  to-day  would  endure  their 
teaching  on  hell  for  a  moment.  Other  things  have  changed  in  like 
manner.  May  I  suggest  three  factors  in  any  new  method  of  evan- 
gelism? 

1.  We  need  to  have  a  knowledge  of  human  nature.  The  evan- 
gelist, to  be  a  good  physician  must  be  great  at  diagnosis.  The  old 
evangelist  thought  salvation  could  be  expressed  in  a  formula;  the 
new  evangelist  must  consider  not  only  the  cure  but  the  man  to  be 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  J.  ERNEST  RATTENBURY.       347 

cured.  No  longer  can  we  treat  all  men  as  if  they  were  alike.  Men 
have  varieties  of  religious  experience.  Christ  taught  us  how  various 
are  the  tj'pes  of  men  with  whom  we  have  to  deal.  Jesus  is  the 
model  evangelist.  He  did  n't  treat  Peter  as  if  he  were  Thomas,  or 
Thomas  as  if  he  were  Peter.  When  He  dealt  with  a  philosopher  like 
Nicodemus,  He  gave  him  philosophy,  which  reduced  him  to  silence. 
When  He  talked  to  laboring  men  and  burden-bearers  He  did  n't  in- 
sult them  with  philosophy  or  theology;  He  told  them  heart-moving 
stories.  "By  this  knowledge  should  My  righteous  servant  justify 
many." 

2.  The  new  evangelism  must  be  formative  as  well  as  reformative. 
The  old  evangelism  was  entirely  reformative.  The  new  evangelism 
must  consider,  not  terrify,  the  child.  The  outcast  man  and  the  in- 
nocent babe,  the  lost  sheep  and  the  little  child,  are  alike  included 
in  the  "little  one"  whom  the  Savior  warns  us  not  to  despise. 

The  expectation  that  children  must  undergo  some  cataclysmic 
and  dramatic  changes  has  frightened  many  souls  out  of  Methodism. 
The  child  must  be  taught  he  is  of  the  Father's  house,  and  never 
ought  to  leave  it.  To  save  a  child  from  prodigal  wanderings  is 
sounder  work  than  to  welcome  a  prodigal  home. 

3.  The  new  evangelist  must  be  a  social  reformer.  The  evangelist 
must  never  lose  his  solicitude  for  individual  souls;  but  he  must  re- 
gard causes  as  well  as  results.  No  careful  doctor  of  the  multitudes 
outside  of  the  Churches  in  England  can  help  asking,  how  far  are 
these  men  sinners,  and  how  far  are  they  victims? 

Much  can  not  be  expected  of  the  people  who  live  huddled  to- 
gether, each  sex,  like  swine,  in  some  basement  tenement  of  London. 
I  will  not  say  their  conditions  make  morality  impossible.  I  will 
say  their  conditions  make  it  improbable.  It  may  be  true  to  say  every 
soul  is  guilty  before  God,  but  any  judge  that  says  guilty  will  also 
mention  extenuating  circumstances  and  commend  them  to  a  mercy 
that  will  not  fail. 

To  pick  up  one  by  one  remains  the  great  work  of  the  evangelist, 
and  the  new  evangelist  must  be  the  enemy  of  the  vicious  social  con- 
ditions which  in  some  sections  demoralize,  dehumanize,  and  ruin 
more  souls  than  the  Churches  save.  In  God's  day  the  people  who 
will  be  lost  will  not  be  those  who  never  had  a  chance,  but  those 
who  never  stretched  out  a  hand  because  they  loved  their  own  in- 
terests more  than  the  people. 

One  final  word.  What  we  need  is  not  new  method,  but  a  new 
spirit;  we  must  realize  human  need  and  eternal  pity.  The  four  men 
in  the  Gospel  who  saw  the  need  of  their  palsied  friend  and  felt  the 
power  of  Christ,  who  were  moved  by  the  need  and  drawn  by  the 
Christ,  became  ingenious  in  method;  they  overcame  insuperable 
difficulties  and  brought  the  man  through  the  roof  to  Christ. 

That  is  what  we  need:  a  vision  of  men,  needy,  sinful,  impotent; 


348  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  MESSAGE. 

a  vision  of  Christ,  pitiful  and  all-powerful — a  needy  world,  a  migMy 
Savior.  Let  these  facts  be  burnt  into  our  hearts,  and  we  shall  be 
ingenious  in  method;  there  is  nothing  for  the  infinite  need  of  hu- 
manity except  the  infinite  power  of  God.     Amen. 

The  general  discussion   was   opened  by   Mr.    William   E. 

Skinner,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church : 

The  subject  offered  for  this  afternoon's  discussion  is:  "The 
Church  and  the  Message."  I  want  to  make  two  or  three  points 
with  regard  to  the  Church.  My  first  point  is,  What  is  the  Church 
that  is  referred  to  in  that  title?  Does  it  mean  only  the  minister? 
I  am  afraid  there  are  a  large  number  of  people  on  our  side  the 
Atlantic  at  least,  (I  am  not  sure  about  this  side,  and  I  hope  it  is 
not  true),  but  there  is  a  very  large  proportion  of  people  on  the 
other  side  who  seem  to  think  that  it  is  the  minister's  business  to 
bring  men  and  women  into  the  Church,  not  theirs.  There  are  too 
many  of  what  my  old  friend,  Charles  Henry  Kelly,  used  to  call 
"passengers  in  the  gospel  ship."  And  until  we  can  arouse  the 
whole  people,  who  profess  to  call  themselves  Christians,  to  realize 
that  it  is  their  duty,  as  much  as  that  of  the  minister,  to  seek  to 
win  men  and  women  for  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  we  shall  never 
convert  the  world.  Dr.  Osborne  used  to  say,  (and  he  was  a  great 
authority  both  on  Methodism  and  on  Methodist  hymnology),  that 
there  was  one  line  in  the  Methodist  hymn  book  that  expressed 
the  whole  genius  and  spirit  of  Methodism,  and  he  might  have 
said  of  evangelical  Christianity;    and  that  line  was — 

"O,  let  me  commend  my  Savior  to  you." 

That  is  the  true  Christian  attitude.  The  man  who  has  found 
liberty  through  the  blood  of  the  Lamb  realizes  it  to  be  not 
only  his  privilege  but  his  bounden  duty,  to  "tell  to  all  around 
what  a  dear  Savior  he  has  found."  I  am  afraid  many  church 
members  have  not  been  saved  up  to  that  point. 

The  next  point  is,  that  a  great  many  of  our  people  who  do  de- 
sire the  salvation  of  their  fellow  men  outside  of  the  Church  are 
afraid  it  can  not  be  done  by  their  minister;  they  have  not  enough 
faith  in  God  to  believe  that  He  can  make  the  pastor  of  their  Church 
an  evangelist  and  able  to  save  souls,  so  they  need  to  be  stimu- 
lated and  titillated  from  time  to  time  by  the  advent  of  a  professional 
evangelist,  as  they  were  called  in  the  opening  words  of  the  first 
paper  read  to-night. 

I  am  afraid  that  this  is  a  mistake  which  arises  from  the  lack 
of  faith  in  God  and  in  God's  agency,  the  ministry  of  the  Church. 

My  last  point  is,  that  our  people  need  to  know,  yes,  all  of  us 
need  to  know,  much  more  clearly  than  at  present  the  personality 
and  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  I  believe  that  the  secret  of  the 
whole  business  is  very  clearly  shown  us  in  the  wonderful  vision  of 
the  prophet  Ezekiel  which  we  read  in  the  thirty-seventh  chapter. 
There  we  find  that  the  prophet  prophesied  first  to  the  bones,  and 
a  wonderful  result  was  produced.  The  skeletons  were  reassembled, 
and  covered  with  sinews  and  flesh  and  skin.  But  there  was  no 
breath  in  them.  And  no  amount  of  preaching,  however  eloquent 
or  learned,  however  effective  in  the  ordinary  intellectual  sense  of 
the  word,  will  ever  bring  dead  souls  to  life.  God  reserves  that 
power  to  Himself.     He  who  at  the  beginning  breathed  into  man's 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  349 

nostrils  the  breath  of  life  and  man  became  a  living  soul,  said, 
"Come  from  the  four  winds,  O  breath,  and  breathe  upon  these 
slain." 

Tlie  Rev.  David  G.  Downey,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Clmrch: 

Methodism  has  alwaj^s  believed  in  the  abilitj''  of  God  to  save 
the  fragment  of  a  life.  I  am  afraid  that  she  has  not  alwaj'S 
gripped  with  equal  tenacity  the  ability  of  God  to  save  the  entire 
life. 

I  am  here  to  speak  for  a  few  moments  concerning  the  import- 
ance of  formative  evangelism,  an  evangelism  that  claims  the  youth, 
the  middle  years,  all  the  years,  for  God.  God  forbid  that  Methodism 
should  ever  lose  her  primacy  in  reformative  evangelism.  It  is  one 
part  of  Methodism's  mighty  mission  to  the  race. 

But  the  time  has  come  to  lay  stress  upon  formative  evangelism. 
What  ought  to  be  the  prime  evangelistic  purpose  of  our  Church, 
of  all  the  Churches?  Nothing  short  of  this,  to  answer  the  prayer 
of  our  Master — "Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven,  hallowed  be  Thy 
name" — invocation,  ascription,  praise.  The  first  petition  is,  "Thy 
Kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in  heaven." 
Hei-e  is  the  supreme  evangelistic  purpose  of  Methodism,  and  noth- 
ing less  than  this  will  suffice. 

What  do  we  mean  by  the  "kingdom?"  Or  by  "Calvary?"  It  is 
not  complete  in  the  salvation  of  the  individual.  I  thank  God  that 
salvation  does  mean  the  salvation  of  the  individual.  Calvary  and 
the  kingdom  mean  not  only  the  salvation  of  the  individual,  but 
the  redemption  of  the  race  and  of  all  the  avenues  and  activities 
of  the  race.  The  kingdom  means  that  society,  commerce,  civics, 
the  whole  round  sum  of  this  world's  life  shall  be  purified,  lifted 
\ip,  and  made  acceptable  in  the  sight  of  God.  How?  By  the  salva- 
tion of  the  moral  derelict?  An  English  preacher  said  that  salvage 
evangelism  will  never  save  the  world.  The  salvation  of  a  moral 
derelict  is  a  mighty  fine  thing  for  the  derelict,  but  it  means  little 
for  the  kingdom.  If  the  Kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  Savior  Jesus 
Christ  is  to  come,  it  can  only  come  when  we  have  succeeded  in 
saving  the  boys  and  girls  who  are  secured  in  Christian  homes, 
trained  in  the  Sunday  schools,  and  educated  at  the  altars  of  Chris- 
tian Churches,  and  flung  out  into  the  world's  life  to  touch  all  the 
activities  of  the  world  and  make  them  in  harmony  with  the  will 
and  purposes  of  the  infinite  and  eternal  God.  The  time  is  come 
when  we  must  not  keep  our  young  people  cloistered  within  the 
walls  of  the  church;  but  I  would  have  young  people  go  out  into 
literature  and  lift  it  out  of  its  decadency  into  sweetness  and  lif-e; 
go  out  and  interpret  nature  to  science  until  it  shall  be  seen  that 
true  science  is  simply  walking  in  the  pathway  of  God  Almighty; 
go  out  and  touch  politics  until  it  shall  be  understood  that  politics 
is  not  a  dirty  pool,  but  is  something  for  the  betterment  of  men. 
Let  us  interpret  life  not  merely  as  a  chance  to  live,  but  as  an 
opportunity  to  let  live  and  to  help  to  live.  Some  one  says,  that  is  a 
groat  risk  to  take  with  our  young  people — that  they  will  lose  their 
religion  if  they  go  out  into  the  world.  If  that  is  the  only  kind 
of  religion  they  have,  it  is  not  worth  keeping.  I  would  not  waste 
time  in  talking  about  a  type  of  Christianity  that  can  not  be  trusted 
outside  the  four  walls  of  a  church.  It  is  a  tremendous  risk,  but 
what  else  is  life  for?     Salt  is  to  be  put  into  contact  with  the 


350  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  MESSAGE. 

thing  that  is   in  danger  of  decay,  that  it  may  be  sweetened  and 
preserved.     That  is  what  young  life  is  for. 

The  Eev.  C.  Ensor  Walters^  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church : 

Methodism  is  thrilling,  throbbing,  burning  evangelism.  I  am 
glad  that  we  have  upon  the  platform  to-night  the  most  brilliant 
of  all  the  younger  ministers  of  our  Church,  who  has  emphasized, 
in  a  speech  which  we  can  not  forget,  the  great  note  of  our  Church. 
I  have  noticed  in  the  newspapers,  and  from  private  sources,  that 
there  is  some  idea  that  we  in  the  Old  Country,  because  certain  of 
our  number  have  given  expression  to  certain  views  upon  criticism, 
are  going  back  upon  old  Methodism.  That  is  an  absolute  delusion. 
I  am  here  to  declare  that  in  the  "Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  in 
England  the  burning  note  is  a  passionate  desire  to  reach  and  to 
save  the  outsider.  I  have  preached  in  some  of  your  magnificent 
churches,  and  listened  to  the  singing  of  your  wonderful  quartettes, 
but  when  I  look  upon  this  building,  and  see  your  services  upon 
this  side,  I  sometimes  ask  myself  if  you  are  keeping  alive  the 
throbbing,  burning  spirit  that  says  that  Methodism  exists,  not 
to  raise  vip  wealthy  and  cultured  churches  alone,  but  to  save  the 
harlot  and  the  drunkard  and  the  man  in  the  street.  What  is 
Methodism?  If  Methodism  loses  these  characteristics,  the  sooner 
we  get  back  to  the  mother  Church  of  England,  the  better.  It  was 
created  by  God  to  be  a  burning  evangelism,  a  throbbing  activity  to 
the  outsider.  The  greatest  need  of  Methodism  to-day  is  to  realize 
this  mission.  We  are  not  fulfilling  our  mission  until  we  touch  the 
man  in  the  street.  What  has  made  us  higher  critics  or  lower 
critics  in  England,  many  of  us?  I  was  preaching  in  the  open  air; 
when  I  finished  a  layman  got  up  and  began  to  preach  on  the  per- 
sonality of  the  devil.  A  man  cried  out,  "Do  n't  be  hard  on  the 
devil,  guv'nor;  if  it  wasn't  for  him  all  you  parsons  would  be  out 
of  a  job."  The  more  you  are  in  contact  with  the  man  in  the 
street,  the  more  you  realize  that  you  must  keep  your  face  to  the 
light,  and  that  he  is  thinking  of  these  problems  that  are  perplexing 
to  the  more  cultured  and  educated.  If  we  are  to  be  evangelists  we 
must  have  in  Methodism  a  deeper  sense  of  the  sinfulness  of  sin. 
I  will  never  forget  going  into  Hugh  Price  Hughes'  study  one 
morning.  There  was  Hughes  leaning  over  his  desk,  and  the  tears 
were  dropping.  He  said,  "Walters,  unless  we  get  more  conversions 
in  the  We^  London  Mission,  it  will  kill  me." 

The  Eev.  G.  C.  Clement,  D.  D.,  of  the  African  Methodist 

Episcopal  Zion  Church : 

As  a  Methodist  teacher  for  eight  years  I  have  found  some  time 
to  go  out  among  the  pastors  of  my  Church  and  help  them  in  revival 
services.  I  have  had  occasion  to  study  some  evangelistic  methods. 
In  making  a  campaign  against  sin  and  for  righteousness,  it  is 
well  for  us  to  remember  that  when  the  Church  gets  stirred  up 
the  devil  gets  busy.  I  remember  not  long  ago  I  was  invited  to 
help  one  of  our  pastors.  The  meeting  was  progressing  so  as  to  cheer 
the  heart  of  the  pastor,  when  one  night  there  was  a  commotion 
at  the  back  of  the  audience.  A  chill  went  through  the  entire 
audience,  and  the  spiritual  fervor  was  waning.  Soon  the  service 
became  very  cold.    At  its  end  I  found  what  was  the  matter.     Some 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  351 

months  before  a  member  of  the  Christian  Endeavor  Society  had 
died,  and  the  society  had  sent  a  floral  offering  of  wax  flowers.  The 
family  had  taken  the  offering  from  the  cemetery  and  placed  it  in 
the  house.  Meanwhile  the  bill  for  payment  had  been  sent  to  the 
secretary  of  the  society  who  had  refused  to  honor  it.  So  it  got 
back  to  the  family,  and  on  that  night  when  I  was  preaching,  the 
wax  flowers  were  brought  into  the  church  and  presented  to  the 
Endeavor  Society.  I  had  to  face  the  devil  that  night  at  an  angle 
I  had  not  dreamed  of  before.  We  must  always  believe  there  is  a 
real  personal  devil.  I  have  noticed  some  other  things.  You  can 
not  have  a  revival  unless  the  pastor  enters  into  it.  It  must  affect 
him.  When  the  evangelist  has  gone,  unless  the  pastor  has  enfered 
heart  and  soul  into  the  meetings  those  who  have  been  brought  in 
are  left  shepherdless. 

Mr.  T.  T.  FiSHBURNE,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 

South : 

I  am  a  layman.  For  fifteen  j'ears  I  have  been  engaged  in 
evangelistic  work.  I  thought  God  had  something  for  me  to  do 
besides  attending  preaching,  etc.  I  can  talk  as  a  business  man 
to  business  men  from  the  standpoint  of  a  business  man.  I  also  be- 
lieve in  a  personal  devil  and  in  hell.  Our  fathers  did  not  preach 
hell  in  a  more  striking  form  than  we  are  entitled  to  preach  it  from 
the  word  of  God.  When  we  have  exhausted  the  English  language 
we  get  only  the  faintest  idea  of  hell.  The  Master  said  that  the 
rich  man  was  in  torments  in  hell;  and  I  am  willing  to  follow  Christ. 
He  taught  also  that  there  was  a  gulf  which  separates  man  from 
God  and  heaven  eternally.  And  if  separation  from  Christ  means 
hell,  I  do  n't  think  we  can  conceive  of  anything  that  would  be 
more  awful  torment  than  separation  from  God.  When  I  started 
out,  though  in  my  absence  they  licensed  me  to  preach,  I  did  not 
intend  to  preach,  I  started  out  with  the  one  thought  that  I  would 
tell  men  about  sin  and  its  effects  upon  me  until  I  got  rid  of  it 
through  the  blood  of  Christ.  Those  two  subjects,  sin  and  a  Savior 
from  sin,  have  been  the  theme  of  all  my  talks  for  the  last  fifteen 
years.  I  have  never  hesitated  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  there 
is  a  hell  and  that  it  is  awful.  If  there  is  no  hell  there  is  no 
heaven.     If  there  is  no  penalty  there  is  no  reward. 

The  Rev.  John  H.  Goodman,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church: 

Mr.  President,  I  want  to  make  a  brief  plea  to-night  for  the 
enthronement  of  the  pulpit.  From  causes  partly  ecclesiastical  and 
partly  social,  the  pulpit  has  lost  its  preeminence.  The  love  of 
symbolism  in  regard  to  worship  has  been  of  immense  blessing,  but 
it  has  had  the  defects  of  its  qualities,  and  is  not  without  its  dan- 
gers. The  longer  the  liturgj',  the  shorter  the  sermon.  Music  is 
one  of  God's  noblest  gifts,  but  if  the  musical  service  be  too 
elaborate,  then  the  preacher  withers  and  dies.  Methodism  was 
born  in  the  pulpit,  and  must  be  maintained  by  the  pulpit.  But 
the  social  changes  are  still  more  imperative  and  conmianding. 
Men  ask  to-day  that  the  business  of  the  Church  be  conducted  like 
a  great  syndicate,  and  ask  for  men  in  the  pulpit  who  would  make 
the  fortunes  of  great  houses  of  business.  The  Church  must  soon 
decide  whether  she  wants  prophets  of  God,  men  Inspired  by  loftiest 


352  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  MESSAGE. 

ideals  and  thrilled  with  passion  of  God,  or  whether  she  wants  men 
of  the  business.  There  is  a  magnetism  in  the  personality  of  the 
man  who  stands  in  God's  presence  and  then  comes  into  the  midst 
of  the  Church. 

But  we  ministers  are  not  without  dangers,  and  we  must  confess 
•to  infirmities,  if  not  sin.  In  the  recoil  from  the  elaboration  of  the 
past  generation,  our  speech  has  become  slipshod  and  careless.  We 
have  forgotten  that  the  nation's  language  is  a  part  of  the  nation's 
life,  and  is  a  great  trust,  a  sacred  trust.  The  man  in  the  street 
to  whose  judgment  all  questions,  political,  religious,  scientific,  and 
artistic,  are  referred,  does  not  want  abstract  language,  nor  slang, 
nor  the  false  sensationalism  which  is  akin  to  vulgarity.  Webster, 
Gladstone,  Sumner,  John  Bright,  Laurier,  the  Hon.  Edward  Blake, 
Beecher,  Simpson,  Punshon,  Fowler,  Phillips  Brooks,  Horace  Bush- 
nell,  and  many  other  men  whose  names  I  might  mention,  regarded 
their  language  as  a  sacred  possession,  never  descended  to  vulgarity. 
The  man  in  the  street  is  conscious  of  the  dignity  of  worship,  and 
we  should  recognize  that  fact.  Methodism  was  born  and  cradled 
in  the  pulpit.  As  she  grew  she  stood  beneath  the  pulpit.  Unless 
you  want  to  show  a  decrepit  Methodism,  weak  and  helpless  in  the 
presence  of  the  world's  sin  and  sorrow,  the  pulpit  of  Methodism, 
to-day  and  to-morrow,  must  be  controlling,  persuasive,  and  absolute. 

The   Bev.   Joseph   Johnson^   of  the   Primitive   Methodist 

Church : 

There  is  one  thing  that  needs  to  be  recognized,  and  that  is  that 
the  sense  of  sin  in  men  is  not  as  deep  as  it  used  to  be.  I  remem- 
ber seeing  men  fall  down  under  the  power  of  the  gospel,  and  cry 
for  salvation.  In  many  places  we  do  not  witness  those  scenes 
to-day.  Men  seem  as  if  they  can  go  into  sin  and  deep  depravity, 
and  not  be  the  least  disturbed  because  of  their  wrong-doing.  In 
my  judgment  we,  as  preachers  of  the  gospel,  are  in  some  sense 
partly  responsible  for  this.  Do  we  preach  the  awfulness  of  sin 
as  we  ought  to?  Do  we  exalt  Jesus  Christ  as  a  personal  Savior 
in  human  life  and  character?  It  has  been  my  joy  to  be  a  minister 
of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church  for  thirty  years.  Twenty-three 
of  those  years  have  been  spent  in  London,  fourteen  of  them  in  a 
suburban  district,  and  the  last  nine  in  one  of  the  districts  of  Lon- 
don where  we  have  perhaps  the  blackest  spots  of  depravity  that 
can  be  found  in  the  whole  of  that  city.  I  rejoice  to  believe  that 
wherever  men  are  in  deep  earnest  the  gospel  of  Jesus  tells  upon 
human  life  and  character.  Many  of  us  greatly  enjoyed  Professor 
Peake's  paper  yesterday.  It  has  not  been  my  privilege  to  be  under 
the  tutorship  of  Dr.  Peake.  He  was  not  a  tutor  in  that  college 
when  I  was  there.  But  there  are  appointed  to  my  mission,  night 
after  night,  young  men  who  come  from  the  training  of  Dr.  Peake, 
who  have  been  two  or  three  or  four  years  under  his  tuition  and 
influence.  Under  the  power  of  their  preaching  every  Sunday  those 
young  men  see  souls  converted  to  God.  They  exalt  the  living 
Christ.  My  own  feeling  is  that  as  Methodists  we  need  to  be  more 
in  earnest  in  this  great  work  of  saving  men.  I  can  not  understand 
how  any  minister  of  this  great  Church  should  conduct  a  Sunday 
night  service  and  not  follow  it  with  a  prayer  meeting.  To  me  it 
is  a  great  conundrum  that  he  should  not  seek  to  gather  in,  in  the 
prayer  meeting,  the  result  of  his  effort.  I  regard  the  Sunday 
evening  prayer  meeting  as  one  of  the  most  important  meetings  of 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  353 

the  daj'.  I  and  my  people  look  for  conversions.  As  a  result  we 
see  drunken  men  made  sober.  Foui'-fifths  of  the  officers  in  my  mis- 
sion at  this  moment  are  men  and  women  who  have  been  saved 
from  the  lowest  depths  of  depravity  and  sin  within  the  last  five 
years. 

Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South: 

It  is  a  common-place  of  the  Christian  ministry  that  it  does  not 
need  the  Hebrew  priest  in  order  to  have  a  Hebrew  prophet.  Some- 
times the  preacher  is  more  concerned  about  the  form  of  his  min- 
istry than  about  the  substance  of  it.  Such  a  one  partakes  of  the 
character  of  the  Greek  sophist.  But  if  a  preacher  is  burdened  with 
his  message  he  partakes  of  the  character  of  the  Hebrew  prophet. 
I  rise  simply  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  nearest  modern 
analogue  to  the  old  Hebrew  prophet  is  the  old  Methodist  exhorter. 
I  would  be  willing  to  walk  four  miles  on  a  Sunday  morning  to 
see  him  unlimber  his  guns  and  come  down  on  the  hearers.  I  re- 
member one  who  was  connected  with  my  conference  forty-five  years 
ago.  He  could  not  preach.  His  text  was  a  pretext  all  the  time.  The 
brethren  teased  him  so  much  about  taking  a  text  and  then  abandon- 
ing it  that  he  determined  to  show  them  that  they  were  mistaken. 
When  they  put  him  up  to  preach  at  Conference  he  tried  to  discuss 
the  decrees.  He  had  not  spoken  fifteen  minutes  until  his  material 
was  utterly  exhausted.  Everybody  expected  him  to  sit  down  in  con- 
fusion. He  said,  "I  am  in  the  brush;  I  do  n't  know  whether  I  am  go- 
ing to  get  out.  But  I  am  sure  of  this,  that  God  Almighty  never  sent 
any  man  to  hell  without  giving  him  a  chance.  Hallelujah!"  I  knew 
a  man  who  was  a  wicked  man  until  he  was  forty-five  years  old. 
Then  he  was  converted.  He  organized  a  camp  meeting  in  Texas 
and  supported  it  himself.  On  a  certain  occasion  he  said,  "I  trust, 
brothers  and  sisters,  that  when  the  general  round-up  comes  there 
won't  be  a  single  cut-back  among  us."  Now  I  believe  in  the  pure 
English  speech.  I  have  a  very  profound  admiration  for  the  felici- 
ties of  human  speech,  but  we  have  still  got  room  in  the  Methodist 
Church  for  the  men  who  can  speak  the  common,  simple,  straight- 
forward language  of  the  street  to  the  men  on  the  street. 

The  Eev.  Edward  J.  Brailsford,  of  the  British  "Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church : 

Our  early  ideal  of  Methodism  is  embodied  in  the  story  of  An- 
drew, when  he  found  his  own  brother  and  brought  him  to  Jesus. 
That  is  not  only  a  Scriptural  method,  but  it  is  a  scientific  method, 
for  it  is  by  communicating  from  particle  to  particle  that  light  and 
heat  and  life  are  transmitted;  and  the  reason  that  I  refer  to  that 
principle  to-night  is,  particularly,  because  we  have  an  admirable  op- 
portunity of  trying  it  and  its  value. 

One  of  the  great  developments  of  Methodism,  of  British  Method- 
ism, has  been  the  Brotherhood  Movement.  There  are  50,000  men 
gathered  together  in  the  "Wesleyan  Methodist  Brotherhood,  and  if 
jou  take  the  other  brotherhoods  of  Methodism  and  the  various  Non- 
conformist Churches,  you  will  probably  double  the  number.  You 
have  100,000  men;  and  if  each  would  bring  another  to  Christ,  what 
wonderful  waves  of  influence  and  what  a  marvelous  increase  of  the 
Kingdom  would  follow!    They  are  getting  together  in  these  Broth^r- 

23 


354  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  MESSAGE. 

hoods  partly  under  the  spell  of  the  word  "brother."  They  hear  it, 
and  it  makes  them  feel  they  are  akin,  whatever  their  rank  or  en- 
vironment. The  word  reveals  Jesus  as  the  Son  of  God,  as  their  Elder 
Brother,  the  Great,  Invisible  Infinite  One,  as  their  Father  who  is  in 
heaven.  But  not  only  has  the  word  a  charm  as  of  music,  but  there 
is  a  magnetism  in  the  very  idea;  and  it  is  sympathy  that  has  drawn 
these  men  together.  You  know  that  the  badge  adopted  is  the  clasped 
hand — ^hands  not  open  as  if  they  were  begging,  for  these  men  are 
independent;  hands  not  closed,  as  if  antagonistic  to  one  another  or 
to  social  order;  but  hands  that  are  clasped,  because  they  are  equal 
one  to  another  and  they  are  brethren.  This  is  a  sympathy  that 
must  be  practical,  for  the  hand  is  the  instrument  of  man's  marvel- 
ous activity;  and  the  moment  these  men  see  the  clasped  hand  they 
know  that  the  sympathy  to  be  offered  them  is  not  mere  sentiment 
or  mere  poetic  pity;  it  is  true,  practical  charity,  the  grip  of  real 
helpfulness. 

And  then,  lastly,  whenever  you  look  at  these  hands,  the  symbol 
of  brotherhood,  then  you  remember  personal  evangelism.  There  is 
a  tradition  that  when  Prince  Charlie  came  to  Edinburgh  he  bent 
from  his  horse  and  gripped  the  hand  of  a  Highlander,  and  when  the 
Highlander  went  back  to  his  clan  he  would  never  shake  hands  with 
the  hand  the  prince  had  touched;  but  the  Christian  instinct  is  en- 
tirely the  opposite,  that  the  moment  the  Lord  of  Glory  stoops  down 
to  lift  you,  you  long  instinctively  to  lift  some  other  from  the  pit 
into  which  he  has  fallen. 

Mr.  Norman  T.  C.  Sakgant^  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church: 

There  have  been  two  subjects  touched  on  a  great  deal  in  the 
course  of  this  discussion,  on  each  of  which  I  would  like  to  say  a 
few  words.  The  first  is  the  question  of  the  conviction  of  sin.  One 
speaker  asserted  that  the  present  age  has  lost  almost  entirely  the 
conviction  of  sin.  I  hold  an  entirely  different  view  from  that.  I  be- 
lieve there  never  was  a  time  in  which  there  was  more  of  conviction 
for  sin  than  now.  There  are  things  considered  wrong  to-day  which 
would  not  have  been  considered  wrong  at  all  ten  or  twenty  years 
ago.  When  you  come  to  speak  to  a  man  he  always  disclaims  the 
idea  that  he  is  a  saint,  but  it  quite  willing  to  admit  that  he  has 
committed  sin. 

But  the  thing  lacking  in  our  evangelistic  note  is  the  sense  of 
God's  anger  with  sin.  It  was  that  sense  which  produced  a  great 
deal  of  the  conviction  of  sin,  which  characterized  the  men  of  former 
generations.  To-day  the  emphasis  has  shifted  to  the  infinite,  the 
eternal,  love  of  God.  It  will  probably  shift  again  to  God's  anger 
towards  sin,  for  no  man  can  see  the  cross  without  seeing  in  the 
cross  God's  terrible  and  awful  anger  with  sin. 

The  Peesident:  "I  want  to  ask  those  present  to  consider 
the  great  question  before  us  from  a  personal  point  of  view. 
We  are  met  here  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  We  have  individual 
responsibility,  and  we  have  individual  opportimities.  And  I 
want  each  member  of  this  congregation  to  go  forth  with  this 
question  upon  the  conscience,  What  can  I  do  to  extend  the 


BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS.  355 

Kingdom  of  Christ?  Let  us  do  that,  x^nd  yet  we  have  heard 
so  mucli  of  the  work  of  God  this  afternoon,  I  asked  tlie 
Rev.  Simpson  Johnson  if  it  is  not  possible  to  arrange  for  a 
meeting  in  wliich  we  might  speak  of  our  religious  experience; 
and  he  said  that  on  two  signatures  such  an  application  would 
be  considered.  I  beg  to  make  the  application,  and  if  you  will 
second  it  [Many  voices:  Yes],  I  will  ask  the  Business  Com- 
mittee to  take  that  into  consideration." 

Secretary  H.  K.  Carroll:  '"The  matter  to  which  our  Chair- 
man has  referred  is  already  under  consideration,  and  I  have  no 
doubt  a  favorable  report  will  be  brought  in." 

Secretary  C*arroll  made  various  announcements  and  j)ro- 
nounced  the  benediction. 


EIGHTH  DAY. 

Wednesday,  October  11th. 


Topic  :    THE  CHURCH  AI^D  SOCIAL  SEEVICE. 


FIRST  SESSION". 


THE  session  was  under  the  presidency  of  the  Rev.  J.  M. 
Buckley,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
The  devotional  service,  conducted  by  the  Rev.  J.  F.  Goucher, 
D.  D.,  of  the  same  Church,  included  the  singing  of  Hymn  421, 

"Go,  labor  on;   spend  and  be  spent. 
Thy  joy  to  do  thy  Master's  will;" 

tlie  reading  of  Isaiah  58: 1-12,  and  prayer. 

The  Rev.  Simpson  Johnson  reported  as  follows: 

The  Business  Committee  met  last  evening,  with  Bishop  Ham- 
ilton in  the  chair  and  sixteen  other  members  of  the  Committee 
present.  This  question  of  the  formation  of  a  Methodist  Ecumenical 
Commission  has  been  before  us  at  two  meetings  of  the  Business 
Committee.  It  has  also  been  carefully  considered  in  detail  by  a 
sub-committee,  and  I  have  now  to  present  two  resolutions  to  the 
Conference  which  have  the  approval   of  the  Business   Committee. 

"The  Executive  Committee  of  the  Western  Section  has  placed 
before  the  Business  Committee  a  suggestion  that  a  Commission 
be  appointed  to  continue  the  Ecumenical  relations  of  the  various 
branches  of  Methodism;  and  similar  requests  have  come  from  other 
sources. 

"Believing  that  the  advantages  to  our  common  Methodism  of 
the  periodical  Ecumenical  gatherings  may  be  wisely  and  helpfully 
conserved  and  extended  in  the  interims  of  the  decennial  meetings 
by  such  a  Commission  as  is  proposed,  the  Business  Committee 
recommends: 

"That  a  Commission,  to  be  known  as  The  Ecumenical  Methodist 
Commission,  be  appointed  by  the  several  Churches,  consisting  of 
fifty  members  for  the  Eastern  Section  and  fifty  members  for  the 
Western  Section;  an  equitable  division  of  the  members  thereof 
to  be  made  to  the  various  Churches. 

356 


BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS.  357 

"The  two  sections  shall  unite  to  organize  a  Methodist  Inter- 
national Commission,  with  such  officers  as  may  be  thought  neces- 
sary. 

"The  function  of  the  Commission  shall  be  to  gather  and  ex- 
change information  concerning  the  condition,  progress,  and  prob- 
lems of  the  various  Methodist  Churches,  to  promote  closer  relations 
between  them,  to  unite  in  furthering  great  moral  causes  affecting 
the  peace  and  welfare  of  our  respective  countries,  and  to  mak^ 
arrangements  for  the  next  Conference. 

"Until  such  time  as  the  Commission  shall  be  constituted  by 
the  concurrent  action  of  the  Churches,  this  Conference  recom- 
mends that  the  present  Ecumenical  Commissions  serve  provisionally 
and  secure  the  appointment  of  the  Permanent  Commission,  which 
shall  serve  ten  years  and  shall  have  power  to  act  and  to  make 
report. 

"The  Business  Committee  also  recommends  that  Dr.  Carroll 
shall  be  the  secretary  for  the  Western  Section,  and  Dr.  James 
Chapman  secretary  for  the  Eastern  Section." 

Tlie  Business  Committee  suggested  that  this  matter  shonld 
be  brought  before  us  on  resolution  by  Sir  IvOBErt  Perks  and 
Bishop  Hamilton, 

Mr.  N.  W.  RowELL,  of  tlie  Methodist  Church  of  Canada: 
"In  view  of  the  importance  of  the  matter  presented,  would  it 
not  be  wise  to  defer  the  actual  moving  of  the  resolution  until 
this  could  be  printed  in  the  record  of  the  proceedings?  Tlien 
we  should  have  before  us  a  proposal  of  ver}^  great  moment, 
and  have  the  opportunity  of  considering  it  before  final  action. 
I  move  that  the  report  be  printed  as  part  of  the  record  of  the 
proceedings,  and  that  the  consideration  of  it  be  deferred  until 
we  have  the  printed  record  in  our  hands." 

The  Rev.  E.  G.  B.  Mann,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South :  "I  should  like  to  move  an  amendment,  that  we 
have  the  resolution  formally  presented  by  Sir  Robert  Perks 
and  Bishop  Hamilton,  and  then  that  it  be  printed." 

A  Delegate:  "I  second  that,  if  the  meaning  is  that  we 
receive  and  not  approve  the  report  of  the  Business  Committee, 
or  that  we  hear  the  two  speakers  on  the  merits  of  the  report, 
our  formal  adoption  be  delayed  twenty-four  hours." 

This  was  accepted  by  the  mover  and  seconder  of  the  reso- 
lution. 


358  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

A  Delegate  :  "It  will  surely  not  be  tlie  proper  thing  to 
have  an  ex  parte  presentation  of  the  suliject  now,  and  another 
discussion  afterwards.  It  seems  to  me  that  if  the  subject  is  to 
be  discussed  it  should  be  discussed  now,  or  altogether  later." 

Dr.  Mann  :     "My  motion  means  that  we  have  the  matter 
presented  and  then  have  it  printed,  and  then  discuss  it." 
•      The  motion  of  Dr.  Mann  prevailed. 

Sir  Robert  W.  Perks,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church : 

I  do  not  think  that  we  need  to  detain  the  Conference  many 
moments  in  telling  why  the  Business  Committee  has  unanimously 
recommended  to  the  Conference  this  most  important  movement. 
I  quite  agree  with  what  Mr.  Rowell  said,  that  this  is  so  important 
a  resolution  that  the  Conference  should  have  the  fullest  possi- 
bility of  considering  it  in  its  details  before  it  comes  before  it  for 
confirmation  or  rejection.  Many  of  us  have  felt  during  the  last 
thirty  years  that  the  work  of  this  decennial  Methodist  Congress 
has  been  allowed  too  much  to  evaporate  without  securing  prac- 
tical results  in  inter-communion  and  joint  action  between  our 
various  Churches  in  many  parts  of  the  world.  Unfortunately,  I 
am  one  of  the  only  two  members  of  the  Methodist  Wesleyan  One 
Hundred  who  are  attending  this  Conference.  Sir  George  Smith  is 
the  other  one.  I  was  present  in  1881  at  our  first  gathering.  I 
know  it  was  the  intention  of  the  organizers  of  the  first  Methodist 
Ecumenical  Congress  that  it  should  offer  for  world-wide  Methodism 
something  in  the  shape  of  a  bond  of  union.  This  Commission  will 
have,  of  course,  no  authority  for  the  purpose  of  interfering  in 
the  slightest  degi-ee  with  the  government  or  internal  arrange- 
ments of  our  respective  Churches.  It  will  be  a  Committee  for  joint 
information,  for  correspondence,  for  action  upon  important  moral 
and  humanitarian  issues  which  may  face  us  in  different  parts  of 
the  world,  an  agency  through  which  the  enormous  influence  and 
power  of  the  Methodist  Church  may  be  exerted  in  many  quarters 
of  the  world,  not  merely  upon  this  continent,  but  upon  the  conti- 
nent of  Europe,  where  very  often  Christian  communities  and 
Methodist  interests  have  required  not  merely  diplomatic  and  official 
support  from  their  countries,  but  that  support  of  public  opinion 
throughout  the  world  which  only  such  a  Committee  as  we  pro- 
pose to  constitute  could  bring  about.  I  might  mention  St.  Peters- 
burg. I  might  mention  places  in  Spain  and  Italy  and  in  the  South- 
ern Republics  of  America,  where  the  joint  support  and  action  of 
Methodism  in  years  gone  by  might  have  relieved  our  Methodist 
brethren  in  some  of  those  countries  from  great  embarrassment, 
and  in  some  cases  from  persecution. 


BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS.  359 

There  are  other  issues,  such  as  that  of  peace,  which  would  be 
materially  advanced  and  might  perhaps  even  have  been  accom- 
plished at  some  earlier  date  if  our  Methodist  Church,  which  is 
the  most  closely  federated  of  any  religious  communion  in  the  world, 
could  have  acted  through  some  such  agency  as  this.  This  is  only 
acting  in  accordance  with  the  trend  of  action  in  others  spheres  of 
activity  and  influence.  Our  British  Imperial  Conference,  which  is 
held  every  five  years,  has  found  it  essential  to  its  effective  action 
that  it  should  have  a  continuous  committee  of  advice  sitting  during 
the  interims  of  those  gatherings.  I  might  quote  great  commercial 
interests  which  find  it  essential  to  their  purposes,  not  always 
in  the  interests  of  the  public,  to  have  a  continuous  action  in  various 
parts  of  the  world. 

Mr.  Wesley  said  that  the  devil  must  not  always  have  the  best 
tools.  I  think  we  may  learn  a  lesson  in  our  religious  action  from 
secular  institutions,  political  and  commercial.  This  is  simply  an 
attempt  to  bring  into  closer  union  for  effective  action  the  great 
religious  organizations  known  as  the  Methodist  Churches  through- 
out the  world.  It  does  not  trench  on  the  independence  and  liberty 
of  the  united  Churches  in  that  vast  religious  federation.  I  have 
the  honor,  therefore,  to  move  it  as  the  unanimous  conclusion  to 
which  the  Business  Committee  has  come. 

Bishop  J.  W.  Hamiltox^  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church : 

Mr.  Chairman,  Sisters,  Brothers:  I  am  here  because  the  Busi- 
Committee  directed  me  to  second  this  motion  for  them.  I  there- 
fore speak  more  in  an  official  capacity  than  a  personal  one.  But 
I  desire  to  say  I  am  personally  in  favor  of  the  closer  union  of 
our  Methodisms,  whether  it  may  be  by  organized  union,  federation, 
or  onlj'  periodic  or  spasmodic  visitation. 

I  will  offer  three  reasons  for  the  closer  fellowship:  First — 
If  for  no  other,  the  simple  reason  of  information  and  identification. 
Second — For  inspiration  and  influence.  Third — For  bringing  to- 
gether for  greater  good  in  some  more  economic  way  the  great 
religious  forces  of  the  scattered  fragments  of  Methodism  which 
are  already  theoretically  set  for  the  world  as  one  parish. 

It  has  been  a  matter  of  some  considerable  pathos  to  me,  at  times, 
when  I  have  gone  abroad  among  the  English  brethren,  and  at 
home  among  the  Southern  brethren,  to  find  the  obscurity  in  which 
a  Methodist  bishop  is  held  by  other  members  of  his  own  family. 
And  the  tragedy  of  fame  is  that  my  colleagues,  the  other  bishops, 
are  not  more  fortunate  than  am  I.  I  could  tell  you  some  ludicrous 
things  which  have  happened  during  this  Conference. 

We  of  the  Business  Committee  are  only  your  servants,  and  as 
such  we  sit  aside  in  this  outer  room  to  receive  commands  and 


360  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SEHVICE. 

complaints.  It  would  not  always  be  wise,  prudent,  to  tell  in  here 
what  we  hear  out  there.  The  complaints,  however,  are  few  and  do 
not  disturb  me  personally,  for  in  our  Church  a  Bishop  is  elected, 
they  tell  us,  not  to  an  order,  but  only  to  an  oflBce,  and  then  only 
to  lay  things  to.  I  think  I  may  venture  to  tell  you  one  or  two 
things  concerning  the  mutual  want  of  information  of  members 
of  this  body,  now  that  we  are  together. 

One  of  the  brothers  from  over  the  wide  canal  which  separates 
us  when  we  are  at  home  asked  if  Bishop  Hoss  was  not  a  colored 
man,  and,  he  added,  "I  thought  all  the  members  of  that  Church 
were  colored."  There  are  some  of  us  on  this  side  of  the  big 
water  who  would  stand  no  better  examination  in  the  larger  Meth- 
odist Catechism.  For  instance,  some  of  us  would  not  have  known 
who  the  President  of  the  Wesleyan  Conference  is  if  we  had  not 
met  him  here.  Come,  let  us  get  nearer  together,  that  we  may  at 
least  identify  some  distinguished  personages  whose  names  are  in 
all  the  Methodist  world. 

Second:  It  is  a  great  inspiration  to  see  and  hear  these  great 
men  of  whom  we  have  been  reading  all  our  lives.  When  I  went 
to  England  first,  it  was  something  more  than  mere  curiosity  which 
led  me  to  hear  Mr.  Spurgeon  in  his  own  pulpit,  see  and  hear  Canons 
Liddon  and  Gore,  Joseph  Parker,  William  Arthur,  Hugh  Price 
Hughes,  W.  L.  Watkinson,  and  Peter  McKensie.  What  a  joy  it  will 
be  for  us  only  to  recall,  when  we  have  returned  to  our  homes, 
the  pleasure  it  gave  us  to  see  and  hear  these  sisters  and  brothers 
from  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  Australia,  and  the  other  islands  of  the 
distant  seas,  whom  we  have  learned  to  love!  As  for  Canada,  we 
now  know  the  whole  Dominion  practices  reciprocity,  whether  it 
believes  in  it  or  not.  It  is  a  lasting  inspiration  to  be  here,  and 
the  influence  of  the  Conference  will  only  be  measured  in  the 
heavens. 

Third:  Who  can  give  worthy  reason  for  all  these  several 
branches  of  Methodism  living  longer  in  the  solitude  and  isolation 
of  the  hermit?  Any  withdrawal  of  one  from  another  savors  so 
much  of  the  undiscovered  relations  of  Robinson  Crusoe  to  the  out- 
side world,  that  one  might  well  inquire  whether  such  self-satisfied 
isolation  was  entitled  to  even  the  comfort  and  helpfulness  of  a 
single  man  Friday.  The  supreme  purpose  of  this  Conference  is 
to  bring  us  together  for  mutual  profit  and  a  wider  usefulness.  If 
we  can  live  together  here  for  a  fortnight  without  a  family  dis- 
turbance, what  hindrances  can  arise  to  keep  us  apart  when  we 
have  returned  to  our  homes?  What  a  spectacle  for  worldly  men 
and  visiting  angels  when  we  have  for  our  motto,  "The  world  is 
my  parish,"  and  yet  make  it  our  business  to  cut  up  the  country 
towns,  and  even  the  country  farms,  into  parsimonious  slices,  and 
then  each  of  us  put  up  our  money  to  get  the  biggest  pieces!     Why 


BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS.  361 

not  permit  this  Conference  to  make  a  little  provision  to  get  us 
nearer  together  somehow  for  extending  our  influence  somewhere 
and  everywhere  over  this  world? 

If  all  Methodists  were  agreed,  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean,  every- 
where on  the  planet,  to  come  together  and  stay  together  as*  we 
are  here,  what  an  army  with  banners  we  could  and  should  be! 
To  forward  some  such  union  and  secure  some  such  co-operation, 
this  Committee  or  Commission  has  been  proposed.  There  is  noth- 
ing legislative,  judicial,  or  executive  in  the  proposition.  It  is 
simply  a  suggestion  to  bring  all  Methodists  closer  for  advisory 
purposes. 

Let  us  know  each  other  better,  help  each  other  more,  and  be 
sure  to  do  something  in  which  we  can  all  work  together. 

Secretary  Chapman  :  "I  move  that  this  resolution  be 
printed,  and  that  the  discussion  be  adjourned  until  to-morrow 
morning.^' 

This  motion  was  seconded  and  prevailed. 

The  Eev.  Simpson  Johnson  :  *'The  Eev.  Joseph  H.  Bate- 
SON  was  granted  permission  to  organize  a  meeting  for  explain- 
ing why  we  are  working  in  the  army  and  navy.  He  will  be 
assisted  by  the  Eev.  0.  S.  Watkins^  and  the  meeting  will  be  held 
with  the  approval  of  the  Business  Committee.  Tlie  place  and 
time  will  be  announced. 

"I  have  also  to  report  that  the  message  of  the  Ecumenical 
Conference  to  the  Methodist  Churches  will  be  read  to  the  Con- 
ference to-morrow  morning  by  Dr.  Lidgett.  It  will  be  the  first 
order  of  the  day,  so  the  Business  Committee  decide,  after  the 
devotional  exercises. 

"The  publication  of  the  volume  containing  an  account  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  Conference  was  considered,  and  a  statement 
is  to  be  made  to  the  Conference  on  this  subject  by  Bishop 
Hamilton.^' 

Bishop  Hamilton:  "I  want  to  suggest  to  tlie  Chairman 
that  the  Business  Committee  is  not  subject  to  the  five-minute 
rule,  and  that  there  are  some  matters  that  will  require  a  little 
more  than  simply  the  five  minutes." 

Secretary  Chapman  :  ''I  move  that  the  rule  be  suspended  in 
this  important  case." 

This  motion  prevailed. 


363  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

Bishop  Hamilton: 

It  is  not  a  matter  of  personal  pleasure  for  me  to  appear  here 
so  soon  again.  And  in  asldng  for  more  than  five  minutes,  I  was 
simply  interpreting  the  rule — if  there  be  any  rule  limiting  the 
speeches  of  the  members  of  the  Business  Committee — as  it  has 
been  interpreted  during  the  whole  Conference.  I  say  again,  I  am 
here  to  represent  the  Business  Committee  and  not  myself.  What 
I  have  to  say  relates  to  a  matter  of  such  importance  to  this  whole 
body  that  when  I  have  presented  it  I  am  quite  confident  you  will 
allow  me  the  time  that  is  necessary  to  finish  all  I  should  say. 
I  do  not  intend  to  make  a  speech.  I  am  here  as  an  agent  for  a 
book,  and  I  therefore  need  your  sympathy  and  help.  You  recall 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  on  one  occasion  heard  a  book  agent  clear  through, 
and  then  to  encourage  him,  said,  politely  enough,  he  felt  very 
certain  that  if  a  man  wanted  that  kind  of  a  book,  that  was  the 
very  kind  of  a  book  he  wanted. 

The  book  which  I  bring  to  your  attention  has  cost  more  than 
a  hundred  thousand  dollars  already.  It  includes  the  cost  of  all 
your  trouble  and  expense  in  coming  here,  and  of  everything  which 
has  been  done  in  preparation  for  the  Conference,  as  well  as  all  it 
costs  to  keep  us  here  and  carry  it  on.  It  is  to  include  all  your 
speeches;  indeed,  all  that  has  been  said  in  all  the  sessions  of 
the  Conference. 

The  Business  Committee  has  made  a  contract  with  the  several 
Methodist  Publishing  Houses,  on  both  sides  of  the  water,  to  publish 
in  one  volume  the  proceedings  of  the  Conference,  as  has  been 
done  heretofore.  The  Book  Concerns  of  the  two  branches  of  the 
Church,  which  have  undertaken  the  publication  hitherto,  have 
lost  money.  Our  own  Book  Concern  at  New  York  lost  from  five 
hundred  to  a  thousand  dollars  on  the  book  which  contained  the 
account  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Conference  that  was  held  in 
Washington.  We  have  determined  not  to  repeat  that  mistake, 
and  we  shall  not  publish  more  books  than  are  wanted.  Once  out 
of  print,  you  will  not  be  able  to  get  the  book,  for  it  will  be  treasured 
hy  every  one  who  buys  a  copy. 

It  will  be  an  important  book  because  of  the  ability  and  fame 
of  the  contributors.  It  will  be  an  immortal  book  because  this 
Conference,  like  one  of  the  great  councils  of  the  early  Christian 
Churches,  can  never  be  forgotten.  It  will  be  the  latest  Methodist 
book  of  the  history,  doctrine,  and  life  of  all  the  several  branches 
of  Methodism.  The  best  of  Methodist  scholarship  will  be  found 
in  it.  And  as  I  have  listened  to  j-our  speeches,  I  conclude  it  will 
include  discussions  on  all  the  phases  of  contemporary  trade,  poli- 
tics, letters,  science,  and  universal  religion.  It  will  be  a  book  of 
splendid  humor.  The  wit  of  the  speeches  will  be  worth  while. 
But  the  best  of  all,  found  on  every  page,  will  be  the  excellent 
spirit  which  has  prevailed  through  all  the  days,  from  the  morning 


BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS.  363 

of  the  fourth  of  October  to  the  high-noon  of  the  seventeenth.  In 
perusing  its  pages,  we  shall  live  over  again  all  these  delightful 
and  memorable   associations. 

You  will  find  that  no  more  important  Methodist  book  has  been 
published  since  the  meeting  of  the  last  Ecumenical  Conference,  ten 
years  ago.  It  could  not  be  printed  for  less  than  two  dollars  a 
copy.  The  book  will  be  mailed,  postpaid,  to  any  part  of  the  world. 
The  books  which  are  subscribed  for  by  persons  living  in  America 
will  be  delivered  from  the  several  Book  Concerns  here.  Each 
Publishing  House  will  bind  it  own  books.  The  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  will  deliver  its  copies  to  its  own  territory,  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  in  our  territory.  In  Canada,  Dr. 
Briggs  will  have  charge  of  the  delivery.  In  England  and  its  colonies 
the  books  will  be  sent  out  from  the  Wesleyan  Publishing  House. 

The  Business  Committee  has  provided  twenty  solicitors,  who  will 
go  through  the  house  to  take  your  subscriptions  at  this  time.  If 
they  go  promptly  about  it,  the  work  can  be  done  in  a  few  minutes. 

Of  course,  all  the  delegates  who  have  made  the  speeches  will 
take  the  books.  But  that  will  not  be  enough  to  pay  for  them. 
We  invite  all  visiting  friends  in  the  galleries,  as  well  as  those 
seated  with  the  delegates,  to  subscribe.  We  also  want  you,  as 
many  as  conveniently  can,  to  enclose  the  money  in  the  envelopes 
distributed  for  the  subscriptions. 

In  the  Edinburgh  Conference  we  had  to  pay  four  or  five 
dollars  for  the  volumes  of  proceedings,  and  to  pay  the  money 
down.  Much  as  we  would  like  to  have  all  the  money  with  the 
subscriptions,  we  will  not  exact  it;  some  European  and  Australian 
"delegates  might  not  have  money  enough  left  to  take  them  home. 

If  we  do  not  get  enough  subscriptions  this  morning,  we  want 
the  delegates  and  friends  not  present  now  to  have  the  oppor- 
tunity to  call  at  the  office,  where  Brother  Redditt  will  be  pleased 
to  receive  their  subscriptions.  When  I  take  subscriptions  on  other 
occasions,  the  first  thing  I  have  to  do  is  to  subscribe  myself.  I 
will  now  subscribe  for  five  copies,  because  I  want  to  set  the 
example  for  some  of  our  brethren  to  take  ten  or  more  copies. 

Now,  sisters,  brothers,  this  is  as  important  to  you,  for  the 
Conference — much  more  so — than  for  the  Publishing  Houses.  I 
thank  you  in  advance  for  your  subscriptions — at  least  a  thousand 
books. 

A  Delegate  :  "I  take  it  that  tliis  report  will  be  one  of  the 
most  interesting  and  valua])le  reports  ever  printed.  We  want  to 
get  as  satisfactory  a  circulation  for  it  as  possible.  Can't  we 
have  this  printed  in  our  own  country,  where  it  can  be  done  for 
less  price,  and  where  we  can  give  it  five  times  as  large  a  circu- 
lation ?" 


364  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

Bishop  Hamilton:  "This  is  a  matter  for  the  Publishing 
Agents  to  settle.  They  have  had  a  meeting  and  brought  their 
representations  to  us  in  the  Business  Committee,  and  we  are 
simply  carrying  out  their  suggestions.  I  understand  tliat  the 
distribution  of  the  unbound  sheets  has  been  agreed  upon,  so  that 
each  Section  shall  have  these  books  and  bind  them  up  to  suit 
themselves.  But  as  to  printing  them,  we  leave  that  matter  of 
detail  with  the  men  whose  business  it  is  to  know  about  it  and 
do  it." 

The  Eev.  E.  J.  Cooke,  D.  D.  :  "I  wish  to  ask  permission 
for  the  retirement  for  the  present  of  the  following  names  on 
the  Editorial  Committee,  consisting  of  myself,  A.  J.  Lamak, 
H.  K.  Carroll,  James  Chapman,  W.  W.  Holdsworth,  and 
H.  A.  Scott." 

To  this  there  was  no  objection. 
It  was  stated  that  a  notice  of  motion  in  the  Ne  Teniere  Decree, 
signed  by  the  Eev.  J.  Alfred  Sharp  and  the  Rev.  Owen  S. 
Watkins  (both  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Church)  had  been  sent 
by  the  Business  Committee  to  the  Committee  on  Divorce,  Tem- 
jDerence,  and  other  matters,  for  deliberation,  and  that  a  report 
Avould  later  be  presented. 

At  eleven  o'clock,  the  hour  allotted  for  business  having 
passed,  the  regular  program  was  taken  up.  The  essay  on  "The 
Social  Teaching  of  the  Old  and  Xew  Testament,"  was  read 
by  the  Eev.  Gross  Alexander,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South. 

Dr.  Alexander  :  "1  will  omit  the  reading  of  the  portion  of 
my  paper  treating  on  the  social  teaching  of  the  Old  Testament, 
and  will  confine  my  special  attention  to  the  social  teaching  of 
Jesus :" 

I.  The  Teaching  of  Jesus. — In  studying  the  social  teaching  of 
Jesus  we  should  exercise  great  care  that  we  do  not,  in  our  zeal  to 
fit  His  message  to  the  social  ideals,  theories,  and  programs  of  our 
age,  rob  it  of  that  which  makes  it  the  message  for  all  ages. 

It  will  be  necessary,  therefore,  at  the  outset  to  get  as  clear  a 
conception  as  possible  of  the  primary  aim  of  His  mission  and  the 
fundamental  principles  of  His  teachings.  He  was  not  a  social 
reformer  in  the  modem  and  conventional  sense  of  those  words. 
His  primary  aim  was  not  the  reorganization  and  reconstruction 
of  human  society.    He  had  a  higher  aim  and  a  broader  one,  which, 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  GROSS  ALEXANDER.  365 

however,  included  and  provided  for  this  lower  one — a  plan  which, 
if  carried  out,  would  involve  the  solution  of  the  social  problems 
of  this  world.  His  primary  object  and  His  supreme  concern  was 
the  spiritual  regeneration  of  the  individual  human  being  through 
the  revelation  of  God  and  His  true  relation  and  attitude  toward 
men,  that  they  might  become  subjected  and  conformed  to  His  will. 

In  the  nature  of  the  case  this  process  and  this  result  was  an 
individual  matter,  which  could  be  realized  only  through  indi- 
vidual action.  Jesus'  message,  then,  as  has  been  well  said,  was 
primarily  about  God,  and  it  was  primarily  to  the  individual.  This 
does  not  imply  that  it  was  intended  for  the  individual  only,  or 
that  it  ended  with  the  individual.  By  no  means.  On  the  contrary, 
it  gave  the  individual  a  new  relation  to  others,  to  all  others,  and 
laid  upon  him  an  unescapable  obligation  to  love  them  and  to  serve 
them  with  a  self-denying  and  sacrificial  devotion. 

Jesus'  doctrine  of  the  necessity  of  the  regeneration  of  the  in- 
dividual and  His  doctrine  of  social  righteousness  are  comple- 
mentary; indeed,  they  are  organically  one  and  inseparable.  His 
standard  and  His  demand  of  social  righteousness  are  so  high  and 
so  inexorable  that  without  a  renewal  of  the  nature,  a  change  of 
heart,  a  second  birth  (whether  realized  all  at  once  or  gradually), 
it  is  a  simple,  primary  impossibiliy.  "A  bad  tree  can  not  bring 
forth  good  fruit."  Take,  for  example,  His  teaching  on  the  sub- 
ject of  chastity,  or  the  relation  of  the  sexes,  which  is  a  social 
question:  "Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart;  whosoever  casteth  a  look 
with  lustful  thought,  desire,  intent,  is  a  criminal,  guilty  of  adul- 
tery." Take  again  His  teaching  on  the  nonresistance  of  evil,  the 
guilt  of  retaliation;  or  His  teaching  concerning  one's  attitude 
toward  his  enemies.  Once  more,  take  His  insistent  and  emphatic 
teaching  on  the  subject  of  wealth  (a  social  question),  which  is 
the  hardest,  the  most  unwelcome,  and  the  most  persistently  re- 
jected of  all  His  teachings.  Speaking  specifically  on  this  subject. 
He  said,  expressly  and  explicitly,  that  only  the  power  of  God,  to 
whom  alone  impossible  things  are  possible,  can  make  it  possible 
for  the  possessor  of  wealth  to  enter  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  the  spiritual  regeneration  and  trans- 
formation of  the  nature,  "the  change  of  heart,"  has  taken  place, 
which  the  teaching  of  Jesus  explicitly  demands  or  implicitly  as- 
sumes, and  which  He  makes  possible,  then  all  righteousness  is 
made  possible,  inevitable,  spontaneous,  second  nature,  easy — "a 
good  tree  can  not  bring  forth  evil  fruit" — and  specifically,  all 
social  righteousness  is  potentially  provided  for.  Not  that  there  is 
no  longer  need  for  specific  prescription  and  instruction,  such  as 
that  which  we  find  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Heights,  or  that  express 
and  lucid  teaching  which  we  find  on  the  duty  of  service,  with 
Himself  as  the  object-lesson,  and  the  tender-hearted  Samaritan  as 


366  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

the  illustration.  These  are  given  that  they  may  furnish  a  plain 
objective  rule  of  action,  as  an  objective  test  of  the  genuineness  of 
the  process  of  transformation,  and  as  the  stimulus  and  inspiration 
of  lofty  ideals  to  noble  striving. 

And,  by  the  way,  this  is  quite  in  accord  with  what  our  own 
great  Wesley,  who  had  in  a  singular  degree  the  mind  of  Christ, 
insisted  on.  For  does  he  not  say,  at  the  conclusion  of  those  Gen- 
eral Rules  which  give  such  explicit  and  inclusive  directions  for 
the  regulation  of  the  lives  of  the  people  called  Methodists,  "All 
these  things  we  know  the  Spirit  writes  on  truly  awakened  hearts?" 

In  short,  to  be  a  disciple  of  Christ  is  to  be  a  servant  of  men. 
The  distinguishing  mark  of  His  followers  is  service,  and  the 
degree  of  service  determines  place  and  rank  in  His  Kingdom.  In 
order  the  more  effectually  to  enforce  the  necessity  of  service,  Jesus 
lays  on  the  colors  in  depicting  a  scene  the  most  awful  and  awe- 
inspiring  to  be  found  in  the  Bible  or  out  of  it.  It  is  the  emphasis 
of  the  final  judgment  and  of  eternal  destiny  laid  on  the  duty  of 
loving  service  to  the  poorest,  the  lowliest,  and  the  neediest,  and 
that  to  their  physical  wants.  And  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  say 
that  we  need  to  be  reminded  in  these  days,  when  we  are  so  will- 
ing to  spend  our  money  in  ways  that  will  gratify  our  pride  or 
pleasure,  that  the  Judge  did  not  say,  "Come,  blessed  of  My  Father, 
inherit  the  Kingdom,  for  I  was  without  a  fifty-thousand-dollar 
church  and  a  ten-thousand-dollar  organ  and  ye  gave  Me  both." 
But  He  did  say,  "Some  of  the  lowliest  of  My  brethren  were  hungry 
and  ye  gave  them  food,  strangers  and  ye  took  them  into  your 
homes.,  without  clothing  and  ye  clothed  them,  sick  and  ye  visited 
them,  in  prison  and  ye  went  to  see  them.  And  all  that  ye  did  to 
them,  ye  did  to  Me."  All  this  is  a  complete  answer  to  those 
superficial  interpreters  who  say  that  the  so-called  individualistic 
interpretation  of  the  message  of  Jesus  excludes  social  teaching 
and  leaves  no  room  for  social  ethics. 

But  Jesus  did  not  give  His  disciples  any  specific  directions  for 
associating  themselves  together,  nor  did  He  prescribe  any  form 
of  organized  activity.  He  was  content  to  implant  the  principle 
and  power  of  love,  and  leave  it  to  work,  the  very  nature  of 
which  is  to  draw  men  together  and  to  unite  them  in  some,  though 
it  be  at  first  only  the  most  rudimentary,  form  of  association.  And 
there  has  never  yet  been  anything  quite  equal  to  the  triumphant 
illustration  of  this  principle  which  we  find  in  the  scenes  of  the 
first  Pentecost,  a  more  disinterested  and  beautiful  realization  of 
Utopian  conditions  than  any  philosopher,  romancer,  or  poet  ever 
saw.      (Acts   4:  31-35.) 

In  the  second  place,  Jesus,  with  a  wisdom  deeper  than  that  of 
any  socialistic  theorist  or  dreamer  of  schemes,  knew  that  no  one 
form  or  type  cf  organization,  whether  religious  or  social  or  even 


ESSAY  OP  THE  REV.  GROSS  ALEXANDER.  367 

political,  would  suit  all  ages,  and  places,  and  circumstances,  and 
kinds  of  men.  If  Jesus  had  prescribed  authoritatively  any  one 
form  of  government  or  organization  or  organized  movement,  it 
would  have  meant  that  that  particular  form  was  to  be  permanent, 
unalterable,  universal.  For  in  accordance  with  His  profound  in- 
sight He  dealt  only  with  what  was  permanent,  unchangeable,  uni- 
versal. How  carefully  and  with  what  far-seeing  wisdom  He 
avoided  it!  He  did  not  do  this  even  for  His  Church.  Indeed, 
according  to  the  record  of  His  life  in  the  Gospels,  He  did  not  use 
that  word  but  twice  during  His.  ministry,  and  those  cases  are 
thought  by  some  to  have  been  editorial  insertions  of  a  date  when 
the  Church  had  been  organized  under  the  potential  organizing 
impulse  of  which  I  have  spoken,  though  that  is  by  no  means 
certain. 

Jesus  trusted  His  regenerated  disciples,  under  the  inspiration 
and  guidance  of  His  still  living  presence  in  their  hearts  and  midst, 
to  take  care  of  outward  forms  of  organization.  And  here  again 
one  can  not  help  thinking  of  that  marvelous  and  matchless  man 
whom  we  Methodists  have  a  sanctified  pride  in  calling  our  Father 
and  Founder.  He  said,  with  reference  to  the  various  peculiarities 
of  Methodism,  "Everything  arose  as  the  occasion  demanded." 
Jesus  did  not,  then,  give  instruction  to  or  for  any  form  of  or- 
ganized society.  He  did  not  even  instruct  His  individual  disciples 
as  to  how  they  should  act  or  deport  themselves  as  members  of 
any  social  or  civil  or  religious  organism.  Does  this  mean  that 
all  the  co-operative  social  movements  of  our  day  for  righting  social 
wrongs,  for  bettering  social  conditions,  for  reconstructing  the  entire 
social  order,  are  ruled  out  and  have  no  place  in  the  teachings  of 
Jesus  and  the  mission  of  His  Church?  No!  A  thousand  times, 
No!  The  so-called  individualistic  and  the  current  social  or  (social- 
istic) views  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus  ought  not  to  be  thought  of 
as  different  theories,  antagonistic,  exclusive,  irreconcilable;  they 
are  both  included  in  His  teaching,  and  are  parts  of  one  whole, 
for  both  of  which  there  is  full  provision  in  the  amplitude  of  His 
thought  and  purpose.  The  potency  of  all  social  adjustments  and 
fulfillments  is  latent  in  the  far-reaching  principles  of  His  teaching 
and  His  plan.  Certainly,  society  must  b©  saved  as  well  as  the 
individual,  and  environment  must  be  changed  as  well  as  char- 
acter. For  we  know  that  environment  is  influential  and  often 
decisive  in  shaping  character;  and  the  individual  is,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  in  large  measure  what  society  makes  him.  And  for  these 
very  reasons  it  is  the  bounden  duty  of  all  Christian  men  to  unite 
and  co-operate  in  all  social  movements  of  all  kinds  for  the  speedy 
and  complete  removal,  on  the  one  hand,  of  all  social  evils  and 
wrongs,  such  as  that  monstrous  and  incredible  iniquity,  the  liquor 
business;    the   circulation    of    demoralizing   literature;    the    tolera- 


368  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

tion  of  indecent  plays  and  shows;  hard  conditions  of  the  laboring 
classes;  degrading  and  dehumanizing  poverty;  the  employment 
of  child  labor;  the  oppression  of  employees,  especially  women,  by 
employers;  the  dishonesty,  despotism,  and  cruelty  of  soulless  cor- 
porationsv  as  well  as  soulless  individuals;  corruption  in  politics; 
illiteracy,  and  insanitation  among  the  poor,  etc.;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  for  bringing  to  all,  even  the  poorest  of  the  poor,  all  pos- 
sible advantages,  comforts,  and  blessings,  physical,  intellectual, 
educational,    social,   esthetic,    and    especially   moral    and    spiritual. 

The  various  Churches,  all  the  various  Churches,  ministers, 
laymen,  and  women,  ought  to  take  the  initiative  and  the  leadership 
in  all  such  social  movements,  and  to  thank  God  for  the  opportunity 
and  privilege  of  employing  their  time,  their  talents,  and  their 
money  in  making  them  successful,  and  for  two  reasons:  (1)  Be- 
cause these  things  are  good  in  themselves,  and  (2)  because,  wh&n 
accomplished,  they  would  make  it  immeasurably  easier  to  win 
the  masses  thus  relieved  to  Christ  and  salvation.  The  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  can  not  afford  not  to  give  their  co-operation  and 
leadership  in  all  these  social  reforms.  If  they  excuse  themselves, 
they  pay  the  penalty  in  their  own  spiritual  deterioration  and  in 
losing  all  power  with  God  and  all  influence  with  men. 

As  to  the  State  or  civil  government,  Jesus  had  nothing  to  say. 
It  is  to  be  supposed  that  He  tacitly  assumes — certainly  He  did  not 
say  anything  which  implies  that  He  denied — the  necessity  of  some 
form  of  civil  government.  He  seems  to  recognize  it  in  what  He 
said  about  taxes  to  be  paid  to  Caesar.  Paul  and  Peter,  in  their 
epistles  (we  may  infer  under  the  influence  of  the  Christian  spirit), 
exhort  Christians  to  obey  the  civil  government.  But  Jesus  does 
not  indicate  the  province  or  functions  of  civil  government;  He 
does  not  define  the  relation  of  His  disciples  to  it,  or  its  relation  to 
the  Kingdom  of  God. 

This  is  another  instance  of  His  deep  wisdom  and  in  accordance 
with  His  invariable  method.  He  reveals  the  great  Personality,  He 
declares  great  germinal  principles.  He  releases  potent  spiritual 
and  ethical  forces,  brings  these  to  bear  on  men,  and  leaves  them  to 
produce  their  legitimate  effects  in  quickening  men's  capacities 
and  powers,  transforming  their  natures,  and  guiding  their  activi- 
ties. The  way  to  make  good  citizens  is  to  make  good  men;  the 
way  (and  the  only  way)  to  make  good  men  is  to  bring  them  face 
to  face  with  God,  to  awaken  in  them  a  sense  of  the  ugliness,  the 
guilt,  and  the  ruinousness  of  sin,  and  the  beauty  and  blessedness 
of  righteousness,  and  to  subdue  their  wills  and  willfulness,  and 
win  their  hearts,  by  the  appeal  of  God's  Fatherly  love  and  for- 
giving grace. 

Least  of  all  does  Jesus  teach,  or  say  anything  that  can  be 
twisted  to  imply,  that   (at  any  time  or  under  any  circumstances) 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  GROSS  ALEXANDER.  369 

the  Kingdom  of  God  is  to  be  identical  with  the  State  or  that  it  Is  to 
take  the  place  of  tliei  Sate.  We  know  the  disas.troiis  results  of  sev- 
eral experiments  that  have  been  made  in  this  direction,  and  notably 
those  made  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  at  sundry  times  and  in 
divers  places.  "My  Kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,"  He  said  as 
■explicity  as  language  can  be  made  to  say  it.  The  Kingdom  of 
God  exists  simultaneously  with,  and  in  the  midst  of,  but  still  in 
rigid  and  perpetual  separation  from,  the  State.  Otherwise  we 
should  witness  a  repetition  of  the  history  of  Europe  from  Hilde- 
brand  to  Pius  IX.  We  can  but  sympathize  with  and  admire  the 
patient  efforts  which  the  noble  army  of  our  Nonconformist  brethren 
In  England  are  making  to  bring  about  the  separation  of  Church 
and    State;    and   we  pray   God   to  give   them   success. 

Some  of  our  enthusiastic  Christian  Socialists,  like  my  gifted 
and  honored  friend,  Prof.  Walter  Rauschenbusch,  in  his  beautiful 
and  inspiring  book  on  "Christianity  and  the  Social  Crisis,"  and  Dr. 
William  Newton  Clarke,  in  his  recent  book,  "The  Ideal  of  Jesus," 
come  perilously  near  to  the  doctrine  of  the  ultimate  identification 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  the  civil  State. 

It  has  been  said  in  this  paper  that  Jesus  gave  no  instruction 
concerning  any  kind  or  form  of  social  organism.  There  is  one 
notable  and  profoundly  significant  exception.  He  did  give  some 
very  explicit  instruction,  and  He  laid  down  inexorable  law  for 
safeguarding  the  integrity  and  preserving  the  sanctity  of  the 
Family. 

The  Family  is  a  social  organism  of  a  nature  and  kind  radically 
and  essentially  different  from  any  and  all  others.  It  is  an  or- 
ganism of  nature,  so  to  speak..  According  to  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  interpretation  of  it  by  Jesus,  "it  was  instituted  of 
God  in  the  time"  of  the  race's  infancy.  Without  it  natural  society 
is  chaos.  Without  it  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  not  possible.  Two 
things  are  elemental — the  individual  and  the  Family,  the  indi- 
vidual unit  and  the  social  unit.  These  two  secured  in  accordance 
with  the  ideal  and  the  teachings  of  Jesus,  all  other  organisms 
and  forms  of  social  life  will  take  care  of  themselves — the  com- 
munity, the  State,  the  Church.  It  is  possible  only  to  summarize 
Jesus'  teaching. 

In  keeping  with  His  lofty  teaching  as  to  the  origin  and  sacred- 
ness  and  the  divine  sanctions  of  marriage  and  the  Family,  are  His 
explicit,  repeated,  insistent,  impassioned  utterances  on  the  subject 
of  divorce — the  dissolution  of  the  marriage  bond  and  the  separa- 
tion of  the  husband  and  wife  with  liberty  to  form  a  marriage 
(sexual)  relation  with  a  third  person.  If  the  family  is  fundamental, 
divorce  is  fundamental.  This  is  why  Jesus  devotes  to  this  subject 
so  much  attention — seemingly  out  of  all  proportion  in  the  opinion 
24 


370  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

of  those — shall  I  saj-  of  us? — who  have  not  thought  so  deeply  as 
Jesus  did. 

The  old  law  (Deut.  24:  1),  on  account  of  the  hardness  of  the 
hearts  of  the  men  of  that  primitive  time  (as  Jesus  said),  tol- 
erated divorce,  and,  as  it  was  interpreted  by  the  rabbis.,  for  any 
cause  that  might  seem  good  and  sufficient  in  the  eyes  of  any 
husband  who  had  found  or  was  looking  for  a  new  "affinity." 
The  only  thing  required  was  that  the  husband  give  his  wife  a 
certificate  of  dismissal.  Jesus  forbade  divorce  for  any  but  one 
cause,  and  many  of  the  best  scholars  think,  for  any  cause,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  the  exceptive  clause  ("saving  for  the  cause 
of  adultery")  is  not  found  in  the  parallel  passage  in  Mark  (10:  11), 
the  earliest  Gospel,  or  in  Luke  (16:  18),  which  probably  follows 
the  earlier  form.  There  is  a  distinct  temdency  in  the  Gospel  of 
Matthew  to  introduce  slight  additions,  as  may  be  seen  by  com- 
parison of  many  passages  with  their  parallels  in  Mark  and  Luke. 

Jesus  did  not  explicitly  or  implicitly  forbid  simple  separation 
and  living  apart  where  conditions  became  intolerable,  but  not 
with  the  right  and  privilege  of  forming  a  new  (sexual)  union 
with  some  other  "affinity."  If  people  knew  absolutely  that  it 
was  absolutely  impossible  to  get  divorces,  they  would  be  pretty 
sure  to  find  a  modus  vivendi,  and  be  willing  to  make  all  necessary 
concessions  and  compromises  rather  than  forego  marriage  al- 
together. But  Jesus  saw  clearly  what  our  modern  moralists  and 
lawmakers  do  not  see — that  the  easy  disruption  of  the  maiTiage 
bond  means  the  ultimate  destruction  of  the  family;  and  the  de- 
struction of  marriage  and  the  family  inevitably  leads  to  free-love, 
which  even  now  prevails  to  an  extent  which,  if  known,  would  be 
appalling. 

We  need  some  more  preachers  like  Dr.  Richmond,  of  Phila- 
delphia, who  so  fearlessly  and  mercilessly  exposed  the  iniquity  of 
the  recent  marriage  of  a  divorced  millionaire  of  high  degree.  All 
honor  to  him,  and  equal  honor  to  the  poor  Methodist  preacher  who 
flatly  refused  a  fee  of  $10,000  to  perform  the  ceremony  and  after- 
wards declined  a  large  gift  offered  to  him  as  a  reward  for  doing 
his  duty. 

As  to  the  authority  of  parents  and  the  honor  due  them,  as  well 
as  the  sacred  duty  of  providing  for  and  supporting  them  in  time 
of  need,  Jesus  approves  with  impassioned  emphasis  the  stringent 
and  inexorable  law  of  the  Old  Testament  (see  Matt.  15:  4,  6; 
Mark  7:  9,  13).  The  way  in  which,  till  His  thirtieth  year,  He 
Himself  was  subject  and  obedient  to  Joseph  and  Mary  is  a  com- 
mentary on  His  teaching  which  is  as  irresistibly  charming  as  it  is 
consummately   illuminating. 

The  interest  that  Jesus  took  in  little  children,  His  unfailing 
fondness  for  them,  the  beautiful  things  He  said  about  them,  and 


ESSAY  OP  THE  REV.  GROSS  ALEXANDER.  37 i 

the  estimate  He  put  on  the  beauty,  the  purity,  the  glory  of  child- 
hood in  making  it  the  ideal  of  discipleship  and  the  symbol  of  fit- 
ness for  the  Kingdom  of  God — these  are  but  another,  if  incidental, 
way  in  which  He  paid  tribute  to  the  sacredness  of  the  marriage 
relation  and  th&  sweetness  and  beauty  and  holiness  of  family  life. 

With  all  this  in  our  minds,  we  can  better  understand  the  sig- 
nificance of  His  presence  at  the  marriage  in  Cana  and  His  contri- 
bution to  the  joy  of  the  occasion.  Does  it  not  mean  much  that 
the  first  act  of  His  public  career  was  the  performance  of  an  appro- 
priate miracle  at  a  wedding?  Was  it  an  accident  that  when  He 
was  at  a  wedding,  the  hour  struck  for  Him  to  leave  His  retirement 
and  to  inaugurate  by  a  miracle  His  world-redeeming  mission  and 
ministry  ? 

The  persistent  attitude  of  Jesus  toward  wealth  and  His  con- 
sistent and  insistent  teaching  on  the  subject  constitute  the  most 
extraordinary  and  revolutionary  element  of  His  social  ethics.  All 
sorts  of  methods  have  been  employed  and  efforts  made  to  explain 
it  away,  to  evade  it,  to  tone  it  down.  It  has  been  systematically 
ignored.  It  has  been  denounced  as  Socialistic  and  Anarchistic. 
It  is  His  one  teaching  that  men  will  not  accept.  It  is  His  one 
teaching  that  His  followers  will  not  put  in  practice.  All  men 
are  afraid  of  it,  as  if  it  had  dynamite  in  it;   and  it  has. 

But  it  will  not  down.  If  there  is  any  one  subject  upon  which 
He  speaks  with  more  frequency  and  with  greater  emphasis  and 
earnestness  than  upon  any  other,  it  is  the  subject  of  Money.  If 
we  may  trust  the  Gospel  records  of  His  teachings,  and  if  we  may 
judge  by  the  frequency  with  which  He  talked  about  it  and  the 
various  terms  and  figures  He  used,  it  may  be  unhesitatingly 
asserted,  (1)  that  it  was  to  Jesus  the  subtlest  and  deadliest  of  all 
perils  to  its  owner,  and  (2)  that  with  the  single  exception  of 
religious  hypocrisy,  no  sin  struck  Him  as  did  the  sin  of  uncon- 
secrated  wealth.  Wendt,  the  great  German  scholar  whose  work 
on  "The  Teaching  of  Jesus"  is  the  greatest  in  existence,  declares 
that  Jesus  made  the  renunciation  of  riches  a  condition  of  entrance 
into  the  Kingdom  of  God,  co-ordinate  with  repentance  and  faith. 
And  surely  nobody  can  accuse  Wendt  of  being  an  Ebionite. 

Wealth  has  possession  of  many  a  man  who  honestly  thinks  he 
has  possession  of  his  wealth.  For  so  it  is  that  when  wealth  gets 
possession  of  a  man's  heart  it  puts  out  the  inner  light,  as  Jesus 
says,  and  chloroforms  his  capacity  of  spiritual  discernment.  But 
he  does  n't  know  it,  of  course.  The  drunkard,  the  prostitute,  the 
robber,  the  murderer,  know  that  they  are  wicked,  and  they  have 
at  least  seasons  of  maddening  remorse,  but  the  man  who  is  guilty 
of  wealth  never  suspects  that  anything  is  wrong  with  him.  Cath- 
olic priests  have  said,  as  quoted  by  Professor  Rauschenbusch,  that 
people  confess  all  sorts  of  sins  and  crimes,  but  that  nobody  ever 


372  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

confessed  the  sin  of  riches.  Few  of  us  have  progressed  to  the 
point  at  which  we  can  understand  and  accept  the  views  and  teach- 
ings of  Jesus  concerning  wealth.  John  Wesley  had.  You  need 
only  to  recall  his  consistent  practice  through  more  than  fifty  years, 
and  his  strong  and  searching  words  on  the  subject. 

And  yet  Jesus  does  not  teach  asceticism,  socialism,  or  com- 
munism. He  believes  in  the  joys  and  enjoyments  of  life,  and  Him- 
self partook  of  them.  He  gives  to  no  man  or  set  of  men,  to  no 
community.  Church,  or-  council,  the  authority  to  take  away  or  to 
touch  another  man's  property  or  wealth.  His  appeal  is  to  the 
rich  man  himself  to  relinquish  his  hold  on  wealth,  or  rather  to 
break  its  hold  on  him,  and  by  using  it  for  the  relief  of  the  poor, 
the  destitute,  the  helpless,  and  the  suffering,  or  for  the  great  enter- 
prises of  social  amelioration  or  missionary  evangeilization,  save 
himself  from  the  condition  of  inner  darkness  and  the  hopeless 
doom  of  Dives,  whose  only  sin,  according  to  the  parable,  was  that 
he  rioted  in  luxury  while  a  fellow  human  being  just  outside  his 
bronze  gate  was  rotting  with  disease,  and  dying  by  the  slow  proc- 
ess of  starvation  on  the  scraps  that  he  picked  out  of  the  garbage 
pile.  And  there  are  plenty  of  Church  members  who  are  doing 
to-day  as  Dives  did,  but  they  think  it  is  all  right. 

Nor  did  Jesus,  save  in  exceptional  cases,  require  that  a  man 
shall  part  with  his  wealth  all  at  once  or  cease  to  have  the  use  and 
control  of  it.  When,  in  the  course  of  His  ministry.  He  came  across 
one  rich  man  who  proved,  by  giving  half  his  fortune  away  on 
the  spot  and  devoting  a  good  part  of  the  other  half  to  restitution, 
that  he  could  be  trusted  to  use  the  rest  without  peril  to  himself  or 
selfish  deprivation  of  others.  He  accepted  it  as  a  demonstration 
that  that  man  was  savingly  converted,  and  He  left  the  remainder 
in  his  hands  with  His  blessing. 

Charles  N.  Crittenton,  of  New  York,  had  a  legitimate,  honest 
income  of  $60,000  a  year,  all  of  which  but  a  living  (after  the 
manner  of  Wesley)  he  devoted  regularly  to  the  establishment  and 
equipment  of  rescue  homes  for  our  unfortunate  sisters,  in  all  the 
leading  cities  of  this  country.  This  is  exactly  in  accordance  with 
the  ideal  and  teaching  of  Jesus.  Jesus  Himself  no  doubt  would 
have  forbidden  his  giving  away  the  capital  through  which  this 
income  was  made.  If  all  who  are  members  of  the  various  Chris- 
tian Churches  would  use  their  wealth  as  Charles  Crittenton  used 
his;  in  other  words,  if  all  those  in  the  world  who  bear  the  name 
of  Christ  and  permit  themselves  to  be  considered  and  called  Chris- 
tians should  begin  to-morrow,  and  from  to-morrow  continue  to 
live  in  accordance  with  the  teachings  of  Jesus  on  the  single  subject 
of  money,  as  Crittenton  did,  there  would  come  throughout  the 
world  a  social,  industrial,  economic,  moral,  and,  lastly,  spiritual 
revolution  inside   of  a  hundred   days,  of  vaster  extent  than   that 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  GROSS  ALEXANDER.  373 

which  Christianity  wrought  in  the  world  in  its  first  hundred  years. 
Do  you  doubt  it? 

Stronger  words  than  these  have  been  said  by  secular  econo- 
mists. Laveleye,  a  great  European  writer,  in  his  work  on  "Primi- 
tive Property"  (chapter  31),  says:  "If  Christianity  were  under- 
stood and  taught  and  practiced  conformably  to  the  spirit  of  its 
Founder,  the  existing  social  organism  could  not  last  a  single  day." 
And  James  RusseJl  Lrowell  said,  in  his  "Essay  on  the  Progress  of 
the  World:"  "There  is  dynamite  enough  in  the  New  Testament,  if 
illegitimately  applied,  to  blow  our  existing  institutions  to  atoms." 

But  it  is  objected,  and  the  objection  seems  to  have  force:  If 
wealth  is  a  sin,  and  if  a  man  ought  not  to  use  It  as  he  wishes,  but 
should  use  it  for  the  needs  of  others,  for  the  social  good,  you  take 
away  all  incentive  for  making  wealth  and  effectually  prevent  the 
production  of  wealth.  But  this  objection,  though  plausible,  is 
groundless.  Instead  of  the  love  of  wealth  for  its  own  sake,  which 
is  consummately  deadening,  demoralizing,  and  debasing;  instead 
of  the  self-indulgence  which  wealth  ministers  to  and  which  is 
destructive  of  mind,  soul,  body,  and  character,  you  can  substitute 
the  far  nobler  motive  of  love  and  loyalty  to  Christ,  the  pure  and 
ennobling  joy  of  giving,  the  blessedness  of  relieving  poverty  and 
misery  and  of  helping  on  the  cause  and  triumph  of  Christ  and 
righteousness  in  your  own  land  and  throughout  the  world.  If 
these  are  not  great  and  kindling  motives  both  to  enthusiastic 
initiative  and  sustained  service,  there   are  none. 

Certainly,  this  should  not  be  a  hard  or  unwelcomei  doctrine  to 
the  followers  of  John  Wesley,  whose  teaching  and  practice  it  was 
throughout  a  career  that  has  changed  the  moral  and  spiritual 
climate  of  this  world. 

If,  by  the  grace  and  blessing  of  God,  the  deliberations  aiid 
discussions  and  exercises  of  this  great  Ecumenical  Conference 
should  result  in  a  return  of  the  people  called  Methodists  through- 
out the  world  to  the  teachings,  the  standards,  and  the  example  of 
John  Wesley,  it  would  make  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of  Meth- 
odism, and  of  the  world,  and  of  the  Kingdom  of  God'  on  this 
planet. 

II.  The  Old  Testament. — In  treating  a  subject  of  so  great 
scope  and  such  variety  of  details,  it  will  be  impossiblei  to  do  more 
than  consider  a  few  general  principles.  It  will  be  convenient  in 
studying  the  teachings  of  the  Old  Testament  to  follow  the  usual 
division  of  its  contents  into  the  Law  and  the  Prophets. 

There  is  in  what  we  call  the  Decalogue  a  fairly  compre- 
hensive digest  of  the  moral  law  of  the  pre-Christian  dispensation. 
The  first  three  commandments  have  reference  to  God  and  the 
relations  and  obligations  of  the  individual  to  Him.  This  is  true 
in   part   also   of   the   contents   of   the   fourth   commandment — con- 


374  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

ceming  the  Sabbath.  The  fifth  commandment  has  reference  to 
the  family,  and  safeguards  its  integrity  in  requiring  that  the 
parents — not  one,  but  both,  and  equally — shall  be  forever  held  in 
honor.  Parents  are  put  next  to  God.  Incidentally,  the  seventh, 
forbidding  adultery,  and  the  tenth,  forbidding  the  coveting  of 
another's  wife,  have  reference  to  the  family  in  teaching  the  in- 
violability of  the  marriage  relation  and  the  sacredness  of  the 
wife's  person.  Otherwise  the  last  five  have  reference  to  one's 
duties  to  individuals,  whether  as  individuals  or  as  together  com- 
posing society.  So  that  while  in  the  Decalogue  God  is  first  and 
forever  to  remain  first,  social  duties,  duties  to  others,  come  next 
and  occupy  the  larger  half  of  this  magna  charta.  Here  and  through- 
out the  Bible  the  two  are  organically  and  inseparably  woven  to- 
gether as  warp  and  woof  of  one  seamless  vesture  of  complete 
righteousness;  and  neither  one  nor  the  other  can  be  left  out  with- 
out unmaking  and  destroying  the  whole  fabric.  This  Decalogue 
may  be  called  the  Constitution  of  the  Theocracy.  All  other  laws 
Avere  but  applications  to  particular  relations  or  situations  of  prin- 
ciples involved  in  these  ten  words.  And,  indeed,  to  this  day  we 
call  the  Ten  Commandments  the  Moral  Law. 

This  digest  is  further  summarized  in  two  great  commandments 
(to  be  found  in  later  books) ,i  which  condense  the  whole  law  in 
one  single  word,  and  comprehend  it  all  in  one  attitude  and  dis- 
position of  heart,  whether  toward  God  or  one's  fellow-men.  That 
great  word  is  too  sacred  to  be  further  hackneyed  and  desecrated 
by  using  it  again  here. 

But  in  addition  to  this  digest  of  the  Decalogue  and  this  arrest- 
ing summary  of  it  in  the  language  of  the  heart  and  in  a  single 
word  which  is  the  greatest  in  the  vocabularj^  of  the  earth,  or  of 
hfeaven,  there  is  some  special  legislation  which  is  very  remark- 
able. It  might  be  called  class  legislation.  Its  object  is  the  pro- 
tection of  the  poor,  the  dependent,  the  socially  incompetent,  from 
the  selfish  injustice  and  oppression  of  the  rich  and  the  powerful. 

The  same  spirit  breathes  in  the  prophets.  As  hasi  been  truly 
said:  "Their  sympathies  were  entirely  on  the  side  of  the  poorer 
classes  and  against  the  rich  who  ground  them  down  with  in- 
justice and  oppression.  The  prophets  conceived  Jehovah  as  the 
Sipecial  vindicator  of  the  poor  and  friendless,  and  they  preached 
insistently  that  it  is  one  chief  duty  of  religious  morality  to  stand 
for  the  rights  of  the  poor."  Indeed,  this  was  a  specialty  of  the 
preaching  and  teaching  of  the  prophets  as  a  class.  They  rise  to 
a  higher  pitch  of  passion  in  denoimcing  the  oppressions,  of  the 
rich  and  powerful  than  in  dealing  with  any  other  problems  of 
thedr  time.  And,  I  may  say,  in  passing,  that  if  there  is  any  man 
in   our    day    who    comprehends    their    messages,    who    enters    into 


iDeuteronomy  vl.  4,  5;  Leviticus  xlx.  18. 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  GROSS  ALEXANDER.  375 

their  spirit,  and  who  in  expounding  their  teachings  uses  words  as 
burning  as  theirs,  that  man  is  George  Adam  Smith,  who  by  the 
accident  of  residence  belongs  to  Scotland,  but  who,  by  the  evan- 
gelical soundness  and  the  catholicity  of  his  spirit  and  the  extent 
of  the  field  of  his  service,  belongs  to  universal  Christendom. 

The  most  striking  example  of  this  special  legislation  is  that 
which  has  for  its  object  the  protection  of  the  poor  in  their  rights 
in  the  land.  "One  of  the  highest  and  most  diflBcult  problems  of 
statesmanship  is  to  pi'ovide  for  and  secure  the  equable  distribution 
and  ownership  of  the  land.  The  ownership  of  the  land  is  the  fun- 
damental economic  fact  in  all  communities.  Unequal  distribution 
of  the  land  has  always  been  accompanied  by  a  hereditary  landed 
aristocracy.  Approximately  equal  distribution  of  the  land  is  the 
necessary  basis  for  a  real  and  permanent  democracy,  both  polit- 
ical and  social."  If  the  land  is  owned  by  the  men  who  till  it,  there 
is  social  soundness,  health,  equality,  prosperity,  happiness.  If  it 
is  owned  by  wealthy  families  and  tilled  by  landless,  homeless 
laborers,  the  situation  is  radically  wrong;  there  will  be  inevitable 
injustice  and  oppression  on  the  one  side,  and  privation,  suffering, 
humiliation,  discontent,  bitterness  on  the  other,  unless  the  people 
have  become  so  low,  so  dull,  so  debased,  so  abject,  as  to  be  no 
longer  capable  of  pride,  self-respect,  or  discontent — like  dumb, 
driven  cattle. 

Now  the  law  of  the  Old  Testament  shows  a  really  astonishing 
breadth  of  view  and  depth  of  insight  on  this  fundamental  but 
difficult  subject,  distinctly  in  advance  of  the  wisdom,  the  laws, 
the  customs  of  our  day.  What  statesman  or  economist  has  arisen 
in  our  day  who  has  been  equal  to  originating  and  formulating  a 
plan  that  has  made  it  forever  impossible  for  cunning  and  greedy 
land-grabbers  and  fortune-builders  to  get  and  hold  possession  of 
miles  and  leagues  of  land,  while  millions  of  the  poor  are  living 
as  dependent  tenants  and  barely  existing  on  the  crumbs  that  fall 
from  their  masters'  tables?     I  know  of  but  one. 

The  Hebrew  law,  however,  did  make  provision  to  guard  against 
the  accumulation  of  the  land  by  a  few  of  the  wealthy  and  power- 
ful. "The  manhood  of  the  poor  was  more  sacred  to  it  than  the 
property  of  the  rich."     It  made  these  provisions: 

1.  The  land  could  not  be  permanently  alienated  from  the  orig- 
inal owner  or  his  family.  If  a  man  "waxed  poor"  and  had  to  sell 
his  land  for  immediate  necessities,  then  his  next  of  kin  had  to 
redeem  it  for  him;  or  in  case  there  was  none  to  do  it,  at  the  year 
of  Jubilee,  no  matter  how  near  it  might  bei,  the  land  reverted  to 
the  original  owner,  and  "he  returned  unto  his  possession."  (  Lev. 
25:  10,  13,  23.) 

2.  Every  seventh  year  all  the  land  of  all  owners  was  to  remain 
untilled,  and  what  it  brought  forth  of  itself  was  common  property. 


376  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

3.  Owners  were  not  to  glean  after  the  reapers,  but  to  leave  the 
gleanings  for  the  poor  and  the  sojourner.  You  will  recall  the 
romantic  and  charming  idyl  of  Ruth  the  fair  Moabitess  who  gleaned 
in  the  fields  of  Boaz.     (Ruth  2:  2,  3.) 

4.  The  laborer  v/as  to  be  paid  at  the  end  of  each  day.  (Lev. 
19:  13;   Deut.  24:  14,  15.) 

Now,  while  these  laws  are  not  ideal,  and  some  of  them  suited 
only  to  such  conditions  as  then  and  there  obtained,  they  show 
that  the  Hebrew  lawgivers  did  have  a  plan  for  maintaining  an 
equable  distribution  of  the  land  and  its  products.  And  these  land 
laws  were  enforced.  When  the  king  himself,  through  the  scheme 
of  his  astute  queen,  the  resourceful  Jezebel,  undertook  to  set  them 
aside,  he  found  that  he  "had  collided  with  the  primitive  land  sys- 
tem of  Israel,"  and  it  cost  him  and  his  family  the  throne,  and 
Jezebel  her  life. 

Whether  the  law  preceded  the  rise  and  ministry  of  the  prophets 
and  was  the  inspiration  of  them,  according  to  the  common  view,  or 
whether  the  major  part  of  the  law  was  given  during  and  after 
the  Exile  as  an  outgrowth  and  a  sort  of  codification  of  the  great 
principles  which  the  prophets  ha^  proclaimed  and  taught,  can  not 
be  discussed  here. 

At  all  events,  they  are  quite  at  one  in  their  great  underlying 
principles  and  in  spirit.  Both  are  illustrated  in  such  splendid 
passages  as  these:  "And  Samuel  said,  "Hath  the  Lord  as  great 
delight  in  burnt  offerings  and  sacrifices,  as  in  obeying  the  voice 
of  the  Lord?  Behold,  to  obey  is  better  than  sacrifice,  and  to 
hearken  than  the  fat  of  rams."  (1  Sam.  15:  22.)  "For  I  desire 
goodness,  and  not  sacrifice;  and  the  knowledge  of  God  more  than 
burnt-offerings."  (Hosea  6:  6.)  "Wash  you,  make  you  clean;  put 
away  the  evil  of  your  doings  from  before  Mine  eyes;  cease  to 
do  evil;  learn  to  do  well;  seek  justice,  relieve  the  oppressed, 
judge  the  fatherless,  plead  for  the  widow."  (Isa.  1:  16,  17.)  "He 
hath  showed  thee,  O  man,  what  is  good;  and  what  doth  the  Lord 
require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  kindness,  and  to  walk 
humbly  with  thy  God?"  (Micah  6:  8.)  It  was  not  oblations  but 
obedience,  not  ceremonies  but  service,  not  ritual  but  righteousness, 
not  sacrifices,  but  the  spirit  of  love,  that  God  required. 

The  aim  of  the  prophets  was:  (1)  The  dissipation  of  the  flelu- 
sion,  so  current  and  so  stubborn,  that  if  men  gave  due  attention  to 
the  ceremonial  of  worship  theiy  could  live  as  they  listed  and  lusted. 
The  service  that  God  demanded  was  not  that  of  ritual  perform- 
ances, but  through  and  through,  ethical — that  of  righteousness 
and  justice  and  love  and  helpfulness.  (2)  The  righting  of  social 
wrongs  such  as  the  oppression  of  the  poor  and  dependent  by  the 
rich  and  powerful.  But  their  messages  were  not  restricted  to 
private  and  personal  religion  and  morality,  they  dealt  largely  with 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  GROSS  ALEXANDER.  377 

the  social  and  political  life  of  the  nation.  This  was  so  In  the 
nature  of  the  case  because  of  the  solidarity  of  the  nation  and  their 
relation  to  it  as  a  nation.  Israel  as  a  people  was  the  chosen 
people  of  God.  His  theocracy  resided  in  them  as  a  people.  The 
prophets  were  preachers,  to  bei  sure.  They  themselves  had  come  in 
personal  and  immediate  contact  with  God,  had  had  experience  of 
the  power  and  inworking  of  God,  had  communion  with  God,  and 
through  these  experiences  had  com©  to  know  who  God  was  and 
what  He  was,  to  understand  Hia  nature.  His  holiness.  His  will. 
We  get  glimpses  of  these  experiences  in  the  writings  of  some  of 
them,  as  in  Amos,  Hosea,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  and  fuller  disclosures  in 
those  searching  confessionals  which  we  find  in  the  Psalms,  where 
the  very  inmost  soul  is  laid  hare  and  all  its  secrets  rendered  up  in 
the  presence  and  under  the  eye  of  God,  the  consciousness  of  for- 
giveness is  testified  to,  the  soul  is  filled  and  satisfied  with  peace 
and  exultation,  and  the  lips  break  forth  in  songs  of  deliverance 
and  praise.  Such  men  as  these  became  witnesses  for  God  and 
interpreters  of  God  to  others,  and  proclaimers  of  His  will.  That 
is,  they  became  preachers.  In  the  Psalms  we  see  them  in  the 
secret  place  of  prayer;  in  the  books  of  their  prophecies  we  hear 
them  thundering  from  their  pulpits. 

But  they  were  other  and  more  than  preachers  who  declared  the 
relations  and  duties  of  the  individual  to  God.  They  were  also, 
because  in  their  situation  they  had  to  be,  statesmen.  Since  Israel 
was  God's  theocracy,  and  those  who,  by  the  mere  accident  of  birth, 
became  its  earthly  human  kingsi,  could  not  be  depended  on  to 
follow  or  even  to  know  God's  will  and  plans,  these  men  who  were 
acquainted  with  God  and  His  ways  were  commissioned  and  sent 
as  the  interpreters  and  spokesmen  of  God  to  be  the  advisers  of 
both  king  and  people  in  matters  of  public,  social,  and  political 
concern.  The  position  of  these  prophets  was*  roughly  similar  to 
that  of  prime  minister  in  a  limited  monarchy,  like  Great  Britain, 
only  they  were  not  selected  by  the  king  or  elected  by  the  people, 
but  were  "found"  and  chosen  and  commissioned  by  God  Himself. 
If  it  had  been  left  to  the  king  or  the  people  to  choose  them,  they 
would  have  chosen  men  of  their  own  sort.  They  had  to  trust  to  the 
character  of  their  message,  their  own  personal  character,  their 
own  insight  and  foresight,  their  divine  unction,  and  other  "signs 
accompanying,"  as  the  credentials  of  their  call  and  commission. 
As  to  the  king,  they  pointed  out  his  errors,  warned  him  of  perils, 
dictated  the  right  course  to  pursue,  and  when  necessary,  rebuked 
his  sins,  as  Samuel  did  Saul's;  Nathan,  David's;  and  Elijah, 
Ahab's.  As  to  the  people,  they  advised,  exhorted,  reproved,  warned 
or  threatened  them,  as  the  need  might  be. 

These  facts  make  it  clear  why  the  messages  of  the  prophets,  as 
we  find  them  in  the  histories  or  read  them  in  their  extant  writings, 


378  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

were  in  such  large  measure  of  a  general  and  public  character,  and 
had  to  do  with  social  and  political  affairs.  But  even  now  and 
then  we  meet  with  passages  even  in  their  public  messages  which 
focus  on  the  individual.  These  are  those  passages  which  con- 
dense a  comprehensive  and  all-inclusive  statement  of  God  and  the 
essentials  of  true  righteousness  in  a  single  pregnant  sentence,  such 
as  we  find  in  Micah  6:  8,  "He  hath  showed  thee,  O  man,  what  is 
good;  and  what  doth  Jehovah  require  of  thee  by  to  do  justly,  and 
to  love  kindness,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God?"  When 
the  nation  fell  into  disintegration  and  decay  and  was  finally 
destroyed  by  foreign  conquerors,  the  character  of  the  messages  of 
the  prophets  changes.  They  were  henceforth  not  so  much  polit- 
ical and  social  as  formerly,  but  now  began  to  be  directed  more  and 
more  toward  individual  righteousness.  This  begins  with  Jere- 
miah and  grows  more  and  more  pronounced  in  Ezekiel. 

John  the  Baptist  really  belongs  to  the  order  of  the  prophets, 
though  in  a  sense  he  was  more  than  a  prophet,  as  Jesus  said  of 
him.  He  had  thus  a  message  for  the  individual;  and  he  had 
messages  also  for  different  classes,  as  the  Pharisees  and  Sad- 
ducees,  the  publicans,  the  soldiers — for  everybody.  As  with  the 
lawgivers  of  Israel  and  the  prophets,  what  struck  John  was  the 
distressing  inequality  in  the  conditions  of  men:  some  had  plenty, 
others  had  nothing.  He  demanded  that  those  who  had  should' 
share  with  those  who  had  not  (Luke  3:  11) — an  elementary  part 
of  repentance  which  is  conspicuously  absent  from  the  lives  of 
many  of  those  who  call  themselves  Christians  to-day. 

The  President:  "The  first  address  of  the  morning,  'Our 
Social  Duty  as  a  People's  Church/  will  be  read  by  the  Rev.  W. 
HoDsON"  Smith,  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church:" 

Ours  is  a  people's  Church,  and  therefore  is  not  the  Church  of 
any  particular  class.  It  is  a  Church  for  all,  and  has  no  respect  of 
persons,  so  far  as  social  position  or  financial  ability  are  concerned. 
Our  appeal  is  to  the  rich  and  to  the  poor;  to  the  illiterate  and  to 
the  scholarly.  We  have  obligations  to  every  class  of  the  commun- 
ity. In  our  rightful  concern  for  the  welfare  of  Dick,  and  Tom,  and 
Harry,  at  one  end  of  the  social  scale,  we  must  not  be  unmindful  of 
the  claims  of  Richard,  and  Thomas,  and  Henry,  at  the  other  end. 
Our  social  duty  as  a  people's  Church  involves  obligations  and  re- 
sponsibilities to  all  classes  of  people.  It  is  for  us  to  find  out  what 
those  obligations  are,  and  how  they  can  best  be  met.  These  obliga- 
tions are  preventive,  remedial,  and   constructive. 

1,  Preventive.  Our  first  preventive  obligation  to  Society  is  to  the 
children  and  young  people. 

It  is  surely  as  much  our  duty,  and  it  is  at  least  as  great  a  work, 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  W.  HODSON  SMITH.  370 

to  prevent  a  person  from  falling  into  the  whirlpool  as  to  fish  him 
out  of  it.  It  is  right  and  proper  to  rejoice  when  the  prodigal  comes 
home;  but  life's  best  estate  is  with  the  man  who  never  leaves  it. 
We  must  keep  the  children  and  young  people.  Our  influence  and 
strength,  therefore,  must  be  given  to  the  work  of  providing  right 
educational  facilities  and  conditions,  wholesome  domestic  condi- 
tions, better  housing,  better  homes,  better  food  that  shall  be  better 
cooked.  Our  social  duty  involves  the  discouragement  of  anything 
that  deteriorates  and  destroys  young  life;  the  advocacy  and  support 
of  all  that  makes  for  juvenile  righteousness.  We  must  not  frown 
upon  healthy  recreation,  wholesome  athletics,  or  physical  drill  that 
mean  discipline,  order,  and  obedience,  and  make  for  "a  sound  mind 
in  a  sound  body."  Our  duty  is  to  establish,  strengthen,  and  settle 
those  who  are  associated  with  us  and  attached  to  us. 

The  man  who  is  within  the  walls  of  the  Church  or  under  its 
shadows  is  surely  as  near  to  the  kingdom  as  the  man  in  the  gutter. 
Perhaps  some  young  folk  might  be  saved  from  sowing  their  wild 
oats  if,  with  tact,  and  sanitj',  and  courage  we  gave  them  of  the  seed 
of  the  kingdom,  with  a  suitable  seed  plot  for  service.  I  do  not 
believe  that  the  devil  has  the  first  chance  with  redeemed  humanity; 
the  Church  has  it.  Alas!  that  we  sometimes  miss  it.  We  must 
guard  the  flock  as  well  as  feed  it!  We  must  keep  up  the  fences, 
and  stop  the  gaps.  Nor  must  we  be  silenced  or  intimidated  in  the 
presence  of  destructive  forces — liquordom,  gambling,  sweating,  a 
starvation  wage,  unjust  competition,  unrighteous  privilege,  remun- 
erative slumdom,  the  idolatry  of  pleasure,  or  the  selfishness  that 
thrives  upon  the  oppression  of  the  poor. 

2  Our  work  is  remedial.  The  solution  of  our  social  problems  at 
bottom  is  spiritual. 

(1)  Our  first  duty  is  to  save  the  man.  We  may  sometimes  get 
at  the  man  through  his  conditions.  We  can  always  get  at  his  condi- 
tions through  the  man.  We  must  despair  of  no  man,  or  regard  his 
conditions,  however  bad,  as  being  unalterable.  We  must  seek  the 
lost  sheep,  and  destroy  the  thicket  in  which  it  has  been  caught; 
find  the  lost  coin  and  fill  up  the  crevice  into  which  it  fell.  Give 
the  prodigal  such  a  welcome  home,  and  surround  him  with  so  much 
cheer,  that  he  will  never  desire  to  go  back.  God  Himself  lias  loved 
us  out  of  the  pit!  The  Church  must  love  men  out  of  the  ways  of 
sin. 

(2)  Our  social  duty  involves  due  attention  to  the  conditions  and 
surroundings  of  his  life.  True,  man  did  not  fall  in  the  slums;  nor 
did  God  put  him  there;  he  has  no  business  to  be  there.  A  new 
creature  means  a  new  creation  in  the  broadest  sense.  A  new  life 
from  above  should  mean  a  Paradise  regained.  Save  the  man,  and 
help  him  back  to  his  Paradise.  We  must  support  any  policy  that 
makes  for  the  betterment  of  man.    What  has  the  Church  to  do  with 


380  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

Socialism?  with  Economics?  with,  such  subjects  as  the  bettei'  hous- 
ing of  the  people,  with  sweating,  and  the  like?  The  Church  must 
not  ignore  anything  that  tends  to  degrade  the  manhood  of  man. 
Nor  must  it  be  Indifferent  to  any  remedial  processes  that  tend  to 
elevate  and  to  save  him. 

In  all  this  the  Church  must  not  be  dragged  at  the  heels  of  any 
self-constituted  and  irresponsible  society,  in  respect  to  its  social 
duty,  or  as  to  its  social  policy.  It  must  not  be  indifferent  to  that 
duty,  or  uncertain  as  to  its  policy.  It  must  face  the  facts!  Every- 
body must  admit  that  the  condition  of  society  is  not  what  it  ought 
to  be;  nor  is  the  influence  of  the  Church  what  it  should  be.  But  the 
Church  must  take  the  initiative.  It  must  not  be  led,  nor  must  it 
drift — it  must  steer!  A  people's  Church  is  interested  in  all  things 
that  concern  the  people,  and  must  not  be  diverted  by  vested  interest, 
by  time-worn  privilege,  or  by  diplomatic  considerations, 

3.  Our  duty  is  constructive!  We  have  to  build  the  City  of  God! 
Our  primary  obligation  in  this  regard  is  to  proclaim  to  all  men, 
regardless  of  position,  or  rank,  or  circumstance,  the  mystery  of  God. 
The  Church  to-day  might  very  properly  say,  "We  are  determined 
not  to  know  anything  among  you  save  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  cruci- 
fied." But  what  does  that  mean?  Christ  crucified  is  the  sovereign 
thought  of  progress,  and  of  all  sound  social  reconstruction.  The 
chief  function  of  the  Church  is  to  witness  to  Jesus  Christ,  every- 
where, always,  and  to  all  men.  To  show  that  business,  all  business 
may  be  done  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ.  Whatever  people  outside 
may  think  and  say,  it  is  not  for  Christ's  Church  to  look  upon  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  as  being  Utopian.  Wages  may  be  earned  and 
paid  in  His  spirit.  It  must  teach  men,  all  men,  that  what  God 
requires  of  us  is  "To  do  justly,  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly 
with  God."  It  must  insist  upon  the  observance  of  the  Golden  Rule, 
"Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  unto  you,  even  so  do  ye 
also  unto  them,  for  this  is  the  law  and  the  prophets." 

The  Church  must  adapt  its  methods  to  the  various  sections 
of  the  people  and  to  their  changed  conditions.  "The  system  that 
would  escape  the  fate  of  an  organism  too  rigid  to  adjust  itself  to  its 
environment  must  be  plastic  to  the  extent  that  the  growth  of  knowl- 
edge demands."  Socialism  has  become  a  mighty  force  among  us, 
for  weal  or  for  woe.  We  must  learn  to  use  it  for  the  benefit  of  the 
race,  and  for  the  salvation  of  the  age.  A  cubic  mile  of  water  has 
flowed  down  your  Niagara  every  week  for  thousands  of  years! 
What  destructive  forces  were  there!  But  science  has  touched  that 
mighty  current  and  turned  it  into  the  electric  power  house  of  a 
continent.  It  may  be  that  the  main  current  of  socialism  is  in  the 
old  country,  but  it  has  tributaries  all  over  the  world.  With  us  in 
England  it  has  reached  the  rapids;  but  we  will  not  fear,  for  under 
the  mystic  touch  of  the  pierced  hand  those  rapids,  so  terrible  in 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  B.  HADDON.  381 

some  of  their  aspects,  may  reveal  a  strange  potency.  What  is  that 
potency  but  the  brotherhood  of  man,  which  may  become  the  power- 
center  of  the  modern  Church,  the  ethical  element  through  which 
"the  mind  of  the  Master"  may  be  more  fully  revealed?  The  people's 
Church  may  take  its  stand  on  the  banks  of  that  mighty  torrent 
with  hope  and  confidence,  for  with  us  there  is  an  invisible  Presence 
who  once  said,  "Peace,  be  still,"  and  earlier  said,  "Let  the  dry  land 
appear,  and  it  was  so." 

Out  of  our  social  chaos,  out  of  our  economic  struggles,  our  per- 
plexities, our  contradictions,  He  will  make  all  things  new.  It  is 
for  the  Church  to  be  fellow-workers  with  Him.  This  work  of  the 
Church  is  so  great,  it  deserves  the  appointment  of  a  committee  of 
experts,  representing  not  only  the  Methodist  Churches,  but  all  the 
Churches,  who  shall  consider  the  whole  question  of  our  social  duty 
in  its  world  sense,  and  how  best  to  utilize  and  control  the  forces 
that  are  with  us,  and  with  us  for  the  betterment  of  man,  and  the 
glory  of  God.  Until  "all  men's  good  shall  be  each  man's  rule,"  and 
Tennyson's  dream  of  "The  Parliament  of  Man"  shall  be  realized, 

"Every  tiger  madness  muzzled; 

Every  serpent  passion  killed; 
Every  grim  ravine  a  garden, 

Every  blazing  desert  tilled; 
Robed  in  universal  harvest, 

Up  to  either  pole  she  smiles, 
Universal  ocean  washing 

Softly  all  her  warless  isles." 

"And  the  earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord,  as 
the  waters  cover  the  sea." 

The  PRESIDEXT:  "The  second  address,  on  "Socialism — 
Christian  and  Anti-christian/'  will  he  presented  by  the  Eev.  B. 
Haddon,  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church." 

Mr.  Haddon:  "Mr.  President,  I  think  a  preliminary  re- 
mark may  properly  be  made.  There  are  some  of  us  who  might 
rejoice  even  in  being  termed  Socialists,  and  yet  at  the  same 
time  we  would  not  care  to  be  identified  with  the  purposes  and 
with  the  plans  of  some  other  socialists, — for  tliere  are  socialists 
and  socialists.  My  subject  this  morning  distinguishes  between 
two  types  of  Socialism,  Christian  and  Anti-Christian :" 

The  familiar  remark  that  we  are  all  socialists  now  requires  a 
little  qualification,  for  there  are  socialists  and  socialists.  It  has 
been  said  that  "Every  active  Christian  who  makes  a  conscience 
of  his  faith  has  a  socialistic  vein  in  him,  and  that  every  socialist, 


383  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

however  hostile  he  may  be  to  the  Christian  religion,  has  an  un- 
conscious Christianity  in  his  heart."  This  may  or  may  not  be 
true;  but  I  am  sure  that  whilst  some  of  us  might  even  rejoice 
in  being  termed  socialists,  yet  just  as  strongly  should  we  object 
to  being  identified  with  the  purposes  and  plans  of  some  other 
socialists.  A  little  discrimination,  therefore,  needs  to  be  exercised 
in  applying  the  terms  "socialism"  and  "socialist."  If  it  be  true 
that  we  are  all  socialists,  it  is  equally  true  that  we  are  not  all 
socialists  of  the  same  kind. 

Our  subject  to-day  sharply  distinguishes  between  two  types  of 
socialism:  Christian  and  anti-christian,  and  the  reality  and  serious- 
ness of  the  distinction  can  not  be  too  much  emphasized.  This 
is  not  a  distinction  without  a  difference.  The  distinction  is  not 
accidental  but  essential,  not  superficial  but  vital.  Now,  that  such  a 
thing  as  anti-christian  socialism  has  existed  and  does  exist  can 
not  be  gainsaid,  and  with  any  such  socialism  no  Christian  can 
have  the  slightest  sympathy.  A  socialism  which  denies  God; 
which  is  materialistic  in  aim;  which  regards  social  enjoyment  as 
the  "summum  bonum"  of  life;  which  places  economics  before 
ethics;  which  sacrifices  the  individual  to  society;  which  trifles 
with  family  ties,  and  which  sneers  at  the  idea  of  a  future  exist- 
ence: such  a  type  of  socialism  can  receive  no  quarter  from  truly 
Christian  people.  It  is  not  only  anti-christian,  it  is  equally  anti- 
social. Regarding  this  type  of  socialism,  however,  let  me  make 
these  two  remarks.  First,  it  must  not  be  inferred  that  all  so- 
cialists who  are  not  identified  with  the  Church,  or  who  make 
no  profession  of  religion,  are  necessarily  atheists  or  materialists. 
The  time  has  gone  for  thus  speaking  of  socialists,  and  nothing 
but  harm  can  come  from  such  talk.  A  man  is  not  necessarily 
an  atheist  because  he  is  a  socialist,  just  as  a  man  is  not  neces- 
sarily a  Christian  because  he  goes  to  Church.  Happily,  the  athe- 
istic type  of  socialism  is  fast  passing  away.  The  socialists  of 
greatest  repute  and  influence  to-day  are  men  who,  if  not  actually 
connected  witfl  the  Church,  are  unmistakably  Christian  in  spirit 
and  aim.  One  who  is  conversant  with  the  socialist  movement  in 
England  testifies  that  "There  never  was  a  time  when  'Continental 
Socialism'  has  had  less  influence  than  it  has  to-day."  Secondly, 
one  can  not  altogether  escape  the  unwelcome  feeling  that  anti-chris- 
tian socialism  may  have  arisen  as  a  protest,  to  some  extent, 
against  the  indifference  of  many  Christians  to  the  social  bearings 
of  their  own  religion,  and  so,  though  an  evil  in  itself,  it  may  have 
done  good  service  in  awakening  the  attention  and  interest  of 
Christians  in  relation  to  the  social  conditions  and  needs  of  the 
people.  In  a  certain  sense,  therefore,  Christian  socialism  may 
be  regarded   as  the  child  of  anti-christian   socialism. 

Now,  though  the  existence,  and  even  the  possibility,  of  such  a 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  B.  HADDON.  383 

thing  as  Christian  socialism  has  been  questioned,  yet  tlie  deepen- 
ing interest  of  Christian  people  in  social  questions  is  self-evident. 
One  of  the  outstanding  features  of  present-day  Christianity  is  its 
social  consciousness,  its  passion  for  civic  righteousness.  Chris- 
tians are  more  than  ever  realizing  that  their  religion  is  not  merely 
departmental,  but  that  it  has  to  do  with  tlie  whole  man  and 
with  the  whole  life  of  men;  that  it  has  to  do  with  men's  bodies  as 
well  as  their  souls;  with  their  temporal  comforts  as  well  as  their 
future  felicity.  This,  I  repeat,  is  one  of  the  outstanding  features 
of  present-day  Christianity.  The  spirit  of  individualism  which 
dominated  the  Christianity  of  some  past  days  is  being  displaced 
by  a  new  socialism  which  is  insisting  on  the  application  of  Chris- 
tian principles  to  social  life.  And  is  this  not  right?  Is  it  not 
consistent  with  the  mind  of  the  Master,  who,  on  the  threshold 
of  His  ministry,  said:  "The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  Me,  be- 
cause He  hath  anointed  Me  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor;  He 
hath  sent  Me  to  heal  the  broken-hearted,  to  preach  deliverance 
to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at 
liberty  them  that  are  bruised,  to  preach  the  acceptable  year  of 
the  Lord?"  I  know  there  are  those  who  say  that  socialism  and 
Christianity  are  antagonistic,  but  in  reality  this  is  not  so.  There 
may  be  antagonism  between  certain  conceptions  of  Christianity 
and  certain  socialistic  theories,  but,  rightly  understood,  Chris- 
tianity can  never  be  charged  with  indifference  to  or  inability  to 
meet  man's  highest  good,  both  social  and  spiritual,  temporal  and 
eternal.  Nothing  can  be  regarded  as  outside  of  the  sphere  of 
Christianity  which  tends  to  uplift  and  perfect  human  life. 

This  application  of  Christian  principles  to  social  life  gives  me 
hope.  It  inspires  me  with  hope  for  the  future  of  society.  In  con- 
templating the  abolition  of  slavery,  Burke  said,  "I  confess  that 
I  trust  infinitely  more  to  the  effect  and  influence  of  religion  than 
to  all  the  rest  of  the  regulations  put  together."  And  my  trust 
and  hope  for  the  future  of  society  is  in  the  increasing  application 
of  Christian  principles  thereto  in  a  Christian  spirit.  No  scheme 
for  the  higher  development  of  society  can  be  either  adequate  or 
permanent  that  ignores  religion.  Any  social  order  that  is  to  be 
strong  and  safe,  healthy  and  happy,  must  be  broad-based  on  the 
mind  and  method  of  Jesus  Christ.  "Neither  is  there  any  other 
foundation  than  that  is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ,"  and  that  is 
as  true  of  the  social  structure  as  it  is  of  the  fabric  of  the  Church. 
Anti-christian  socialism  is  a  menace  to  society,  but  Christian 
socialism — the  faithful  application  of  Christian  principles  to  social 
life — will  insure  the  peace  and  progress  of  society.  The  socialism 
whose  sole  aim  is  to  se<uire  material  results  by  material  and  even 
revolutionary  methods  is  not  Christian  socialism.  It  is  dangerous 
and  is  ultimately  destructive  of  that  at  which  it  aims.    Man  shall 


384  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE 

not  live  by  bread  alone,  and  our  social  weal  is  possible  and  secure 
only  so  far  as  it  has  an  ethical  and  a  Christian  basis.  Of  course. 
Christian  socialists  demand,  and  legitimately  demand,  a  change  of 
social  conditions.  Loyalty  to  our  Lord  and  to  our  fellows  makes 
that  imperative.  There  are  conditions  in  which  thousands  of 
people  are  compelled  to  live  and  labor  which  are  nothing  short 
of  a  scandal.  They  foster  crime,  they  create  disorder,  they  breed 
mischief,  and  Christian  socialists  imperatively  demand  that  such 
conditions  shall  be  changed.  Badly-built  and  ill-ventilated  dwell- 
ings with  exorbitant  rents,  overcrowded  tenements  with  underfed 
and  ill-used  little  children,  slum  districts  which  breed  disease  and 
death,  sweating  shops  with  their  cheap  labor  and  long  hours,  and 
blighted  constitutions,  uncertain  employment  and  insufficient 
wages,  dazzling  gin-shops  and  open-mouthed  gambling  hells:  such 
conditions  as  these  can  not  be  tolerated.  They  are  as  foreign 
to  the  will  of  Christ  as  they  are  inimical  to  our  social  welfare. 
Such  social  conditions  must  be  changed,  and  it  is  part  of  the 
aim  and  program  of  Christian  socialism  to  effect  such  a  change. 
But  none  know  better  than  present-day  Christian  socialists  that 
such  a  change  in  itself  will  not  solve  our  social  problems.  They 
can  never  be  settled  by  a  mere  mechanical  readjustment  of  out- 
ward conditions  and  relations.  We  must  have  changed  char- 
acters as  well  as  altered  circumstances.  Mazzini  well  said,  "Man 
is  not  changed  by  whitewashing  or  regilding  his  habitation;  a 
people  can  not  be  regenerated  by  teaching  them  the  worship  of 
enjoyment;  they  can  not  be  taught  a  spirit  of  sacrifice  by  speak- 
ing to  them  of  material  rewards."  The  true  basis  of  social  progress 
is  ethical  rather  than  economic  or  industrial.  The  soul  of  all 
improvement  is  the  improvement  of  the  soul.  On  that  point  some 
of  our  leading  Christian  socialists  are  most  pronounced.  Let  me 
give  you  two  instances,  one  from  a  Primitive  Methodist,  and  the 
other  from  a  Wesleyau  Methodist.  Mr.  W.  E.  Harvey,  M.  P.,  said: 
"Men  must  be  taught  that  the  greatest  reform  of  all  must  come 
from  within.  This  accepted  with  all  it  means,  the  redress  of  social 
evils  will  come  more  speedily  to  the  advantage  of  all."  Mr.  Arthur 
Henderson,  M.  P.,  said:  "Reformers  of  all  schools  are  apt  to 
forget  that,  within  the  problem  of  a  better  social  order,  within 
the  problem  of  a  higher  social  life,  within  the  demand  for  social 
justice  and  economic  freedom,  there  lies  the  equally  important 
problem  of  the  Better  Man.  .  .  .  We  want  to  remember  that, 
however  important  it  is  to  equalize  the  extremes  of  life,  however 
valuable  it  may  be  to  establish  an  order  where  social  justice  and 
economic  freedom  may  obtain,  we  must  never  forget  that  the 
social  efficiency  of  a  State  can  never  be  separated  from  the  per- 
sonal fitness  of  the  people  that  compose   the   State,"     Now,  such 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  B.  HADDON.  385 

utterances  are  an  encouraging  sign,  they  give  us  hope  for  the 
future  of  society.  Yet  we  must  not  forget  that,  if  social  life 
must  have  a  moral  and  religious  basis,  social  reform  is  essential 
to  the  realization  of  our  moral  and  religious  possibilities.  That 
prince  of  Methodism,  Hugh  Price  Hughes,  said  that  he  never 
knew  a  man  converted  with  cold  feet.  And  the  foul  atmosphere 
which  many  people  are  forced  to  breathe,  and  the  cruel  conditions 
under  which  they  have  to  work,  make  religion,  if  not  impossible, 
exceedingly  difficult.  Thank  God,  under  the  worst  conditions  His 
grace  can  accomplish  wonders,  as  the  author  of  "Broken  Earthen- 
ware" and  the  records  of  many  Churches  can  testify. 

But  if  moral  regeneration  must  precede  social  reformation,  so 
social  freedom  is  absolutely  necessary  to  moral  and  religious 
progress.  These  two  things  are  really  one,  both  being  necessary 
to  the  salvation  of  society.  We  must  get  people  converted,  but 
if  their  conversion  is  to  be  followed  by  the  best  results,  we  must 
have  better  housing  of  the  poor;  slum  property,  from  whose 
excessive  rents  rich  men  become  richer,  must  be  swept  away; 
sweating  shops  must  be  cleansed  or  closed;  there  must  be  security 
of  employment  with  a  living  wage;  there  must  be  provision  for 
the  weak  and  aged;  children  must  be  fed,  clothed,  educated — in 
fine,  there  must  be  social  prevention  and  well  as  social  re- 
demption, and  all  this — and  this  is  the  Christian  socialist's  point — 
with  a  view  to  the  fuller  realization  of  our  moral  and  religious 
possibilities.  If  the  increasing  application  of  Christian  principles 
to  social  problems  gives  me  hope  for  the  future  of  society,  then 
the  increasing  socialization  of  our  Christianity  inspires  hope  for 
the  future  of  Christianity.  Whatever  the  statements  of  anti- 
christian  socialists,  the  social  influence  of  Christianity  is  historical 
fact.  Churches  may  have  been  faithless,  and  religion  may  have 
been  misconceived  and  misapplied,  but  wherever  Christianity  has 
had  a  fair  chance,  whether  from  friend  or  foe,  it  has  proved  itself 
a  great  liberating  and  ameliorating  force  in  social  life.  Our 
appeal  is  that  Christianity  shall  be  given  a  fair  chance,  as  much 
In  the  interests  of  Christianity  as  in  those  of  society.  It  has 
been  recently  said  that  "It  is  because  the  Church  has  not  had 
the  courage  of  its  faith,  and  has  been  trying  to  be  passively  Chris- 
tian— an  impossible  attitude  of  mind — that  it  has  reaped  religious 
indifference.  The  fault  can  lie  nowhere  but  in  the  general  indif- 
ference of  the  Church  to  the  social  needs  of  the  day.  Those 
Churches  which  are  whole-heartedly  trying  to  put  the  doctrines  of 
the  Nazarene  into  practice,  who  are  active  believers  in  the  social 
gospel  of  Christ,  are  not  empty."  Why  wail  over  diminishing 
membership  when  we  hold  the  remedy  in  our  own  hands?  Let 
us,  as   Christians  and   as   Churches,  give  the  people   to  feel   that 

25 


386  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

we  are  as  interested  in  their  social  good  as  in  their  spiritual 
welfare,  the  masses  again  will  be  captured,  and  Christianity  be 
stronger,  and  society  purer  and  happier. 

"Ring  in  the  valiant  man  and  free. 
The  larger  heart,  the  kindlier  hand; 
Ring  out  the  darkness  of  the  land. 
Ring  in  the  Christ  that  is  to  be." 

The  President  :  "Complaint  has  been  made  that  under  the 
five-minute  rule  there  is  such  an  amount  of  applause,  disturb- 
ance, etc.,  that  our  friends  in  the  gallery  and  those  at  any  dis- 
tance can  not  know  who  the  man  is  who  speaks,  and  to  what 
Church  he  belongs.  I  wish  the  man  to  whom  I  give  the  floor 
to  give  me  his  name  and  that  of  the  Cliurch  to  which  he  belongs, 
and  not  commence  to  speak  until  I  give  that  statement  to  the 
assembly." 

The  general  discussion  was  opened  by  the  Eev.  Herbert 
Welch,  D,  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church: 

Mr.  Chairman,  it  seems  to  me  a  most  happy  circumstance  that 
this  topic  of  the  relation  of  the  Church  to  social  service,  than  which 
few  if  any  more  important  will  be  introduced  on  this  platform, 
should  come  immediately  after  our  consideration  last  night  of  the 
fundamental  subject  of  evangelism.  For  if  there  is  anything  which 
we  as  Christians  and  Methodists  need  to-day,  it  is  to  bring  and  keep 
evangelism  and  social  service  into  vital  and  continuous  contact. 
It  seems  to  me  that  there  are  two  things  the  Church  ought  to  do; 
first,  to  recognize  fully  and  cordially  its  social  duty;  second,  to  see 
to  it  that  evangelism  and  social  service  are  kept  side  by  side,  neither 
one  being  allowed  to  become  a  substitute  for  the  other.  I  believe 
the  separation  between  the  Church  and  social  service  is  frequently 
exaggerated.  We  have  heard  it  said  that  the  social  workers  most 
prominent  to-day  are  not  identified  with  Christian  Churches.  I  be- 
lieve that  to  be  a  mistake.  Investigation  has  shown  that  in  the 
United  States  probably  75  per  cent  of  those  who  are  giving  their 
lives  to  charity,  social  settlements,  and  other  similar  enterprises, 
are  members  of  Christian  Churches  and  have  undoubtedly  received 
their  inspiration  through  the  Church  from  Jesus  Christ  Himself.  It 
ought  to  be  sufficient  to  suggest  such  names  as  Judge  Ben  Lindsay, 
of  Denver,  Colo.;  Prof.  Edwin  T.  Devine,  of  New  York,  and  Mr. 
Homer  Folk,  of  the  same  city,  as  being  connected  with  the  Metho- 
dist Church,  and  indicating  that  Methodism  has  not  been  altogether 
blind  to  its  duty  in  this  matter. 

We  were  told  that  the  Methodist  Church  is  separated  from  the 
great  body  of  working-men.  I  think  that  that  is  by  no  means  every- 
Avhere  true.  Many  of  our  churches  would  have  their  backbones 
broken  if  the  laboring  men  were  taken  out  of  them.  I  am  very  glad 
to  remember,  with  reference  to  our  "Federation  for  Social  Service," 
organized  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  some  four  years  ago, 
that  on  the  General  Council  of  that  body  we  have  two,  at  least. 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  387 

well-known  working  leaders  of  the  United  States:  Mr.  Johti  Wil- 
liams, Commissioner  of  Labor  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  for- 
merly president  of  the  International  Carpenters'  Union,  is  the  sec- 
ond vice-president  of  that  organization;  and  Mr.  J.  W.  Kline,  presi- 
dent of  the  International  Blacksmiths'  Union,  who  with  such  sa- 
gacity and  poise  has  spoken  for  that  great  body  of  shopmen  on  the 
Harriman  lines  in  the  recent  threatened  strike  on  the  Union  Pacific 
and  its  allied  lines,  is  an  official  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  Chicago.  We  have  such  men;  not  so  many  as  we  should,  but 
we  have  them. 

And  yet  I  fear  that  in  spite  of  such  facts  the  man  underneath 
still  believes  that  the  Church  belongs  to  the  man  on  top.  Some- 
how or  other,  not  simply  in  individual  and  sporadic  instances,  but 
in  our  great  Conference  action,  we  must  make  it  clear  that  we  are 
still  the  Church  of  the  people.  What  shall  we  do?  We  are  begin- 
ning by  passing  resolutions.  Very  much  may  be  said  in  derision  of 
progress  on  paper;  and  yet  the  first  work  for  the  Church  to  do  is 
to  shape  its  ideas.  I  am  very  glad  that  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States  led  the  way  at  its  last  General  Con- 
ference bj'  the  adoption  of  these  noble  resolutions  referred  to  by 
Mr.  Fairbanks- on  Sunday  afternoon;  resolutions  which  became  the 
basis  of  the  action  of  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ 
in  America  a  little  later,  and  have  been  adopted  bj^  various  Church 
bodies  in  the  United  States.  Mr.  Harry  F.  Ward,  to  whom  more 
than  to  any  other  single  man  is  due  both  the  form  and  the  sub- 
stance of  that  remarkable  statement,  is  preparing  a  book  which  shall 
explain  the  duty  of  the  Church;  and  it  will  make  vital  to  the  con- 
science of  great  bodies  of  our  ministers  and  laity  some  social  ideas 
which  must  govern  us  in  our  combined  action.  We  are  making 
progress;  and  a  clearer  goal  toward  which  we  shall  move  is  the  first 
step  for  further  steps  which  shall  be  permanent  and  useful. 

The  Rev.  J.  Erxest  Eattenbury,  of  the  British  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church: 

Mr.  President,  I  want  to  put  in  a  plea  this  morning  for  sympathy 
with  socialism  and  the  great  human  movements  that  are  outside 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  do  not  believe  that  the  Church  of 
Christ  ought  to  identify  itself  with  any  political  party  or  with  any 
economic  movement;,  but  there  is  great  danger  that  in  the  Church 
we  shall  forget  that,  on  the  whole,  the  Church  stands  for  privileged 
people,  and  the  great  masses  of  the  people  outside  the  Church  are 
the  disinherited  and  the  unprivileged.  And  great  movements  like 
Socialism  and  kindred  movements  are  the  movements  of  the  dis- 
inherited and  unprivileged  people — the  very  people  whom  Jesus 
Christ  came  to  speak  to.  There  is  a  tendency,  in  relation  to  social 
and  political  questions,  for  the  Church  consciously  or  perhaps  un- 
consciously to  stand  for  privilege  against  the  people  who  are  un- 
privileged. It  seems  to  me  a  matter  of  the  very  highest  moment 
that  the  Church  should  not  show  any  sort  of  antipathy  to  the  move- 
ments of  the  people  outside  the  Chui'ches,  but  should  rather  regard 
them  with  sympathy. 

Reference  has  boon  made  to  the  anti-Christian  character  of  So- 
cialism this  morning.  It  seems  to  me  that  that  sort  of  reference 
needs  a  great  deal  of  analysis  and  careful  thought.  It  is  perfectly 
true  that  the  great  socialistic  movement  in  Europe  is  largely  of  an 
anti-Christian  character;  but  then  you  need  to  remember  wiiat  has 


388  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

made  it  so.  It  is  the  movement  of  people  on  the  continent  of  Europe 
who  have  been  alienated  from  Christianity  by  the  parody  of  Chris- 
tianity in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  The  people  who  are  anti- 
Christian  Socialists  are  people  who  are  in  revolt  against  the  author- 
ity that  is  bad,  and  they  revolt  against  some  things  in  that  authority 
which  are  good,  quite  naturally. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  people  who  are  outside  the  Church  of 
Rome,  and  who  have  rejected  Christianity  on  the  continent,  are 
people  who  are  being  unconsciously  led  by  the  Spirit  and  by  the 
ideal  of  human  betterment  to  something  else;  and  they  have  fast- 
ened on  socialism,  which  is  an  infinitely  better  thing  than  skep- 
ticism. And  the  Church  of  Christ  ought  to  see  in  these  consti'uctive 
human  movements  outside  its  own  borders  the  movements  of  the 
Spirit  of  God.  For  it  seems  to  me  to-day  that  when  we  think  of 
many  of  the  great  questions  that  make  for  human  betterment  we 
shall  see  the  Christian  spirit,  and  not  the  anti-Christian  spirit; 
among  these  people. 

What  is  the  greatest  prospect  for  peace  in  Europe  to-day?  There 
is  nothing  that  more  makes  for  the  peace  of  Europe  to-day  than 
international  socialism.  It  is  true  that  the  great  mass  of  the  work- 
ingmen  in  Germany  were  indignant  at  the  possibility  or  the  thought 
of  war  with  England.  Let  it  never  be  forgotten  that,  though  these 
people  may  not  have  a  proper  orthodox  Christian  faith,  they  are 
looking  for  a  good  time  to  come.  They  feel  the  movement  of  the 
Spirit  to  something  higher.  They  may  be  blind,  misled,  or  unled; 
but  the  Christian  Church  knows  who  the  great  labor  leader  is; 
and  it  should  be  the  work  of  the  Christian  Church  to  be  sympathetic 
with  all  great  human  movements,  in  order  that  we  may  direct  the 
wandering  thought  of  men  who  are  outside  the  Church  to  something 
higher  and  nobler  than  mere  materialism.  It  is  our  work  to  make 
the  world  of  labor  feel  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Lord  of  lords  and 
the  King  of  kings,  and  the  great  Labor  Leader.  The  world  is  ready 
to  receive  Him  if  we  can  give  them  His  message  to  men  and  women, 
and  our  sympathy. 

The  Eev,  George  Elliott,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church : 

In  addition  to  what  Mr.  Rattenbury  has  just  said  as  relating  to 
working-men,  and  the  socialistic  movements  o.f  Europe,  and  inter- 
national peace,  I  wish  to  add  this  note,  that  in  the  United  States 
of  America  the  largest  single  force,  second  only  to  the  public  schools, 
for  the  Americanization  of  the  foreigner  is  the  labor  union.  What- 
ever may  be  the  faults  of  labor  leadership,  whatever  may  be  the  evils 
of  the  demand  for  a  closed  shop  and  the  denial  in  some  cases  of  free- 
dom of  contract,  nevertheless  those  of  us  who  participate  in  the 
councils  of  federated  labor  in  our  towns  and  cities  are  aware  of 
the  fact  that  nothing  is  doing  more  to  unify  and  make  homogeneous 
our  American  population   than  these  American  labor  unions. 

But  I  do  not  rise  to  speak  of  that  phase.  I  wish  to  speak  upon 
something  more  theoretic,  but  perhaps  just  as  vital;  that  is,  the 
social  implications  of  Christian  doctrine.  We  have  not,  it  seems 
to  me,  sufficiently  felt  that  Christian  doctrine  and  Christian  ethics 
are  not  two  departments  of  discipline,  but  are  one.  The  idea  of  the 
Incarnation  itself  carries  with  it  all  the  implications  of  Christian 
brotherhood.  And  by  His  taking  upon  Himself  our  flesh  He  has 
in  that  made  all  men  brethren,  and  by  the  great  sacrifice  of  Calvary 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  ^jgO 

has  robed  in  purple  every  son  and  daughter  of  mankind.  We  have 
taught  the  doctrines  of  grace  in  an  individualistic  sense  unknown 
to  a  true  interpretation  of  the  New  Testament.  If  the  Christian 
Church  is,  as  I  believe,  an  extension  of  the  incarnation,  the  indi- 
vidual Christian  life  is  to  be  an  extension  of  the  atonement.  And 
the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ  holds  the  secret  of  brotherhood.  Jesus  did 
have  a  message  to  the  individual.  But  what  does  it  mean  to  be 
saved?  It  means  to  be  born  into  a  new  social  consciousness  and 
conscience.  It  means  to  have  lost  the  tyranny  of  self  in  the  large 
sense  of  brotherhood.  It  means  for  a  man  to  have  realized  himself 
as  a  member  of  the  Kingdom.  And  if  indeed  we  are  crucified  with 
Christ,  if  indeed  we  know  his  heartbreak,  if  we  feel  as  he  felt  over 
lost  souls,  we  have  the  one  passion,  the  one  agony,  the  one  great 
travail  of  soul,  the  majestic  pain  by  which  spirits  are  boi'n  into  the 
Kingdom.  It  is  the  Carpenter  of  Nazareth,  after  all,  who  has 
brought  us  together.  , 

"If  I  could  hold  within  my  hand 

The  hammer  Jesus  sw^ung, 
Not  all  the  gold  in  all  the  land 
Nor  jewels  countless  as  the  sand, 

All  in  the  balance  swung. 
Could  weigh  against  that  precious  thing 
Round  which  His  fingers  once  did  cling. 

"If  I  could  have  the  table  He 

Once  made  in  Nazareth, 
Not  all  the  pearls  in  all  the  sea 
Nor  crowns  of  kings  or  kings  to  be. 

So  long  as  men  have  breath, 
Could  buy  that  thing  of  wood  He  made. 
The  Lord  of  lords  who  learned  a  trade. 

"But  still  that  hammer  yet  is  shown 

By  honest  hands  that  toil; 
And  at  that  table  men  sit  down. 
And  all  made  equal  by  a  crown 

No  gold  or  pearls  can  soil; 
The  shop  at  Nazareth  was  bare. 
But  brotherhood  was  builded  there." 

Mrs.  Joseph  Johnson,  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church : 

Friends,  it  is  a  very  great  effort  for  me  to  stand  here,  but  I  felt 
it  imperative  this  morning.  I  thank  God  for  Christian  socialism. 
I  reckon  if  w^e  had  not  Christian  socialism  we  w^ould  have  revolu- 
tion. I  have  lived  with  my  husband  for  the  last  nine  years  in  slum- 
dom.  I  came  from  the  social  and  intellectual  life  of  Cambridge. 
I  can  not  tell  you  the  shock  it  was  to  me  when  I  plunged  from  one 
side  of  that  life  right  down  into  the  slums  of  Southeast  London. 
Wherever  I  go  I  have  a  vision  of  those  women  and  children  who 
are  living  below  the  poverty  line,  of  women  who  are  old  at  thirty, 
children  who  have  no  child-life.  The  Scrii)tures  speak  very  truly 
when  they  say,  "The  destruction  ot  the  poor  is  their  poverty."  We 
are  fighting  drink,  disease,  and  dirt;  and  I  see  no  help  for  it  while 
we  have  the  liquor  halls  that  we  have  in  England.     I  have  gone 


390  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

around  j'oui^  beautiful  city  of  Toronto,  and  what  have  I  seen  at 
every  street  corner  almost?  But  in  England  we  see  the  public 
house.  Our  people  have  no  chance.  I  smell  the  drink  as  I  go  along 
the  streets,  and  I  see  drunken  men  and  women  at  every  corner.  In 
our  slums  the  women  are  filling  the  public  houses.  God  help  us! 
It  is  time  the  women  of  England  did  something.  May  God  help  us! 
But  may  men  help  us  to  sweep  away  these  liquor  halls.  They  are 
the  destructiction  of  our  people. 

The  Eev.  J.  E.  Eadcliffe,  of  the  United  Methodist  Church : 

Mr.  President,  Sisters,  and  Brothers:  Face  to  face  with  the  ques- 
tion of  socialism,  or  social  reconstruction,  we  must  needs  think  of 
our  social  organism.  This  organism  is  a  matter  of  growth:  it  is 
the  growth  of  long,  long  ages.  It  is,  too,  very  complex.  It  consists 
of  many  parts  and  embodies  many  forces:  forces  which  make  for 
what  is  good;  which  make  for  the  highest  good;  but  also  forces 
which  make  for  evil  and  human  degradation.  I  say  the  social  or- 
ganism is  complex.  It  is  made  up  of  many  parts;  it  is  also  true 
that  the  many  parts  are  necessary  to  the  completeness  of  the  great 
whole.  The  statesman  can  not  say  to  the  scavenger,  "I  have  na 
need  of  thee;"  the  scavenger  can  not  say  to  the  captain  of  industry, 
"I  have  no  need  of  thee;"  and  the  captain  of  industry  can  not  say 
to  the  dock  laborer,  or  the  carter,  or  the  coal  miner,  "I  have  no 
need  of  you."  A  multitude  of  anen  and  women  are  rendering  good 
and  useful  service  in  multitudinous  ways,  and  we  need  all  of  them. 
The  recent  strikes  in  England  on  the  part  of  men  in  humble  life, 
who  are  rendering  simple  service  for  small  pay,  Should  impress  us 
with  the  fact  that  these  men  are  indispensable.  When  they  ceased 
their  work  our  industrial  machinery  was  thrown  out  of  gear  and 
we  saw  ourselves  within  sight  of  starvation.  We  need  these  men. 
They  are  rendering  useful  and  necessary  services.  We  are  depend- 
ent upon  them. 

Now  let  me  further  say  that  the  discussion  of  social  questions, 
that  the  setting  forth  of  social  evils  does  not  mean  that  society  is 
decadent,  that  we  are  on  the  down  grade,  that  we  are  going  from 
bad  to  worse,  and  that  we  are  fast  on  the  way  to  ruin.  No,  no! 
We  are  going  in  the  other  direction;  we  are  on  the  way  of  progress. 
Certainly  England  is  not  decadent.  We  never  possessed  a  more 
noble  personality.  We  were  never  inspired  with  greater  hope  and 
confidence.  As  to  the  industrial  classes,  they  are  better  fed  than 
in  the  past,  better  housed,  better  clothed,  better  educated;  they 
have  more  leisure;  they  have  a  better  position  in  the  body  politic; 
yes,  and  notwithstanding  the  truth  of  Mrs.  Johnson's  words,  they 
are  more  temperate  and  are  becoming  increasingly  temperate;  and 
every  way  they  are  making  for  a  still  better  position  in  life. 

But  it  must  be  said  that  there  are  some  who  do  not  share  these 
advantages  as  they  ought.  The  evils  that  remain  are  great  and 
many.  Abounding  wealth  and  prodigal  luxuriousness  exist  side  by 
side  with  pinching  poverty  and  semi-starvation.  Some  who  pro- 
duce much  of  the  nation's  wealth  possess  but  little,  and  some  who 
produce  little  possess  much;  and  many  who  produce  nothing  at  all 
are  among  those  who  possess  most  of  all.  Further,  the  primary 
wants  of  the  people  consist  of  food  and  raiment,  a  suitable  home  in 
which  to  dwell,  and  such  an  amount  of  education  as  will  place  them 
on  a  level  with  our  advanced  civilization;  all  of  which,  with  our 
modern  machinery,  can  easily  be  produced  by  active  brains  and  in- 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  391 

dustrious  hands;  nevertheless,  through  lack  of  employment,  men 
and  their  families  are  often  in  great  distress.  The  Christian  Church 
can  not  be  unmindful  of  these  things.  It  is  not  unmindful  of  them. 
There  are  three  things  that  the  Church  must  ever  give  itself  to.  Its 
individual  members  may  work  in  various  ways  for  the  general  up- 
lift of  the  people;  but  the  Church,  as  a  Church,  must  ever  keep  be- 
fore the  people  the  Christian  ideal;  it  must  bring  into  play  the 
Christian  spirit  of  humanity  [Time  called.] 

The  Rev.   Wm.   Wakinshaw,   of  the  Wesleyan   Metliodist 

Church : 

There  is  one  aspect  of  this  question  to  which  no  reference  has 
been  made.  I  refer  to  the  land  question.  A  few  years  ago  I  was 
in  the  worst  part  of  London,  and  one  of  the  land-owners  of  that 
part  of  the  city  possesses  two  thousand  eight  hundred  and  eighty- 
five  sites,  and  draws  from  that  London  borough  an  income,  in  the 
shape  of  ground  rents,  of  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  pounds 
a  year.  The  consequence  is  that  you  have  living  in  that  part  of 
London  thousands  of  people  in  single-room  tenements  little  bigger 
than  the  area  inside  this  communion  rail,  for  which  they  have  to 
pay  five  and  ten  shillings  a  week  rent.  So  long  as  people  dwell  in 
those  conditions  we  are  a  very  long  way  from  the  millennium.  And 
the  Church  must  more  and  more  insist  that  the  State,  and  not  the 
individual,  must  have  control  of  the  land  monopoly.  Let  me  tell 
you  I  am  no  mere  theorist.  I  am  to  some  extent  a  practical  land 
reformer.  I  belong  to  an  organization  which  during  the  last  twenty 
j'ears  has  spent  a  million  of  money  in  buying  and  developing  land; 
and  we  find,  as  practical  land  reformers,  if  you  will  only  give  peo- 
ple a  fair  chance  of  getting  land  on  reasonable  conditions,  they  will 
leave  the  slums  and  live  sweeter  and  cleaner  lives.  The  Church 
through  the  State  must  Insist  upon  it  that  we  as  a  community  shall 
control  the  land,  and  not  be  at  the  mercy  of  grasping,  rapacious 
landlords. 

The  Eev.  Thomas  Manning,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Chiircli 

of  Canada: 

Everything  that  one  can  say  has  been  said  before.  Two  or  three 
things  I  wish  to  say.  Green  in  his  history  says  that  the  great 
Methodist  revival  purified  our  literature,  abolished  the  slave  trade, 
and  did  a  great  many  other  things;  but  the  greatest  of  all  was 
what  came  in  these  social  reforms  that  were  set  on  foot  and  have 
not  ceased  to  the  present  day.  Methodism  was  not  in  the  beginning 
a  social  effort.  And  these  results  are  indirect.  The  social  results 
of  the  gospel  are  always  indirect.  I  do  not  think  we  appreciate 
enough  the  salvation  of  God.  No  social  conditions  can  win  it.  It 
surpasses  all  things  in  value.  And  Christianity  has  shown  that  a 
man  must  be  a  Christian  when  deprived  of  every  social  right.  An- 
other thing,  the  agency  by  which  these  social  conditions  are  affected 
is  declared  to  be  perfect  love.  Mr.  Wesley  says  this  is  the  great 
remedy  for  all  the  evils  and  disorders  of  the  world.  The  difficulty 
is,  how  to  impress  our  minds  with  our  individual  necessity  for  holi- 
ness, and  how  perfect  love  really  manifests  itself  in  the  individual 
life.  It  manifests  itself  in  our  brotherly  regard  fbr  one  another. 
Many  of  our  social  problems  which  one  part  of  the  Christian  world 
is  trying  to  unravel  are  created  by  another  part  of  the  Christian 


392  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SEII\1CE. 

■world.  Many  of  these  questions  of  land  and  capital  and  hours  of 
labor  and  so  forth  are  largely  fixed  in  the  position  in  which  they  are 
by  members  of  the  Christian  Church.  The  love  of  God  leads  a  man 
not  only  to  do  a  little,  but  to  do  his  best;  to  give  not  only  a  little 
part  of  his  wealth,  but  all  of  it.  I  observe  that  there  seems  to  be 
in  the  Christian  mind  no  sense  of  responsibility  in  regard  to  a 
man's  personal  expenses.  I  know  a  man  who  made  fifty  thousand 
dollars  within  six  months.  What  will  he  do  with  it?  He  will 
take  his  family,  move  to  a  better  part  of  the  city,  and  surround 
himself  and  them  with  greater  luxury.  Mrs.  Johnson  leaves'  Cam- 
bridge and  goes  among  the  slums.  We  take  our  families  as  far 
away  from  the  tears  and  sorrows  of  the  world  as  we  can;  and  we 
call  ourselves  Christian  people.  We  bring  up  our  children  with 
the  idea  that  to  be  educated  and  refined  and  to  associate  with  re- 
spectable people  is  the  highest  aim  of  life;  and  we  leave  the  great 
masses  of  the  people  alone.  A  man  is  responsible  for  the  exercise 
of  his  judgment.  Every  man  ought  to  know  how  much  money  he 
ought  to  spend  upon  himself  in  order  to  live  in  a  fair  brotherly 
way  in  this  world.  We  talk  much  of  brotherhood  and  express  a 
great  deal  of  spurious  sentiment.  But  a  man  ought  so  to  use  his 
influence  and  money  and  social  position  and  everything  else  that 
when  he  comes  down  to  die  he  can  say  with  truth  I  have  given  all, 
and  nothing  remains.    We  are  not  beginning  to  do  that. 

The  Eev.  W.  Blackburn  FitzGerald,  of  the  British  Wes- 

leyan  Methodist  Church: 

Mr.  President,  We  are  talking  about  social  science  this  morning. 
I  want  to  put  in  a  plea  for  the  boy.  There  is  nothing  more  im- 
portant than  work  for  boys.  If  we  are  to  build  the  foundation  of 
our  civic  structures  firmly  and  completely  and  beautifully,  we  must 
get  after  the  boy  and  lift  him  to  the  proper  level.  There  are  tens 
of  thousands  of  boys  who  have  not  the  ghost  of  a  chance  to-day. 
It  is  the  work  of  the  Christian  Church  to  help  in  giving  him  a 
chance.  I  am  not  speaking  so  much  of  the  boys  that  we  get  in 
our  Sunday  schools,  but  rather  of  the  odd-job  boys,  the  newsboys, 
the  boys  outside  our  Churches  and  schools,  for  whom  no  one  cares. 
I  must  qualify  that.  There  are  some  who  care  for  them,  and  there 
is  something  being  done  for  them.  In  Great  Britain  we  have  a 
few  boys'  clubs.  We  have  the  Boys'  Brigade,  to  which  Professor 
Drummond  gave  so  much  time  and  attention,  and  which  is  doing 
a  magnificent  work,  and  the  Scout  movement.  In  the  United  States 
you  have  some  wonderfully  ingenious  ways  of  dealing  with  boys. 
There  is  the  George  Junior  Republic,  and  the  Knights  of  King  Ar- 
thur, and  the  Knights  of  Methodism,  and  all  that.  There  is  that 
fine  movement,  the  "Big  Brother"  Movement.  But  the  Churches  are 
not  half  alive  to  the  importance  of  these  movements.  To  a  large 
extent  many  of  them  are  outside  the  Churches.  It  is  not  easy. 
The  boy  has  been  described  as  a  "perplexity  in  breeches,"  just  as 
his  sister  is  a  "puzzle  in  petticoats."  He  is  an  enigma.  He  is  a 
bundle  of  contradictions.  He  is  often  a  nuisance.  But  the  enigma 
is  worth  solving,  and  the  contradictions  are  only  on  the  surface; 
and  if  you  can  get  at  the  basis  of  the  boy  you  will  make  him  into  a 
man  worth  something  to  the  world.  The  most  important  form  of 
social  service  for  boys  is  personal  work.  We  must  make  them  our 
friends.  We  must  make  them  feel  that  we  are  interested  in  them. 
I  think  it  would  be  a  good  thing  if  every  member  of  this  Conference 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  FRANK  MASON  NORTH.  393 

and  all  the  people  we  represent  were  to  resolve  never  to  let  a  day 
pass  without  a  kind  word  or  a  smile  for  some  boy.  We  ought  as 
Churches,  as  a  matter  of  social  service,  to  encourage  every  move- 
ment for  the  betterment  of  boys,  and  to  endeavor  to  win  them  one 
by  one  for  Christ,  His  Church,  and  the  State. 

Secretary  Thomas  Shape  :  "I  notice  a  resolution  has  been 
handed  in  in  favor  of  a  great  open-air  meeting,  signed  by  the 
Eev.  C.  Ensor  Walters,  the  Eev.  Joseph  Johnson",  the  Eev. 
J.  Ernest  Eattenbury,  the  Eev.  H.  L.  Jacobs." 

Tliis  was  referred  to  the  Business  Committee. 

Secretary  Chapman  made  various  announcements. 

Tlie  session  closed  with  the  doxology,  and  the  benediction 
pronounced  by  Dr.  J.  M.  Buckley. 


SECOND  SESSION". 

The  Eev,  J.  Oliver  Park,  D.  D.,  of  the  Irish  Methodist 
Church,  presided.  The  devotional  services  were  in  charge  of 
the  Eev.  S.  T.  Boyd,  B.  A.,  of  the  same  Church. 

The  first  hymn  was  sung — 

"O  for  a  thousand  tongues  to  sing 
My  great  Redeemer's  praise." 

The  Scripture  lesson  was  Matthew  10 : 1-15,  and  Mr.  Boyd 
offered  prayer. 

On  motion  of  Secretary  Chapman,  the  daily  record  as 
printed  was  adopted  as  the  official  record. 

Dr.  E.  J.  Cooke  presented  this  report  from  the  Editorial 

Committee : 

It  is  recommended  by  the  Editorial  Committee  that  the  General 
Secretaries,  Dr.  H.  K.  Carroll,  of  the  Western  Section,  and  the  Rev. 
James  Ciiapjian,  D.  D.,  of  the  Eastern  Section,  shall  edit  the  volume 
of  Proceedings  of  this  Ecumenical  Conference,  and  that  they  shall 
prepare  a  brief  introduction  to  the  same.  The  Committee  suggests 
that,  since  the  volume  is  to  be  printed  in  America,  the  Secretary  of 
the  Western  Section  shall  be  responsible  for  passing  the  book 
through  the  press. 

The  Conference  adopted  the  report. 

The  essay  of  the  afternoon  was  read  by  the  Eev.  Frank 
Mason  North,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church ;  sub- 
ject, "Eeadjustment  of  Cliurch  Work  in  Cities :" 

Two  questions  as  yet  unanswered  are  in  our  time  irresistibly 
crowding  to  the  front:      WTaat  means   the   City   to  the  Kingdom? 


394  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

What  means  the  Church  to  the  City?  They  have  been  questions  for 
Jerusalem,  for  Constantinople,  for  Rome.  They  were  left  without 
answer  by  Savonarola  and  Florence,  by  Huss  and  Prague,  by  Calvin 
and  Geneva,  by  Cromwell  and  London.  Their  shadow  falls  across 
all  our  boundaries  and  distinctions.  We,  with  the  cities  of  the 
world  on  our  hearts,  know  well  that  the  answer  concerns  us  all  and 
that  it  has  not  yet  come.  For  these  are  not  questions  of  class  or 
religion.  Familiar  terms,  mother  country,  colonies,  states,  insular, 
provincial,  continental,  imperial,  do  not  divide  us  here.  The  great 
queries  simply  ignore  the  extraordinary  antinomy  which,  with  scant 
wisdom,  in  some  branches  of  our  Church,  is  set  up  between  home 
and  foreign  missions.  John  R.  Mott  has  significantly  declared,  as 
the  result  of  his  observations  in  the  Orient,  that  missionary  strat- 
egy should  place  first  the  strong  re-enforcement  of  the  work  in  the 
ten  cities  having  a  million  population  and  more,  in  India,  China  and 
Japan.  These  are  not  local  questions;  they  are  not  national  or 
racial.  They  belong  to  the  race.  They  are  questions  of  mankind. 
Their  answers  enter  into  the  destiny  of  humanity. 

The  fundamental  conviction  of  this  paper  is  that  the  kingdom 
of  God  is  here;  that  it  moves  on  to  its  consummation,  to  the  new 
Jerusalem  which  cometh  down  from  God  out  of  heaven;  but — more 
— that  the  way  of  its  coming  is  through  these  cities  whose  streets 
we  tread,  whose  marvelous  life  we  share;  that  it  is  the  Church's 
high  calling  and  should  be  its  undisguised  aim  to  discover,  disclose 
and  develop  the  meaning  of  this  associated  life,  to  supply  the  spir- 
itual motive  without  which  the  community  can  be  nothing  but 
social  chaos  and  moral  anarchy,  to  accept  the  city  as  the  organized 
opportunity  by  the  right  use  of  which  Christ  shall  become  not  only 
Son  of  man  but  King  of  men.  It  is  not  that  it  would  be  a  good 
thing  to  make  these  cities  Christian,  but  that  the  Kingdom  cannot 
come  until  they  are  Christian. 

One  day  Thomas  Chalmers  saw  this  and  the  vision  transformed 
him.  He  began  to  learn  not  only  that  his  parishioners  were  people, 
but  that  the  people  were  his  parishioners.  He  had  his  church  doors 
adjusted,  theoretically  at  least,  for  the  outward  as  well  as  for  the 
inward  swing.  The  walls  of  his  theory  were  pressed  easily  out  to 
the  walls  of  the  city,  and  then  to  the  rim  of  the  world.  What  is 
more  stimulating  than  Carlyle's  description  of  him:  "What  a  won- 
derful old  man  Chalmers  is!  or,  rather,  he  has  all  the  buoyancy  of 
youth.  When  so  many  of  us  are  wringing  our  hands  in  hopeless 
despair  over  the  vileness  and  wretchedness  of  the  large  towns,  there 
goes  the  old  man,  shovel  in  hand,  down  into  the  dirtiest  puddles  of 
the  worst  part  of  Edinburgh,  clears  them  out  and  fills  the  sewers 
with  living  water.     It  is  a  beautiful  sight!" 

This  conviction  will  indeed  warp  and  destroy  us  if  the  city  is 
not  a  part  of  the  divine  plan  for  the  race.     But  the  city  is  not  an 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  FRANK  MASON  NORTH.  395 

accident,  the  cruel  result  of  some  dislocation  of  the  order  of  Provi- 
dence. It  is  not  an  economic  device,  caused  by  war  or  machinery 
or  contrived  to  create  easy  markets  for  foodstuffs  and  securities. 
It  is  not  the  final  embodiment  of  the  spirit  of  evil,  the  culmination 
of  the  adversary's  plan  of  campaign  against  humanity.  Fundamen- 
tally the  city  is  God's  answer  to.  the  appeal  of  social  hunger.  Its 
associated  life  rests  as  truly  upon  His  purpose  as  does  the  aspira- 
tion of  the  meditative  spirit.  It  is  a  part  of  the  eternal  logic,  the 
inevitable  outcome  of  God's  plan  that  men  shall  be  brotners  and 
shall  share,  in  a  community  of  sympathy  and  resource,  what  is 
provided  by  His  creative  power.  By  its  very  nature  it  draws  into 
its  currents  every  element  in  the  being  of  men,  absolves  from  its 
complex  relations  no  obscurest  activity  of  mind  or  heart,  discip- 
lines to  high  service  every  latent  force  of  the  affections  and  of  the 
will,  dnd  by  the  very  wealth  of  its  opportunity  for  fellowship  and 
its  compelling  appeal  to  the  best  in  the  moral  and  spiritual  life  of 
the  individual,  enforces  and  establishes  the  principles  of  the  Eternal 
Kingdom. 

If  it  be  true  that  out  of  the  heart  of  the  city  are  the  issues  of  the 
life  of  the  world,  that  it  is  the  Church's  large  business  to  control 
that  life  by  getting  at  that  heart,  it  is  quite  clear  that  it  must  deal 
not  merely  with  numbers  but  with  forces.  The  subject  belongs  to 
dynamics.  The  Church  must  learn  to  think  of  the  city  in  terms  of 
power.  Numbers  can  not,  indeed,  be  ignored;  they  are  current  coin 
in  the  marts  of  the  mind.  The  drift  of  populations  cityward  ceases 
not  to  surprise  and  alarm  every  world  power.  Every  ten  years 
Greater  London  adds  700,000  to  her  population.  In  the  population  of 
Canada  the  rapid  ratios  of  growth  are  in  Montreal  and  Toronto,  Win- 
nipeg and  Calgary.  New  York  contains  2,250,000  more  people 
within  its  borders  than  when  the  Ecumenical  Conference  met  in 
Washington  twenty  years  ago.  In  the  United  States  more  than 
fifty  cities  have  in  the  last  decade  won  a  population  rank  of  25,000 
and  over,  the  actual  gain  in  the  population  of  cities  of  that  rank 
being  over  6,500,000.  The  statesmanship  of  the  Church  which  can- 
not hear  the  ceaseless  tread  of  the  feet  of  the  ever-growing  multi- 
tudes upon  the  streets  of  the  cities  of  the  world  is  criminally  indif- 
ferent or  hopelessly  stupid. 

But  it  is  the  power  of  the  city  which  first  concerns  the  Church. 
We  require  the  formula,  not  of  statics  and  statistics,  but  of  dyna- 
mics. We  must  study  not  only  the  spread  of  influences,  but  their 
origin.  It  is  a  matter  not  of  wires,  but  of  generators.  The  gospel 
is  not  satisfied  with  the  record  of  actions,  but  seeks  their  springs. 
It  is  in  the  world  not  to  commend  a  civilization,  but  to  command  it; 
not  to  describe  the  materials  of  the  ultimate  community,  but  to 
shape  them  in  the  moulding.  There  is  a  new  civilization.  The  city 
is  its  center.     There   is  a  crisis  both  for  the   individual   and   for 


396  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

society  which,  lifts  these  early  years  of  the  twentieth  century  to  the 
level  of  the  great  constructive  epochs,  the  Gothic  invasion,  the  Cru- 
sades, the  revival  of  learning,  the  reformation  of  religion.  At  the 
focus  of  it  all  is  the  city.  Upon  the  city  the  forces  of  nature  are 
trained  to  converge.  The  confluence  of  nations  is  at  its  gates.  To 
it  learning  and  literature  ultimately  come.  Into  it  the  multi- 
tudes bring  with  them  the  ever  vital  questions  of  the  centuries. 
What  a  man  is,  in  his  rights,  in  his  aims,  in  his  equipment; 
what  he  owns,  his  labor,  his  property,  his  reputation;  what  the 
community  asks  of  him  in  personal  and  property  surrender,  in 
sacrifice  of  privilege,  in  direct  service  for  the  common  weal;  under 
what  laws  natural  or  artificial  the  quest  for  bread,  the  conduct  of 
trade,  the  education  of  childhood,  the  maintenance  of  the  home, 
are  to  be  guaranteed;  how  he  is  to  be  free  though  governed,  and 
governed  though  free;  how  out  of  racial  frictions  the  personal  life 
shall  survive;  how  he  shall  be  his  own  and  his  brother's  keeper,  and 
shall  find  the  Master's  answer  to  the  question,  "Who  is  "my  neigh- 
bor?"— these,  the  social  problems  of  the  world,  are  condensed,  de- 
fined, formulated,  vitalized  in  the  life  of  the  city.  Religion,  both 
as  personal  faith  and  organized  system,  finds  in  the  city  its  test 
and  travail.  Can  the  gospel  be  commercialized?  The  city  will  give 
reply.  Is  there  power  in  spiritual  motive  to  deal  with  materialism, 
with  goods,  with  recreation,  with  luxury?  Ask  the  city.  Are  truth 
and  righteousness  academic,  or  are  they  the  pillars  of  the  home,  of 
the  community,  of  organized  government,  of  human  society?  The 
city  illustrates  and  demonstrates.  Has  Jesus  Christ  a  place  among 
men,  not  alone  in  blessed  walks  with  disciples  in  quiet  roadways, 
but  for  breaking  bread  for  hungry  multitudes?  Let  the  city  answer. 
It  would  be  folly  to  assert  that  these,  the  potent  questions  of  the 
social,  moral  and^  spiritual  life,  belong  alone  to  the  city.  They 
traverse  the  countryside  and  frequent  the  village  street.  They 
stand  at  the  mouth  of  our  coal  pits  and  range  the  dark  galleries  of 
our  mines.  They  are  vital  in  the  crofter's  cottage  and  challenge 
the  children  of  privilege  at  the  threshold  of  their  palaces  and  upon 
tfieir  unpeopled  acres.  The  solitary  cannot  escape  them,  and  the 
gloved  hand  of  culture  warns  them  off  in  vain.  But  it  is  in  the 
cities  that  they  become  not  alone  insistent,  but  imperative.  It  is 
the  grapple  there  that  discloses  their  quality.  The  culmination  of 
process,  the  crisis  of  confiict,  are  in  the  personal,  reciprocal  impact 
of  the  multitudes.  A  nation  may  strengthen  its  commerce,  perfect 
its  policies,  build  large  and  strong  its  ships,  discipline  its  armies, 
bind  to  it  other  nations  by  its  treaties,  its  destiny  will  still  be 
wrapped  up  in  the  thronging  life  of  the  cities.  Let  the  Church 
build  its  schools,  lift  towers  symmetrical  and  strong,  endow  its  vast 
charities,  organize  ministry  into  system,  and  harden  truth  into 
symbol  and  creed,  and  still  it  will  be  true  that  the  plain  people,  the 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  FRANK  MASON  NORTH.  397 

crowd,  the  seetning,  restless,  uncaptured  crowd  of  the  cities  holds 
in  its  hurning  heart  the  world's  destiny.  It  was  to  that  heart,  the 
heart  of  the  multitude  over  whom  He  became  passionate  with  lov- 
ing purpose  as  they  were  stirred  by  these  questions  of  personal 
and  social  life,  that  Jesus  Christ  spoke  His  message.  To  save  the 
world  from  wrong  answers  He  gave  His  life.  It  was  because  the 
city  meant  all  this  and  more  that  He  loved  it,  and  reproached  it 
and  wept  over  it — and  will  redeem  it. 

We  cannot  escape  from  the  compulsion  of  Canon  Fremantle's 
words,  when  he  says:  "It  is  a  vain  thing  to  go  back  upon  human 
progress.  The  industrial  revolution  which  has  made  our  great  cities 
and  which  through  them  supplies  the  need  of  mankind,  is  part  of 
God's  Providence;  and  what  we  have  to  do,  the  i-eal  task  of  our 
generation,  is  to  face  the  problems  which  city  life  presents,  apply 
ing  to  them  tUe  light  which  the  Bible  gives  us,  and  determining 
that  so  far  as  in  us  lies,  and  by  the  power  of  God  and  of  Christ, 
Liondon  and  New  York  shall  not  be  as  Babylon,  but  as  the  new 
Jerusalem." 

Our  Methodism  has  become  conscious  of  the  city  and  has  heard 
the  cry  of  its  multitudes.  From  its  streets  ring  out  anew  the  chal- 
lenges of  her  history.  The  regeneration  of  the  worst;  the  uplift 
of  the  lowest;  the  rights  of  childhood  to  education  and  spiritual 
training;  the  housing  of  the  multitudes  for  worship;  the  promotion 
of  the  democratic  ideal  and  the  protection  of  citizenship;  the  tight- 
ening of  the  strangle  grip  upon  the  liquor  traffic;  the  testimony 
against  pseudo-Christianity;  the  statement  of  theology  in  the 
phrases  of  the  common  life;  the  conquest  for  the  Bible  of  its  right 
ot  way;  the  interpretation  of  the  Gospel  to  every  kind  of  man — 
without  care  as  to  his  race,  his  color,  his  possessions,  his  attain- 
ments; the  search  for  justice  for  the  oppressed,  of  relief  for  the 
poor;  the  demand  that  government  shall  be  moral  as  well  as  strong; 
the  quest  for  the  heart  of  civilization  that  it  may  be  made  Chris- 
tian, for  the  secret  forces  of  humanity  that  they  may  become 
spiritual;  these,  the  dreams,  the  convictions,  the  pursuits  of  Meth- 
odism from  the  beginning  confront  her  now  in  new  and  intenser 
phase  in  the  crowded  centers  of  the  world,  in  the  city,  concrete, 
compact,  as  it  awaits  Christ's  transforming  and  triumphant  touch 
through  the  ministry  of  His  Church.  Some  brave  answer  has  come 
to  the  challenge,  Methodism's  new  approach  to  the  people  in  the 
cities  of  Great  Britain  has  given  heart  to  the  Church  in  every  land> 
The  social  purpose  finds  a  ranking  place  in  the  program  of  our 
missions  in  pagan  lands  and  especially  among  the  teeming  millions 
of  their  cities  has  become  an  impressive  interpretation  of  the  gospel. 
In  America's  great  cities,  in  many  of  which  the  mission  to  foreign- 
ers is  a  neighborhood  matter,  slowly,  with  pitiable  inadequacy,  let 
us  admit,  but  surely,  Methodism  adjusts  herself  to  a  new  and  tre- 


398  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

mendous  task.  Never  in  his  dread  wanderings  has  the  Jew  con- 
fronted the  Christian  as  now  in  tlie  great  commonwealths  of  the 
nations.  In  our  metropolis  over  a  million  share  our  rights,  study 
our  manners,  modify  our  customs,  and  at  close  range  interpret  our 
Christianity. 

Methodism  in  New  York  and  in  other  cities  across  the  border 
demonstrates  by  its  works  its  belief  that  the  training  of  the  colored 
race  for  enlightened  serfdom  may  be  accomplished  on  the  planta- 
tions of  the  cotton  belt,  but  that  the  test  of  character  for  citizen- 
ship must  be  in  the  city's  complex  life.  Methodism  has  ever  loved 
the  boys  and  girls.  She  knows  that  by  the  tens  and  hundreds  of 
thousands,  in  all  the  cities  of  the  world  where  she  ministers,  the 
youth — wrapped  in  whose  heart  lies  humanity's  future — comes  to 
maturity  with  no  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  no  conception  of  the 
gospel,  no  idea  of  God,  no  spiritual  sanction  for  moral  conduct. 
Everywhere,  inevitably,  she  agitates  for  a  true  religious  education 
of  childhood.  Sensitive  to  the  city's  tests  of  her  simplicity,  Meth- 
odism begins  to  learn  that  culture  is  not  for  denunciation,  but  for 
use;  that  recreation  is  a  part  of  the  divine  purpose  of  life;  that 
social  prestige  may  be  transformed  into  spiritual  power  and  wealth 
become  the  basis  for  the  currency  of  the  kingdom,  and  learning, 
she  has  set  herself  to  the  high  enterprise  of  mastering  life. 

Conscious  of  the  city,  moved  to  action  by  the  confusing  cries  of 
its  great  human  heart,  has  Methodism  really  a  program  for  the 
city?  For  the  lands  afar?  Yes.  For  prairie  and  wheat-fields  and 
cattle  ranges,  for  the  Indian,  for  the  Negro,  for  church  building 
and  education,  for  the  care  of  the  sick  and  the  orphaned?  Without 
question!  For  the  protection  of  the  mechanism  of  the  system,  for 
the  oiling  of  the  bearings  and  the  maintenance  of  the  right  of  way? 
Who  can  doubt  it?  But  for  the  city  what  is  the  policy?  Where 
was  it  framed?  Who  interprets  it  and  enforces  it?  There  are  few 
cities  where  the  hot  zeal  of  souls  on  fire  has  not  won  victories. 
Among  the  assets  of  the  faith  are  the  stories  of  the  chivalry  and 
martyrdom  of  men  and  women  who  in  the  cities  have  counted  not 
their  lives  dear  unto  themselves.  The  Church  has  sometimes  ap- 
plauded the  endurance  of  privations  and  the  sacrifice  of  life  which 
it  is  her  shame  to  have  permitted.  It  is  not  attack,  however  valiant, 
but  siege  that  will  conquer  cities.  Heroic  assault  is  magnificent, 
but  it  is  not  war.  A  program — a  plan  of  campaign — into  which  the 
.Church  has  put  its  highest  wisdom,  wrought  out  with  patience,  re- 
lieved of  hindrances,  granted  rightful  place  among  the  methods  of 
Methodism,  operating  not  by  the  grace  of  the  flexibility  of  rules 
or  the  gratuitous  kindliness  of  administrators,  but  with  the  author- 
ity of  law  and  under  the  vital  touch  of  convinced  leaders;  a  pro- 
gram large  enough  for  the  forces  it  encounters  and  the  gospel  it 
presents — is  not  Methodism  yet  impatiently  waiting  for  it? 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  FRANK  MASON  NORTH.  399 

Some  have  asked  what  is  to  be  the  practical  issue  of  this  con- 
ference. There  would  be  for  Methodism  a  new  era,  a  fresh  and 
mighty  phase  of  her  spiritual  and  social  mission,  if  here,  in  this 
model  city  of  our  continent,  her  Fourth  Ecumenical  Conference 
should  frame  Methodism's  program  for  Christianizing  the  cities  of 
the  twentieth  century. 

That  program  would  need  to  escape  the  law  of  entail.  No  dead 
hand — even  John  Wesley's — can  shape  it.  In  his  social  convictions 
are  its  materials,  in  his  spiritual  realities  its  inspiration.  But  he 
did  not  know  our  city.  It  would  have  been  a  miracle  of  wisdom 
had  he  shaped  a  polity  fully  adapted  to  meet  it. 

The  terms  of  a  half  century,  of  a  generation  ago,  will  not  be 
adequate  for  that  program.  Principles  which  have  tended  to  isolate 
Churches  from  one  another  and  to  insulate  them  all  from  the  com- 
munity are  here  obsolete.  They  are  the  capital  blunder  of  men  who 
have  not  seen  that  "the  life  is  more  than  meat  and  the  body  than, 
raiment."  The  survivors  of  the  schoolmen  will  be  of  small  service, 
for  something  besides  the  niceties  of  logic  and  the  caution  of  tradi- 
tion must  go  into  it.  It  should  be  constructed  when  the  denomin- 
ational dialecticians  are  busy  elsewhere,  and  the  hands  that  sliape 
it  should  first  have  felt  the  grimy  grip  of  industrial  brotherhood 
and  clasped  the  thin  and  fevered  hand  of  want  and  suffering.  Let 
those  be  heard  who,  out  of  sight  of  the  Church,  are  daily  in  our 
great  cities  at  work  upon  the  foundations  of  the  City  of  God,  the 
finest  optimists  on  earth,  the  real  builders  from  whom  never  come 
the  counsels  of  despair;  who,  while  toiling  at  the  foundations,  by 
faith  see  the  top-stone  and  shout,  Grace  unto  it!     Grace  unto  it! 

I  dare  not  aspire  to  the  high  fellowship  of  these  devoted,  these 
glorious  builders,  but  I  know  them  on  both  sides  of  the  sea,  and  on 
this  platform  venture  to  give  voice  to  their  convictions  and  their 
appeal.     They  would  say.  Let  Methodism  stand  for — 

A  new  policy  of  concentration  upon  the  cities; 

A  conception  of  leadership  which  leaves  no  place  for  the  mar- 
tinet and  demands  the  statesman; 

Legislation  which  boldly  reckons  with  the  facts  and  conditions 
of  to-day  at  the  risk  of  breakage  in  traditions  and  rules  which 
belong  only  to  the  past; 

Administration  which  puts  the  stress  not  on  forms,  but  on  forces, 
that  seeks  in  every  city  to  unify  and  co-ordinate,  and  to  substitute 
natural,  harmonious  relations  for  ai'tificial  adjustments;  that  ever 
remembers  that  the  lines  of  the  map  are  not  the  channels  of  power; 

Co-operation  with  other  denominations  in  federative  movements, 
and  with  organizations  of  whatever  name  in  the  effort  for  social  and 
civic  betterment; 

The  sane  use  of  property,  transforming  into  available  assets  land 
and  buildings  which  are  useless  save  as  monuments  or  sanctuaries 


400  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

of  sentiment,  or  reconstructing  them  for  work  in  the  existing  com- 
munities where  practicable,  and  in  new  structures  always  planning 
an  equipment  for  the  social  ministries  of  the  Church; 

A  larger  development  of  the  new  phase  of  religious  education — 
the  training  of  men  and  women  for  specialized  service,  as  preachers 
in  foreign  tongues,  as  rescue  workers,  as  teachers  of  children  in 
kindergarten,  Bible  schools,  clubs  and  in  play,  as  workers  in  organ- 
ized charity  and  social  service; 

The  insistence  that  the  law  of  service  is  as  binding  as  the  law 
of  worship,  and  that  in  meeting  the  vast  variety  of  human  needs  the 
Church  must  regain  and  tenaciously  hold  her  prerogative  as  Christ's 
minister  among  men; 

The  liberal  endowment  of  the  broader  city  program,  relieving 
the  advancing  lines  of  the  waste  of  pettiness  and  the  shame  of 
penury,  saving  religion  from  the  reproach  of  being  an  army  with- 
out equipment,  brave  men  and  women  without  rations,  and  invest- 
ing millions,  which  thus  far  have  been  available  alone  for  education 
and  philanthropy,  in  the  strategic  centers  where  the  forces  of  organ- 
ized evil  and  organized  good  are  in  the  final  grapple  of  the  cen- 
turies ; 

The  development  of  a  diaconate,  a  brotherhood  of  the  city,  filled 
with  the  passion  and  compassion  of  Christ,  organized  so  that  men 
by  hundreds  and  thousands,  upon  the  basis  of  support,  for  longer 
or  shorter  periods — students,  young  preachers,  artisans,  business 
men  with  leisure — may  be  sent  into  the  cities  to  live  among  the 
people,  to  exemplify  and  teach  the  gospel  upon  the  level  of  the 
sidewalk  and  the  threshold; 

The  encouragement  of  prayer  for  the  salvation  not  only  of  souls 
but  of  communities,  and  the  unceasing  instruction  of  the  people 
that  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  are  becoming  the  Kingdom  of  our 
Lord  and  of  His  Christ,  that  to  build  up  the  City  of  God  in  these 
cities  of  men  is  to  hasten  its  coming  in  fulness;  that  he  who  prays 
as  the  Lord  has  taught  him  is  bound  also  to  work  unceasingly  for 
the  salvation  of  the  city; 

The  passionate  surrender  of  the  Church  to  the  mastery  of  Christ 
by  the  eager  devotion  of  the  full,  rich  life  of  this  new  age  to  the 
redemption  of  the  multitudes  for  whom  He  gave  Himself,  entering 
into  the  fellowship  of  His  suffering  for  them,  that  the  world  may 
know  Him  and  the  power  of  His  resurrection. 

Let  Methodism  answer  the  cry  of  her  own  heart.  Let  her  justify 
the  logic  of  her  own  history.  Let  her  follow  in  force  the  paths 
pioneered  by  her  own  devoted  sons  and  daughters.  Who  more 
clearly  than  she  has  discerned  the  intention  of  Jesus?  Who  more 
eagerly  has  used  His  method,  the  application  of  personality  to  life? 
Who  with  higher  exultation  should  greet  the  Kingdom  and  the 
King? 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  GEO.  P.  ECKMAN.  401 

From  these  sadly  familiar  cities  of  ours  let  us  once  more  catch 
the  vision  through  the  luminous  eyes  of  Henry  Drummond: 

"Christ  was  the  Light  of  the  world — the  Light  of  the  world. 
This  is  all  that  John  meant  by  his  vision,  that  Christ  is  the  Light 
of  the  world.  This  light,  John  saw,  would  fall  everywhere — espe- 
cially upon  cities.  It  was  irresistible  and  inextinguishable.  No 
darkness  could  stand  before  it.  One  by  one  the  cities  of  earth 
would  give  up  their  night.  Room  by  room,  house  by  house,  street 
by  street,  they  would  be  changed.  Whatsoever  worketh  abomination 
or  maketh  a  lie  would  disappear.  Sin,  pain,  sorrow,  would  silently 
pass  away.  One  day  the  walls  of  the  city  would  be  jasper;  the  very 
streets  would  be  paved  with  gold.  Then  the  kings  of  the  earth 
would  bring  their  glory  and  honor  unto  it.  In  the  midst  of  the 
streets  there  would  be  a  tree  of  life  and  its  leaves  would  go  forth 
for  the  healing  of  the  nations." 

The  first  invited  address  was  given  by  the  Eev.  Geo.  P. 
EcKMAN^  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Ej^iscopal  Church,  on  the 
theme,  "Settlement  Work :" 

The  social  settlement  is  an  institution  of  very  recent  origin 
which  is  showing  the  State  its  duty,  and  the  Church  its  opportunity 
respecting  the  mutualization  of  society,  particularly  in  the  great 
centers  of  population.  It  proceeds  upon  the  theory  that  the  obliga- 
tions of  all  the  members  of  a  community  are  reciprocal.  It  secures 
the  support  of  many  who  are  not  professedly  religious;  yet  it  is  a 
product  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus,  and  it  issued  from  a  Christian 
imiversity.  To  the  secular  mind  it  seems  a  fresh  outcry  of  the 
world's  instinctive  sense  of  humanity,  but  to  the  view  of  religious 
expediency  it  is  a  most  strategic  movement  in  the  effort  to  actualize 
the  Kingdom  of  God  on  the  earth.  Its  distinctive  policies  are  best 
described  by  those  persons  who  are  its  characteristic  exemplars. 

Of  Toynbee  Hall  it  is  officially  declared  that  the  aim  of  its  resi- 
dents has  been  "first  to  form  friendships,  and  then,  through  friend- 
ship, to  raise  the  standard  of  living  and  of  life."  Hull  House  is 
described  by  its  founder  as  "an  attempt  to  add  the  social  function 
to  democracy,"  the  advance  of  which  has  hitherto  been  chiefly 
political.  The  Chicago  Commons  is  characterized  by  its  creator  as 
"the  home  of  a  group  of  persons  blessed  with  more  or  less  of  the 
privileges  which  the  world  calls  culture,  who  choose  to  live  where 
they  seem  to  be  most  needed,"  and  whose  avowed  purpose  is  "to  add 
the  spiritual  function  to  the,  social  environment;  the  social  function 
to  the  religious  movement." 

The  Bermondsey  Settlement  in  London  is  authoritatively  desig- 
nated as  "an  honest  attempt  to  make  Christian  work  more  civic, 
and  civic  work  more  Christian  iu  sympathy  and  aims."    The  prime 

26 


402  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

requisites  for  all  settlement  workers  are  stated  by  the  head  resident 
of  the  South  End  House  in  Boston  to  be  "human  feeling,  a  sense  of 
humor,  and  the  spirit  of  moral  adventure,"  to  which  some  would 
wish  to  add,  a  profound  religious  intention. 

These  typical  affirmations  represent  three  groups  of  settlement 
leaders;  those  who  eliminate  religion  as  a  factor,  those  who  admit 
it  to  an  influential  position  in  their  program,  and  those  who  make 
it  the  chief  concern  of  social  service.  In  one  respect,  however,  they 
all  are  in  perfect  agreement;  they  propose  to  incorporate  them- 
selves into  the  life  of  the  community  which  they  serve.  The  social 
settlement  is  not  an  institution  which  is  superimposed  from  with- 
out; it  is  a  growth  from  within  the  constituency  to  which  it  min- 
isters, it  is  most  efficient  when,  like  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  it 
comes  without  observation.  Its  social  activities  will  inevitably  and 
all  too  speedily  reveal  its  presence  and  motives.  Even  then  it  must 
not  appear  to  be  giving  direction,  but  rather  to  be  providing  chan- 
nels through  which  the  social  aspirations  of  the  people  may  have 
adequate  expression. 

The  social  settlement  is  a  quiet  invasion  of  the  black  areas  in 
which  social  injustice  arrogantly  asserts  itself.  Here  stalk  those 
cruelties  which  indicate  the  fundamental,  though  often  unrecog- 
nized, iniquities  of  our  modern  social  and  industrial  regime,  whose 
victims  despairing  of  deliverance  by  the  tedious  methods  of  an 
orderly  progression,  fling  themselves  into  the  ranks  of  a  materialis- 
tic socialism,  caught  by  the  infatuation  that  the  ultimate  solvent 
of  every  ill  may  be  found  in  some  violent  reconstruction  of  society. 
The  social  settlement  acts  as  a  corrective  of  this  misguided  judg- 
ment. The  Socialist  becomes  less  a  prophet  of  revolt,  and  more  an 
opportunist  of  humanity,  who  is  willing  to  make  social  ameliora- 
tions tributary  to  his  philosophic  propaganda,  realizing  that  the 
real  mission  of  Socialism  is  to  keep  hammering  down  artificial  ob- 
structions to  brotherhood  until  there  is  no  further  need  for  its  as- 
saults because  the  whole  world  has  voluntarily  socialized  itself. 

"Laboratories  in  social  science"  is  the  label  which  a  writer  of 
eminence  has  placed  upon  university  settlements.  But  the  people 
must  not  see  themselves  as  subjects  of  experimentation.  They  are 
to  be  investigators  of  their  own  environment.  The  settlement  resi- 
dent must  acquaint  himself  with  the  social  dynamics  of  his  neigh- 
borhood, and  lend  thereunto  his  own  quickening  intelligence.  Then 
can  he  secure  the  social  and  industrial  reforms  which  he  seeks 
through  legal  and  constitutional  processes  without  awakening  the 
resentment  of  those  who  are  too  proud  to  be  the  recipients  of  an 
unearned  bounty.  It  is  in  pursuance  of  this  policy  that  social  set- 
tlements have  been  enabled  to  pour  forth  a  voluminous  and  in- 
valuable sociological  literature  and  to  impart  a  powerful  impulse 
to  all  kinds  of  municipal  improvement.     They  have  extended  the 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  GEO.  P   ECKMAN.  403 

range  of  popular  education,  stimulated  the  study  of  economics, 
erected  safeguards  of  public  health,  dealt  effectively  with  the 
housing  problem,  secured  centers  of  recreation,  encouraged  indus- 
trial reforms,  cultivated  home  and  family  ideals,  invigorated  the 
moral  sense  of  the  community,  intensified  the  social  initiative  of 
the  people,  purified  and  ennobled  political  action,  compelled  the 
enforcement  of  law,  bred  good  citizenship,  and  established  a  phys- 
ical basis  for  a  wholesome  religious  life. 

It  need  not  seriously  disturb  us  to  know  that  a  movement 
fraught  with  such  results  is  sometimes  led  by  those  who  make  no 
avowal  of  religion.  Thoreau  held  that  under  some  circumstance 
even  God  might  have  respect  for  an  atheist.  The  Christian  ought 
to  be  intelligent  enough  to  discern  the  Spirit  of  His  Master  in  an 
agnostic,  who  is  perfoi-ming  an  undeniably  Christlike  service. 
There  is  no  beauty  in  the  world  which  does  not  depend  for  its  re- 
ality on  the  radiance  of  the  sun;  and  there  is  no  loveliness  in 
human  conduct  which  not  divinely  inspired.  Theologically  heret- 
ical, ecclesiastically  schismatic,  but  spiritually  orthodox  was  the 
Samaritan  whom  Jesus  photographed  for  our  emulation,  the  para- 
dox incarnate  of  a  crooked  creed  and  straight  life.  The  Master  is 
still  rebuking  those  disciples  who  would  curb  the  casting  out  of 
devils  without  an  apostolic  license.  "He  that  is  not  against  us  is 
for  us."  The  genuine  social  settlement  is  essentially  Christian, 
whatever  its  titular  designation. 

To  what  extent  such  an  institution  can  be  used  for  a  distinctly 
religious  propaganda  is  an  open  question.  How  far  it  can  be  le- 
gitimately employed  to  advance  sectarian  aims  is  doubtful.  One 
thing  must  be  remembered:  the  social  settlement  can  not  properly 
be  classed  as  a  Church  or  a  mission.  We  need  always  to  remind 
ourselves  that  the  gospel  is  greater  than  all  our  conceptions  of  its 
magnitude.  It  deals  with  that  justice  which  Gladstone  said  "is 
older  than  Christianity,  because  it  was  in  the  world  before  Chris- 
tianity; which  is  broader  than  Christianity,  because  it  extends  to 
the  world  beyond  Christianity,  and  which  underlies  Christianity, 
for  Christianity  itself  appeals  to  it."  One  of  the  sore  needs  of 
Christendom  to-day  is  thoroughly  disinterested  social  service.  It 
would  be  a  fine  thing  for  Methodism  occasionally  to  travel  incognito. 
Our  Lord  will  not  be  influenced  in  His  judgment  of  our  worth  by 
an  imposing  array  of  statistics,  and  the  souls  for  whom  He  died 
may  be  offended  by  a  pompous  parade  of  our  forces.  A  Hebrew 
settlement  in  New  York  confesses  to  have  been  established  for  the 
benefit  of  "young  people  of  the  Jewish  faith  in  a  neighborhood 
where  the  pernicious  influence  of  music  halls  and  the  operations 
of  missionaries  were  a  problem  too  vital  to  be  ignored." 

Romanist  resentment  is  no  less  violently  provoked  by  the  work 
of  settlements  which  are  pledged  to  a  Protestant  propaganda.     In 


404  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

those  great  cities  of  America  wherein  are  crowded  enormous  masses 
of  people  alien  in  birth,  institutions,  and  religion,  the  sectarian 
banner  is  an  indisputable  embarrassment  to  the  progress  of  the 
sacred  evangel.  In  centers  where  these  conflicting  racial  traditions 
do  not  exist  there  is  little  weight  to  the  objections  named.  Never- 
theless we  should  be  abating  not  one  pulse-beat  of  denominational 
loyalty  if  more  frequently,  to  use  a  phrase  applied  to  another 
agency,  we  should  make  "a  guileless  investment  for  Christ's  sake." 

Methodism  has  a  few  social  settlements  which  conform  to  the 
original  type,  and  many  evangelistic  centers  which  employ  activities 
commonly  identified  with  settlements.  But  it  would  be  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  social  movement  if  more  careful  distinctions  were 
drawn  between  social  settlements  and  enterprises  of  a  kindred 
spirit.  Of  such  a  sort  is  the  institutional  Chui-ch,  which  is  described 
by  one  of  its  advocates  as  "a  combination  of  Church  and  settle- 
ment;  it  is  a  Church  socialized  and  a  settlement  evangelized." 

But  whatever  may  be  our  differences  of  opinion  concerning  these 
questions  of  method,  we  shall  doubtless  agree  that  the  sustaining 
power  of  the  social  settlement  must  always  be  religious.  No  other 
enthusiasm  for  the  redemption  of  humanity  can  survive  the  shock 
of  repeated  contacts  with  ignorance  and  sin.  After  twenty  years 
of  social  service,  Jane  Addams  has  recently  announced  that  settle- 
ment workers  are  returning  from  their  former  reaction  against  the 
Church,  to  place  a  higher  valuation  upon  religious  motives  and 
ideals.  It  was  an  agnostic  settlement  leader  in  London  who  de- 
clared, "The  more  I  go  on,  the  more  I  realize  that  it  is  the  men 
of  the  Christian  faith  upon  whom  I  must  rely  for  my  helpers." 
Said  Jeremy  Bentham,  "If  you  would  gain  mankind,  you  must  ap- 
pear to  love  them;  and  the  best  way  of  appearing  to  love  them  is 
to  love  them  in  reality."  The  most  powerful  incentive  to  this  sin- 
cere and  conquering  affection  is  the  love  of  Christ  shed  abroad  in 
the  heart. 

The  Rev.  "VVm.  Beadfield^  B.  A.,  of  the  British  'VYesleyan 
Church,  presented  the  second  invited  address,  on  "The  Rela- 
tion of  Methodist  Churches — City,  Suburban,  and  Rural :" 

The  greatest  social  achievement  of  our  holy  religion  is  the  cre- 
ation of  the  Christian  home;  its  final  triumph  will  be  the  building 
of  the  city.  In  the  home  to-day  the  Kingdom  has  already  come, 
and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the  great  law  of  the  Kingdom,  can 
be  literally  obeyed.  If  one  strikes  on  the  right  cheek,  the  other  can 
be  turned;  if  one  takes  the  coat,  he  can  have  the  cloak  too.  And  so 
the  stealing  and  the  fighting  cease,  conquered  by  love.  Inside  the 
home  the  great  economic  question  of  the  right  distribution  of 
wealth  is  permanently  solved.     Each  one  contributes  what  he  can. 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  WM.  BRADFIELD.  405 

and,  so  far  as  the  family  resources  go,  receives  what  he  needs. 
There  strength  is  put  at  the  disposal  of  the  weak,  and  the  wisdom 
of  the  wisest  guides  those  of  small  understanding.  There  children 
grow  up  to  learn  what  it  means  to  call  God  Father,  and  strong 
men  and  pure  women  sound  the  very  depths  of  the  love  that  gives 
itself. 

The  home  is  a  sheltered  greenhouse,  where,  in  the  temperature 
of  heaven,  the  flowers  of  heaven  can  expand  and  blossom.  But  our 
business  is  to  make  them  grow  out  of  doors.  The  home,  with  all 
its  sweetness,  is  too  narrow  and  limited  for  the  full  expression  of 
the  life  of  the  body  of  Christ.  And  many  of  the  members  of  the 
great  family  of  God  can  never  have  a  home  of  their  own,  even  as 
Himself,  the  Son  of  man,  had  not  where  to  lay  His  head.  And 
moreover,  the  people  who  have  happy  homes  are  wanted  outside 
of  them,  and  must  not  be  selfish.  Our  high  task  is  to  make  the 
city  one  home  for  all  God's  children.  The  present  city  life  divides 
men;  it  sifts  them  out  according  to  their  wealth  or  poverty  into 
separate  communities,  and  tends  rapidly  towards  the  creation  of 
castes  almost  as  self-contained  and  isolated  as  those  of  the  Hindoos. 
Each  suburb  represents  one  grade,  and  the  Church  takes  its  color 
from  the  neighborhood.  As  an  English  circuit  steward  explained 
to  me  with  regard  to  two  London  Churches,  "the  people  at  Residen- 
tial Park  have  dinner  in  the  evening,  the  people  at  Business  Street 
have  supper."  And  the  dinner  people  and  the  supper  people  do  n't 
mix  very  much,  and  their  relations  need  improving  if  the  city  of 
God  is  to  be  built. 

And  what  shall  we  say  of  the  "down-town"  people?  The  eco- 
nomic currents  which  sort  out  the  pebbles  from  the  sand  and  make 
different  deposits  of  them  in  the  suburban 'areas  behave  very  differ- 
ently in  the  great  centers.  The  social  force  which  compels  multi- 
tudes of  people  to  live  there  is  the  necessity  for  being  near  their 
work,  and  this  necessity  presses  upon  very  many  diverse  groups. 
Two  classes  deserve  special  mention:  the  homeless,  immarried, 
young  people,  and  that  dangerous  gathering  of  people  who  live  in 
the  crowded  center  because  they  get  their  living  from  the  vices 
of  the  crowd.  But  these  are  only  two  classes  out  of  many.  The 
unskilled  and  occasional  laborers,  and  the  incapables  who  form  the 
mass  of  the  unemployed,  and  who  call  for  the  unwearying  pity  and 
consideration  of  the  whole  community,  must  also  be  remembered. 

The  same  sifting-out  process  deeply  affects  country  life.  The  call 
of  the  towns  tends  to  deprive  the  country  of  the  young  and  ener- 
getic. Moreover,  the  smaller  opportunity  for  daring  ventures  tends 
in  many  of  our  country  districts  to  put  financial  and  social  power 
into  extremely  conservative  hands.  The  man  who  is  found  at  the 
head  of  country  society  is  mostly  the  patient,  prudent  man  who 
throughout  the  course  of  a  jog-trot  life  has  taken  care  of  the  pence; 


406  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

and  his  combined  timidity  and  tenacity  make  the  standard  of  the 
whole  little  community  where  his  will  is  law. 

The  problem  of  the  relation  of  Methodist  Churches — city,  sub- 
urban, and  rural — is  the  problem  of  bringing  these  sifted  groups 
back  again  into  such  a  helpful  sympathetic  and  effective  family 
I'elationship  as  shall  enable  them  to  apply  their  united  force  to 
the  work  of  building  the  city  of  God. 

The  present  suburban  Church  mostly  gets  as  its  pastor  a  good 
preacher,  because  it  can  give  him  the  entree  to  very  congenial  so- 
ciety and  can  make  him  very  comfortable.  Church-going  becomes 
a  pleasant  social  function,  and  keeps  together  a  very  companionable 
group  of  people.  The  great  peril  of  these  Churches  is  that,  within 
their  area,  religion  calls  for  no  special  sacrifice,  either  of  time  or 
of  money.  The  question  how  to  get  these  Churches  and  their  pas- 
tors into  close  touch  with  the  great  work  of  saving  man  is  an 
absolutely  vital  one,  especially  for  themselves.  Without  such  con- 
tact, and  the  sacrifice  and  struggle  that  comes  of  it,  they  can  only 
maintain  a  tepid  and  conventional  type  of  religion  that  will  never 
even  hold  their  own  young  people.  The  suburban  Church  that  has 
no  part  in  this  battle  is  itself  in  deadly  peril.  Laodiceanism  marks 
it  for  its  own. 

A  part  of  the  city  that  ought  to  be  put  under  the  charge  of  a 
rich  suburban  Church  is  the  "new  neighborhood,"  where  they 
have  n't  yet  put  the  numbers  on  the  doors  and  people  become  iso- 
lated because  it  isn't  easy  to  find  their  postal  address,  where 
everybody  that  is  in  debt  and  discontented  drifts,  and  where  the 
decent  folk  are  anxious  to  tell  you  that  they  do  n't  know  any  one 
else  in  the  street.  The  strong  suburban  congregation  should  accept 
it  as  their  duty  to  build  the  new  church  and  school,  and  the  church 
first.  Their  ladies  should  lend  their  social  prestige  to  the  gather- 
ings of  the  new  community,  and  their  young  people  should  staff  the 
Sunday  school.  And  if  anybody  objects  on  the  ground  that  such  an 
enterprise  means  many  Sunday  car-fares,  let  him  go  and  learn 
what  that  meaneth,  "I  will  have  mercy  and  not  sacrifice." 

Turning  to  the  crowded  centers  of  the  great  towns,  we  are  con- 
fronted with  a  problem  that  will  tax  high  and  hard  all  the  financial 
resources  and  all  the  practical  wisdom  of  the  Methddist  people. 
All  their  faith  and  hope  and  love  are  wanted  here.  Very  often  the 
Church  that  actually  exists  in  these  regions  is  one  of  the  principal 
difliculties.  It  thinks  it  has  known  "better  days,'',as  if  there  could 
be  any  better  days  than  those  in  which  the  followers  of  the  Son  of 
man  lose  their  lives  for  His  sake,  and  so  find  the  life  that  is  life 
indeed.  The  pride  that  will  not  allow  Church  property  to  be 
used  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  at  its  very  doors,  and  the  hard- 
ness of  heart  that  ignores  their  dire  need,  while  it  maintains  its 
half-empty  service  on  lines  whose  usefulness  was  outworn  twenty 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  WM.  BRADFIELD.  407 

years  ago,  ought  to  be  reprobated  for  the  unholy  and  un-Christian 
things  they  are. 

The  great  town  missions  of  English  Methodism  have  had  a  suc- 
cess, for  which  we  owe  deep  gratitude  to  God,  in  grappling  with 
down-town  conditions.  We  have  not  to  the  same  extent  as  our 
American  brethren  had  to  face  great  alien  populations,  and  of  that 
pi'oblem  I  can  not  speak.  But  our  town  missions  hold  great  crowds 
of  the  common  people;  they  gather  in  a  steady  stream  of  converts, 
and  they  exert  a  powerful  influence  on  the  side  of  personal  and 
civic  righteousness.  They  have  done  much  for  the  outcasts  of  so- 
ciety and  have  given  friends  and  home  to  many  lonely,  hard-pressed, 
and  tempted  people.  Their  work  has  in  its  progress  shown  some 
curious  and  unexpected  limitations.  When  they  attain  large  mem- 
bership they  often  seem  to  lose  much  of  their  original  power  of 
growth.  Presumably  it  takes  nearly  all  the  energy  of  the  staff 
and  of  the  Church  to  win  enough  to  make  up  for  wear  and  tear. 
And  too  often  the  mission  member,  like  any  other  Church  member, 
alas!  seems  to  want  somebody  to  look  after  him  instead  of  becom- 
ing a  soul-winner  himself.  It  is  not  that  the  missions  are  worse 
than  the  Churches  in  this  respect;  the  trouble  is  that  they  are  not 
much  better. 

We  sometimes  hear  it  complained  of  the  missions  that  they 
cost  too  much.  I  do  not  want  to  claim  that  there  are  no  isolated 
cases  of  extravagance  that  ought  to  be  checked,  but  I  do  want  to 
express  my  belief  that  the  missions  must  be  costly,  and  indeed,  in 
a  very  real  sense,  ought  to  be  costly.  If  we  as  a  Church  are  not 
prepared  to  give  at  sacrificial  rates  for  the  salvation  of  our  great 
town  population,  we  shall  fail,  and  shall  deserve  to  fail.  For  one 
thing,  the  people  will  never  believe  that  we  are  in  earnest,  unless 
they  can  see  that  the  work  costs  us  something.  They  can  see  our 
comfortable  homes  and  good  clothes,  our  holidays  and  our  auto- 
mobiles. If  they  only  think  that  out  of  our  superfluity  we  subscribe 
to  the  propagation  of  the  gospel,  it  won't  interest  them  much. 
Moreover,  the  money  is  badly  wanted.  The  mission  staff  must  be 
a  strong  band  of  pastors,  deaconesses,  and  others  who  give  their 
whole  time  to  the  work.  The  cost  of  great  central  premises  an'd 
of  their  upkeep  is  necessarily  large.  The  care  of  the  outcast  and 
neglected,  establishment  of  rescue  homes,  creches,  and  such  like, 
is  never  small.  And  it  can  never  be  truly  pleaded  that  our  great 
Church  lacks  the  money  to  carry  on  the  work  efiiciently  and  well. 
If  we  are  straitened  it  is  because  of  the  meanness  of  our  souls,  and 
not  the  shallowness  of  our  pockets. 

The  great  missions  need  not  only  the  money,  but  also  the  pa- 
tient interest  and  wise  counsels  of  our  strongest  business  men.  And 
they  also  need  our  best  preachers,  and  need  them  in  the  dew  of 
their  youth.     Our  wealthy  suburban  Churches  are  called  upon  to 


408  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

make  great  sacrifices  in  this  respect.  Hugh  Price  Hughes  left 
Brixton  Hill  for  the  West  Central  Mission.  It  is  our  men  of  learn- 
ing and  refinement,  who,  when  their  hearts  are  touched,  can  do  this 
work  best.  And  the  Churches  that  would  naturally  claim  them  must 
let  them  go,  as  the  Church  of  Antioch  once  sent  forth  Paul  and 
Barnabas.  How  the  Antioch  pulpit  must  have  suffered,  to  be  sure! 
And  the  warfare  of  our  great  cities  calls  for  the  spring  and  elas- 
ticity of  youth,  and  of  youth  in  command.  Methodism  shows  a 
very  strong  and  natural  tendency  to  be  governed  by  its  own  men. 
But  when  you  come  to  actual  fighting,  most  of  the  world's  great 
generals  have  been  young,  and  we  need  wisdom  to  discover  young 
men  in  our  midst  who  are  capable  of  being  captains  in  the  Lord's 
hosts,  and  we  must  have  grace  enough  to  put  real  power  into  their 
hands  when  we  do  find  them.  Better  a  few  bad  mistakes  than  a 
dead  level  of  mediocrity  here. 

Believing  as  I  do  that  the  great  missions  are  already  on  the 
right  lines  for  dealing  with  down-town  problems,  my  suggestion 
as  to  improved  relations  must  be  that  we  help  them  more,  make 
more  sacrifices  for  them,  pray  for  them  continually,  and,  last  but 
not  least,  rejoice  in  their  success  as  if  it  were  our  own. 

As  for  the  country  Churches,  they  will  not  only  train  up  for  the 
city  the  strongest  and  best  of  their  youth,  but  they  will  also  send 
a  steady  stream  of  contributions  towards  any  well-directed  and  suc- 
cessful evangelistic  work.  They  have  the  right  to  claim  from  the 
city  regular  visits  from  the  mission  preachers  and  workers;  not 
merely  to  beg  for  their  own  work,  but  to  bring  the  fire  and  enthu- 
siasm of  the  fight  into  the  more  prosaic  and  humdrum  village  life. 
And,  though  they  make  no  direct  financial  contribution  to  the  sub- 
urban Church  (for  none  is  needed),  they  have  also,  as  I  judge,  a 
right  to  a  periodic  visit  from  the  polished  preachers  who  minister 
to  the  wealthy  congregations.  These  men  can  contribute  a  needed 
and  very  highly  appreciated  element  to  the  Church-life  of  the 
smaller  places.  They  should  remember  that  the  slower  village  life 
lends  itself  to  reading  and  thinking,  and  that  some  of  our  most 
cultured  people  are  to  be  found  in  these  quiet  places. 

In  conclusion  I  want  to  say  that,  though  I  have  made  such  sug- 
gestions and  given  such  hints  as  I  am  capable  of  for  the  better  re- 
lation of  these  various  kinds  of  Churches,  I  am  deeply  conscious 
that  they  are  mere  palliatives,  useful  perhaps  for  the  present  dis- 
tress, but  that  the  making  of  the  city  modern  civilization  into  the 
city  of  God  calls  for  a  radical  reconstruction  of  society  and  also  of 
the  organized  Church  after  the  mind  of  Christ.  And  it  is  coming. 
The  artificial  barriers  and  distinctions  both  of  civilized  society  and 
of  ecclesiasticism  are  melting  all  around  us  as  sugar  melts  in  a 
cup  of  tea.  Our  Canadian  friends  have  shown  us  that.  And  when 
they  crystallize  again  it  will  be  in  the  form  and  order  of  the  city 
that  John  saw,  "whose  builder  and  maker  is  God." 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  409 

General  discussion  of  the  sul)3ect  was  begun  by  tlie  Eev. 
C.  Ensor  Walters^  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church : 

The  city  is  the  crux  of  the  social  problem  to-day.  The  very 
future  of  our  Church  depends  upon  it.  I  want  to  urge,  first  of  all, 
that  the  city  presents  the  greatest  social  evils  to  the  student  of 
religion  to-day.  A  gentleman  from  this  side  said  that  he  was  more 
impressed  by  the  hopeless  and  helpless  look  of  the  people  in  Lon- 
don than  by  anything  else  that  he  saw  in  the  home  country.  There 
are  almost  heart-breaking  problems  in  all  English  cities  to-day. 
For  multitudes  of  people  in  our  great  cities  an  ordinary  home  as 
we  undei'stand  it  is  an  impossibility.  That  helps  us  to  realize  the 
tragic  character  of  the  situation.  Dr.  Reid,  of  Montreal,  said  that 
you  Canadians  were  more  interested  in  the  economic  conditions  of 
the  people  in  London  and  elsewhere  than  in  the  question  how  many 
Dreadnoughts  should  be  built.  Surely  the  upbuilding  of  a  people 
in  a  crowded  city  is  the  only  guarantee  for  the  people  in  the  country. 
The  Church  has  a  civic  duty.  I  do  n't  presume  to  preach  to  my 
brethren  of  this  mighty  land  or  of  the  States.  But  one  of  the  no- 
blest features  of  English  life  recently  has  been  the  way  in  which 
Christian  men  have  got  upon  our  borough  councils  and  county 
councils  and  sought  to  uplift  the  life  of  the  city.  Dale,  of  Birming- 
ham, once  went  upon  the  platform  to  denounce  slums,  and  a  good 
lady  sent  him  a  beautiful  pamphlet  about  heaven,  saying  that  he 
ought  to  be  more  interested  in  heaven.  Dale  wrote  back  that  our 
duty  is  to  bring  heaven  to  earth.  For  five  years  in  London  I  was 
associated  with  the  municipal  body,  and  I  could  go  to  a  meeting 
of  a  drainage  committee  or  of  a  housing  committee  feeling  that 
I  was  as  directly  serving  Christ  as  when  going  to  a  prayer-meeting. 
The  city  calls  for  compassion  for  the  disinherited  and  the  broken. 
These  hopeless  people  we  see  in  our  English  cities  are  the  creation 
of  the  city.  Many  of  them  are  born  in  a  slum,  drinking  in  gin  with 
their  mother's  milk,  as  Kingsley  said,  "Damned  from  their  birth." 
They  are  more  sinned  against  than  sinning,  and  the  Church  of 
God  that  does  not  have  compassion  on  them  is  a  traitor  to  Jesus 
Christ.  A  man  said  to  me  recently,  "I  am  going  to  give  you  a  five- 
pound  note  to  use  among  the  deserving  poor."  I  said,  "If  Jesus 
Christ  treated  you  like  that  you  would  be  in  hell."  When  I  think 
of  our  great  European  cities,  the  little  children  weeping  in  the 
playtime,  of  the  men  of  the  slums,  I  thank  God  that  our  English 
Methodism  is  doing  work  in  the  slum  and  by  the  grace  of  God  we 
are  lifting  the  people  up.  I  am  an  entire  idealist  concerning  the 
city.  Some  people  imagine  that  the  city  is  the  sign  of  a  decaying 
civilization.  The  Bible  opens  with  a  garden,  but  ends  with  a  city. 
A  few  nights  before  Hugh  Price  Hughes  died  he  walked  with  me 
in  Piccadilly  Circus,  London.  There  were  scenes  of  misery  and 
squalor,  and  of  wealth.  And  Hughes  said,  "The  time  will  come  when 
even  in  Piccadilly  Circus  we  shall  see  the  city  of  God." 

The  Key.  J.  G.  Bickerton,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Cliurch : 

Unless  our  brethren  from  across  the  seas  have  personally  visited 
our  great  Eastern  cities  you  can  form  no  appreciative  idea  of  the 
difficulties  that  face  American  Methodism.  In  an  American  city  our 
problem  is,  like  that  of  Great  Britain,  with  the  slums.  The  char- 
acter of  our  slums  is  entirely  different  in  this,  that  the  large  pro- 


410  THE  CHUKCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

portion  of  our  foreign  immigration  crowds  into  our  cities.  Of  the 
one  million  strangers  that  press  through  the  gates  into  our  great 
land  each  year  92  per  cent  settle  along  the  Atlantic  coast.  Most 
of  these  strangers  are  found  in  our  four  great  cities.  These  colonize 
in  what  we  call  our  down-town  sections.  The  American  people,  the 
Protestant  people  especially,  finding  the  surroundings  most  uncon- 
genial, move  from  these  neighborhoods,  and  their  churches  either 
are  abandoned  or  our  people,  wisely  in  some  cases  and  unwisely  in 
other  cases,  sell  these  properties,  uncovering  acute  and  strategic 
places,  and  move  out  to  more  desirable  situations.  I  have  some- 
times thought  if  this  is  our  policy  as  a  great  Church  we  ought  to 
have  some  arbitrary  authority  that  could  be  exercised  over  that  in- 
vested in  a  board  of  trustees  and  in  the  suffrages  of  the  male  mem- 
bers; and  that  if  we  had,  we  might  put  a  stop  to  some  suicidal 
policies  that  conflict  most  seriously  with  the  wise  propaganda  of  our 
sagacious  missionary  movement.  The  fact  is  that  we  have  not  that 
power;  and  consequently,  where  we  already  have  strong  command- 
ing edifices  these  properties,  in  spite  of  the  judgment  of  wise  and 
authoritative  men,  are  abandoned.  The  city  missionary  societies,  in 
conjunction  with  our  Board  of  Home  Missions,  are  put  to  extraor- 
dinary expense  in  sustaining  portions  of  structures  or  undesirable 
quarters  for  these  people.  My  thought  is  that  we  ought  to  have 
provision  throughout  American  Methodism  that,  unless  it  shall  be 
otherwise  ordered  by  the  authority  of  the  Church,  church  edifices 
shall  remain  as  centers  of  life  and  power  and  social  regeneration 
and  salvation  in  Jesus  Christ  to  those  who  are  crowding  these  acute 
locations.  I  feel  that  the  time  has  come  that  the  training  of  our 
churches  in  our  missionary  propaganda  shall  be  practical  on  the 
home  fields  as  well  as  in  the  foreign,  and  that  our  young  students 
for  the  ministry  shall  be  taught  to  speak  in  the  Italian  language 
to  the  375,000  Italians  in  New  York  City  and  the  125,000  Italians  in 
Philadelphia.  And  there  is  the  Slavic  race  coming  to  us  at  the  rate 
of  about  400,000  very  year.  In  our  Methodist  schools  men  should 
be  taught  the  use  of  the  Slavic  tongue  to  arrest  the  attention  of 
these  people  and  win  them  to  the  Christian  Church. 

The  Eev.  E.  A.  White,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church : 

I  have  no  great  message,  doubtless,  but  I  have  a  conviction  that 
I  want  to  express.  I  think  it  was  Thomas  Carlyle  who  said  the 
gospel  of  duty  is  the  greatest  gospel  any  man  can  preach.  The 
salvation  of  the  individual  means  the  solution  of  the  great  city 
problem.  I  do  not  know  so  much  of  their  foreign  problem,  but  I 
know  something  of  the  great  cities  of  the  States.  A  gentleman 
persuasively  and  eloquently  spoke  of  the  foreign  element,  which  de- 
serves our  careful  consideration.  But  when  I  tell  this  audience 
that  in  Washington  and  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia  and  New  York, 
in  each  of  these  great  cities,  there  are  nearly  one  hundred  thou- 
sand people  of  my  race,  and  in  Chicago,  Cleveland,  Cincinnati,  At- 
lanta, New  Orleans,  and  other  cities  of  importance  in  the  South  not 
such  a  great  number,  but  numbers  approaching  that,  these  also  pre- 
sent a  city  problem  which  we  must  deal  with  in  the  American  cities. 
However  much  we  desire  to  get  these  under  the  leadership  of  my 
own  race,  it  is  more  than  we  can  handle  without  the  sympathy  and 
co-operation  and  prayerful  consideration  of  the  men  and  women  of 
means  and  education  who  have  had  a  greater  opportunity  and  light 
than  we  have  had.     I  think  I  do  not  overstate  the  condition  when 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  411 

I  say  that  no  man  can  put  his  big  foot  of  strength  upon  the  neck 
of  his  inferior  brother  and  push  him  down  to  the  ditch  without 
himself  being  in  the  ditch.  I  thinlc  that  the  gospel  also  teaches 
from  the  cross  that  no  man  of  brain  and  of  culture  and  of  refine- 
ment can  extend  the  hand  of  sympathy  and  co-operation  to  his  in- 
ferior brother  to  help  him  to  a  higher  plane  of  thought  and  life 
without  himself  being  lifted  nearer  God.  I  am  sure  that  these 
splendid  papers  and  addresses  that  we  have  listened  to  from  Metho- 
dists from  the  ends  of  the  earth  will  have  the  effect  of  making  us 
who  live  in  the  cities  go  back  more  friendly  and  brotherly  than 
when  we  came.  If  the  leading  Negro  ministers  of  culture  and 
thought  and  superiority,  and  laymen,  could  be  now  and  then  called 
into  the  councils  of  your  Church  in  your  great  cities,  they  could 
more  easily  adjust  themselves  to  the  problems  given  us  to  settle. 
I  have  lived  in  Chicago  and  Cincinnati,  and  have  superintended  a 
district  in  Ohio  and  another  in  Kentucky.  I  have  had  a  cordial 
and  friendly  reception  in  the  pulpits  of  the  white  people  of  the  State 
of  Kentucky,  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  as  well  as 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  have  been  royally  enter- 
tained in  homes;  and  I  am  sure  that  consultation  and  co-operation 
could  be  had  without  any  friction  to  any  race,  but  with  benefit 
to  the  city  and  the  Christian  uplift  of  its  peoples. 

The  IJev.  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  D.  D.,  of  the  British  Weslej'-an 
Methodist  Church : 

I  am  reluctant  to  ask  the  attention  of  this  Conference  for  a  few 
moments,  but  I  have  been  long  a  head  of  settlement  work,  and  there- 
fore I  feel  that  I  ought  to  say  a  few  words  upon  the  subject  so  ably 
presented  by  Dr.  Eckman.  I  speak  as  the  head  of  a  settlement  car- 
ried on  in  connection  with  one  of  our  great  missions,  which  repre- 
sents in  all  its  force  one  of  the  most  extensive  works  of  the  great 
city  evangelization  and  philanthropy  which  Methodism  is  carrying 
on  in  the  Old  Country.  I  think  Dr.  Eckxian  was  wise  in  refusing 
to  identify  settlement  work  with  missions  or  any  other  agency,  in 
claiming  that  it  is  sui  generis,  and  in  claiming  that  the  settlement 
movement  at  bottom  is  a  movement  of  Christian  citizenship.  Happy 
is  that  settlement  which  is  not  debarred  from  utilizing  every  mo- 
tive, religious,  moral,  social,  and  educational,  by  which  our  great 
city  problem  can  be  relieved. 

I  would  like  to  lay  down  four  great  principles  as  the  principles 
upon  which  the  Church  should  proceed  in  this  work.  In  the  first 
place  the  method  of  friendship,  by  which  I  mean  that  those  who 
take  part  in  the  work  of  the  settlements  should  seek  to  evoke  in 
friendly  contact  all  that  is  best  on  both  sides  of  the  relationship. 
Nothing  has  more  greatly  gratified  me  in  the  last  few  months  than 
to  see  that  through  the  columns  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  one 
of  our  ablest  lady  writers  enabled  the  waterside  women  of  Bermond- 
sey  to  present  in  striking  articles  their  view  of  all  kinds  of  fatherly 
and  grandfatherly  legislation  which  is  to  be  imposed  upon  them. 
The  method  of  settlement  work  is  to  extend  a  friendly  and  pro- 
gressive impulse  to  those  who  are  sinking.  We  need  those  who 
will  put  side  by  side  with  the  child,  the  youth,  the  girl,  the  work-  ^ 
ingman,  a  friend  who  is  able  to  inspire  and  make  practicable  the  * 
higher  ideals  of  life.  That  is  an  absolutely  essential  factor  in  the 
higher  movement  of  a  community.  For  after  a  while  the  commun- 
ity is  turning  its  attention  more  and  more  to  the  economic  condi- 


412  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

tions  under  which  wealth  is  made  and  distributed.  We  would 
point  out  that  there  is  a  higher  socialism,  a  sharing  of  the  benefits 
of  religion,  culture,  and  education,  in  which  we  might  realize  a 
social  milennium  here  and  now.  Hence  the  settlement  stands  for 
bringing  the  higher  ranges  of  human  thought,  art,  poetry,  music, 
and  religion,  into  this  higher  brotherhood  of  a  common  fellowship 
in  Christ. 

The  Eev.  Egbert  Foebes^  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church : 

I  was  born  in  Canada.  I  have  made  my  home  in  the  United 
States.  I  have  a  certain  theory  that  every  man  has  a  right  to  love 
two  women,  one  his  wife  and  the  other  his  mother.  I  never  go 
back  on  the  land  whose  flag  floated  over  my  cradle  and  childhood. 
I  love  the  old  Union  Jack,  and  I  love  the  Star-Spangled  Banner, 
and  I  sing  "Long  may  it  wave  o'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the 
home  of  the  brave."  Brethren,  I  am  directly  related  officially  to 
the  problem  of  the,  evangelization  of  the  city.  The  organization 
which  I  represent,  (having  been  elected  to  this  office  by  the  General 
Conference  and  expecting  to  be  re-elected  by  the  next  general  Con- 
ference, on  the  American  theory  that  every  man  has  a  right  to  life, 
-liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  office),  has  the  care  of  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  all  the  cities  of  the  Republic. 

Brethren,  one  mistake  that  is  made  sometimes  when  we  under- 
take the  evangelization  of  the  city  is  a  sort  of  admission,  scarcely 
made,  yet  really  admitted,  that  possibly  they  need  one  kind  of 
gospel  for  the  city  and  another  for  the  country.  That  is  an  essen- 
tial blunder.  Man  is  a  sinner.  God  almighty  pities  him  in  his 
sin,  and  has  redeemed  him  through  the  blood  of  the  everlasting 
covenant.  And  the  way  of  salvation  is  through  the  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  son  of  Mary  and  the  Son  of  God.  We  can  not  substi- 
tute something  else  for  the  gospel.  Another  great  mistake  we  have 
made  in  our  city  work  is  that  we  have  prayed  for  foreign  missions. 
I  believe  in  that,  but  God  began  sending  the  foreigners  over  to  our 
shores  and  then  we  virtually  said,  "Lord,  we  do  n't  mean  this." 

We  like  to  sing, — 

"From  Greenland's  icy  mountains. 
And  India's  coral  strand," 

but  we  would  rather  go  there  than  to  have  people  from  those  places 
sent  to  us.  They  are  just  as  much  foreigners  when  they  are  here  as 
when  they  are  in  their  own  land.  God  said  I  will  make  it  easier 
and  cheaper  for  you.  I  will  send  them  where  they  will  learn 
something  from  American  ideals  and  institutions.  They  are  com- 
ing at  the  rate  of  a  million  a  year.  Foreigners!  I  know  a  place 
where  our  English-speaking  American  Methodist  Episcopalians  sold 
their  church  and  carried  the  money  out  for  miles  to  build  a  church 
in  a  fashionable  suburb.  The  Italians  came  in  great  numbers, 
and  then  they  wished  they  had  kept  the  property.  I  have  a  theory 
that  we  ought  never  to  sell  any  property.  Get  all  you  can,  keep 
all  you  get,  then  get  some  more  and  keep  it  until  the  judgment  day. 

The  Eev.  Eichaed  F.  Beoompield^  of  the  British  Wesleyan 

Methodist  Church: 

I  desire  to  emphasize  the  importance  of  Christian  work  and  the 
grace  of  God,   in   distinction  from  hoping  too   much  from  change 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  413 

of  environment.  You  can  change  the  surroundings  of  people  with- 
out much  improving  them.  The  slums  have  been  made  very  largely 
by  people  who  persist  in  doing  wrong,  and  people  who  seek  quiet 
places  so  that  they  may  do  wrong.  It  is  for  us  to  emphasize  the 
importance  of  the  grace  of  God.  We  must  change  the  people;  and 
unless  the  people  are  changed,  there  is  very  little  hope  for  us. 
There  Is  a  proverb  which  I  trust  you  will  not  misinterpret.  It 
's  very  much  to  the  point,  "Wash  a  dog,  comb  a  dog,  still  a  dog 
is  a  dog."  You  may  change  his  kennel,  but  if  there  is  to  be  any 
real  alteration  you  must  change  his  nature.  It  is  the  same  with 
people.  And  I  could  tell  you  of  a  neighborhood  I  know  well.  I 
have  worked  in  some  of  the  worst  areas  in  our  country.  I  know 
where  people,  evil  disposed,  have  gone  into  a  neighborhood  and 
secured  a  place  where  they  might  carry  on  immorality,  and  the 
landlord  has  had  the  greatest  difficulty  to  dislodge  those  people, 
but  I  know  how  he  did  it.  He  sent  a  joiner  to  do  some  repairs 
and  he  had  him  take  off  the  door,  and  then  he  would  not  put  it 
on  again.  That  is  how  they  were  got  rid  of.  It  is  not  to  be 
imagined  that  substituting  a  good  house  for  a  poor  one  will  change 
the  people.  It  is  only  by  the  renewing  grace  of  God  that  there  is 
any  hope  of  a  reformation. 

I  want  to  emphasize  something  else.  A  great  deal  has  been 
said  here  about  rich  rascals;  and  those  who  have  a  dollar  or  two 
have  had  it,  I  think,  rather  roughly.  I  have  known  a  great  many 
more  poor  rascals  than  rich,  and  a  great  many  more  people  who  are 
poor, — and  it  is  a  sin  for  them  to  be  poor — far  more  than  I  have 
known  of  those  who  were  rich  through  sin.  It  is  for  us  to  say  to 
some  of  these  people,  and  I  do  not  know  who  can  do  it  better 
than  the  Christian  Church,  "While  the  Church  is  willing  to  help 
you,  you  must  help  yourselves."  Unless  we  inculcate  that  it  is 
not  of  much  use.  In  your  prison  here  80%  of  the  women  are 
in  through  drunkenness.  The  Church  may  do  its  best  for  some 
of  those  people,  but  those  people  must  help  themselves.  Seventy- 
five  per  cent  of  the  occupants  of  your  prison  here  in  Toronto  can 
read  and  write,  at  least  a  little.  The  remaining  25%,  however, 
can  not  read  or  write  or  cipher.  It  is  for  the  Church  to  bring 
pressure  upon  these  people,  who  in  their  early  days  won't  help 
themselves. 

The  Rev.  "W.  Hodson  Smith^  of  tlie  British  Weslej-an  Meth- 
odist Church : 

Mr.  President,  may  I  venture  to  make  a  statement,  to  offer  a 
suggestion,  and  give  an  illustration?  The  statement  is  this,  that 
we  can  only  evangelize  the  city,  we  can  only  make  disciples  of  the 
nations,  as  we  followers  of  Christ  are  both  spiritual  and  practical. 
The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  as  the  leaven  which  a  woman  took  and 
hid  in  three  measures  of  meal  until  the  whole  was  leavened.  Yv'e 
have  been,  sir,  in  danger  of  putting  the  leaven  into  one  barrel  and 
the  meal  into  another,  and  then  expecting  the  meal  to  rise.  It  is  all 
very  well  for  us  to  pray  for  the  people  in  the  city  slums,  but  it 
is  for  us  to  be  intensely  practical  as  profoundly  spiritual,  and  I 
suggest  that  we  can  not  be  truly  spiritual  unless  we  are  intensely 
practical;  and  we  can  not  be  successfully  practical  without  being 
profoundly  spiritual. 

Sir,  it  has  been  wisely  said  that  the  spiritual  and  practical — 
the  worship  of  God  as  a  spirit  and  the  service  of  man  as  a  brother — 


414  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

are  the  warp  and  woof  of  a  true  Christian  faith.  I  believe  that 
with  all  my  soul.  It  is  not  enough,  sir,  for  us  to  have  right  rela- 
tions with  God.  We  must  have  right  relations  with  our  brother. 
There  is  all  the  difference  in  the  world  between  the  man  who  has 
failed  to  ascend  the  mount  at  the  beginning  of  his  daily  task  of 
duty  before  he  proceeds  to  his  business,  and  the  man  who  ap- 
proaches the  task  of  the  day  by  ascending  the  Mount  of  Transfigura- 
tion and  waiting  there  until  he  receives  a  vision  that  enables  him 
to  see  no  man  save  Jesus  only.  He  then  comes  down  to  his  task 
the  performance  of  which  is  impossible  unless  he  keeps  hold  by 
faith  of  the  pierced  hand.  We  want  to  come  down  to  things  as 
they  are  and  deal  with  men  as  they  are. 

The  second  suggestion  is  that  I  believe  that  in  the  midst  of 
our  great  and  glorious  municipal,  social,  national,  and  international 
work  over  all  the  Lord  God  Himself  is  watching;  and  I  believe,  sir, 
that  out  of  the  very  material  that  is  occupying  our  slums,  out 
of  the  very  material  that  is  occupying  ovir  suburbs,  the  Man  of 
the  Cross  is  making  all  things  new;  and  the  desire  of  this  Con- 
ference is  to  be  fellow  workers  with  Him. 

And  the  suggestion  I  wish  to  make  is  this:  That  the  work 
brought  before  us  this  day  in  the  two  session  of  the  Conference  is 
of  such  significance  as  to  deserve  and  demand  the  appointment  of 
a  special  committee  of  experts  representing  not  only  the  Methodist 
Churches  but  all  the  Churches,  who  shall  consider  the  whole  ques- 
tion of  our  social  duty  and  obligation  with  the  view  of  utilizing 
and  controlling  the  forces  that  are  about  us,  for  the  betterment  of 
man  and  the  glory  of  God. 

Mr.  John  A.  Pattex^  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Churcli : 

I  speak,  Mr.  Chairman,  particularly  because  I  feel  there  must 
be  some  expression  here  of  the  interest  that  is  felt  by  the  laymen 
of  my  Church  in  the  great  problems  of  social  service  which  they  are 
trying  to  face  in  a  manly  way. 

Let  us  first  realize  that  we  can  make  no  progress  in  the  service 
of  those  in  need  if  we  think  of  ourselves  as  reaching  down  to  those 
we  are  trying  to  help.  To  illusti-ate,  I  once  met  a  great  company 
of  men  in  a  gospel  shop  meeting  in  a  wood-working  concern, 
speaking  to  them  just  as  I  would  speak  to  my  Bible  class  in  my 
own  church.  At  the  close  a  man  arose  and  said,  "We  thank  you, 
sir,  for  your  address.  You  are  the  first  man  who  ever  spoke  here 
who  did  not  remind  us  that  Jesus  was  a  carpenter,  or  indicate  in 
some  way  that  He  was  speaking  to  a  different  class  from  that  to 
which  he  himself  belonged."  Personal  service  is  defective  if  it 
loses  sight  of  universal  manhood. 

Again,  as  business  laymen  we  face  not  only  the  responsibility 
for  personal  service  of  the  right  sort,  but  for  the  right  use  of  our 
means.  I  have  seen  nothing  defining  our  relations  to  that  quest- 
tion  more  accurately  than  this:  "My  money  is  myself — my  dollars 
have  much  the  same  relation  as  my  hand  or  my  arm.  My  money 
is  not  my  external  self,  but  it  is  my  efficient  self  in  relation  to  the 
present  world.  My  property  is  the  means  of  enlarging  my  life  so 
that  I  can  reach  forward  farther  and  do  more — it  must  be  as 
amenable  to  the  same  moral  and  spiritual  laws  as  I  am,  or  as  is 
my  hand  or  my  arm — I  can  not  separate  myself  from  it  and  make 
it  a  thing  apart  from  myself,  for  my  money  is  myself." 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  415 

Mr.  Thomas  "Wortiiingtox,  of  the  Independent  Methodist 
Church,  England : 

There  have  been  two  things  before  this  Conference,  running 
from  this  morning  until  this  afternoon.  One  theory  runs  that  you 
can  alter  a  great  deal  by  circumstances.  The  other  is  that  if  you 
alter  men  they  will  alter  circumstances.  I  think  we  will  have  to 
act  in  both  waj's.  A  little  while  ago  a  collier  came  into  our 
church  who  had  been  before  the  magistrates  more  than  once,  and 
had  been  hiding  in  the  woods  as  a  poacher,  but  he  landed  in  the 
church  and  heard  the  gospel  and  felt  its  power.  Down  near  the 
door  of  that  church  there  is  a  public  house  that  takes  in  £135 
a  week,  and  has  done  so  for  thirty  years.  His  fellows  were 
waiting  to  take  him  into  the  public  house,  but  ho  was  swung  into 
the  street  and  kept  until  eleven  o'clock.  There  was  a  young  man 
in  connection  with  the  Church  who  said,  "I  will  make  that  man  my 
pal."  When  this  collier  came  over  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
this  man  was  waiting  for  him  and  he  took  him  out  and  ran  around 
with  him.  He  did  for  that  fellow  almost  as  Elijah  did  with  the 
dead  baby,  who  lay  on  him  until  he  sneezed  and  showed  signs  of 
life.  This  personal  love  and  interest  so  influenced  the  man  that  he 
said,  "I  can  not  live  any  longer  where  I  am."  "How  is  that?"  "It 
is  hell.  If  I  went  from  there  to  hell  it  would  not  be  much  change. 
I  want  a  better  place,  and  if  you  will  speak  to  the  man  who  has 
it  to  rent  he  will  let  me  have  the  house."  I  did  so.  He  lived  there 
until  he  met  with  an  accident  and  was  taken  to  an  infirmary. 
There  he  lay,  nearly  dead,  and  sung  a  hymn  that  moved  the  whole 
ward,  just  before  he  M'ent  to  heaven.  That  man  changed  his  cir- 
cumstances because  he  got  changed  himself.  No  one  who  gets  the 
grace  of  God  right  in  the  heart  will  stop  near  hell.  They  will  get 
away. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  justification,  whatever,  that  these 
slums  should  continue.  How  will  the  change  be  made?  How  is 
it  going  to  be  done?  We  have  a  list  of  things  that  ought  to  be 
done  that  would  equal  the  genealogy  in  Chronicles.  What  is  going 
to  be  done?  What  are  you  going  to  do?  I  suggest  that  a  pi'actical 
way  to  do  is  to  go  home  and  call  a  meeting  of  your  Church  specially 
to  consider  the  spiritual  and  social  condition  of  your  own  neigh- 
borhood. Tell  your  members  that  snobocracy  is  going  to  cease,  and 
that  there  is  going  to  be  a  quarrel  with  the  devil  all  around  until 
he  is  hounded  clear  out.  Your  members  must  be  prepared  to  give 
not  only  their  money  but  themselves.  They  will  not  go  far  before 
they  see  the  devil  incarnate.  The  devil  trembles  when  he  sees  not 
only  the  saint  on  his  knees  in  the  church,  but  the  saint  in  the 
alley.     Then  he  trembles. 

Mrs.    Lucy    Vaimn    ]\Ii:yer,    of    the    Methodist    Episcopal 

Church : 

I  can  not  make  a  great  speech;  but  what  of  the  children  in  the 
slums?  "Circumstances!"  Can  these  babies  change  their  own  cir- 
cumstances? Drunken  fathers,  brutal  mothers,  places  you  would  n't 
allow  your  dogs  to  live  in  for  homes — hundreds  and  thousands  of 
them  to-day — what  of  them?  I  held  a  little  babe  in  my  own  arms 
once,  and  every  true  mother  of  one  child  is  a  mother  of  all  children. 
We  mothers  can  not  forget  the  little  children  of  the  slums.  And  I 
can  not  forget  the  poor  little  girls  on  the  streets,  thirteen,  fourteen. 


416  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

and  fifteen  years  old,  little  girls  yet — so  ignorant,  so  innocent,  but 
their  very  innocence  their  danger.  Just  one  push  as  they  're  pass- 
ing by  some  open  door  of  hell  and  they  are  gone  forever.  Just  one 
girl's  yielding  to  a  girl's  natural  desire  for  society — all  the  society 
that  is  open  to  them — to  a  girl's  innocent  longing  for  pretty  things 
and  good  times,  and  there  's  no  one  to  befriend  them,  no  one  to 
guide  them,  and  they  are  down  before  they  even  dream  of  the  value 
of  what  they  are  losing. 

One  of  these  girls  was  arrested  on  Chicago's  awful  streets  the 
other  day — she  ought  to  have  been  arrested,  but  in  the  police  sta- 
tion she  cried  long  and  bitterly,  this  little  girl.  Men  and  women, 
suppose  it  had  been  your  daughter?  How  you  guard  your  sweet 
daughter.  She'  s  not  too  old  for  you  to  take  on  your  lap  sometimes. 
And  as  this  girl  cried  and  cried,  she  said  over  and  over,  "I  did  n't 
have  anyone  to  help  me!  I  didn't  have  anyone  to  help  me."  She 
had  needed  help  so  desperately.  The  great  rich  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  was  all  around  her,  but  not  one  of  us  all  stretched  out  a  help- 
ing hand. 

A  little  girl  of  four  was  brought  early  one  morning  to  one  of 
our  down-town  deaconess  stations  by  a  rough  man  who  introduced 
the  child  by  saying,  "Here,  I  wish  you  women  would  take  this  'ere 
kid  and  keep  her  awhile,  or  her  father  '11  kill  her."  The  little  one 
had  been  sleeping  out  doors  and  it  was  not  summer.  She  was 
ragged  and  emaciated,  her  whole  body  covered  with  cuts  and  bruises 
from  her  father's  hand.  We  took  little  Marguerite  in,  gave  her  a 
bath — for  obvious  reasons — threw  her  vermin  infested  clothes  out 
of  the  window  on  a  broomstick,  and  called  for  an  accomplice  below 
to  kindle  a  bonfire  quick.  Then  we  dressed  her  in  clothes  from 
our  poor-closet  and  took  her  down  to  breakfast.  She  ate  like  the 
starving  child  she  was.  I  can  hear  of  starving  men,  and  even  starv- 
ing women,  with  some  degree  of  equanimity,  for  starvation  is  some- 
times God's  medicine.  But  the  starving  children!  I  think  of  my 
own  little  boy.  They  did  n't  ask  to  come  into  this  hard  world  of 
ours.     They  're  the  very  same  children  Jesus  took  in  His  arms. 

Has  the  Church  no  mission  to  these  children  of  the  slums?  Can 
they  help  their  "circumstances"?  After  our  morning  prayers,  we 
took  our  little  girl  to  the  sitting-room  and  gave  her  an  old  dolly 
to  play  with.  All  the  innate  mother's  love  in  her  little  heart 
fiamed  up  and  she  rocked  and  caressed  her  doll,  singing  to  it  in 
tenderer  words  than  she  had  ever  heard.  But  a  deaconess,  happen- 
ing to  pass  through  the  room,  noticed  the  words,  and  they  were 
vile  and  blasphemous  beyond  description.  "Why,  Marguerite,"  she 
exclaimed,  "you  must  not  swear!"  The  poor  little  thing  did  not 
understand.  "You  must  not  say  God  and  Jesus  in  that  way,"  con- 
tinued the  deaconess.  The  child  searched  around  desperately  for 
some  way  out.  She  was  very  bright.  Finally  she  found  it.  "Why, 
you  swear,"  she  said.  "Why  no,  child,  we  do  n't  swear."  "Yes 
you  do.  VvTien  you  got  down  by  your  chairs  after  breakfast,  you 
swore  like  everything!"  She  didn't  know  the  difference  between 
swearing  and  praying. 

You  smile,  but  men  and  women,  is  there  anything  on  earth  that 
would  make  you  willing  that  your  little  girl  should  n't  know  the 
difference  between  swearing  and  praying?  I  'd  rather  hear  the  clods 
fall  on  the  coffin  lid  of  my  child,  and  know  she  was  safe  in  the 
upper  fold,  than  that  her  sweet  baby  days  should  be  spent  on  the 
awful  streets  of  a  city's  slums. 

There  are  some  wicked  people  in  the  slums;  there  are  some  who 


REIVLVRKS  OF  THE  PRESIDENT.  417 

are  there  by  choice.  But  there  are  others — children  and  women  and 
men,  too — by  the  hundreds  of  thousands  who  are  blindfold  and  grop- 
ing in  the  dreadful  darkness  and  who  can  't  get  out.  O  men,  before 
you  prescribe  for  the  slum  do  study  the  slum  at  first  hand.  It  is 
not  the  will  of  your  Father  in  heaven  that  one  of  these  little  ones 
perish. 

Announcements  were  made,  and,  on  motion  of  Secretary 
James  Chapman^  the  Conference  adjourned  at  4.30,  the  bene- 
diction being  pronounced  by  Bishop  C.  H.  Phillips. 


TRIED  SESSION 

Reception  op  Fraternal  Delegates. 

Mr.  Justice  J.  J.  ]\Iaclaren,  of  the  Methodist  Church  of 
Canada,  presided  at  the  evening  session.  The  devotional  services 
were  in  charge  of  the  Eev.  E.  B.  Ryckman^  D.  D.,  of  the  Meth- 
odist Churcli  of  Canada,  who  read  Ephesians  4 : 1-7,  3 :  14-21, 
and  offered  prayer. 
•  Hymn  787  was  sung — 

"All  thanks  to  the  Lamb,  who  gives  us  to  meet." 

President  Maclaren  :  "This  session  is  a  very  special  one. 
At  the  ordinary  sessions  we  have  representatives  from  all  over 
the  Avorld  representing  the  various  Methodist  Churches.  This 
evening  we  are  privileged  to  receive  fraternal  delegates  from  a 
number  of  those  bodies  which,  like  ourselves,  are  world-wide  in 
extent.  A  large  number  of  applications  were  made  to  the  Ex- 
ecutive Committee  to  receive  fraternal  delegates.  If  we  had 
acceded  to  them  all,  you  would  not  have  been  able  to  discharge 
tlie  duties  and  the  purposes  for  which  you  have  come.  Em- 
barrassed by  these  riches,  the  Executive  Committee  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  they  could  receive  only  those  who,  like  ourselves, 
are  bodies  of  world-wide  extension.  Those  who  are  with  us 
this  evening  are  limited  to  three.  It  may  astonish  some  of  you 
who  come  from  the  Eastern  world  that  this  platform  tliis  even- 
ing, containing  your  own  representatives  and  tbe  representatives 
of  the  tlirec  Churches  who  will  be  presented  to  3''ou,  represents 
at  least  tliree-fourths  of  the  Protestantism  of  tliis  continent. 
I  think  that  is  a  remarkable  circumstance — and  what  is  lacking 
27 


418       RECEPTION  OF  FRATERNAL  DELEGATES. 

in  number  of  bodies  represented  is  made  up  by  tbe  very  large 
constituency  which  this  Conference  represents  and  wliich  our 
visiting  delegates  represent.  The  delegates  will  be  presented  in 
turn  to  the  chair  by  the  Rev.  Claudius  B.  Spencer^  D.  D., 
editor  of  the  Central  Christian  Advocate,  of  Kansas  City,  Mo., 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  by  the  Chair  will  be 
presented  to  the  Conference." 

The  Eev.  C.  B.  Spencer,  D.  D.  :  "Mr.  Chairman:  One 
Ecumenical  Conference  has  met  during  this  present  year  in  this 
hemisphere.  In  the  month  of  June  of  this  year  the  Baptist 
World  Alliance  met  in  Philadelphia.  I  can  say  that  the  dele- 
gations which  came  from  foreign  lands,  pre-eminently  those 
who  came  from  the  British  Empire,  brought  a  message  as  ap- 
pealing, as  well  as  eloquent,  as  any  that  we  in  this  Western 
world  have  been  favored  with  during  this  Ecumenical  Confer- 
ence. The  Executive  Committee  of  this  Ecumenical  Conference 
instructed  its  Executive  Secretary,  Dr.  Carroll,  to  visit  this 
Baptist  World  Alliance,  and  present  to  them  the  greetings, of 
this  body  and  invite  a  delegate  to  be  sent  to  this  body.  I  have 
the  great  honor  to  bring  forward  this  delegate,  a  gentleman 
well  known  in  the  city  of  Toronto,  born  in  this  vicinity,  educated 
in  its  schools,  who  for  twenty-two  years  has  been  a  conspicuous 
teacher  in  McMaster  University.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  the 
honor  of  presenting  to  you  the  Eev.  J.  H.  Farmer,  LL.  D., 
Dean  of  McMaster  University." 

Dr.  Farmer  then  spoke  as  follows : 

Mr.  Chairman,  Dr.  Spencer,  and  Brethren  and  Sisters  of  World- 
wide Methodism:  It  was  the  privilege  of  the  Baptist  World  Al- 
liance last  June  to  listen  to  a  very  strong  and  informing  and  inspir- 
ing address  from  Dr.  Carroll,  as  he  brought  to  our  Alliance  the  greet- 
ings of  this  Conference.  On  that  occasion  Dr.  Carroll  made  a  re- 
quest of  the  Alliance  that  there  might  be  reciprocity  in  this  matter 
of  greetings.  I  am  happy  to  say  that  in  this  particular  case  the 
proposal  of  reciprocity  was  not  turned  down,  but  was  very  gladly 
and  heartily  welcomed.  As  Dr.  Spencer  has  intimated,  it  is  be- 
cause our  president,  Dr.  McArthur,  has  requested  me  to  be  present 
and  convey  the  greetings  of  the  World  Alliance,  that  it  is  my 
honor  and  pleasure  to  be  with  you  on  this  occasion.  Dr.  Cari'oU 
on  that  occasion  also  freely  recognized  that  the  Baptists  were  the 
older  of  these   two   bodies   at  all   events.     Some   there   are   who 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  J.  H.  FARMER.  419 

think  they  can  trace  the  succession  right  back  to  the  first  century. 
Some  of  us  are  not  quite  so  sure;  and  there  are  far  more  of  us 
who  are  not  particularly  concerned  to  do  that,  but  who  are  very 
much  concerned  that  we  should  be  in  line  with  the  spirit  and  the 
thought  and  the  life  of  our  Lord  Jesus,  whom  we  gladly  exalt  as 
our  God  and  our  Savior. 

As  an  Alliance,  however,  we  are  considerably  younger  than  this 
Conference.  I  understand  you  follow  fast  in  the  wake  behind  the 
Presbyterian  Alliance,  and  that  j'ou  now  count  your  years  up  to 
thirty,  and  that  this  is  your  fourth  decennial  Conference.  We 
are  only  six  years  old  as  yet.  We  had  our  second  meeting  last 
June  in  Philadelphia.  We  had  our  first  in  London  six  years  ago. 
We  hope  to  meet  every  five  years.  So  that  though  we  are  younger 
than  you,  we  may  overtake  you  in  the  number  of  meetings  by 
and  by.  We  are  hoping  in  the  year  1916  to  meet  in  the  city  of 
Berlin,  where  a  few  years  ago  a  great  Baptist  congress  was  held 
in  the  interests  of  Baptist  work  on  the  continent  of  Europe. 

In  numbers,  I  suppose  we  are  somewhat  behind  you.  I  saw 
a  note  in  the  Globe  the  other  day  that  you  number  in  members 
and  adherents  something  like  thirty  millions.  The  Alliance  that 
met  in  Philadelphia  last  June  represented  eight  millions  of  mem- 
bers, and,  I  suppose,  roughly  speaking,  twenty  to  twenty-five  mil- 
lions of  members  and  adherents.  Our  delegation,  however,  is 
larger  than  yours.  You  have,  I  suppose,  five  hundred  picked  souls 
from  your  vast  constituency.  We  allowed  them  to  come  as  they 
would  from  every  Church  and  Convention,  and  on  both  occasions 
we  have  had  something  like  four  thousand  regularly  enrolled  dele- 
gates. I  have  been  struck,  as  I  have  read  the  reports  of  your 
proceedings  from  day  to  day,  with  the  resemblance  between  your 
meeting  and  ours.  You  are  thinking  about  the  same  topics,  dis- 
cussing the  same  great  problems,  and  with  much  the  same  spirit 
and  hopefulness.  I  confess,  as  I  stand  before  you  this  evening, 
I  stand  in  a  spirit  of  deep  and  almost  hushed  reverence  as  I  think 
of  the  personnel  of  this  Conference,  of  the  men  who  have  been 
shining  lights  in  the  pulpits  of  the  world,  of  the  men  who  quietly 
as  teachers  are  pushing  forward  the  great  work  of  Christian 
scholarship,  and  of  these  other  men  who  are  showing  to  the  world 
splendid  illustrations  of  magnificent  Christian  statesmanship  in 
the   management   of   the   great   work   of   the   Christian    Churches. 

I  bring  to  you  the  greetings  of  an  Alliance  that  Is  glad  to 
number  in  its  membership  some  of  the  great  souls  of  earth.  Our 
first  president,  now  basking  in  the  presence  of  his  Lord,  was  Dr. 
Alexander  MacLaren.  Our  second  president  was  that  genial,  versa- 
tile, energetic,  robust,  heroic  war-horse  of  non-conformity  in  the 
old  land.  Dr.  John  Clifford.  Our  present  president  is  a  Canadian 
by  birth,  a  Scotchman  by  extraction,  an  American  by  adoption. 


420      EECEPTION  OF  FRATERNAL  DELEGATES. 

Dr.  R.  S.  McArthur,  who  with  his  more  than  forty  years'  pastorate 
in  New  Yorls;  City  is  one  of  the  great  outstanding  facts  in  American 
Church  history.  We  have  that  kindly  expositor  of  the  spiritual 
life.  Dr.  Meyer.  Then  we  boast  among  our  list  of  members  that 
great  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  who  has  done  perhaps  more 
than  any  other  one  man  to  incorporate  in  legislative  acts  the  very 
spirit  and  genius  of  Christian  brotherhood,  Lloyd  George.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

One  of  the  greatest  privileges  I  ever  had  was  to  be  in  fellow- 
ship for  a  while  with  a  certain  Frenchman,  whom  one  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Protestant  clergy  in  France  described  as  the  second 
orator  in  the  Republic,  a  man  of  flaming  evangelism,  of  unique 
elements,  a  man  of  beautiful  devotion  to  the  gospel  in  its  primitive 
simplicity.  And  then,  away  down  in  the  East — and  there  is  a 
magic  to  some  of  us  in  the  thought  of  Russia  and  Hungary  to-day — 
we  had  here  two  weeks  ago  Pabloff  and  Stephanoff,  who  have 
baptized  more  than  a  thousand  converts  in  Astrachan.  There  is 
a  marvelous  uprising  in  Russia,  and  they  are  coming  into  the  light 
and  blessedness  of  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  by  thousands  in  that 
great  Eastern  land.  We  rejoice  as  we  think  of  our  brethren  in 
Russia  and  other  European  countries.  I  am  glad  to  have  the 
privilege  of  bearing  to  you  the  warm  love  and  earnest  Christian 
greetings  of  those  suffering  saints  of  the  Lord  out  in  those  East- 
ern lands. 

I  would  like,  on  behalf  of  the  Alliance,  to  congratulate  this 
Conference  on  its  great  past.  When  one  thinks  of  the  religious 
condition  of  England  when  Wesley  began  his  work,  one  can  not 
but  believe  that  Wesley  had  more  perhaps  than  any  other  one  man 
to  do  with  the  mightj'  change  that  has  come  over  the  face  of  the 
Christian  world  during  the  last  two  centuries.  As  a  Baptist  I 
rejoice  in  thinking  of  Carey,  a  Baptist,  as  the  practical  beginner 
of  the  great  foreign  missionary  movement  in  England.  But  if 
I  mistake  not,  Carey  was  brought  up  in  an  atmosphere  that  was 
begotten  by  the  great  Methodist  revival.  We  congratulate  you 
on  that  great  history  of  yours.  The  name  you  bear  was  given  to 
you  by  others;  but  to  that  name,  whatever  it  may  have  meant 
at  that  time,  and  whatever  Wesley  may  have  wished  concerning 
its  use,  you  have  given  a  content  of  meaning  of  which  you 
have  no  reason  to  be  ashamed.  I  congratulate  you  that  in  less 
than  two  hundred  years  you  have  come  to  number  your  members 
and  adherents  by  tens  of  millions.  I  congratulate  you  on  your 
present  activity,  that  you  are  aggressively  evangelistic,  that  all 
over  this  land  and  other  lands  wherever  Methodists  go  they  are 
seeking  the  salvation  of  souls.  I  congratulate  you  that  you  are 
keeping  close  to  the  rank  and  file  of  the  common  people.  I  con- 
gratulate you  on  the  contribution  that  your  scholars  are  making 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  S.  P.  CADMAN.  421 

in  the  realm  of  Christian  scholarship  to-day.  And  I  congratulate 
you  on  the  position  you  Methodist  people  occupy  in  the  solving 
of  the  great  problems  of  moral  and  social  reform.  I  congratulate 
you  on  your  activity  at  the  present  time. 

As  to  the  future,  what?  You  and  we  are  facing  the  future 
together — I  trust  with  a  common  love  to  Him  who  has  redeemed 
us,  with  a  common  faith  in  Him,  a  common  confidence  in  His 
gospel  that  will  make  us  strong  and  courageous  and  true.  There 
are  great  problems  before  us' — the  problem  of  getting  men  to 
believe  in  Jesus  Christ  and  to  surrender  to  Him  is  the  problem 
of  problems.  The  problem  of  social  and  moral  reform  is  a  tre- 
mendously urgent  problem  to-day.  Before  us  all  is  the  great  prob- 
lem of  world  missions.  How  are  we  going  to  meet  these?  I 
believe  that  we  all  need  to  preach  afresh  the  majesty  of  law 
and  the  certainty  of  the  penalties  of  sin.  I  think  judgment  to 
come  should  not  be  allowed  to  drop  out  from  our  thoughts  and 
preaching.  But  we  must  preach  it  in  tears,  in  love  for  men,  and 
yet  preach  all  with  great  confidence  in  the  gospel  as  the  power 
of  God  to  save  from  sin.  Attractively,  earnestly,  with  all  our 
hearts  let  us  preach  the  gospel.  Men  can  not  be  socially  reformed 
unless  they  are  regenerated  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  Let  us  press 
upon  men  that  they  must  be  born  again  and  come  into  that  new 
life  in  which  they  can  breathe  the  very  spirit  of  Christ  and  walk 
forward  in  that  spirit.  I  believe  that  we  need  not  expect  any  solu- 
tion of  our  great  questions  unless  we  are  prepared  'to  go  forward 
in  the  spirit  of  Christ.  If  we  wait  until  there  is  some  easy,  com- 
fortable solution  of  the  social  problem,  we  shall  wait  long.  We 
must  solve  these  problems  by  the  truth,  and  conquer  by  the  spirit 
of  truth  and  love  and  honesty,  the  spirit  of  devotion  to  Christ. 
If  we  get  that  spirit  in  the  home-land  in  solving  our  great  moral  and 
social  questions,  we  can  carry  the  cross  into  distant  lands.  China 
and  Japan  will  not  listen  to  us  unless  here  at  home  we  make 
life  sweet  and  pure  and  wholesome  and  strong.  The  Baptists 
of  the  World's  Alliance  are  with  you,  heart  and  soul,  in  these 
great  central,  vital  tasks.  May  God's  blessing  be  upon  you,  and 
through  Him  may  you  conquer!  And  may  we  all  at  last  have 
the  joy  of  meeting  in  His  presence  and  hearing  Him  say,  "Well 
done,  good  and  faithful  servants;  enter  into  the  joy  of  your  Lord!" 
[Great  applause.] 

Dr.  Spencer  introduced  the  second  speaker,  tlie  Rev.  S.  P. 
Cadman,  D.  D.,  of  tlie  Xational  Congregational  Council,  wlio 
spoke  as  follows : 

Mr.  President  and  Brethren  of  the  Ecumenical  Conference,  I 
have    been    appointed    by    the    executive   officers    of   the   National 


422      RECEPTION  OF  FRATERNAL  DELEGATES. 

Council  of  our  Congregational  Churches  in  the  United  States  of 
America,  to  convey  to  you  and  to  the  millions  of  our  fellow  believers 
in  Jesus  Christ  whom  you  represent,  our  fraternal  greetings  upon 
this  memorable  occasion,  and  to  express  in  your  presence  and  on 
their  behalf  the  faith  they  hold  that  this  international  gathering 
will  result  in  the  enrichment  of  your  spiritual  life,  the  increase  of 
Christian  fellowship,  and  a  large  extension  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God. 

There  are  many  honored  brethren  in  the  Congregational  circle 
who  would  be  more  competent  for  the  discharge  of  this  embassy 
than  am  I,  yet  none  could  undertake  it  with  livelier  feelings  of 
gratitude  because  of  my  personal  indebtedness  to  the  people 
called  Methodists  in  Great  Britain,  America,  and  also  the  regions 
beyond.  If  you  will  pardon  allusions  that  may  appear  egotistical, 
but  which  the  circumstances  provoke,  I  was  planted  and  trained 
in  the  Wesleyan  Church  of  the  Motherland.  My  first  years  of 
public  service  were  happily  spent  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
ministry  of  the  United  States.  And  I  appear  before  you  as  one 
whose  earliest  memories  center  around  the  humbler  sanctuaries 
of  your  order:  memories  dominated  by  the  sainted  men  and  women 
whom  I  was  privileged  to  know  in  my  impressionable  period 
and  who  filled  the  courts  of  the  Lord  with  exhortation  and  with 
praise.  The  sturdy  pieties  of  the  mining  districts  of  mid-England, 
which  embrace  the  region  from  which  Bishop  Francis  Asbury  came, 
furnished  my.  youthful  ardor  with  its  spiritual  ambition  and  in- 
centive. Ever  and  anon  there  flash  across  one's  recollection 
.  those  little  Bethels  by  the  roadside,  or  topping  a  neighboring 
crest,  where  prayer  was  wont  to  be  made.  They  were  the  centers 
of  the  highest  life  of  the  people  around  them,  and  in  them  the 
vision  of  the  Eternal,  with  its  regenerating  and  sanctifying  light, 
was  given  to  thousands  who  otherwise  would  have  wandered  be- 
reft and  blind.  It  is  small  wonder  then  that  one's  religious  pref- 
erences strike  a  backward  path  across  the  teeming  fields  of 
reminiscence  and  place  one  again  upon  the  hill  of  Zion  where  he, 
however  unworthy,  tasted  of  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come 
and  was  filled  with  a  deep  love  and  reverence  for  the  person  of 
Jesus. 

It  has  been  granted  to  you  to  occupy  a  large  place  in  the 
Church  universal ;  your  people  have  won  their  spheres  as  moral 
leaders  and  social  and  political  guides.  The  list  of  your  trained 
and  educated  men,  both  among  the  clergy  and  the  laity,  has 
increased  with  every  decade.  But  if  I  mistake  not,  the  chief 
output  of  the  spiritual  gifts  which  God  has  vouchsafed  to  you 
is  to  be  found  among  the  more  obscure  classes  of  society,  whose 
faith  and  discipline,  forbearance  and  hardihood,  are  the  hope  of 
democracy   and   the   elements   of  strength  in  the  Empire  and   the 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  S.  P.  CADMAN.  423 

Republic.  My  oldest  Bible  school  teacher  was  an  unlettered  man 
whose  persuasive  supplications  led  not  a  few  of  his  scholars  into 
the  way  everlasting.  The  lay  preachers  of  the  neighborhood  went 
out  on  weary  distances  and  frequently  faced  hostile  or  indifferent 
audiences  that  they  might  convey  the  message  of  the  gospel  to 
their  fellow  citizens.  Many  of  these  men  were  remarkably  gifted 
in  their  knowledge  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  of  the  hymnaries; 
their  aggressive  evangelism  and  their  steadfast  and  devoted  labors 
illuminated  an  otherwise  cheerless  path,  and  time  would  fail  to 
tell  of  the  results  of  their  toil  which  can  be  verified,  while  those 
which  are  known  only  to  God  may  be  confidently  left  to  His 
approval  and  reward.  Such  were  the  members  of  the  household 
of  faith  who  lodged  my  first  years  in  the  shelter  of  divine  grace 
and  who  taught  me  and  my  companions  the  reality  of  the  Chris- 
tian hope,  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  and  the  beauty  of  holiness. 

Their  conversations  frequently  centered  around  doctrinal  the- 
ology, or  upon  their  favorite  exposition  of  the  New  Testament 
scheme  for  human  redemption.  Nor  were  the  names  of  the  fore- 
most statesmen  and  literary  lights  of  the  time  so  well  known 
by  them,  or  nearly  so  influential,  as  were  those  of  your  revered 
founder  and  his  illustrious  brother,  of  Adam  Clarke  and  his 
monumental  learning,  of  Samuel  Bradburn  and  his  unequaled  elo- 
quence, of  Joseph  Benson  and  his  loving  intimacy  with  the  sacred 
books,  of  William  Dawson  and  his  inspiring  zeal,  of  Robert  Newton 
and  his  mellifluous  utterances,  of  Jabez  Bunting  and  his  stately 
and  overwhelming  presence,  of  Theophilus  Lessey  and  his  beauti- 
ful discourses  upon  the  Priesthood  of  Christ,  of  Hugh  Bourne  and 
his  modest  boldness,  of  William  Clowes  and  his  flaming  aggres- 
siveness. 

The  gifts  and  graces,  peculiarities  and  powers  of  these  dis» 
tinguished  brethren  were  freely  canvassed  by  the  older  members 
of  the  societies,  and  the  references  of  such  devoted  admirers 
left  proud  emotion  in  the  memory  and  sweet  music  in  the  heart. 
It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  they  gloried  in  men,  for 
the  chief  business  of  the  best  of  these  people  was  the  prosperity 
of  the  Church;  their  one  aspiration  was  toward  attainment  in  grace 
and  for  the  sake  of  these  things  they  watched  over  one  another 
in  love.  They  were  "sermon  tasters"  to  a  man  knowing  the  milk 
from  the  meat  of  the  Word  and  frequently  discriminating  with 
commendable  clearness  between  the  various  types  of  pulpit  princes. 
After  a  week  of  exacting  toil  spent  in  the  forge,  the  factory,  and 
the  mine,  they  came  up  to  the  house  of  the  Lord  with  great 
gladness,  and  they  hung  upon  the  accents  of  their  ministers  with 
a  touching  appreciation  and  a  warm  response.  On  anniversary 
days  the  churches  resounded  with  outbursts  of  praise  and  thanks- 
giving to   God.     Hidden   away   in   their   little   assemblies  many   a 


424      RECEPTION  OF  FRATERNAL  DELEGATES. 

youthful  life  was  nourished  in  those  gardens  of  the  Lord  and 
prepared  for  future  usefulness  and  honor.  Charles  Haddon  Spur- 
geon,  Frank  Wakeley  Gunsaulus,  and  Joseph  Parker  are  prominent 
examples  of  the  product  of  rural  and  artisan  Methodism.  They 
only  serve,  however,  to  indicate  the  fact  that  many  denominations 
of  Protestantism  are  under  obligation  to  these  hidden  sources  of 
the  Real  Presence:  these  unheralded  but  powerful  workings  of 
the  Eternal  Spirit.  And  the  most  important  medium  of  connection 
between  us  and  apostolic  times  is  this  continuing  living  witness 
of  such  faithful  souls  as  these,  who  have  been  the  animation  ot 
the   Church  from   generation   to  generation. 

In  the  neighboring  parish  of  Madeley,  in  the  county  of  Shrop- 
shire, the  revered  John  Fletcher  had  accomplished  a  work  for 
the  English  speaking  races  which  is  still  unsurpassed  in  the  annals 
of  any  single  presbyter  of  the  Church.  His  offspring  in  Christ 
abounded  upon  every  hand.  The  schoolroom  where  I  was  taught 
to  pray  and  where  I  received  my  call  to  the  ministry,  had  often 
echoed  his  anointed  pleadings.  His  apostolic  character  was  the 
standard  type  of  successful  search  after  the  living  God.  His 
writings  were  quoted  as  models  of  gracious  and  impassioned  de- 
fense and  establishment  of  the  gospel.  His  calmly  fervent  zeal 
was  communicated  to  all  hearts  and  extended  to  my  own  genera- 
tion. While  Christendom  has  given  thanks  for  him  because  of  his 
extraordinary  purity  and  stainless  record,  he  was  intensively 
known  and  loved  among  those  for  whom  he  spent  himself  unceas- 
ingly and  in  whose  behalf  he  died  as  he  passed  from  the  sacra- 
mental altar. 

Nearer  in  the  order  of  time,  yet  one  in  the  bright  successiori 
of  Methodist  pastors  and  teachers,  were  John  Rattenbury,  William 
Morley  Punshon,  Gervase  Smith,  William  Arthur,  William  Burt 
Pope,  George  T.  Perks,  Samuel  Coley,  Luke  Hoult  Wiseman, 
Matthew  Simpson,  James  MacPherson  and  Samuel  and  William 
Antliff.  It  was  my  unspeakable  privilege  to  hear  many  of  these 
men.  I  stood  as  a  candidate  for  the  Christian  ministry  before 
James  Harrison  Rigg  and  George  Osborn;  William  Arthur  gave 
me  his  blessing,  and  men  who  still  live  and  labor  among  us,  such 
as  Joseph  Agar  Beet  and  William  Theophilus  Davison  and  John 
G.  Tasker  profoundly  influenced  my  ideals  as  a  Christian  minis- 
ter, instructed  my  ignorance  and  rendered  me  their  undischarged 
debtor.  For  the  past  twenty  years,  and  especially  the  first  ten 
of  those  years,  I  have  lived  in  active  intercourse  with  many  of 
your  bishops,  theologians,  scholars  and  saints,  as  these  are  found 
in  every  rank  and  condition  among  you.  And  if  I  venture  to  claim 
any  knowledge  of  your  churches,  of  the  spirit  that  quickens  you, 
and  of  the  methods  of  your  enterprise,  the  claim  is  made  in  the 
fullest  sympathy  of  love's  interpretation  and  with  a  yearning  that 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  S.  P.  CADMAN.  425 

your  innumerable  companies  may  continue  the  impetus  of  tliat 
mighty  movement  which  God  committed  to  the  care  of  the  Wes- 
leys  and  their  coadjutors. 

Here  and  there  may  be  found  a  warped  brother  who  went  out 
from  among  you  and  is  somewhat  reticent  concerning  the  mother 
that  bore  him.  But  such  an  one  is  a  negligible  quantity  and  can  be 
left  to  his  own  devices.  In  the  swelling  chorus  of  approval  and 
emulation  which  Methodism  has  received  from  the  wise,  and  the 
good,  a  feeble  pipe  of  discord  is  scarcely  perceptible.  It  only 
serves  to  emphasize  the  immense  value  and  universal  benefit  of 
the  evangelical  revival,  upon  whose  results  men  and  nations  are 
existing  to-day.  For,  while  your  organization  as  Churches  is  the 
permanent  embodiment  of  that  revival,  its  influence  has  gone  forth 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  when  that  influence  is  duly  pondered 
and  all  the  channels  of  its  activity  surveyed,  it  may  be  doubted 
as  to  whether  you  are  the  largest  asset  it  created.  Yet,  by  the 
grace  of  God,  you  are  what  you  are,  and  the  brethren  of  other 
denominations  rejoice  with  you  in  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  and  the 
bond  of  peace.  Likewise  we  feel,  as  I  am  sure  you  feel,  that  ex- 
cessive insistence  upon  past  history,  however  enticing,  is  accom- 
panied by  certain  drawbacks.  With  a  full  recognition  of  our 
yesterdays,  we  are  far  more  concerned  for  our  to-morrows.  Here- 
in the  older  and  the  younger  Puritanism,  the  Puritanism  which 
hails  from  the  Mayflower  and  Plymouth  Rock,  as  well  as  that 
which  came  out  of  Epworth  RectoiT,  are  solicitous  for  the  well- 
being  of  the  Christianized  democracy  of  the  Twentieth  Century. 
The  religious  restorations  of  the  past  one  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
accompanied  as  they  were  by  social  reforms,  moralized  politics 
and  the  deepening  conviction  of  human  brotherhood,  while  they 
have  promoted  manifold  causes,  founded  missions,  advanced  edu- 
cation and  broadened  the  bases  of  social  justice,  are  chiefly  serv- 
iceable at  the  present  moment  as  a  platform  for  renewed  crusades 
and  as  an  inspii'ation  for  the  capture  of  everything  which  is  in 
any  way  opposed  to  the  commonwealth  of  Christ.  You  have  met 
in  this  Conference  that  you  may  find  a  spiritual  center  for  the 
control  of  our  complex  and  bewildering  civilization.  And  if  I  do 
not  mistake  your  purpose,  you  seek  to  find  that  center  in  the  wis- 
dom and  guidance  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ.  He  never  condescended 
to  use  any  other  influence  save  that  which  is  spiritual,  although 
He  knew  that  the  wordly  mind  sets  little  store  by  spiritual  things. 
Lord  Morley  remarks  that  if  Macchiavelli  had  been  at  Jerusalem 
two  thousand  years  ago,  he  might  have  found  nobody  of  any  im- 
portance in  his  eyes  save  Pontius  Pilate  and  the  Roman  legion- 
aries. The  observation  holds  true  of  nearly  all  the  beginnings 
of  revitalized  Christianity.  Your  fathers  proved  it  so,  and  the 
contempt  they  endured  from  the  learned  and  the  powerful  was  a 


426      RECEPTION  OF  FRATERNAL  DELEGATES. 

greater  test  of  their  fidelity  than  the  mobs  of  Wednesbury  and 
Newcastle.  The  Risen  Lord  sent  forth  these  preachers  with  the 
exhortation,  "Blessed  is  he,  whosoever  shall  not  be  offended  in 
me,"  and  because  your  theology  and  preaching  have  done  justice 
to  the  significance  of  Christ's  Personality  and  Cross  and  Resur- 
rection, you  have  been  able  to  abide  in  your  own  place  and  ex- 
tend your  borders  to  their  present  dimensions.  Any  thoughtful 
obsei-ver  of  these  historical  facts  will  give  them  preponderance, 
for  if  the  early  itinerant  preachers  of  the  North  American  Conti- 
nent were  commissioned  again  to  reveal  to  men  the  dominion  of 
grace  and  the  universality  of  redemption,  and  to  find  their  answer 
in  the  actual  experience  of  those  to  whom  they  ministered,  sure- 
ly we  shall  be  wise  enough  to  follow  their  example.  We  must 
continue  to  proclaim  those  great  central  solidities  of  our  Christian 
faith  which  are  at  the  same  time  expressions  of  our  inmost  souls. 
Every  article  of  a  simple  and  catholic  creed  which  centers 
around  the  absolute  supremacy  of  Jesus  in  all  things,  is  verified 
by  the  massive  and  ardent  spiritual  experiences  of  humanity  made 
articulate  toward  God.  He  himself  has  chosen  to  explain  these 
truths  only  in  the  terms  of  experience.  The  pathos  of  repentance, 
the  paean  of  regeneration,  the  shout  of  deliverance  which  arises 
from  the  ransomed  souls  of  "Twice-Born  Men"  and  the  light  with- 
in, which  outward  darkness  does  not  easily  affect,  separate  and 
make  secure  the  communion  you  have  with  God  the  Father  and 
with  his  Son,  Jesus  Christ.  James  Martineau  was  right  in  his 
affirmation  that  this  detachment  from  matters  of  less  moment 
made  your  religious  sources  inviolate  and  should  render  you  hos- 
pitable to  the  necessary  changes  produced  by  the  growth  of 
Christian  scholarship,  because,  being  fii'mly  fixed  at  the  center,  you 
are  free  to  float  elsewhere.  I  offer  it  as  my  own  intense  con- 
viction that  the  churches,  be  they  Roman  or  Protestant,  which 
are  best  able  rightly  to  estimate  and  apply  the  significance  of 
Christ  Jesus  and  all  He  is  in  Himself  and  has  done  for  the  race,  to 
the  present  needs  of  humanity,  are  the  churches  which  will  emerge 
victorious  from  every  impending  struggle.  So  has  it  ever  been, 
so  must  it  ever  be.  And,  despite  doubts  and  difficulties,  it  is  a 
consoling  reflection  that  our  Risen  Head  has  called  us  to  so  high 
an  endeavor  and  will  sustain  us  in  its  process  and  in  its  con- 
summation. His  knowledge  of  our  weakness,  our  lukewarmness 
and  shortcomings,  was  complete,  but  His  confidence  in  His  gospel 
was  perfect.  Surely  no  words  He  uttered  are  more  significant 
of  a  daring  faith  in  mankind,  more  touched  by  the  quenchless 
spirit  of  mystic  adventure,  than  those  in  which  He  foretold  the 
irresistible  attraction  of  His  Cross.  The  great  pillared  truths  of 
Christ's  unique  and  single  revelation  of  the  Father's  heart  and  of 
the    Father's   will,    and    His    divine    sacrifice,    which    gives    us    our 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  S.  P.  CADMAN.  427 

access  to  the  life  wherein  we  stand,  are  equal  to  the  support  of 
every  task  He  bids  us  undertake.  When  we  turn  away  from  this 
Conference  to  face  again  the  facts  of  life  and  to  meet  the  contin- 
gencies of  an  inscrutable  future,  it  is  sufficient  for  us  to  know 
that,  led  by  such  a  Captain,  and  obedient  to  His  command,  we 
cannot  fail. 

In  these  things,  so  far  as  I  am  permitted  to  speak  for  them, 
the  Congregationalists  of  the  United  States  are  your  companions- 
in-arms.  The  theological  differences  of  the  past,  which  waged 
around  the  limitations  of  God's  mercy  toward  men  and  the  extent 
of  His  salvatory  provision  for  them,  have  so  largely  disappeared 
that  some  brethren  in  my  own  church,  though  by  no  means  all, 
find  it  difficult  to  conceive  of  any  final  reprobation.  They  have 
also  felt  called  upon  to  assert  the  humanity  of  God  as  shown 
forth  in  Christ  Jesus  and  as  an  essential  part  of  the  divine  nature 
of  our  Lord.  Their  work  in  behalf  of  higher  education.  Christian 
literature,  the  cleansing  and  uplifting  of  the  national  life,  and  the 
apologetic  which  seeks  to  reconcile  our  faith  with  the  growth  of 
organized  knowledge;  together  with  the  splendid  operations  of 
th^ir  Home  and  Foreign  Missionary  Societies,  are  a  tribute  to 
their  loyalty  and  sacrifice  which  needs  no  eulogium  of  mine  to 
add  to  its  merit. 

And  as  these  great  rivers  of  God  which  flowed  out  of  one  orig- 
inal fountain,  mingle  their  waters  more  freely  and  are  brought 
closer  together  by  the  pressure  of  heroical  needs,  we  all  begin 
to  apprehend,  as  we  have  not  done  before,  the  purposes  of  their 
Supreme  Disposer.  For  it  was  the  distinctive  temperamental  faith 
of  one  stock  which  gave  rise  to  both  these  types  of  Puritanism. 
Influenced  and  colored  as  they  were  by  other  currents  that  flowed 
into  them,  their  central  drift  has  always  been,  and  is  now,  toward 
the  one  God,  our  Father,  and  the  one  Mediator  also  between  God 
and  men,  "Himself  man,  Christ  Jesus,  who  gave  Himself  a  I'ansom 
for  all;  the  testimony  to  be  borne  in  its  own  time."  In  this  faith 
we  salute  you,  as  brothers  beloved  and  longed  for,  our  joy  and 
crown,  our  comrades  in  life  and  love  and  service. 

Matthew  Arnold,  speaking  from  the  standpoint  of  an  Erastian 
who  frankly  believed  in  a  state  church  if  it  could  be  modeled  on 
his  own  lines  of  comprehensiveness,  and  who  never  ceased  to 
blame  Puritanism  for  its  non-conformity,  was  yet  compelled  to  say 
that  it  was  given  to  Puritanism  to  fix  and  intensify  in  England 
and  America  a  sense  of  conduct,  and  that  as  a  means  for  enabling 
men  to  love  and  appropriate  divine  ideas  on  which  they  could  not 
otherwise  have  laid  or  kept  hold,  the  discipline  of  Puritanism  has 
been  invaluable.  Ho  continues,  "The  more  I  read  history,  the 
more  I  see  of  mankind,  the  more  I  recognize  its  value."  Needless 
to  remark,  we  quite  agree  with  the  brilliant  but  captious  essayist. 


428  RECEPTION  OF  FRATERNAL  DELEGATES. 

The  spiritual  forces  included  under  that  general  term  "Puritan- 
ism" have  been  for  a  long  time  operative  in  the  experience  of  the 
Church,  nor  have  they  been  unrelated,  a  heterogeneous  collec- 
tion of  various  phases,  but  a  unity  animated  and  controlled  by  the 
life  of  the  Spirit.  They  have  helped  to  preserve  the  world  from 
the  danger  of  over-reaching  ecclesiasticism,  vsrhich  found  its  outlet 
in  hard  and  impossible  dogmas  and  an  interpretation  of  Christian- 
ity marred  by  superstition  and  obscurantism.  The  wisdom  of 
their  policy  Is  demonstrated  in  some  of  the  more  important  devel- 
opments of  modern  society.  In  place  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire, 
with  its  exaggeration  of  solidarity,"  we  see,"  says  Dr.  Workman, 
"the  rise  of  separate  nations,  each  determined  to  work  out  its 
life,  political  and  religious,  on  its  own  lines,"  and  "whatever  else 
justification  by  faith  may  mean,  it  stands  for  the  claim  that  be- 
tween the  individual  and  his  Savior  no  corporation,  no  priest, 
no  sacrament,  no  saints,  may  intervene."  The  very  diversity  of 
Churches  and  creeds  some  lament  to-day  is  the  Inevitable  result 
of  this  elevation  of  individualism.  And  I  for  one  am  not  able  to 
see  what  good  would  be  accomplished  by  sacrificing  these  hard- 
won  liberties  in  the  search  for  an  artificial  Church  union.  Th§re 
is  a  fashion  In  ideas  as  in  other  things,  and  at  present  it  is 
fashionable  to  speak  of  a  united  Christianity  in  terms  which,  to 
say  the  least,  are  liable  of  misinterpretation.  Just  as  the 
Eighteenth  Century  dealt  with  gravitation  and  the  Nineteenth 
with  evolution,  and  these  dealings  affected  all  forms  of  thought, 
so  we  are  called  upon  to  face  the  issue  of  union,  alike  in  domestic 
and  international  politics  and  also  within  the  fold  of  the  Christian 
Church.  But  the  destruction  of  essentials  can  not  be  submitted 
to  those  who  have  amused  themselves  with  fragments  of  cheap 
thought  or  who  are  unprepared  to  surrender  one  iota  of  their 
own  predilections.  And  while  the  sentiment  of  the  hour  which 
is  against  theological  strife  and  sectarian  narrowness  is  in  many 
respects  an  admirable  one,  it  may  be  carried  too  far  and  result 
in  the  neglect  of  fundamental  convictions  which  must  ultimately 
prevail.  Men  who  tell  us  that  nothing  is  wanted  but  a  little  good 
will  to  triumph  over  trivial  misunderstandings,  forget  that  the 
removal  of  prejudice  and  the  course  of  time  have  only  served 
to  show,  as  we  think,  the  truth  and  validity  of  our  central  position. 
Instead  of  being  ignorant  concerning  the  historic  Churches,  we 
claim  that  we  know  them  better  than  ever  before  and  appreciate 
them  and  their  glorious  work  with  a  warmth  and  a  welcome  that 
were  impossible  in  the  embittered  past.  In  the  new  world,  at 
any  rate,  a  genuine  catholicity  has  been  forced  upon  us  by  the 
polyglot  constituencies  with  which  we  are  called  to  co-operate. 
Who  is  not  willing  to  admit  that  the  Roman  Church,  with  its 
superb    ritual,    its    serious    claims   and    thorough   organization,    its 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  S.  P.  CADMAN  429 

knowledge  of  human  nature  and  its  mature  experience,  has  dealt 
in  a  masterly  way  with  many  conditions  of  human  life?  The 
reverence  and  beauty  of  Anglican  worship,  the  learning  of  Bishop 
Lightfoot  and  Bishop  Westcott  and  Bishop  Williams,  the  saintli- 
ness  of  Keble  and  Pusey  and  Bishop  King,  have  been  pregnant 
In  Our  Christian  life  and  service.  We  are  debtors  to  these  and 
many  other  members  of  the  one  Body  of  Christ  for  the  promotion 
of  the  interests  of  truth,  of  goodness  and  of  public  virtue. 

But  when  all  is  said,  those  interests  will  not  be  promoted  by 
a  mere  drifting  together,  because  none  definitely  know  their  own 
minds  "or  because  from  intellectual  or  moral  fatigue  they  have 
no  convictions  and  no  causes  that  are  worth  fighting  for."  No 
stretch  of  charity  can  find  a  common  meeting-ground  for  religious 
controversialists  who  on  the  one  hand  worship  the  Risen  Savior 
of  the  New  Testament  Church,  and  those  who  upon  the  other  be- 
lieve that  in  such  teaching  we  leave  our  first  works  and  descend 
to  miracle  mongering.  Further,  let  it  be  acknowledged  at  once 
that  a  universal  Church,  comprehensive  enough  to  include  all 
forms  of  non-episcopal  with  episcopal  government,  whether  Roman 
or  Anglican,  is  nothing  but  an  iridescent  dream  until  those  on 
either  side  who  teach  the  divine  necessity  of  this  policy  are  pre- 
pared to  modify  their  claims  and  make  them  square  with  a  unity 
which  is  not  absorption  obtained  by  the  sacrifice  of  some  of  our 
dearest  ideals.  From  the  inception  of  Christianity  to  the  present 
day  there  have  always  been  differences,  and  differences  there  will 
be  so  long  as  man  remains  a  thinking  being  and  not  a  silent,  acquies- 
cent subject  of  ecclesiastical  dictation.  The  surrender  which  some 
demand  of  us  would  mean  on  our  part  a  conscious  betrayal  of 
spiritual  prosperity,  of  our  own  manhood  and  of  the  best  thought 
and  life  of  modern  civilization.  Churches,  like  nations,  naturally 
tend  toward  traditional  authority  or  the  rule  of  democracy.  I  do 
not  feel  like  saying  that  either  tendency  is  absolutely  right,  I 
yield  to  none  in  my  affection  for  the  brethren  of  other  denomina- 
tions, but  I  am  safe  in  saying  that  temperament,  education,  past 
history  and  present  environment  decide  for  the  vast  majority  of 
men  which  way  they  will  incline.  Nor  is  it  wise  to  exalt  one 
organization  above  another,  or  speak  of  this  church  as  better  than 
that.  Such  exaltation  does  not  consider  the  Church  proper  at 
all,  but  simply  its  outward  form,  for  the  Church  of  Christ  wherever 
found  is  that  association  of  people  who  worship  and  obey  Him, 
and  the  means  and  methods  they  adopt  in  carrying  out  their  wor- 
ship and  obedience  are  largely  the  determination  of  historical 
circumstances  and  are  never  an  imperishable  part  of  the  life  of 
the  organization.  We  are  not  without  satisfactory  indications  that 
such  influential  and  useful  spiritual  corporations  as  Methodism 
and  Congregationalism  have  been  called  into  being  by  the  Spirit 


430      RECEPTION  OF  FRATERNAL  DELEGATES. 

of  God  to  display  some  radiant  part  of  "His  many-tinted  wisdom," 
and  thus  broaden  the  effectual  ministry  of  the  Gospel  to  the 
different  classes  of  mankind.  Moreover,  a  proper  measure  of  in- 
dividualism is  necesisary  to  freedom,  and  freedom  is  a  vital  part 
of  all  good.  Christ  left  the  Father's  throne  and  lived  and  died  to 
make  men  free.  "It  is  the  end  of  all  His  work  that  men  should 
become  sons  of  God,  in  union  and  fellowship  with  the  Father,  hav- 
ing all  the  rights  and  all  the  responsibilities  of  sons."  And,  unless 
they  would  be  perpetually  kept  as  spiritual  minors,  they  must  take 
the  risk  of  this  claim  and  for  themselves  grow  up  into  Christ, 
their  Living  Head. 

These  are  not  pleas  for  disunion,  but  for  honesty  and  clearness 
of  thought.  Clericalism  may  dwell  upon  its  privileges,  but  some 
of  us  cannot  consent  to  share  in  privileges  which  we  believe  are 
wrong,  and  they  are  always  wrong  when  they  interfere  with  human 
growth.  The  atmosphere  just  now  is  not  healthy  for  privileges  of 
any  sort.  It  is  rather  congenial  for  justice,  and  adverse  to  any- 
thing that  belittles  justice  and  thus  hurts  the  life  of  men  and 
cripples  the  Church.  Nor  can  compromise  be  effected  where  con- 
version is  necessary,  and  until  we  are  converted,  or  our  brethren 
who  differ  from  us  can  see  the  truth  as  we  see  it,  there  will 
always  be  two  camps.  In  each  camp  will  be  found  those  who 
find  there  the  reality  of  faith.  And  in  our  camp  the  monopoly  of 
the  gospel  by  any  hierarchial  caste  or  credal  assumption  what- 
soever, is  utterly  repudiated.  Nor  need  I  remind  you  that  what 
are  called  "ruling  ideas  of  the  age"  have  their  day  and  cease  to 
be.  Evolution  is  no  longer  looked  upon  as  a  sort  of  divinity,  to 
be  followed  for  its  own  sake  and  at  any  cost.  Like  other  great  dis- 
coveries, it  has  found  its  place  as  a  servant  in  the  realm  of  bi- 
ological discovery.  The  organic  union  of  the  Churches  is  liable 
to  a  similar  dethronement.  And  the  idea  that  a  religious  or  social 
millenium  would  be  established  by  one  great  dramatic  act  of  such 
unity,  acting  under  the  impulse  of  fervid  but  uninstructed  senti- 
ment, is  not  worthy  of  serious  consideration.  That  such  an  idea 
has  possessed  earnest  and  pure-souled  men  is  without  doubt,  but 
it  is  equally  undoubted  that  the  darkest  pages  of  history  bear 
testimony  to  the  futility  of  attempting  to  force  conditions  for 
which  neither  the  times  nor  the  people  are  prepared.  Universal 
empire  for  any  one  form  of  Church  organization  has  been  the 
dream  of  autocracy — a  dream  which,  when  carried  toward  realiza- 
tion, ended  in  disruption.  Universal  brotherhood  in  the  reigning 
Christ,  in  whom  we  have  a  common  life,  a  common  love  and  an 
infinite  perfection,  and  these  expressing  themselves  with  all  the 
rich  variety  that  God  loves  and  creates  in  nature;  with  every  part 
subservient  to,  and  complementary  of,  the  whole,  is  the  hope  of 
democracy. 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  S.  P.  CADMAN.  431 

While  sober  discussions  may  chasten  our  enthusiasm,  they  also 
banish  the  mists  which  hinder  our  vision  of  our  brothei',  and  this 
Conference  is  in  itself  an  unanswerable  argument  for  the  under- 
lying harmony  which  should  prevail  among  men  who  have  found 
the  freedom  of  faith,  who  are  loyal  to  the  developing  and  advanc- 
ing truth,  who  cheerfully  assent  to  the  obligations  of  Christian 
service  and  who  hold  that  personal  character  is  the  fruit  of  the 
regenerated  life.  These  are  the  definitions  of  our  own  Moderator, 
Dr.  Nehemiah  Boynton,  and  they  are  systematically  related  to  the 
free  and  full  acceptance  of  Jesus  Christ  as  our  Lord,  our  Teacher 
and  our  Redeemei\  What  results  they  will  have  upon  the  Meth- 
odist polity  and  discipline,  I,  of  course,  cannot  presume  to  know, 
but  I  am  expressing  the  fond  desire  of  Christian  Churches  beyond 
your  pale,  when  I  say  that  a  Methodism  united  in  word,  thought 
and  deed:  a  Methodism  which,  while  lessening  no  local  autonomies 
which  can  best  handle  its  various  situations,  has  among  its  leaders 
and  supporters  a  complete  and  sympathetic  understanding.  Is  an 
accessory  of  the  greatest  moment.  You  have  given  evidence  that 
these  things  are  not  only  possible  or  probable,  they  have  become 
actual  in  the  Methodism  of  Canada.  If  such  a  union,  proceeding 
upon  the  lines  laid  down,  should  in  the  will  of  God  include  other 
churches,  it  would  be  additional  cause  for  rejoicing.  Meanwhile, 
the  waste  and  friction  induced  by  excessive  denominationalism 
are  being  abolished;  and  upon  the  mission  field  even  more  than 
here,  we  are  aware  of  the  necessity  of  presenting  a  united  front 
to  the  keen  watchers  and  critics  who  belong  to  non-Christian  re- 
ligions. 

After  all,  there  Is  an  element  in  human  nature  over  which  argu- 
ment has  little  sway,  an  element  which  awaits  those  movements 
of  spirit  and  life  which  are  superior  to  any  logical  process.  Some- 
body has  defined  a  saint  as  a  good  man  delivered  from  the  ever- 
lasting fear  of  consequences — that  is,  he  is  not  only  a  good  man 
but  a  man  of  faith.  The  multitudes  today  demand  the  inspiration 
of  such  sainthood,  and  wherever  they  find  it  they  will  follow  it. 
The  outstanding  characteristic  of  all  apostolic  movements,  from 
the  First  Century  to  the  present  hour,  was  a  holy  boldness  which 
cast  its  spell  upon  the  sinful  and  the  degraded;  a  sanctified  en- 
thusiasm which  shook  the  very  gates  of  hell.  Roman  and  Protest- 
ant saints  and  advocates  have  shared  this  temper.  The  earlier 
Methodist  preachers  made  many  able  but  mistaken  men  anxious 
because  of  their  exercise  of  this  divine  valor.  Doubtless  they  did 
lack  some  of  those  qualities  which  wise  and  moderate  Christians 
copied  and  revered,  but  who  thinks  of  that  today  In  view  of  their 
actual  achievements?  The  Church  lived  again  In  the  life  of  her 
Lord  and  in  the  life  of  the  nations,  because  they  were  willing  to 
be  counted  foolish  for  the  sake  of  Christ,  and  ordinary,  reasoned 


432      RECEPTION  OF  FRATERNAL  DELEGATES. 

righteousness,  with  its  endless  precautions,  became  dull  and  prosaic 
in  the  presence  of  their  noble  impulses.  They  prepared  the  way  with 
burning  word  and  deed  for  new  men  who  arose  to  build  on  the 
foundations  they  had  created  out  of  apparently  hopeless  material, 
and  which  they  laid  amid  the  jeers  of  the  godless  and  the  studied 
belittling  of  the  prudent.  These  departed  heroes  people  our  pres- 
ent world  and  they  have  made  the  sense  of  triumph  familiar  to 
their  kinsmen.  Their  permanent  strength  and  the  credentials  they 
won  for  their  Savior  were  indicated  by  William  Arthur  in  the 
great  sermon  which  he  preached  twenty  years  ago,  on  Wednesday, 
October  7,  1891,  at  the  opening  of  your  Second  Ecumenical  Confer- 
ence: "Our  Church  rejoices  in  the  presence  of  her  Lord  in  the 
midst  of  her,  the  image  of  her  Lord  in  her  children,  and  the 
power  of  her  Lord  in  her  mission."  Believing  these  things,  what 
could  more  conduce  to  the  task  we  have  in  hand  than  that  every 
member  of  this  Conference  should  realize  with  a  single  eye  the 
power  of  faith  such  as  becomes  the  children  of  an  all-redeeming 
God,  faith  for  the  blessing  of  our  own  sanctification,  faith  full 
of  all  blessing,  both  instant  and  enduring;  a  blessing  given  with 
good  measure,  pressed  down  and  shaken  together  and  running 
over,  so  that  all  shall  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  speak 
with  authority? 

On  this  continent,  north  and  south,  east  and  west,  from  Lab- 
rador to  Mexico  and  the  West  Indian  Isles;  in  Australasia  as  in 
India,  among  many  diverse  people  and  tongues,  and  in  the  great 
Motherland,  whose  burdened  heart's  pulsations  are  felt  throughout 
the  globe,  it  has  been  your  lot  for  a  century  and  a  half  to  bring 
forth  children  divinely  born,  who  in  the  regenerating  power  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  have  wrought  righteousness  and  turned  the  stream 
of  human  affairs  toward  its  eternal  destiny.  Brought  up  from  the 
depths,  gathered  in  from  the  cities,  recruited  both  from  slum  and 
suburb,  increased  by  the  learned  and  the  ignorant,  these  trophies 
of  Christ's  deliverance  are  set  before  you  this  day  as  the  offspring 
which  the  Lord  hath  given  you  for  a  sign  and  a  wonder  in 
Israel.  Though  the  majority  of  them  are  divided  from  us  by 
the  narrow  stream  of  death,  they  and  we  are  one  in  spiritual  fel- 
lowship and  encouragement:  one  army  of  the  Living  God,  to  Whose 
command  we  bow.  It  is  not  enough  that  we  call  them  blessed 
and  tell  how  they  bore  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day.  While 
we  glorify  God  in  them,  we  also  humble  ourselves  before  him, 
confess  our  weakness  and  ask  him  to  remove  our  reproach.  It 
is  not  enough  that  we  name  their  names  with  reverence  and  with 
awe,  for  surely  our  souls  are  drawn  to  theirs  in  this  supreme 
moment  and  blent  in  one  celestial  flame. 

And  so  far  as  I  can  foresee,  in  some  branch  of  the  living  vine 
which   is   Christ,   God   will   be   pleased   to   ordain   a   successor   to 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  S.  P.  CADMAN.  433 

Wesley,  to  Whitefield,  to  Finney  and  to  Moody,  some  man  who  will 
move  the  millions  of  this  generation  as  John  the  Baptist  did  his 
hearers,  saying  with  him,  "Repent  ye,  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
is  at  hand."  How  he  will  come  and  from  whence,  it  is  not  for 
us  to  say;  but  that  he  will  appear  as  others  have  appeared  before 
him,  to  turn  the  hearts  of  the  children  toward  the  fathers  and  the 
disobedient  unto  the  wisdom  of  the  just,  I,  for  one,  have  not  the 
shadow  of  a  doubt.  If  it  should  be  your  lot  to  furnish  such  a 
leader,  the  process  must  begin  here  and  now,  for  such  prophets 
of  the  Living  God  depend  for  their  altitude  of  character  and 
service  upon  the  surrounding  sainthood  that  upraises  them.  Wash- 
ington in  his  wise  protection  of  the  state  stood  upon  the  shoulders 
of  those  men  who  here  and  in  Europe  had  struggled  for  consti- 
tutional freedom.  Shakespeare  came  to  us  as  the  last  and  greatest 
son  of  the  Renaissance.  John  Wesley  went  forth  from  Oxford 
University  with  all  the  latent  forces  of  Puritanism  awaiting  his 
appeal.  And  have  we  no  labors  into  which  we  enter:  no  eminence 
to  thrust  this  leader  upward?  "Ours  is  the  adoption,  and  the 
glory,  and  the  covenant,  and  the  giving  of  the  law,  and  the 
service  of  God,  and  the  promises;  we  are  the  Father's  and  we 
are  also  Christ's,  and  all  things  are  ours."  Let  us  therefore  in  a 
holy  rivalry  and  with  united  aim  contribute  each  in  his  measure 
to  those  irresistible  spiritual  endowments  which  in  some  single 
breast  can  bestow  on  us  the  chosen  servant  of  the  Lord  for  the 
revival  of  the  Church,  the  in-bringing  of  the  kingdom  and  the 
consecration  and  safety  of  this  unexampled  age  which  God  permits 
us  to  occupy.  Everything  else:  wealth,  arms,  art,  literature, 
trade,  government  and  what  not,  can  be  left  to  their  chance  under 
the  ordering  of  the  supreme  law  of  righteous  brotherhood  which 
the  whole  gospel  of  Christ,  when  proclaimed  and  obeyed,  is  sure 
to  maintain.  Let  us  rivet  ourselves  upon  the  issue  as  set  forth — 
an  issue  of  unequaled  grandeur  and  intensity.  Let  us  follow  after 
it  with  unbending  purpose  and  yet  flexible  activity.  Let  us  be 
apprehensive  of  missing  any  part  of  it,  or  of  sacrificing  one  part 
to  another.  This  is  our  business;  it  is  the  King's  business,  and  in 
its  pursuit  we  can  fling  misgivings  to  the  wind,  knowing  that  in 
the  economy  of  God  the  First  Century  was  no  more  favored  of  him 
than  is  our  own;  that  the  Risen  Christ  of  Pentecost  is  the  Christ 
whose  saving  rule  we  adoringly  own  in  our  hearts  today.  We 
cannot  keep  our  place  in  the  divine  order  without  personal  holi- 
ness, which  creates  holy  leadership  and  supplies  every  need  out 
of  the  riches  which  are  in  Christ  Jesus.  Formulas  of  mental 
liberty  will  not  serve  to  release  us  morally  or  religiously,  if  our 
interior  life,  the  life  of  the  soul,  is  clogged.  Sweep  away  the 
material  accumulations,  the  low  vapidities,  the  unworthy  aims, 
the  death  of  apathy.     Then  God's  rains  will  come  down  upon  a 

28 


434      RECEPTION  OF  FRATERNAL  DELEGATES. 

faint  and  thirsty  Church:  upon  a  pleasure-maddened  and  perishing 
world.  Their  showei'S  of  blessing  will  fall  upon  the  just  and  the 
unjust,  an  endless  refreshment,  a  life-giving  dew.  Transgressors 
shall  know  the  truth  and  sinners  shall  be  transformed.  A  law- 
giver shall  arise  in  our  courts,  a  prophet  whom  the  people  will 
hear.  There  is  no  other  way  to  the  treasures  of  man's  spiritual 
heritage.  And  it  begins  in  this  act  of  solemn  deathless  reconse- 
cration  of  all  our  ransomed  powers:  the  act  which  spreads  Chris- 
tian holiness  throughout  the  woi'ld. 

Dr.  Spencek  :  "Mr.  Chairman^  I  have  the  honor  of  bring- 
ing forward  to  you  at  this  time  two  of  your  neighbors,  known 
to  yonrself  better  than  they  conld  possibly  be  laiown  to  me,  and 
the  function  of  introducing  whom  I  might  well  turn  over  to  you. 
They  represent  the  'Alliance  of  Eeformed  Churches  throughout 
the  world  holding  the  Presbyterian  system' — two  fraternal  dele- 
gates. It  is  a  pleasure  to  present  them.  It  is  a  pleasure  to 
present  them,  because  possibly  in  the  near  future  they  will  be 
presented,  not  on  a  platform  like  this,  but  before  the  bridal 
altar !  The  first  is  famous  as  a  scholar  and  as  an  executive  as  a 
sky  pilot  in  the  mission  fields  of  the  frontier,  and  at  the  present 
time  the  convener  and  treasurer  of  the  Presbyterian  communion 
in  this  land — Dr.  John"  Somerville,  D.  D.,  of  Toronto." 

Dr.  Somerville  said: 
Mr.  Chairman,  Fathers  and  Brethren  of  world-wide  Methodism, 
and  Christian  Friends:  I  bring  you  tonight  the  greetings  of  "The 
Alliance  of  Reformed  Churches  Holding  the  Presbyterian  System." 
I  wish  to  say  that  I  endorse  thoroughly,  and  need  not  undertake  to 
repeat,  the  good  things  that  have  been  said  by  those  two  who 
have  preceded  me  in  regard  to  the  Methodist  Church  and  the  work 
it  is  doing.  It  might  be  well,  however,  sir,  to  tell  you  the  kind 
of  people  that  I  represent  tonight  in  bringing  you  the  greetings 
which  I  bring.  It  is  a  very  long  name — "The  Alliance  of  Reformed 
Churches  Holding  the  Presbyterian  System."  But  it  is  a  name  that 
lays  emphasis  upon  two  words,  "Reformed,"  and  "Presbyterian." 
Reformed  from  Roman  Catholicism;  "Presbyterian" — the  demo- 
cratic system  founded  on  government  by  elders.  Some  of  j^ou 
will  remember  how  Joseph  Cook  used  to  declare  that  God  had 
four  testaments.  The  Presbyterian  Church  has  always  been  anx- 
ious to  take  its  position,  both  of  doctrine  and  of  worship  and  of 
government,  frotn  the  divine  word.  Joseph  Cook  said  God  had  four 
testaments.  I  think  the  Presbyterian  Church  can  trace  its  history 
into  all  the  four — the  oldest  testament,  written  in  the  rocks;  the  Old 


ADDRESS  OF  DR.  JOHN  SOMERMLLE.  435 

Testament;  the  New  Testament;  and  the  newest  testament.  I  bring 
you  greeting  from  a  Church  that  with  its  roots  and  branches  lays 
hold  upon  those  four.  If  you  aslc  how  it  is  possible  that  the  Presby- 
terian Church  should  trace  its  system  into  the  rocks,  I  am  not  sure. 
You  would  not  think  of  going,  for  instance,  among  the  fossils  to  look 
for  elders!  Yet  perhaps  a  clerical  cynic  might  say  that  it  would 
not  take  even  a  Diogenes  with  his  lantern  to  find  fossils  among 
the  elders!     But  only  a  cleric  would  say  that. 

We  look  back  into  the  Old  Testament,  and  I  am  delighted 
to  know  that  we  trace  our  history  right  back  to  the  beginnings 
of  the  visible  Church.  When  God  gave  his  commission  to  Abraham 
He  said,  "Walk  before  me  and  be  thou  perfect,  and  I  will  be  a 
God  to  thee,  and  thy  seed  after  thee."  And  He  gave  them  the 
covenant  of  circumcision.  And  when  God  sent  Moses  down  to 
Egypt  to  be  the  deliverer  of  His  people,  He  sent  him  down  and 
said,  "You  call  the  elders  together,  and  tell  them  that  I  have 
sent  you."  Evidently  the  Church  in  Egypt  was  a  Presbyterian 
Church,  govei'ned  by  elders.  When  Ezekiel  was  down  in  Babylon 
he  sat  among  the  elders  by  the  River  Chebar,  and  he  told  them 
that  God  was  going  to  bring  them  back  into  their  land  again. 
The  Church  down  in  Babylon  was  still  Presbyterian!  When  we 
get  down  to  New  Testament  times,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  we  still  read 
of  the  Presbyterians,  the  elders  in  the  Church  of  Jerusalem  who 
had  something  to  do  with  the  death  of  our  Lord.  You  will  see 
that  the  roots  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  go  right  down  into  the 
Old  Testament,  long  before  Rome  sat  on  her  seven  hill-s.  When 
you  come  into  the  New  Testament,  I  find  that  Peter,  whom  Rome 
claims  as  theirs  in  a  very  especial  sense,  claims  that  he  belongs 
to  the  Presbyterian  Church — "The  elders  which  are  among  you 
I  exhort,  who  am  also  an  elder."  Then  I  find  that  one  of  your  men 
here  the  other  day  was  claiming  that  Paul  was  especially  a  fore- 
runner of  the  Methodist  Church.  Paul  was  a  Presbyterian. 
Wherever  he  went  planting  churches  he  ordained  elders  in  every 
city;  and  he  sent  Timothy  to  plant  a  Church  and  they  were  to 
select  and  ordain  elders.     So  that  Timothy  was  a  Presbyterian. 

So  the  Church  from  which  I  bring  you  greetings  goes  away 
back  with  its  roots  into  the  Old  Testament,  and  spreads  its  branch- 
es, and  the  whole  New  Testament  Church  sits  under  its  branches. 
It  is  not  only  a  Church  of  yesterday.  It  is  a  Church  of  today. 
And  I  bring  you  the  greetings  of  eighty-four  branches — the  Pres- 
byterian Church  has  always  had  an  amazing  gift  in  dividing.  But 
we  are  thankful  to  know  that  union  is  the  principle  that  is  going 
to  go.vern  this  century.  We  have  come  together  in  Canada,  and 
I  trust  we  shall  come  together  in  the  world,  and  by  and  by  through- 
out the  world  be  one.  I  bring  you  the  greetings  of  eighty-four 
branches,   all   over  the   world,    of    the    "Alliance     of     Reformed 


436      RECEPTION  OF  FRATERNAL  DELEGATES. 

Churches."  They  represent  between  thirty  and  thirty-three  mil- 
lions of  people.  During  the  past  year  through  the  Churches  those 
people  contributed  something  over  sixty  millions  of  dollars  for 
the  establishment  of  the  Savior's  kingdom  in  their  own  midst 
and  extending  it  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  These  eighty-four 
branches  that  I  speak  of  send  their  greetings  to  you  out  of  Asia, 
Europe,  Africa,  the  islands  of  the  Sea,  Australia,  North  and  South 
America.  The  arms  of  the  Church  reach  out  on  both  sides,  and 
they  encircle  the  whole  globe;  and  they  reach  out  and  gladly 
bring  their  greetings  to  you.  They  are,  I  say,  the  greetings  from 
the  Church  not  only  of  yeterday  but  of  to-day,  doing  its  work  as 
you  are  doing  it,  with  the  same  spirit;  and  the  cross  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  center  around  which  we  gather.  And  only  by  that 
cross  and  what  it  represents  shall  we  conquer  the  world. 

Joseph  Cook  spoke  of  the  new  testament — the  newest.  That 
is  represented  in  the  Church  that  is  spoken  of,  adumbrated,  in  the 
Book  of  Revelation.  As  the  veil  is  drawn  aside  and  we  look  into 
Immanuel's  land,  what  do  we  see?  We  see  there  not  thirty  or 
thirty-five  millions  of  Presbyterians  greeting  thirty  millions  of 
Methodists.  There  are  more  than  that.  We  find  ten  thousand 
times  ten  thousand  around  that  throne.  I  know  there  has  been 
objection  raised — I  was  a  little  surprised  to  find  that  our  news- 
papers were  hinting  that  there  was  opposition  in  your  delib- 
erations to  union  between  your  Church  and  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  I  had  the  honor  to  sit  in  the  union  deliberations  through 
the  years  in  which  we  were  engaged  together.  I  remember,  when 
I  came  down  to  the  first  meeting  I  thought  I  was  going  to  the 
funeral  of  Church  union.  But  I  found  that  we  were  not  together 
for  that  at  all — it  was  no  funeral  but  Pentecost  again.  And  as  we 
gathered  together  in  those  five  years  in  those  negotiations,  the 
one  thought  in  every  heart  was,  "What  can  we  do  to  bring  our 
forces  together  to  make  this  Northern  part  of  this  American  Con- 
tinent Christian  and  keep  it  Christian?"  We  found  it  was  simply 
impossible  for  us  to  do  anything,  unless  by  uniting  our  forces  con- 
cluding some  kind  of  corporate  union.  The  Methodist  and  Pres- 
byterian and  Congregational  Churches  are  planting  two  men  here 
and  there  and  yonder  to  do  half  a  man's  work.  We  cannot  afford 
that;  because  we  are  bound  to  capture  Canada  for  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  we  cannot  afford  to  waste  one  man  or  one  dollar.  How- 
ever, as  we  look  into  the  future,  I  would  like  to  say  that  even  that 
newest  testament,  after  all,  the  one  Church  of  the  newest  tes- 
tament, comes  on  the  other  side,  when  Presbyterian  and  Congre- 
gationalist  and  Methodist  and  Baptist  all  come  together  before 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  cast  their  crowns  before  Him,  and  in 
the  center  is  the  throne,  and  on  it  the  Lamb,  and  around  about 
it  the  seats  of  the  four-and-twenty  elders.     So,  brethren,  whether 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HAMILTON  CASSELS.  437 

you  like  it  or  not,  in  the  great  consummation,  in  the  world  to 
come,  we  are  going  to  be  one  Church — and  we  are  going  to  be 
Presbyterian. 

I  bring  you,  sir,  the  glad  greetings  of  "The  Alliance  of  Reformed 
Churches  Throughout  the  World  Holding  the  Presbyterian  Sys- 
tem." And  I  am  sure  that  with  one  heart  and  voice  their  prayer 
is  that  your  deliberations  here  may  be  blessed  of  God,  and  you 
may  go  back  to  your  work  in  different  parts  of  the  world  and 
carry  your  Saviour's  kingdom  to  victory. 

Dr.  Spencer:  "I  bring  to  you  as  the  last  fraternal  mes- 
senger one  of  your  own  honored  profession,  bom  in  the  Province 
of  Quebec,  and  educated  in  tlie  University  of  Quebec,  and  like 
yourself  coming  into  the  West,  who  for  many  years  has  been 
an  ornament  of  tlie  bar  of  this  city,  Mr.  Hamilton  Cassels, 
Esq.,  K.  C,  a  delegate  also  from  this  Alliance  of  Eeformed 
Churches  Throughout  the  World  Holding  the  Presbyterian  Sys- 
tem." 

Mr.  Cassels  thus  addressed  the  Conference: 

I  appear  before  you  as  one  of  these  fossil  elders.  Like  other 
fossil  elders  I  find  it  a  little  difficult  to  follow  this  higher  criticism 
of  the  venerable  minister  who  has  preceded  me.  I  am  very  afraid 
that  if  we  look  at  the  Book  of  Revelation,  we  shall  find  no  Presby- 
terians except  the  twenty-four  elders.  I  do  not  think  that  any  one 
can  read  that  seventh  chapter  and  be  reminded,  except  from  the  use 
of  that  one  word,  of  a  Presbyterian  service.  It  is  altogether  and 
entirely  Methodist.  Whoever  heard  of  a  Presbyterian  congregation 
interrupting  and  falling  on  their  faces  and  crying  out,  "Glory 
to  our  God  which  sitteth  upon  the  throne  and  to  the  Lamb?"  It 
is  truly  Methodistic.  If  you  accept  the  old-fashioned  interpretation 
of  Scripture,  which  is  good  enough  for  us  laymen,  we  shall  all  be 
Methodists  in  heaven.  A  word  is  quite  sufficient,  Mr.  Chairman, 
to  convey  the  greetings  from  our  Churches;  and  that  has  been 
given  to  you  by  Dr.  Somerville.  Our  deepest  and  most  sacred 
feelings  are  not  well  expressed  by  multiplication  of  words.  You 
realize  that  our  greeting  is  very  sincere.  I  want  to  say,  not  to 
preach,  but  drawn  to  the  thought  as  a  business  man,  if  the  Meth- 
odist Church  has  30,000,000  Methodists,  and-  the  Congregational 
Church  has  30,000,000  Congregationalists,  and  the  Presbyterian 
Church  has  30,000,000  Presbyterians,  how  is  it  that  the  Christian 
life  of  our  Christian  communities  and  the  evangelization  of  the 
heathen  is  so  slow?  Surely  there  must  be  in  these  great  numbers 
that  are  given  to  us  as  representing  our  Churches  something  ut- 
terly un-Christian  or  lacking.    It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  with 


438      RECEPTION  OF  FRATERNAL  DELEGATES. 

an  army  of  90,000,000  Christian  men  and  women  the  world  would 
be  so  far  from  Christ  as  we  see  it  today.  So  let  me  ask  you  to 
think  upon  the  significence  of  these  figures,  and  let  us  see  who 
it  is  among  us  that  is  at  fault,  and  make  it  a  real  force  and  a 
mighty  army  of  Christ. 

At  tliis  point  a  hymn  was  sung,  viz.,  ISTo.  418 — 
"O  Thou  who  camest  from  above;" 

then  followed  responses  to  the  messages  of  greeting. 

The  Eev.  F.  L.  Wiseman^  B.  A.,  of  the  British  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church: 

If  I  could  say  anything  in  reply  to  the  addresses  so  eloquently 
spoken,  I  should  not  in  the  least  mind  if  anything  I  have  prepared 
should  not  be  uttered.  My  father  told  me  of  a  dear  old  Yorkshire 
local  preacher  who  one  day  was  suddenly  called  upon  to  speak, 
and  he  came  up  the  stairs,  ascended  into  the  pulpit,  gave  out  his  text, 
smiled  upon  his  audience,  and  then  said,  "Friends,  I  had  lots  of 
beautiful  thoughts  coming  up  pulpit  stairs,  but  now  they  have  all 
flew  away."  I  am  somewhat  in  that  position.  We  have  had  such 
warmth  of  greeting,  such  generous  treatment,  ever  since  we 
entered  into  this  land  and  city,  that  we  are  not  altogether  sur- 
prised- by  the  warmth  and  brotherliness  of  the  words  that  have 
been  spoken  to  us  tonight.  But  I  would  like  to  say,  if  I  forget 
everything  else  that  I  desire  to  say,  that  even  if  they  do  not  sur- 
prise us  they  undoubtedly  greatly  gratify  us.  We  are  thankful  to 
think  that  we  are  thought  of  by  others,  of  other  Christian  com- 
munions, especially  those  Christian  communions  which  we  think 
of  in  England  as  our  natural  allies,  after  so  kindly  and  brotherly 
a  fashion.  We  feel  that  there  is  not  any  reserve  to  their  thought 
of  us  and  of  our  churchmanship,  or  in  their  appreciation  of  the 
things  for  which  we  stand.  They  believe  that  we  of  the  Methodist 
Church,  although  we  are  a  separate  organization,  in  protest  against 
the  errors  and  superstition  of  the  Papacy,  and  although  we  may 
not  have  on  our  side  the  Episcopal  succession,  are  nevertheless  a 
true  branch  of  the  Holy  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church.  We  like 
to  say  to  them  that  we  think  we  are  still  undoubtedly  of  the  Pro- 
testant faith,  and  that  these  doctrines  which  are  at  the  foundation 
of  the  Protestant  Churches  we  hold  as  strongly  and  preach  as 
fervently  as  they  do.  We  also  share  with  them  a  strong  belief 
in  the  liberty  of  prophesying  and  of  prayer.  And  we  practice 
these  things  in  our  Churches,  without  any  reference  to  any  pre- 
conceived formularies,  however  beautiful. 

We  have  been  reminded  this  evening  that  we  have,  of  course, 
our  distinctions.     There  is  what  one  may  speak  of  as  a  kind  of 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  F.  L.  WISEMAN.  439 

Methodist  type.  There  is  for  us  a  certain  distinction  of  state- 
ment and  of  organization  and  of  methods  and  of  discipline  which 
probably  or  possibly  does  mark  us  out  from  other  Christian  com- 
munions. If  I  understand  anything  of  the  feeling  of  other  Christian 
communions  to  us,  it  is  that  they  are  greatly  desirous  that  we 
should  maintain  and  build  that  Methodist  type;  that  they  believe 
that  it  counts  for  something  in  the  Church  of  Wesley  and  is  im- 
portant to  the  progress  and  development  of  the  Church  as  a  whole. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  are  not  quite  vain  and  absurd  enough  to 
suppose  that  our  distinctions  are  to  become  a  universal  stamp. 
There  is  no  Procustean  bed  to  which  we  determine  that  every 
other  Christian  shall  accommodate  himself.  Indeed,  v/e  are  not 
quite  so  certain  of  our  own  form  as  to  think  that  we  have  reached 
any  linality  at  all.  If  there  is  one  thing  in  which  the  Methodist 
secretly  prides  himself,  it  is  in  the  elasticity  of  his  system,  and  that 
it  can  adapt  itself  to  the  changed  conditions  and  needs  of  the  days 
in  which  it  is  living.  Consequently  it  would  be  absurd  to  expect, 
hope  or  desire  that  there  should  be  on  the  part  of  the  Church  of 
Wesley  any  such  approach  to  the  Methodist  type  as  would  ob- 
literate the  other  forms  of  Christian  experience  and  character 
which  are  developed  in  their  broad  free  Churches. 

I  would  like  to  say  to  those  who  have  so  graciously  spoken 
to  us  that  we  are  just  as  anxious  that  the  type  that  they  repre- 
sent should  be  maintained  as  they  are  that  we  should  maintain 
ours.  It  will  be  conceded  by  those  who  name  my  name  that  I 
have  some  amount  of  sympathy  with  my  confraternity  of  the  East; 
and  I  will  acknowledge  a  certain  sneaking  feeling  that  after  all 
there  is  something  in  the  contention  of  the  astrologers  and  other 
wise  men  of  the  East  in  what  they  have  said  to  us  about  the  prev- 
alence in  destiny  of  the  stars  that  are  about  the  bii'th  of  any  one 
of  us.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  fact  that  Mars  and  Saturn 
are  in  conjunction  when  one  is  born  is  going  to  order  the  history 
of  his  life.  But  I  think  it  stands  for  something.  And  translated 
into  the  realm  of  thought,  what  it  must  mean  there  is  this,  that  the 
great  forces  around  the  birth  of  an  individual  or  an  organization 
or  a  community  have  much  to  do  in  determining  the  course  that 
that  community  or  individual  will  pursue.  I  cannot  think  that  it 
could  possibly  be  good  for  us  that  the  forces  that  were  at  the 
birth  of  the  great  Presbyterian  and  Baptist  Churches  of  our  land 
should  cease  to  influence  the  coming  days.  Those  great  principles 
which  were  then  enunciated  with  such  clearness  and  power  are 
valuable  for  us  in  our  Church  history  today.  I  do  not  know  that, 
for  instance,  in  our  land  a  better  thing  could  happen  to  us  than 
that  some  modern  Dale  and  Guinness  Rogers  should  come  hand  in 
hand  and  proclaim  with  the  power  and  fervor  of  those  two  great 
giants  of  the  Congregational  Church  what  are  the  great  principles 


440      RECEPTION  OF  FRATERNAL  DELEGATES. 

of  our  spiritual  inheritance  of  freedom,  and  what  we  mean  by  the 
doctrine  of  a  free  Church  in  a  free  land.  In  like  manner,  it  would 
seem  to  me  that  there  are  types  of  character  which  are  formed 
under  the  influence  of  the  prevailing  doctrines  and  discipline  of 
Churches,  which  are  of  great  value  to  the  Church  as  a  whole.  I 
believe  that  that  great  nation  living  a  little  bit  to  the  north  of 
the  nation  in  which  I  live  has  owed  much  to  jts  simple,  rigorous 
climate,  and  perhaps  to  its  simple  life,  to  its  porridge  and  its  fish, 
for  its  brawn  and  brain.  And  I  myself  cannot  but  believe  that 
what  has  brought  the  Scotsman  forward  into  the  very  foremost 
places  in  Church  and  state  and  commerce,  as  well  as  in  univer- 
sities, has  been  the  character  that  is  produced  under  the  mighty 
preaching  and  teaching  of  the  Word  in  the  Presbyterian  Churches. 
As  men  are  brought  face  to  face,  Lord's  Day  after  Lord's  Day, 
with  the  goodness  and  the  severity  of  God,  there  is  built  up  a 
certain  massiveness  of  character,  a  certain  breadth  of  intellect,  and 
a  certain  inflexibility  of  will,  and  a  certain  power  of  endurance,  as 
well  as  a  certain  restrained  tenderness,  which,  I  trust,  may  long  be 
a  notable  characteristic  of  our  Presbyterian  elders,  ministers  and 
members.  In  precisely  similar  way  I  cannot  but  feel  that  our 
Churches,  especially  in  these  days  wherein  we  are  perhaps  tempted 
to  an  undue  self-indulgence,  should  be  greatly  enriched  by  that 
doctrine  of  the  Baptist  Church  which  guards  admission  into  the 
Church  with  a  rite  that  I  cannot  believe  in  these  days  one  would 
willingly  undergo,  unless  there  was  behind  it  the  fervor  of  a  great 
conviction  and  the  desire  to  express  one's  belief  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  in  an  utter  renunciation  of  self.  And  that  is  the  foundation 
of  a  character  which  is  undoubtedly  likely  greatly  to  believe  the 
truth  and  to  make  men  and  women  of  power  and  endurance  and 
great  patience. 

We  have  to  pay,  and  wish  to  pay,  our  tribute  to  this  type  of 
Churches,  not  merely  because  of  the  type  of  character  which  they 
are  giving  to  our  land  and  to  our  British  Empire  and  to  a  wider 
sphere  than  that;  but  the  Methodists  certainly  ought  to  be  ready 
and  are  ready  to  pay  their  respects  and  gratitude  to  those  who 
were  in  Christ  before  us.  Let  it  be  distinctly  remembered  that  the 
work  of  the  Presbyterians  and  of  the  Independents  in  the  con- 
ditions before  the  rise  of  Methodism  greatly  prepared  the  way 
for  the  gospel  which  John  Wesley  proclaimed  and  for  the  oppor- 
tunities that  he  had  for  proclaiming  it.  There  had  been  that  tre- 
mendous conflict  for  religious  liberty  in  our  own  land;  and  the 
long,  strenuous  strife  had  been  waged,  and  the  great  principles 
had  been  wrought,  if  not  into  the  legislation,  at  any  rate  far  into 
the  conscience  of  the  thinking  and  religious  men  of  the  time. 
And  it  was  because  of  what  had  been  done  in  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries  that  the  work  of  the  Wesleys  had  such  free 


ADDRESS  OP  THE  REV.  F.  I..  WISEMAN.  441 

course  as  it  possessed  in  the  eighteenth.  It  may  be  that  there 
were  men  here  and  there  belonging  to  such  nations  who  did  not 
understand  and  appreciate  the  methods  in  which  John  Wesley 
carried  on  his  work.  But,  none  the  less,  the  work  had  been  done 
and  the  way  had  been  prepared.  In  precisely  the  same  way,  in 
looking  upon  the  days  to  come,  we  believe  that  there  is  a  great 
work  for  the  Churches  yet  to  accomplish,  the  Churches  that  are 
represented  here  to-night.  I  am  quite  aware  that  the  feeling  of 
union  is  in  the  air  at  the  present  day.  I  agree  with  what  my 
friend,  Dr.  Cadman,  has  said  about  the  thought  that  seems  to  be 
moving  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men  to-day.  On  the  other  hand, 
we  must  be  careful  lest  we  allow  the  gibes  of  our  enemies  and 
the  sneers  sometimes  uttered  against  the  disunion  of  dissent,  or 
the  number  of  warring  sects  into  which  evangelical  Christendom  is 
divided,  to  take  our  minds  off  the  real  essential  unity  of  the 
Churches  of  our  day.  There  is  unity  now,  and  that  difference  does 
not  necessarily  do  more  than  distinguish.  It  does  not  go  on  to 
divide.  It  would  be  quite  absurd  for  me  to  criticise  King  George's 
army  as  not  united,  because  it  is  divided  into  infantry,  cavalry, 
and  artillery,  and  engineers.  I  can  make  great  fun  of  the  fact 
that  the  army  is  thus  divided.  But  friends  would  say  that  I  was 
not  worthy  of  my  name  if  I  did  so.  Precisely  so  I  maintain  that 
it  does  not  follow  that  there  is  not  a  family  because  not  every 
member  of  the  family  is  called  by  the  same  name.  There  may 
be  differences,  and  yet  the  one  family.  There  may  be  all  denomi- 
nations, but  the  one  heart.  In  Toronto  at  the  University  they  are 
at  the  moment  putting  up  new  buildings.  It  will  destroy  the 
unity!  As  soon  as  you  get  the  new  buildings  you  have  lost  the 
unity!  Tush!  Nothing  of  the  sort!  It  will  increase  the  utility, 
and  the  new  buildings  will  enhance  the  University.  There  are 
several  buildings  now  in  connection  with  the  Church  of  Christ. 
They  are  raised  upon  the  foundation  of  the  long  line  of  the  Chris- 
tian ministry.  But  each  several  building  runs  up  to  the  one 
cornerstone,  and  all  the  buildings  together  are  growing  into  one 
holy  temple  in  the  Lord.  It  does  not  follow  that  organic  union 
is  necessary  for  us,  in  order  that  we  shall  preserve  the  conscious- 
ness of  our  unity.  Looking  at  the  days  to  come,  I  confess  that 
as  I  look  at  the  possibilities  that  are  before  our  friends  of  these 
great  sister  Churches  in  this  vast  continent,  I  am  somewhat 
troubled.  I  remember  reading  that  in  the  Boer  War  the  military 
from  the  great  cities,  when  they  got  out  onto  those  vast  plains, 
could  not  adjust  their  sight  to  the  tremendous  distances.  I  feel 
something  of  the  same  kind  happening  to  my  moral  vision  just  at 
the  present  time;  in  sight  of  the  tremendous  spaces,  of  the  enor- 
mous incalculable  opportunities  before  you  in  this  great  land,  I 
wonder  what  is  to  be  done.     But  I  can  not  help  believing  that  if 


442  RECEPTION  OF  FRATERNAL  DELEGATES. 

of  our  spiritual  inheritance  of  freedom,  and  what  we  mean  by  the 
past,  of  your  Calvin  and  your  Robinson,  of  your  Goodwin,  and  your 
Howe  and  Baxter  and  Rutherford,  you  will  find  that  the  spirit  is 
in  you  of  courage  and  power  and  of  a  sound  mind  that  will  enable 
you  in  this  great  land  to  do  the  work  in  the  twentieth  century, 
which  will  make  the  work  that  is  already  done  in  the  old  land 
of  none  account,  by  reason  of  the  glory  that  excelleth. 

The  second  response  to  tlie  fraternal  addresses  was  by  the 
Eev.  H.  M.  DuBosE,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Cluirch, 
South : 

Brethren  beloved,  representatives  of  great  world  affinities  in 
faith  and  theology,  we  welcome  your  embassies  to-night  with  feel- 
ings of  peculiar  satisfaction.  Your  coming  to  us,  as  also  our  solici- 
tation of  your  approaches,  gives  expression,  under  exceptional  con- 
ditions, to  the  advanced  religious  spirit  of  the  twentieth  century. 
The  functions  of  this  hour  bring  us  to  a  goal  not  hitherto  reached 
in  the  centuries  of  Christian  diplomacy.  Together,  we  represent 
the  life  and  activities  of  the  whole  body  of  evangelical  Christianity 
in  both  hemispheres.  It  is  a  spectacle  for  the  contemplation  and 
instruction  of  the  secular  mind,  and  is,  moreover,  the  prophecy 
of  a  more  vital  drawing  together  in  a  near-approaching  future. 

The  unity  of  the  Kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  solidarity 
of  his  people  is  the  wish  and  dream  of  every  true  disciple. 

In  varying  terms,  and  with  widely  different  degrees  of  con- 
fidence, sometimes  with  airs  of  authority,  the  doctrine  of  this  unity 
is  preached.  But,  in  whatever  manner  proclaimed,  no  ideal  of 
Christianity  is  more  persistently  cherished  and  none  is  more  cer- 
tainly of  its  higher  spiritual  essence. 

The  wish  for  organic  Christian  unity  is  both  reasonable  and 
scriptural. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  no  issue  with  this  statement  will 
be  raised  on  the  part  of  any  of  the  bodies  represented  here  to- 
night. And  while  it  is  doubtful  if  the  prayer  of  our  Lord  for  the 
oneness  of  His  people  implied  any  jurisdictional  unity  other  than 
that  of  His  own  divine  headship,  there  is  yet  abundant  room  and 
reason  for  feeling  that  such  final  unity  is  not  impossible  to  Chris- 
tian thought  and  achievement;  that  the  time  is  coming  when 
Christians  will  not  only  think  of  themselves  as  "one  in  Christ," 
but  shall  fully  realize  the  boast  of  their  oft-sung  paean: 

"One    holy ,  Church,    one    army    strong. 
One  steadfast,  high  intent, 
One  working  band,  one  harvest  song. 
One  Lord  Omnipotent!" 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  H.  M.  DrBOSE.  443 

But  what  are  the  facts  concerning  Christian  unity  as  they 
have  developed  in  the  history  of  modern  Church  relations? 

The  wish  for  Christian  unity  has  scarcely  gone  beyond  the 
stage  of  wishing,  if  we  except  certain  wholesome  minor  cases 
and  a  world  of  unworkable  theories. 

The  reason  of  this  is  plain.  Neither  the  personal  words  of 
Jesus,  nor  the  genius  of  the  gospel  as  it  finds  expression  in  the 
Apostolic  Scriptures,  lead  us  to  look  for  any  certain  or  steadfast 
ecclesiastical  unity,  except  that  which  is  to  be  derived  through 
the  successive  doors  of  unity  in  spirit  and  unity  in  faith.  And  with 
these  the  experience  of  the  historic  Church  agrees. 

Mere  conformity  is  not  unity,  much  less  is  it  a  guarantee  of 
spiritual  life,  as  the  Christian  world  has  sadly  learned.  Forced 
accommodations  are  as  impossible  to  the  teachings  of  the  evangel 
as  they  are  repugnant  to  the  spirit  of  human  justice. 

Such  rational  divisions  as  today  exist  in  the  ranks  of  Christen- 
dom are,  therefore,  not  matters  for  unqualified  condemnation,  but 
are  such  as  find  tolerance  under  the  charter  of  Christianity.  Under 
this  charter  all  the  Churches  of  Christ  enjoy  equality.  Neither 
priority  of  organization,  nor  antiquity  of  traditions,  can  enhance 
Churchly  claims.  The  Christly  spirit  and  the  Scriptural  test 
of  order  and  doctrine  are  the  final  marks  of  catholicity.  Clearly, 
then,  organic  Christian  unity  is  a  matter  which  must  wait  upon 
time  and  history. 

The  Scriptures  logically  and  properly  place  spiritual  unity 
in  the  foreground  of  attainment.  Consent  of  mind  and  heart 
must  precede  material  alliances.  This  is  the  order  of  thought  and 
history.  When  elemental  Christian  grace  prevails,  Judah  and  Ben- 
jamin may  be  wedded  in  heart,  but  confessions  and  theologies  are 
things  which  are  to  be  written  when  you  can,  and  not  when  you 
will.  When  written  at  all,  dogmas  should  be  written  sparingly 
and  with  a  view  to  their  ultimate  elimination. 

The  fullness  of  time  is  the  fullness  of  human  assent.  The  yoke 
of  conformity  without  unity  of  spirit  is  a  yoke  of  bondage.  An 
agreed  spirit  begets  a  unified  body,  but  a  body  held  together  by 
canons  and  legal  restraints  begets  a  mischievous  diversity  of  spirits. 

And  here  is  wisdom.  While  the  forces  of  spiritual  fellowship 
are  in  play  as  preliminaries  of  a  larger  and  more  literal  unity,  we 
need  give  ourselves  no  concern  about  the  details  of  official  unity, 
nor  need  we  trouble  the  theological  waters  in  the  interest  of  an 
agreement-  of  doubtful  utility. 

Certainly,  for  the  present  age,  which  is  one  of  incMbation  and 
organization  in  evangelism,  the  larger  bodies  of  Christianity  would 
better  continue  to  occupy  their  historic  ground  and  maintain  their 
traditions.  The  necessities  which  gave  them  existence  have  not 
wholly  passed  away. 


444       RECEPTION  OF  FRATERNAL  DELEGATES. 

It  would  be  well,  however,  if  subtending  communions  and 
controversial  offshoots  from  the  great  theologies  could  be  drawn 
back  into  their  parent  bodies,  thus  simplifying  the  task  of  the 
several  representative  branches  of  Protestantism.  Indeed,  it  will 
at  last  be  found  that  the  certain  path  to  unity  lies  in  this  direc- 
tion. The  Cedars  of  Lebanon  must  needs  be  truncated  by  the 
axes  of  the  woodmen  before  they  can  be  aligned  as  pillars  in 
the  earthly  temple  of  Jehovah. 

But  while  the  case  of  organized  Christian  unity  stands  thus. 
Inquiry  into  the  possibility  of  a  larger  concert  and  a  more  general 
agreement  is  both  lawful  and  desirable. 

Haply,  by  the  tokens  of  this  hour,  we  are  come  upon  the  begin- 
ning stages  of  Christian  coalescence.  The  occasion  is  not  one  of 
opportunity  only,  but  of  duty.  Men  to  whom  the  task  of  dividing 
the  cosmos  falls,  will  not  shrink  nor  falter. 

As  a  rule  the  words  of  St.  Paul  stand  us  always  in  stead:  "En- 
deavoring to  keep  the  unity  of  the  spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace.  * 
*       *  Till  we  all  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the 

knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  to  a  perfect  man,  unto  the  measure 
of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Jesus  Christ."  These  are  the 
ideal  conditions  of  Christian  unity,  out  of  which,  as  out  of  a 
matrix,  is  to  come  the  perfect  Christian  manhood,  "the  mani- 
festation of  the  sons  of  God." 

What  is  the  unity  of  the  spirit?  It  is  not  necessarily  theological 
agreement,  but  it  is  fraternal  tolerance.  It  is  ability  to  see  eye  to 
eye  what  is  the  true  sphere  of  the  Kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  to 
labor  together  for  its  perfect  coming.  Spiritual  unity  is  also  some- 
what more  than  theological  tolerance.  It  is  a  wholesome  silence 
concerning  our  doctrinal  differences.  Being  at  one  upon  the  urgent 
and  saving  truths  of  the  gospel,  let  us  make  a  truce  concerning 
the  tithing  of  anise,  mint  and  cumin.  Let  us  leave  to  private 
judgment  the  matters  which  do  not  violate  the  general  and  sensi- 
tive conscience  of  spiritual  Christendom.  In  this  atmosphere  of 
charity  and  silence  our  differences  will  die  much  sooner  than  we 
think. 

What  advance  has  the  Church  made  in  achieving  unity  in  the 
Spirit?  Much,  very  much.  The  most  significant  chapter  in  the 
annals  of  the  last  half-century  is  the  story  of  this  rapproachment. 

What  further  advance  is  now  possible?  Frankly,  it  must  be 
said,  none,  except  that  which  follows  the  path  already  trodden. 
Experiments  and  bizarre  attempts  at  organic  Christian  union  are 
to  be  dealt-  with  cautiously. 

What  is  unity  of  faith?  When  I  say  that  corporate,  or  even 
jurisdictional,  unity  in  Christianity  is  dependent  upon  theological 
agreement,  I  at  once  declare  such  unity  to  be,  for  the  present 
age,  at  least,  an  impossibility,  but  when  I  say  that  a  large  and 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  REV.  H.  M.  DuBOSE.  445 

working  unity  in  faith  has  already  been  attained,  indeed  has 
always  existed,  and  that  a  larger  is  still  in  prospect,  I  but  affirm 
what  is  here  known  to  be  true. 

The  essentials  and  irreducible  conditions  of  unity  in  Christian 
faith  I  believe  to  be  correctly  stated  thus: 

1.  The  miraculous  birth  and  divine-human  personality  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

2.  The  vicarious  and  perfect  merit  of  the  atonement  made  in 
his  blood, 

3.  The  resurrection  and  ascension  of  his  body. 

4.  The  inerrancy  and  sufficiency  of  the  revelation  contained 
in  the  Canonical  Scriptures. 

Belief  in  these  doctrines  is  Christianity.  It  is  not  correct  to 
say  that  all  that  lies  beyond  is  non-essential,  but  it  may  be  safely 
admitted  that  in  interpretation  in  that  field  there  is  room  for 
honest  and  tolerable  differences.  In  dealing  with  these  differ- 
ences is  the  prospect  of  a  final  and  complete  unity  of  our  universal 
Christian  household. 

Brethren,  in  the  hope  of  this  unity,  and  in  the  name  of  our- 
common  Lord  and  Savior,  bear  back  to  your  constituencies  the 
love  and  greetings  of  the  whole  Methodist  world. 

Conference  sang  the  doxology,  and  the  benediction  was  pro- 
nounced by  Dr.  S.  P.  Cadmax. 


NINTH  DAY. 

Thursday,    October    12th, 


FIEST  SESSION. 


Topic:     HOME   EELIGION   AND   RELIGIOUS   EDUCA- 
TION IN  THE  HOME. 

Mr.  Aid.  E.  C.  Eawlings,  J.  P.,  of  the  Primitive  Methodist 
Church,  presided,  and  the  Eev.  G.  Armitage,  of  the  same 
Church,  conducted  the  devotional  exercises,  announcing  Hymn 
795— 

"I  and  my  house  will  sei-ve  the  Lord;" 

which  the  Conference  sang  heartily.     The  Scripture  read  was 
Deut.  6  : 1-9.    Prayer  was  offered  by  Mr.  Aemitage. 

The  President  :  "The  first  business  is  to  listen  to  the 
'Message  of  the  Conference  to  the  Methodist  Churches.'  It  is 
to  be  read  by  Dr.  Scott  Lidgett  :" 

The  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference,  assembled  in  Toronto, 
sends  greetings  to  the  Methodist  Churches  throughout  the  world: 
Grace  to  you  and  peace  from  God  our  Father  and  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  We  offer  unceasing  prayers  on  your  behalf  that  the  God  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Father  of  Glory,  may  give  unto  you  a 
spirit  of  wisdom  and  revelation  in  the  kjiowledge  of  Him,  that  ye 
may  be  filled  with  the  Spirit,  and  may  thereby  be  made  ready  for 
every  service  to  which  the  Church  of  Christ  is  called  in  the  pres- 
ent age. 

The  discussions  in  which  we  have  been  engaged  have  made  us 
familiar  with  the  present  position  of  world-wide  Methodism  and 
with  the  tasks  it  is  everywhere  undertaking.  We  are  well  aware 
of  its  vast  body  of  members  and  adherents,  of  the  signal  marks  of 
vitality  and  progress  that  have  attended  its  work  during  the  past 
ten  years,  and  of  its  growing  moral  and  material  resources.  We 
rejoice  in  the  abounding  evidences  of  a  unity  alike  of  faith  and  loy- 
alty, and  an  outlook  which  promises  still  closer  co-operation  in  carry- 
ing out  the  world-embracing  lasks  that  God  has  committed  to  us. 
For  all  these  tokens  of  His  continued  presence  and  blessing  we  give 

446 


CONFERENCE  MESSAGE  TO  THE  CHURCHES.  447 

unfeigned  and  hearty  thanks.  When  we  consider  the  marvelous 
triumphs  of  the  gospel,  ministered  by  our  forefathers  and  us  in 
much  weakness  and  unworthiness,  we  are  constrained  to  cry  in 
wonder  and  humility,  "What  hath  God  wrought!" 

We  desire  above  all  on  the  present  occasion  to  direct  your  most 
serious  and  earnest  attention,  brethren,  to  the  sacred  trust  that 
has  been  committed  to  Methodism  by  God  our  Savior  and  the  ever- 
growing responsibilities  thus  imposed  upon  us  in  the  present  con- 
dition of  the  world.  Methodism  is  the  creation  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  by  a  revival  of  religion  unequaled  in  the  history  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  save  by  the  Reformation.  The  rediscovery  and  proc- 
lamation of  the  gospel  by  the  Wesleys  and  their  coadjutors  in  the 
eighteenth  century  was  the  result  of  a  fresh  and  transforming  ex- 
perience of  the  all-sufficient  grace  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus.  That 
experience  was  prepared  for  by  a  heightened  sense  of  the  sovereign 
holiness  of  God  and  an  overwhelming  conviction  of  sin.  To  men 
thus  smitten  by  the  Spirit  of  God  there  was  vouchsafed  a  fresh 
revelation  of  His  Grace  in  Christ  and  of  the  meaning  and  efficacy 
of  the  atonement.  The  message  of  forgiveness  in  Christ  came  to 
their  awakening  faith;  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  of  their  adoption 
as  God's  sons  brought  full  assurance  to  their  hearts;  the  power  and 
blessedness  of  holiness  came  into  their  lives  by  the  new  birth  and 
its  issue  in  sanctification.  With  that  great  experience  all  things 
within  and  without,  in  heaven  and  on  earth,  were  made  new.  Above 
all,  there  was  given  to  them  a  new  apprehension  of  God  in  Christ 
and  of  the  meaning  of  religion.  The  force  of  the  great  declaration, 
"God  is  love,"  came  home  to  them  afresh.  It  displaced  all  harsh 
conceptions  of  His  sovereignty,  made  all  limitations  of  His  redemp- 
tive purpose  in  Christ  impossible,  and  banished  all  doubts  and  hesi- 
tation before  the  radiance  of  His  fatherly  beneficence. 

" 'T  is  love;   'tis  love.     Thou  diedst  for  me; 

I  hear  Thy  whisper  in  my  heart. 
The  piorning  breaks,  the  shadows  flee, 

Pure  universal  love  Thou  art. 
To  me,  to  all  Thy  mercies  move, 
Thy  nature  and  Thy  name  is  Love." 

The  nature  of  ti'ue  religion  was  seen  to  correspond  of  necessity  with 
its  object.  The  essence  of  religion  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  creeds 
in  which  its  beliefs  are  formulated  nor  in  the  observance  by  which 
it  is  guarded  and  expressed.  True  religion  is  perfect  love  to  God 
and  man.  It  is  not  a  restraint  upon  freedom,  but  its  inspiration. 
With  the  fulfilling  of  love  come  the  joyous  sense  of  boundless  pos- 
sibilities, the  blending  of  earth  and  heaven,  the  commission  to  trans- 
form the  whole  life  of  man  till  it  reflects  the  love  that  is  supreme  in 


448  HOME  RELIGION. 

heaven.  Methodist  experience,  Methodist  theology,  Methodist 
preaching,  derive  their  distinctive  quality  simply  from  this  radiant 
apprehension  by  faith  of  the  supremacy  both  in  heaven  and  on  earth 
of  this  gracious,  holy,  and  universal  love. 

Hence  Methodism  is,  as  John  Wesley  always  claimed,  simply  a 
return  to  primitive  Christianity  by  way  of  a  renewed  experience  of 
its  meaning  and  power.  It  is  not  sectarian.  In  its  rise  and  prog- 
ress it  stood  entirely  outside  the  range  of  theological  and  ecclesi- 
astical controversies,  save  when  these  appeared  to  limit  the  extent 
and  fullness  or  to  destroy  the  integrity  of  the  gospel,  as  revealed  in 
Christ  and  verified  in  the  saving  experience  of  His  grace. 

Moreover,  Methodism,  being  thus  a  return  to  primitive  Chris- 
tianity, takes  its  place  in  the  very  center  of  the  progressive  move- 
ment of  Christian  history.  In  this  spiritual  significance  Wesley 
stands  in  the  great  succession  after  St.  Paul,  St.  Augustine,  and 
Luther.  The  outstanding  eminence  of  these  men  lies  in  the  fact 
that  the  unique  depth  and  vividness  of  their  experience  of  Christ 
removed  from  their  work  the  limitations  of  time  and  place,  making 
it  in  the  strictest  sense  providential  and  anticipative.  This  is  true 
to  a  remarkable  degree  of  Wesley  and  of  the  Methodist  movement 
that  resulted  from  his  apostolic  labors.  Who  that  watches  with 
true  insight  and  imagination  the  world-wide  expansion  of  the  Eng- 
lish-speaking race,  its  commercial,  industrial,  and  imperial  develop- 
ment, its  growing  influence  upon  the  ideals  of  mankind,  and  recog- 
nizes that  this  many-sided  movement  gained  its  distinctive  charac- 
ter and  its  decisive  impetus  in  the  eighteenth  century,  can  fail  to 
see  the  direct  intervention  of  Christ  Himself  in  a  revival  which 
laid  anew  the  foundations  of  A^tal  religion,  established  its  hold  upon 
the  rising  democracies,  and  endowed  it  with  progressive  ideals  and 
energies,  fusing,  in  the  central  fire  of  love,  the  spiritual  and  the 
secular,  the  eternal  quest  and  the  earthly  pursuits  that  are  alike 
ordained  of  God?  Looked  at  from  this  standpoint,  the  history  of 
Methodism  has  untold  importance.  We  give  thanks  to  God  for  the 
countless  multitudes  throughout  the  world  who  have  received  the 
gospel  to  their  salvation  at  the  hands  of  Methodism.  Yet  we  rec- 
ognize, beyond  this,  that  Methodism  was  raised  up  by  God  to  give 
a  new  impulse  and  direction  to  the  course  of  the  Christian  religion 
as  a  whole.  Its  influence  has  spread  far  beyond  its  own  bounds. 
While  its  chief  conquests  have  been  from  the  outside  world,  it  has 
been  used  by  God  to  quicken  the  spiritual  experience  of  the 
Churches,  to  transform  theology  by  a  more  gracious  spiritual  and 
genial  apprehension  of  God  in  Christ,  to  call  forth  a  new  spirit  of 
aggressive  evangelism,  and  to  combine  spiritual  with  social  effort. 
The  mission  of  Methodism,  thus  understood,  so  far  from  being  ex- 
hausted, is  but  in  its  beginning.  The  conditions  of  the  twentieth 
century  are  far  more  congenial  to  Methodism  than  those  either  of 


CONFERENCE  MESSAGE  TO  THE  CHURCHES.  449 

the  eighteenth  or  the  nineteenth.  Its  essential  meaning  is  the  best 
antidote  to  sacerdotalism,  the  preservative  of  evangelical  truth  amid 
the  changed  conditions  of  modern  thought,  the  means  of  uniting 
steadfastness  in  the  faith  with  complete  intellectual  freedom,  and 
with  confident  ability  to  march  forward  with  the  times. 

Methodism,  regarded  in  this  light,  is  so  catholic  and  pervasive 
an  influence  that  it  can  not  be  limited  by  the  ecclesiastical  organiza- 
tions it  has  created.  Yet  the  organization  of  Methodism  was  and  is 
essential  alike  to  the  edification  of  its  members,  to  the  delivering  of 
its  message,  and  to  its  influence  upon  Christianity  at  large.  We 
refuse  to  regard  the  denominational  position  of  Methodism  as  sec- 
tarian in  its  character,  or  to  hold  that  such  distinctive  organization 
involves  separation  from,  still  less  antagonism  to,  the  whole  body  of 
Christ  throughout  the  world.  We  desire  to  promote  the  closer  fel- 
lowship and  the  fuller  co-operation  of  all  Christian  people.  We 
recognize  that  the  unity  of  the  Church  is  a  prime  condition  of  its 
spiritual  well-being.  Yet  we  are  convinced  that  within  the  universal 
communion  of  the  Church  and  as  a  means  of  its  full  realization 
there  is,  at  least  for  the  present,  both  a  place  and  a  need  for  de- 
nominations, provided  they  so  bear  themselves  in  relation  to  others 
as  to  hold  the  truth  they  have  received  in  trust,  not  only  for  their 
own  adherents,  but  for  the  catholic  Church.  The  Methodist  Church 
has  grown  up  out  of  and  still  consists  of  its  societies.  These  so- 
cieties were  formed  in  the  beginning  as  a  means  of  promoting  a 
high  standard  of  personal  devotion,  an  intimate  spiritual  fellow- 
ship, and  a  ceaseless  evangelical  witness.  The  Methodist  society  is 
the  sphere  in  which  unworldly  men  have  been  directed  towards  the 
common  pursuit  of  the  life  of  Christ,  in  all  the  fullness  both  of  its 
privileges  and  its  obligations.  Without  its  creation  Methodism 
would  have  lacked  its  essential  embodiment  and  its  practical  ef- 
fectiveness. The  Methodist  Church  is  under  a  constraining  obliga- 
tion both  to  its  Lord  and  to  Christendom  to  maintain  unimpaired 
the  distinctive  intimacy  and  unwordliness  of  its  Church  fellowship. 
God  forbid  that  we  should  make  our  boast  of  mere  numbers,  ex- 
ternal agencies,  and  practical  capabilities!  Be  it  ours,  brethren, 
to  pursue,  in  closest  fellowship,  the  highest  experience  of  Christian 
holiness!  Let  God  in  Christ  create  afresh  His  own  evidence  of 
His  grace  and  power  in  our  hearts  and  lives!  The  Church  needs 
above  all  to  realize  in  unceasing  faith  and  prayer  its  inexhaustible 
resources  in  God.  It  is  His  will  that  we  should  "be  strong  to  ap- 
prehend with  all  the  saints  what  is  the  breadth  and  length  and 
height  and  depth,  and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ  which  passeth 
knowledge,  that  we  may  be  filled  unto  all  the  fullness  of  God." 
All  else  is  subsidiary  to  and  is  contained  in  this  high  and  un- 
bounded experience.  The  signs  and  wonders  of  God's  grace  to  us- 
ward  who  believe  are  the  most  effectual  means  of  commending  His 

29 


450  HOME  RELIGION. 

gospel  to  mankind.  Only  as  our  life  in  Christ  is  radiant  with  the 
energy  of  His  holy  love  shall  we  be  empowered  for  His  service  in 
the  world  and  be  enabled  to  offer  to  our  age,  with  the  demonstration 
of  the  Spirit  and  in  power,  that  which  it  so  sorely  needs. 

Yet  the  inward  life  of  perfect  love  is,  by  its  very  nature,  not 
purely  subjective.  It  fulfills  its  eternal  meaning,  not  in  separation 
from  the  unfolding  purposes  of  God  in  human  history,  but  by  vital 
interaction  with  them.  The  love  of  God  "shed  abroad  in  our  hearts" 
must,  of  necessity,  have  its  complete  manifestation  in  the  pursuit 
of  a  great  objective  end.  This  essential  end  is  threefold,  the  com- 
plete achievement  of  a  Christian  world,  the  triumphant  establishment 
of  a  Christian  civilization,  and  the  prevailing  influence  of  the  Chris- 
tian spirit  throughout  the  whole  range  of  human  life.  The  first 
represents  the  missionary  calling  of  the  Church,  the  second  its 
humane  mission,  the  third  its  ministry  to  the  perfect  realization 
of  the  Spirit  in  the  collective  life  of  mankind. 

The  missionary  calling  of  the  consecrated  Church  stands  fore- 
most. The  conditions  of  the  present  age  conspire  both  to  enforce 
the  divine  commission,  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  make  disciples 
of  all  the  nations,"  and  to  afford  unprecedented  opportunities  for  its 
accomplishment.  For  the  first  time  in  human  history  mankind 
stands  revealed  as  one  body.  The  tribes  and  races  of  the  world 
are  at  last  entering  into  the  complete  solidarity  of  a  common  life. 
No  longer  can  any  one  of  them  pursue  its  destiny  alone,  or  unaided 
by  the  rest.  The  long  ages  of  isolation  have  passed  away.  The 
era  of  strife  is  giving  place  to  that  of  co-operation.  The  barriers, 
hitherto  raised  by  time  and  space,  are  fast  being  overcome.  Com- 
mon intercourse  and  common  interests  are  producing  common 
agreements,  which  bid  fair  to  embrace,  in  the  near  future,  the  entire 
race.  A  mysterious  movement  of  world-wide  progress  shows  that 
we  are  living  in  one  of  the  great  "seasons"  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
Nations  that  were  deemed,  until  recently,  stationary  or  backward 
have  become  dissatisfied  with  old  achievements  and  present  condi- 
tions. They  are  stirred  by  new  impulses  and  inspired  by  new  ideals. 
As  they  join  the  ranks  of  the  great  army  of  progress  they  quicken 
the  pace  of  those  that  have  gone  before  them.  Politics,  commerce, 
the  sciences  and  arts  are  together  weaving  a  universal  community 
of  human  life.  Slowly  but  surely  a  common  outlook  upon  and  atti- 
tude towards  the  world  is  being  evolved.  Behind  this  momentous 
change  stand  the  need  and  possibility  of  those  common  ideals  and 
standards  of  moral  life  upon  which  alone  can  universal  fellowship 
be  reared.  Whence  can  such  a  common  morality  spring?  Only 
from  a  great  religious  inspiration.  And  whence  can  such  an  inspi- 
ration be  drawn?  Only  from  the  Christ,  whose  revelation  of  the 
Father  provides  the  great  presupposition  which  alone  can  justify  the 
faith,  hope,  and  love  upon  which  the  possibility  of  progress  depends. 


CONFERENCE  MESSAGE  TO  THE  CHURCHES.  451 

Hence  a  new  vision  of  the  spiritual  sovereigntj'  of  Christ  is  begin- 
ning to  dawn  upon  the  world.  A  growing  sense  of  His  Headship  is 
coming  to  those  who  are  entering  for  its  higher  purposes  into  the 
new  fellowship  of  mankind.  Such  a  situation  presents  a  divine 
summons  to  the  Church,  and  not  least  of  all  to  Methodism,  which 
treasures  the  great  saying  of  John  Wesley,  "The  world  is  my  par- 
ish," as  expressing  the  force  and  range  of  its  evangelical  calling. 
The  judgment  of  God  and  of  man  will  most  righteously  condemn  us 
as  recreant  and  worthless  if  we  know  not  "the  time  of  our  visita- 
tion" or  fail  to  rise  to  the  standard  of  faith  and  devotion  which 
it  demands  of  us.  Methodism  will  then  be  added  to  the  list  of 
spent  forces  and  exhausted  enthusiasms  in  spiritual  history.  It  w'ill 
stand  at  the  bar  of  history  as  having  beti'ayed  its  trust  and  denied 
its  inmost  meaning.  But,  brethren,  "we  are  persuaded  better  things 
concerning  you  and  things  that  accompany  salvation,  though  we 
thus  speak."  Let  us  seek  to  co-operate  to  the  full  with  the  whole 
Church  of  Christ  in  discharging  our  primary  duty  of  world-evan- 
gelization. Let  every  Methodist  Church  throughout  the  world  take 
its  place  in  a  concerted  movement  to  win  mankind  to  Christ  by  a 
Spirit-empowered  and  directed  evangelism. 

Side  by  side  with  the  endeavor  after  a  world-embracing  evan- 
gelism must  go  the  ceaseless  effort  to  establish  a  Christian  civ- 
ilization in  every  land.  The  salvation  of  Christ  must  find  its  com- 
plete manifestation  in  collective  as  well  as  in  individual  life.  This 
is  implied  alike  in  His  universal  Lordship,  in  His  office  as  Re- 
deemer, and  in  His  religion  as  perfect  love.  The  witness  of  Chris- 
tianity to  the  world  must  be  fulfilled  in  its  social  aspects  and  ideals. 
The  supremacy  of  love  in  heaven  must  be  made  manifest  in  its  ad- 
vancing triumph  upon  earth.  "As  in  heaven,  so  on  earth,"  is  the 
only  ideal  that  is  correlative  with  the  Divine  Fatherhood  that 
Christ  revealed.  The  eternal  sovereignty  of  love  demands  its  tem- 
poral and  all-embracing  expression.  Hence  we  are  constrained  by 
the  inner  logic  of  faith  to  assert  the  supremacy  of  Christ  over  every 
realm  of  human  affairs  by  the  application  of  His  law  of  love  to 
every  relationship  and  interest  of  mankind.  As  citizens  we  must 
seek  to  secure  in  righteousness,  wisdom,  and  complete  unselfishness 
a  truly  Christian,  and  therefore  human  character  for  all  law,  ad- 
ministration, and  public,  policy.  This  governing  principle  supplies 
practical  guidance  as  to  the  objects  that  must  be  pursued  by  both 
our  personal  and  collective,  our  private  and  public  influence.  So 
far  as  our  several  commonwealths  are  concerned,  we  must  promote 
all  measures  that  will  effectively  tend  to  eliminate  the  degrading 
poverty  that  injures  the  spiritual  as  well  as  the  temporal  well-being 
of  multitudes,  that  implies  the  negation  of  Christian  brotherhood, 
and  brings  disgrace  upon  Christendom  in  the  eyes  of  the  non- 
Christian  world.     We  must  labor  ceaselessly  so  to  transform  the 


452  HOME  RELIGION. 

material  environment  of  the  peoples  that  it  may  promote,  and  not 
hamper,  the  possibilities  of  a  completely  Christian  life,  with  all  its 
moral,  intellectual,  and  even  physical  implications,  for  the  weakest 
members  of  the  community.  We  must  put  forth  our  utmost  efforts 
to  destroy  the  organized  inducements  to  intemperance  and  impurity 
that  bring  mammon-worship  and  self-indulgence  into  devastating 
alliance.  We  must  strive  with  all  our  might  to  protect  the  Chris- 
tian integrity  of  marriage  and  of  the  home.  We  must  direct  our 
utmost  endeavors  to  secure  the  truly  Christian  education  of  the 
young.  We  must  welcome  and  seek  to  extend  the  influence  of 
women  in  the  counsels  of  the  Church  and  in  the  service  of  the 
community.  We  must  guard,  in  all  wisdom,  the  sanctity  of  the 
Lord's  day,  showing  that  its  due  observance  is  as  precious  to  all 
the  higher  needs  of  personal  character,  home  life,  and  human  effi- 
ciency as  it  is  to  the  fulfillment  of  religious  service.  We  must  up- 
hold Christian  standards  of  morality  and  humanity  in  the  produc- 
tion, distribution,  and  use  of  material  wealth.  In  the  sphere  of 
international  relations  we  must  exert  all  our  influence  to  abolish 
war,  to  remove  all  causes  of  suspicion  and  estrangement  between 
nations,  and  to  allay  all  outbursts  of  warlike  passion  whenever  they 
arise.  In  this  connection  the  Conference,  in  union  with  the  Metho- 
dist Church  throughout  the  world,  offers  unfeigned  thanksgiving  to 
the  God  of  Peace  that  He  has  put  it  into  the  heart  of  His  servant, 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  to  initiate  with  farsighted  wis- 
dom and  noble  courage  a  policy  of  universal  arbitration,  and  that 
the  response  of  the  British  Government  has  enabled  him  to  inau- 
gurate a  league  of  peace  into  which  we  may  well  hope  that  all  the 
nations  of  the  world  will  eventually  enter.  Further,  we  must  be 
constantly  solicitous  that  the  contact  of  the  more  powerful  and 
progressive  races  with  the  more  backward  may  be  so  ordered  as 
to  respect  the  rights  and  promote  the  highest  interests  of  our 
weaker  brethren;  never  to  sacrifice  them  to  greed,  contempt,  or 
cruelty.  Keeping  free  from  the  danger  of  political  partisanship, 
we  must  seek  to  bring  a  truly  Christian  inspiration  to  the  State, 
setting  forth  the  noblest  spirit  of  patriotism,  of  righteous  and  in- 
corrupt service  of  the  common  weal.  By  appropriating  to  ourselves 
and  applying  to  our  communities  these  ideals  of  Christian  brother- 
hood we  shall  bear  witness  in  the  secular  and  social  affairs  of  life 
to  the  Methodist  doctrine  of  perfect  love. 

Finally,  our  success  both  in  evangelizing  the  world  and  in  trans- 
forming its  civilization  will  depend  upon  our  maintaining  a  pro- 
phetic witness  to  the  meaning  of  the  Christian  spirit  in  the  vast 
range  of  its  governing  principles  and  ideals.  We  must  embody  and 
assert  the  spiritual  values  Christ  has  revealed  and  enjoins.  The 
modern  world  is  stimulated,  as  no  other  age  has  been,  by  manifold 
interests   that  both  attract  and   distract  it.     New   points   of  view. 


GENERAL  RET^L\RKS.  453 

scientific,  historic,  and  practical,  are  being  presented  to  its  imag- 
ination in  a  succession  of  bewildering  swiftness.  Too  often  the  pro- 
portion of  things  is  lost;  the  true  meaning  of  life  is  obscured. 
Faith  is  either  disabled  or  is  overlaid  by  the  preoccupations  of  the 
■world.  Yet  the  testimony  of  the  human  soul  remains  naturally 
Christian.  It  is  for  us,  dear  brethren,  so  to  surrender  ourselves  to 
the  living  Spirit  of  Christ  as  our  forefathers  did,  that  God  Him- 
self may  renew  in  us,  and  may  through  us  republish  to  this  age 
the  signs  infallible  of  His  grace  in  Christ  Jesus,  of  His  purpose 
to  satisfy  the  eternal  need  of  man  by  a  full  salvation,  and  "to  sum 
up  all  things  in  Christ,  the  things  in  the  heavens  and  the  things 
upon  the  earth." 

"Now  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  Himself,  and  God,  even  our  Father, 
which  hath  loved  us,  and  hath  given  us  everlasting  consolation 
and  good  hope  through  grace,  comfort  your  hearts,  and  stablish 
you  in  every  good  word  and  work."     (2  Thess.  2:  16,  17.) 

Secretary  Caeeoll  moved  the  adoption  of  tliis  message,  add- 
ing that  probably  the  Business  Committee  would  suggest  a 
Sunday  when  it  should  be  read  in  100,000  Methodist  Pulpits 
throughout  the  world. 

The  Message  was  adopted  by  a  rising  vote. 

The  President  :  "The  Message  is  adopted  and  will  be  read 
throughout  the  Churches  of  ]\Iethodism,  Now  we  are  going  to 
renew  the  discussion  commenced  yesterday  upon  the  proposed 
Ecumenical  Methodist  Commission." 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  Buckley^  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church : 

We  do  not  want  to  do  anything  of  this  kind  unless  it  is  to  meet 
a  known  and  felt  necessity.  I  can  not  see  that  it  is  such.  We 
were  told  yesterday  that  this  is  to  resemble  in  some  respects  the 
Continuation  Committee  of  the  Edinburgh  Missionary  Confei-ence. 
They  had  three  reasons  for  continuing.  The  first  was  to  continue 
the  investigations  commenced  by  the  Commission,  but  not  com- 
pleted. Second,  to  carry  into  effect  the  conclusions  and  suggestions 
of  the  World  Conference.  Third,  to  arrange  after  full  correspond- 
ence with  the  various  boards,  if  it  should  be  found  desirable,  to 
create  an  international  missionary  advisory  board.  Those  were  the 
reasons.  Now  look  at  our  situation.  This  Conference  has  no  legis- 
lative function,  and  this  Committee  if  appointed  could  have  no 
authority  unless  it  were  assigned  and  limited  by  the  various  Gen- 
eral Conferences;  and  the  dissent  of  only  one  body  would  destroy 
its  ecumenical  character.  I  deem  it  to  be  indefinite,  and  also  im- 
practicable. It  overlaps  other  existing  federational  commissions. 
Six  or  more  of  the  largest  communions  have  committees  on  federa- 
tion. This  institution  would  overlap  such,  as  I  can  show  by  read- 
ing what  they  say..     It  is  not  necessary.     Have  we  not  had  four 


454  HOME  RELIGION. 

Ecumenical  Conferences  without  any  such  thing?  Have  we  had  anj' 
trouble  of  any  kind?  Furthermore,  if  this  institution  is  created, 
and  delivers  its  ideas  to  the  world,  it  will  put  every  General  Con- 
ference and  every  individual  in  a  place  where,  if  they  do  not  ap- 
prove of  what  is  proposed,  they  will  have  it  thrown  in  their  faces 
that  this  has  been  done  by  the  executive  of  this  institution,  and  has 
its  approbation.  I  consider  that  to  be  a  very  serious  thing.  We 
have  our  tremendous  problems.  You  brothers  of  England  can  not 
understand  our  problems  in  the  United  States  until  you  have  settled 
in  America  and  gone  through  one  General  Conference.  It  is  so  all  the 
way  through.  The  smallest  of  these  Methodist  bodies  can  stop  a 
thing  and  destroy  its  ecumenical  character.  Further,  it  will  be 
tremendously  expensive  from  now  until  then.  St.  James  tells  us 
to  be  careful  about  things  for  one  year — what  is  going  to  happen  in 
ten  years?  See  what  has  happened.  You  will  create,  and  you  will 
have  to  support  in  some  way,  two  very  important  offices.  I  am 
not  in  an  argumentative  mood.  I  simply  present  to  you  the  things 
that  come  up  to  me  personally.  If  you  pass  it  I  shall  endeavor  to 
destroy  the  evils  which  I  think  I  see. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  E.  "WEgTERDALE,  of  the  British  Wesleyan 

Methodist  Church: 

I  hope  that  the  Conference  will  not  listen  one  moment  to  the 
speech,  in  the  sense  of  voting  for  the  proposition  contained  in  the 
speech  of  Dr.  Buckley.  He  commenced  by  saying  that  there  is  no 
felt  or  known  necessity  of  bringing  this  Commission  into  existence. 
I  would  like  to  remind  him  and  the  members  of  this  Ecumenical 
Conference  that  there  is  one  vital,  serious,  overwhelming  considera- 
tion which  did  not  exist  at  the  first  Ecumenical  Conference  or  the 
second  or  the  third,  but  which  does  exist  at  this  present  moment 
in  connection  with  the  fourth  Ecumenical.  What  is  that?  We  all 
heard  on  the  first  day  of  this  Conference  the  sad  report  from  all 
parts  of  universal  Methodism.  You  were  told  by  several  speakers 
from  the  Eastern  Section  that  there  is  something  amiss  with  our 
Methodism  in  that  section.  We  heard  also  that  there  is  something 
amiss  with  the  Western  section  of  Methodism,  in  this  sense,  that 
you  are  not  keeping  pace  with  the  growth  of  the  population.  I 
have  been  present  at  every  session  of  this  Conference;  and  the 
impression  of  one  day  is  almost  knocked  out  by  that  of  the  other 
days.  But  there  are  two  surviving  impressions.  What  have  we 
done  to  face  the  awful  problem  that  came  before  us  in  the  first 
day's  reports?  Have  we  heard  a  single  suggestion?  Has  a  voice 
been  raised  to  face  the  great  problem  of  the  fact  that  some  how 
or  other  there  is  something  amiss  with  present  day  Methodism? 

I  rejoice  that  Sir  Robert  Perks  and  Bishop  Hamilton  submitted 
to  us  the  suggestion  to  bring  this  Commission  into  existence. 
Every  half-day  has  been  allotted  to  some  specific  subject.  I  hope 
that  at  its  very  first  meeting  this  Commission  will  consider  these 
various  reports.  It  seems  to  me  that  Dr.  Buckley  has  nothing  in 
his  mind  except  that  he  imagines  that  some  kind  of  influence  will 
be  brought  to  bear  against  the  getting  together  of  a  great  united 
Methodism.  But  there  is  something  else  to  be  considered.  Let 
this  Commission  come  into  existence,  facing  the  problem  that  has 
been  brought  before  this  Conference,  and  send  some  suggestions 
to  all  the  Methodisms. 

Again,  while  I  rejoice  at  the  union  of  various  Methodisms  that 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  455 

has  taken  place  in  Australia  and  Canada,  I  as  an  English-born 
Methodist  belonging  to  the  parent  body,  look  with  dismay  upon 
the  prospect  of  Methodism's  disappearing  under  some  kind  of  Pres- 
byterianism  [No!  no!]  Well,  stop  a  moment!  What  are  you  going 
to  call  it,  if  Canadian  Methodism  and  Presbyterianism  and  Congre- 
gationalism comes  together?  [Christianity!]  Christianity?  Yes, 
and  I  believe  the  finest  form  of  Christianity  upon  the  face  of  the 
earth  is  our  glorious  Methodist  Christianity.  We  in  the  Old 
Country  will  look  with  sorrow  and  despair  if  our  Methodist  form 
of  Christianity  which  we  have  sent  over  to  this  new  country  is 
going  to  be  submerged  or  annihilated  in  something  that  is  nothing. 

The  TJev.  Hexry  Haigh,  D.  D.,  of  the  British  Wesleyan 

Methodist  Church : 

I  hope  this  Conference  will  not  be  led  away  from  the  main  issue 
by  the  kind  of  remark  which  Dr.  Buckley  has  been  making  this 
morning.  Every  reason  that  malces  an  Ecumenical  Conference  de- 
sirable once  in  ten  years  makes  it  important  that  there  in  the 
interval  should  be  some  body  of  some  kind  appointed  by  this  Con- 
ference to  watch  affairs.  It  seems  to  me  strange  that  we  should 
meet  once  in  ten  years  and  give  expression  to  a  great  variety 
of  views,  seeking  unity  all  the  time,  and  when  the  Ecumenical 
Conference  is  over  nothing  should  be  done  until  another  ten  years 
comes  around.  Surely  matters  are  moving  in  such  fashion  all 
through  the  world  that  those  who  represent  the  great  Methodist 
movement  should  be  continually  on  the  lookout,  and  ready  with 
helpful  and  intelligent  suggestions  for  the  whole  of  our  Methodist 
Church.  Of  course,  the  commission  that  is  suggested  will  be  re- 
stricted in  its  powers.  It  is  bound  to  be  that.  It  will  be  only 
advisory;  and  I  assume  that  it  will  not  interfere  with  the  domestic 
policy  or  affairs  of  any  section  of  the  Methodist  Church.  That  I 
think  must  be  clearly  understood.  But  when  you  have  made  restric- 
tions of  that  sort  there  is  a  great  office  for  such  a  Committee  to 
perform.  We  want  as  far  as  we  can  to  act  together  upon  world- 
wide opinion.  And  how  are  we  to  act  together  unless  some  of  the 
best  minds  of  our  Methodist  Church  are  working  in  concert  all 
through  the  interval  between  this  Ecumenical  Conference  and  the 
next?  I  do  not  know.  Other  great  Churches  have  standing  com- 
missions. Some  of  the  progressive  strength  of  the  Anglican  Church 
has  been  obtained  by  the  fact  that  they  have  their  commission  con- 
stantly looking  at  this,  constantly  making  suggestions,  constantly 
trying  to  inform  the  leaders  of  their  Churches.  We  want  that  in 
Methodism.  I  can  think  of  a  number  of  instances  in  which  we 
might  save  ourselves  much  weakness  and  gain  much  strength  by 
active  co-operation  such  as  would  be  brought  about  by  the  formation 
of  this  Commission.  If  there  was  nothing  else  to  be  said,  I  believe 
that  a  Commission  of  this  sort  would  be  invaluable  in  making  sug- 
gestions to  the  various  missionary  boards  represented  in  this  Ecu- 
menical Council.  But  that  is  only  one  field  of  operation.  On  every 
hand  in  this  living,  moving  age  we  need  to  have  somebody  who  is 
studying  these  questions  in  relation  to  our  great  Methodist  Church. 
I  hope  that  nothing  will  prevent  the  passing  of  this  resolution  and 
the  forming  of  this  Commission.  I  understand  that  when  any  portion 
of  the  Church  appoints  its  representatives  they  will  take  the  place 
of  the  existing  representatives  on  the  present  Commission.  When 
the  matter  is  a  little  further  elaborated,  I  would  like  the  resolution 


456  HOME  RELIGION. 

to  be  so  amended  as  to  prescribe  the  basis  of  representation  on 
this  Commission  and  provide  for  the  apportioning  of  the  representa- 
tion. Those  are  matters,  however,  which  can  be  relegated  to  a 
committee  after  the  resolution  has  been  passed.  I  hope  that  this 
morning  we  shall  with  practical  or  perfect  unanimity  order  the 
formation  of  this  Commission. 

The   Eev.   B.   W.   Eose,   D.  D.,   of   the   United   Methodist 

Church : 

I  have  sat  through  this  Conference  as  a  silent  but  I  hope  not 
unobservant  listcnei'.  There  are  many  subjects  on  which  I  might 
have  spoken.  I  think  that  this  morning  we  are  at  the  heart  of  the 
practical  business.  I  have  listened  with  interest  to  Dr.  Buckley, 
and  was  rather  disappointed.  I  desire  to  support  the  remarks  of 
Dr.  Henry  Haigii.  There  is  no  more  vital  question  than  this. 
There  are  three  reasons  why  we  should  pass  this  resolution.  First, 
in  the  interest  of  missions.  Bishop  Westcott  said  that  in  due 
course  Christendom  would  be  concerned  about  union  by  being  com- 
pelled to  consider  it  from  the  standpoint  of  missions.  In  our  United 
Methodist  Church  we  are  concerned  with  the  fact  that  we  must 
amalgamate  with  other  bodies  to  make  our  work  efficient.  Every- 
where we  come  up  against  this  problem  of  union  of  kindred 
forces  and  considering  what  we  can  do.  There  is  no  more  im- 
portant question  for  Methodism  to  consider  than  this:  How  in  its 
spreading  power  its  evangelistic  contribution  can  be  made  effective 
in  the  evangelization  of  the  world.  My  second  reason  is  this,  that 
in  the  interests  of  unity  we  should  do  this  business.  I  have  heard 
some  brethren  speaking  of  unity  and  denominational  continuity. 
Methodism  is  not  one  of  the  eternities  of  God!  It  is  one  of  the 
temporal  things  to  serve  His  purposes.  I  have  not  the  slightest 
fear  of  Methodism  as  a  name  passing  from  the  earth.  If  it  has 
done  its  work  what  matters  the  name  so  long  as  the  work  and 
spirit  go  on?  We  want  to  know  more  of  each  other.  As  our 
brother  said  one  vital  reason  why  this  Conference  should  constitute 
a  watching  committee  is  this:  Here  am  I  forty-five  years  of  age.  Do 
you  know  what  it  means  to  me  to  come  here  prejudiced  and  feeling 
that  this  Conference  is  all  talk?  I  have  been  converted  to  the  idea 
that  if  you  want  to  make  Methodism  a  real  help  to  the  world  you 
must  in  some  way  continue  the  things  that  this  Conference  repre- 
sents. The  third  point  is  this,  that  in  the  interest  of  the  youth  of 
our  Churches  and  of  some  others,  you  must  somehow  amalgamate 
the  power  that  this  Conference  represents.  You  must  bring  the 
youth  and  enterprise  and  audacity  of  the  Church  to  bear,  or  else 
you  must  be  extinguished. 

(Cries  of  "Vote  !  vote  !  vote  !") 

The  Hon.  Justice  J.  J.  Maclaren:  "It  is  the  order  of 
this  Conference  th^at  the  program  shall  he  taken  up  not  later 
than  eleven  o'clock.     That  hour  is  past." 

A  Delegate:  "I  desire  to  ask  a  question  in  the  interpre- 
tation of  this  resolution.  I  observe  that  this  suggested  Com- 
mission, the  appointment  of  which  has  my  hearty  approval,  is 
to  serve  ten  years  and  to  have  the  power  to  act  and  to  make 


BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS.  457 

report.  To  whom  is  the  report  to  be  made?  Does  it  mean  that 
only  once  in  ten  3'ears  this  report  is  to  be  made?" 

The  President  :  "There  is  a  point  of  order  which  the  Judge 
has  raised.  This  is  a  matter  brought  up  by  the  Business  Com- 
mittee, and  ouglit  to  liave  preference.  I  think  it  would  be  a 
convenient  thing  to  have  two  or  three  brethren  speak,  and  then 
perhaps  Sir  Egbert  Perks^  and  then  close  the  matter." 

A  Delegate  :    "I  move  that  the  vote  be  now  taken." 

This  motion  prevailed. 

A  Delegate  :    "May  I  hav^  my  question  answered  ?" 

Sir  Egbert  W.  Perks  :  "It  was  the  suggestion  of  the  Busi- 
ness Committee  that  these  several  periodical  reports  should  be 
immediately  transmitted  to  every  Conference  represented  in  the 
Commission.  And  may  I  say  also  that  it  was  the  intention  of 
the  Business  Committee  that  if  there  are  any  vacancies  on  the 
present  Commission,  they  should  be  filled  by  temporary  appoint- 
ments by  the  members  of  the  Commission?  Por  example,  it 
may  be  possible  that  in  some  Churches  the  members  of  the 
permanent  Commission  can  not  be  appointed  for  two  or  three 
or  four  years.  Meanwhile,  it  is  suggested  the  members  of  the 
present  Commission  should  form  part  of  the  new  temporary 
Commission. 

The  Eev,  Frank  Masgn  Xorth,  D.  D.  :  "I  desire  to  ask 
a  question.  It  is  intimated  that  modifications  of  some  sort 
might  be  made  after  the  principles  were  adopted,  I  ask 
whether  it  is  the  intention  to  bring  in  modifications  of  the  items 
of  this  report?  Some  of  them  are  very  important,  and  should 
be  considered  carefully." 

Sir  Egbert  W.  Perks:  "If  the  principle  embodied  in  tliis 
resolution  is  adopted,  I  want  to  propose  that  the  whole  matter 
be  referred  back  to  the  Business  Committee  to  consider  certain 
necessary  details  in  connection  with  the  formation  of  these 
Commissions." 

The  Eev.  Henry  Haigii,  D.  D.  :  ""Would  it  be  in  order  to 
move  now  that  this  report  be  recommitted  to  this  Committee 
BO  that  its  defects  might  be  remedied  and  the  Conference  per- 
mitted to  act  upon  it  in  its  detailed  form?" 


458  HOME  RELIGION. 

The  President  :  "I  think  I  am  bound  now  to  put  the  reso- 
lution." 

The  vote  was  taken,  and  the  President  announced  that  it 
prevailed,  with  four  negatives. 

Dr.  Haigh:  "I  now  propose  that  the  matter  be  remanded 
back  to  the  Business  Committee  for  the  consideration  of  all 
necessary  details." 

Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss :  "I  take  pleasure  in  seconding  that 
motion.  We  must  work  this  out  into  more  elaborate  details. 
There  is  a  very  valuable  thing  in  it,  but  we  shall  be  proceeding 
without  due  caution  unless  we  are  exceedingly  careful  of  the 
steps  we  take.  I  am  in  favor  of  the  movement,  but  I  want  it 
threshed  out  more  carefully." 

The  Eev.  W.  I.  Haven,  D.  D.  :  'T)o  we  understand  that 
the  Business  Committee  are  to  report  back  for  the  action  of  this 
body.?" 

The  President  :    "Yes." 

Sir  Egbert  W.  Perks:  "The  Business  Committee  would 
like  to  have  any  members  make  any  suggestions  in  VTiting,  so 
that  they  can  consider  it  this  afternoon." 

Dr.  Haigh's  motion  was  jmt,  and  it  prevailed. 

The  essay  of  the  morning,  on  "Home  Eeligion  and  Ee- 
ligious  Education  in  the  Home,"  was  presented  by  the  Eev. 
W.  B.  Lark,  of  the  United  Methodist  Church : 

No  more  important  subject  can  engage  the  attention  of  this 
Conference  than  the  one  which  is  before  us  this  morning.  The 
subject  is  of  vital  importance  to  the  family  and  to  the  Church,  to 
the  nation  and  to  the  race. 

The  home  sphere  is  the  first  we  come  to  know;  home  influences 
are  the  most  formative,  the  most  powerful  and  the  most  abiding 
which  a  man's  life  can  possibly  know  from  the  cradle  to  the 
grave.  It  is  in  the  home  that  the  first  dawnings  of  intellect  are 
realized;  it  is  there  that  the  first  heart-yearnings  assert  them- 
selves, and  the  principles  of  morality  and  religion  first  begin  to 
unfold  in  the  j-outhful  mind.  It  has  been  said  that  a  child  has  "no 
morality  and  no  sense  of  religion."  I  do  not  object  to  the  state- 
ment, provided  nothing  more  is  meant  than  that  up  to  a  certain 
point  in  a  child's  life  there  is  no  conscious  development  of  moral 
principles,  and  the  religious  sense  does  not  consciously  make  itself 
known;  but  what  we  read  of  the  childhood  of  our  Lord  is,  to  a 
certain  extent  and  in  a  very  real  sense,  true  of  all  childhood:  "And 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  W.  B.  LARK.  459 

the  child  grew  in  wisdom  and  stature,  and  in  favor  with  God 
and  man." 

"We  believe  that  the  home  influences  should  be  the  center  of 
all  Influences  which  are  good  and  great,  and  that  this  may  be  so 
it  is  of  the  first  importance  that  the  whole  atmosphere  of  the 
home  shall  be  truly  Christian. 

The  godly  counsels  of  a  sainted  father  and  mother,  the  lessons 
of  wisdom  and  virtue  which  they  inculcated,  and  the  truly  Chris- 
tian life  they  lived — do  not  such  stand  out  among  the  most  hal- 
lowed memories  of  a  man's  life?  Such  memories  never  leave  him, 
they  run  through  the  years  of  his  pilgrimage,  ever  drawing  him 
to  the  good,  the  pure  and  the  true.  It  is  not  possible  to  over- 
estimate those  first  impressions  which  the  soul  receives  when  as 
yet  the  child-nature  is  in  the  first  stages  of  development.  "We 
may  unlearn  many  things;  we  may  bury  in  oblivion  much  of  the 
past,  but  those  early  impressions  which  we  received  can  never  be 
wholly  uprooted.  It  is  not  possible  to  obliterate  them,  however 
much  we  may  desire  to  do  so. 

"What  a  lovely  picture  of  a  Christian  home  we  have  in  the 
reminiscences  of  the  New  Hebrides  missionary,  J.  G.  Paton,  and 
what  a  striking  testimony  that  picture  is  to  the  power  and  abid- 
ing nature  of  the  impressions  made  in  early  life!  He  says:  "Our 
home  consisted  of  a  'but'  and  a  'ben'  and  a  'midroom,'  or  chamber, 
called  the  'closet.'  .  .  .  The  'closet'  was  a  very  small  apart- 
ment having  room  only  for  a  bed,  a  little  table,  and  a  chair,  with 
a  diminutive  window  shedding  diminutive  light  on  the  scene. 
This  was  the  sanctuary  of  that  cottage  home.  Thither  daily,  and 
oftentimes  a  day,  we  saw  our  father  retire  and  shut  to  the  door; 
and  we  children  got  to  understand  by  a  sort  of  spiritual  instinct 
(for  the  thing  was  too  sacred  to  be  talked  about)  that  prayer 
was  being  poured  out  there  for  us,  as  of  old  by  the  high  priest  within 
the  veil  in  the  Most  Holy  Place.  We  occasionally  heard  the 
pathetic  echo  of  a  trembling  voice  pleading  as  if  for  life,  and  we 
learned  to  slip  out  and  in  past  the  door  on  tiptoe  not  to  disturb 
the  holy  colloquy.  The  outside  world  might  not  know,  but  we 
knew  whence  came  that  happy  light  as  of  a  new-born  smile  that 
always  was  dawning  on  my  father's  face;  it  was  a  reflection  from 
the  Divine  Presence  in  the  consciousness  of  which  he  lived.  Never 
in  temple  or  cathedral  can  I  hope  to  feel  that  the  Lord  God  is 
more  real,  more  visibly  walking  and  talking  with  men,  than  under 
that  humble  cottage  roof  of  thatch.  Though  everything  else  in 
religion  were  to  be  swept  out  of  memory,  or  blotted  from  my 
understanding,  my  soul  would  wander  back  to  those  early  scenes, 
and  shut  itself  up  once  again  in  that  sanctuary  closet,  and,  hear- 
ing still  the  echoes  of  those  cries  to  God,  would  hurl  back  all  doubt 
with  the  victorious  appeal,  'He  walked  with  God;  why  may  not  I?'" 


460  HOME  RELIGION. 

And  what  of  the  men  and  women  reared  in  such  a  home,  men 
and  women  whose  childhood  was  passed  amid  such  surroundings, 
enriched  with  such  holy  influences?  Listen:  "There  were  eleven 
of  us  brought  up  in  this  home,  and  not  one  of  us  in  this  world, 
or  in  any  world,  but  will  rise  up  at  the  mention  of  our  parents' 
names  and  call  them  blessed." 

No,  there  is  no  sphere  of  influence  to  compare  with  the  home, 
no  sphere  in  which  the  Christian  parent  will  wield  a  greater 
power,  or  reap  more  enduring  results,  no  sphere  in  which  he  is 
less   likely   to   labor   in  vain   and    spend   his    strength   for   nought. 

Our  whole  conception  of  the  training  which  our  children  should 
receive  at  our  hands  will  largely  depend  on  our  rightly  under- 
standing the  Christian  doctrine  of  childhood  and  the  relation  in 
which  the  children  stand  to  Christ  and  His  Kingdom.  How 
near  and  dear  the  little  ones  are  to  Christ!  It  v/as  of  little 
children  that  He  said,  "Of  such  is  the  Kingdom  of  heaven."  It 
was  of  little  children  that  He  said,  "Take  heed  that  ye  despise 
not  one  of  these  little  ones;  for  in  heaven  their  angels  do  always 
behold  the  face  of  My  Father  who  is  in  heaven."  Yes,  it  was  of 
little  children  that  He  said,  "It  is  not  the  will  of  your  Father 
who  is  in  heaven  that  one  of  these  little  ones  should  perish."  And 
of  little  children  we  read,  "He  took  them  up  in  His  arms  and 
blessed  them."  The  relation  of  children  to  Christ  is,  I  think, 
set  forth  in  what  has  been  called  "the  great  commission."  "All 
power  is  given  unto  Me  in  heaven  and  in  earth;  go  ye  therefore 
and  make  disciples  of  all  nations,  teaching  them  to  observe  all 
things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you."  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
Sovereign  Ruler  of  the  human  race.  The  heathen  have  been 
given  to  Him  as  His  inheritance,  and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth  as  His  possession.  He  is  King  of  all  men  by  God  the  Father's 
appointment.  He  has  received  power  over  all  flesh!  Every  child 
born  into  the  world  is  born  a  subject  of  Christ;  has  been  re- 
deemed by  Him.  He  died  for  the  children  "without  asking  their 
consent,  or  waiting  for  their  faith."  They  are  His,  absolutely  His; 
they  are  subjects  of  His  Kingdom,  not  by  their  own  choice,  but 
by  virtue  of  their  very  birth.  They  were  born  members  of  a  race 
over  which  Christ  has  received  supreme  authority.  He  is  their 
rightful  King.  The  work  of  the  parent  and  of  the  Church  is  to 
keep  them  from  going  over  to  the  dark  ranks  of  the  devil. 

Does  this  mean  that  the  children  do  not  need  a  work  of  grace 
to  be  wrought  in  the  heart?  By  no  means.  I  find  nothing  in  the 
teaching  of  Christ  or  of  the  apostles  to  favor  the  view  that  the 
spiritual  life  of  the  parent  is  transmitted  to  the  children,  or  that 
the  faith  which  brings  the  parent  into  union  with  Christ  neces- 
sarily carries  His  children  with  him.  "That  which  is  born  of 
the   flesh    is    flesh."     The   child   inherits   the   natural    life   of   the 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  W.  B.  LARK.  461 

parent,  but  spiritual  life  is  received  direct  from  God  by  every  in- 
dividual soul.     "There  is  no  entail  of  godliness." 

But  who  of  us  can  say  how  early  a  child  is  capable  of  a  true 
spiritual  life,  wrought  in  its  bosom  by  the  Divine  Spirit?  May 
we  not  take  it  for  granted  that  the  Spirit's  work  begins  very  early 
in  life?  We  read  of  those  who  were  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit 
from  their  mother's  womb.  There  are  those  in  the  Christian 
Church  to-day,  most  saintly  men  and  women,  full  of  Christian 
service,  who  can  not  tell  you  how  or  when  they  first  came  to 
know  the  Lord  and  to  love  Him.  From  their  earliest  childhood 
they  were  taught  to  love  Christ  and  to  trust  Him  with  all  their 
hearts,  and  who  will  question  the  results? 

In  our  early  days  it  was  the  common  practice  among  Meth- 
odists for  households  to  meet  together,  morning  and  evening,  for 
the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  and  family  worship.  The  obligation 
of  Christian  parents  to  provide  for  the  godly  training  of  their 
children  was  very  generally  insisted  upon,  and  was  very  generally 
fulfilled;  but  to-day  family  worship  is  very  largely  a  thing  of  the 
past,  and  the  obligation  of  Christian  parents  to  instruct  their 
households  in  religious  truth  and  duty  is,  to  a  very  considerable 
extent,  ignored.  The  Sunday  school  is  regarded  as  relieving 
parents  of  the  solemn  duty  which  God  has  laid  upon  them,  and 
which  they,  as  parents,  can  discharge  much  more  efficiently  than 
can  any  other  persons.  The  decay  of  the  family  altar  and  of  the 
practice  of  giving  children  religious  instruction  in  the  home  is 
much  to  be  deplored.  Do  what  we  may,  the  absence  of  a  Christian 
home  training  can  not  be  compensated  for  by  any  other  means; 
nothing  which  may  be  done  outside  of  the  home  can  ever  take  its 
place.  The  Sunday  school  may  accomplish  something;  the  Sunday 
school  teacher  may  do  his  best,  but  the  Sunday  school  can  not  take 
the  place  of  the  home;  and  the  Sunday  school  teacher  is,  at  the 
best,  but  a  poor  substitute  for  the  Christian  parent.  The  starting- 
point  of  the  Christian  life  should  be  the  Christian  home. 

We  have  been  deploring  our  decreases,  as  well  we  may.  It 
is  sorry  comfort  with  which  we  seek  to  solace  one  another  in  our 
failures,  viz.,  that  "figures  do  not  mean  much."  We  may  rave 
against  statistics,  and  defy  the  "statistical  devil"  to  our  heart's 
content,  but,  seriously,  should  we  speak  and  act  thus  if  we  had 
a  big  increase  to  report  instead  of  a  big  decrease?  The  Churches 
do  well  to  be  distressed  over  these  decreases  year  after  year. 
What  if  Methodism  had  retained  her  children,  should  we  have 
had  such  decreases  to  deplore?  Why  have  we  lost  our  children? 
Are  Methodist  parents  free  from  blame?  If  Methodism  had  re- 
tained her  children,  as  she  should  have  done,  how  different  would 
have  been  her  position  to-day!  Yes,  it  is  too  true  that  we  have 
been   looking   for   our   increases   "more   from    the   penitent   form 


462  HOME  RELIGION. 

than  from  the  family  altar."  We  have  been  more  hopeful  of  con- 
verts from  the  ranks  of  wickedness  than  from  the  ranks  of  those 
who,  from  their  earliest  infancy,  have  been  trained  in  the  way 
they  should  go;  hence  we  have  been  ready  to  bestow  any  amount 
of  labor  on  the  conversion  of  adults,  who  are  steeped  in  sin,  but 
have  regarded  time  and  effort  spent  in  bringing  child  life  to  the 
feet  of  the  Lord  as  very  much  of  a  waste! 

We  begin  at  the  earliest  possible  moment  to  train  our  children 
physically  and  intellectually.  Nothing  that  we  can  do  is  too  much 
for  us  to  do  to  save  our  children  from  being  handicapped  in  the 
race  of  life  by  a  sickly  constitution,  or  a  mind  that  has  received 
no  training.  But  the  infinitely  higher  interests,  the  interests  which 
are  spiritual,  are,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  relegated  to  a  very 
secondary  position,  if  not  altogether  neglected.  Those  interests 
which  belong  to  the  present  life,  and  which  end  with  it,  receive 
every  attention,  and  are  provided  for  to  the  full  extent  of  our 
ability;  but  those  interests  which  have  to  do  with  the  molding 
of  character  and  the  determining  of  destiny  receive  but  little  atten- 
tion at  our  hands.  The  seed-time  is  neglected  and  every  oppor- 
tunity is  given  to  the  evil  one  to  preoccupy  the  ground  with  tares, 
an  opportunity  which  he  never  fails  to  embrace.  Why  give  the 
v/orld,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil  the  advantage  of  those  early  days 
of  the  child's  life  when  the  child-nature  is  most  impressionable, 
and  the  child  receives  impressions  which  will  live  and  influence 
its  life  when  the  impressions  of  older  years  have  faded  away 
for  ever? 

Every  advantage  is  with  those  parents  who  begin  at  the  be- 
ginning, who  aim  at  laying  deep  and  broad  in  the  minds  of  their 
children  the  foundations  of  a  pure  and  noble  Christian  character. 

Let  parents  see  to  it  that  love  is  the  atmosphere  of  home. 
"Love,"  it  has  been  said,  "is  the  only  atmosphere  in  which  the 
spirits  of  little  children  can  grow."  Vain  are  the  advantages 
which  wealth  and  general  education  provide  if  love  be  absent. 
Good  precepts  there  may  be,  intelligent  care  there  may.  be,  but 
the  absence  of  love  will  be  fatal.  The  discipline  of  home  must 
be  the  discipline  of  love.  Too  often,  even  in  Christian  homes, 
correction  is  administered  more  to  satisfy  the  parents'  anger  than 
to  improve  the  child.  Vv%en  this  is  the  case  the  correction  does 
infinitely  more  harm  than  good.  The  parent  who  does  not  know 
how  to  control  his  own  anger  must  not  be  surprised  to  find  his 
children  following  in  his  steps.  Let  our  children  see  in  us  wliat 
we  would  have  them  be;  but  too  often  it  is  the  case  that  the  faults 
we  correct  in  them  are  the  facsimiles  of  our  own. 

By  all  means  let  us  instruct  our  children  in  the  doctrines  of 
our  holy  religion;  the  importance  of  such  teaching  can  not  be 
too   strongly   emphasized.     It   has   become   the   fashion   in   many 


ESSAY  OP  THE  REV.  W.  B.  LARK.  4G3 

quarters  to  decry  the  Catechism,  but  ere  we  get  rid  of  the  Cate- 
chism had  we  not  better  make  sure  that  we  have  something  to 
talve  its  place?  Speaking  for  myself,  I  know  of  no  method  of 
instructing  children  in  the  great  verities  of  the  Christian  faith 
to  compare  with  the  catechetical.  I  would  have  the  Methodist 
Catechism  in  every  Methodist's  home  that  Methodist  children 
may  be  thoroughly  instructed  in  Methodist  principles  and  doc- 
trines. But  side  by  side  with  such  instruction  there  must  be 
in  the  parental  life  the  influence  of  a  Christian  example.  There 
may  be  Scriptural  teaching,  family  worship,  wise  counsels,  but  an 
unchristian   example  will   go  far  to   neutralize   the   whole. 

No  greater  blessing  can  a  parent  bestow  on  his  children  than 
the  Christian  training  of  a  godly  home.  From  the-  standpoint  of 
the  world  it  may  be  said  of  many  a  Christian  parent,  "He  died 
very  poor;  he  left  nothing  to  his  children."  But  ther^  is  another 
and  a  higher  standpoint  from  which  we  obtain  a  truer  view  of 
things.  From  that  standpoint  it  is  seen  that  he  has  left  much, 
very  much,  for  which  silver  and  gold,  houses  and  lands  are  but 
sorry  substitutes;  he  has  endowed  his  children  with  a  good  name, 
a  godly  example,  and  a  truh^  Christian  training;  these  are  "legacies 
over  which  no  heirs  quarrel,  and  that  require  no  probate  outside 
the  sanctuary  of  the  heart." 

There  is  an  idea  which  largely  prevails  among  Christian  people 
that  whatever  the  training  children  receive  you  can  not  be  sure 
as  to  the  results.  It  may  turn  out  all  right:  the  children  may, 
under  good  training,  develop  a  Christian  character,  but  it  is  un- 
certain; there  is  no  sure  ground  on  which  to  base  anything  like 
a  confident  expectation  that  it  will  be  so.  By  the  side  of  such 
views  let  me  place  the  words  of  Scripture:  "Train  up  a  child 
in  the  way  he  should  go,  and  when  he  is  old  he  will  not  depart 
from  it."  Is  there  any  truth  in  that  statement  of  Scripture;  and 
if  so,  how  much?  One  has  stood  amazed  at  the  "ifs"  and  "buts" 
and  "maybes"  and  "probabilities"  and  "exceptions"  which  have 
been  introduced  into  the  passage,  behind  which  defaulting  parents 
have  entrenched  themselves.  "But  surely  you  will  admit  that 
there  are  many  exceptions  to  the  rule  laid  down  in  the  Scripture 
quoted?"  I  most  certainly  do  not  admit  anything  of  the  sort. 
The  passage  itself  does  not  admit  that  there  are  many  exceptions; 
it  says  nothing  about  any  exceptions.  No  man  has  a  right  to 
read  into  any  Scripture  that  which,  at  any  point,  flatly  contra- 
dicts its  statements.  Let  us  take  care  that  we  do  not  charge 
God  with  the  consequences  of  our  own  shortcomings.  It  stands 
forever  true:  "When  he  is  old  he  will  not  depart  from  it,"  and 
if  it  shall  appear  not  to  be  verified  in  our  own  experience  we  may 
be  quite  sure  that  the  failure  is  on  our  side  rather  than  on  God's. 

Let  us  as  parents  do  our  work  wisely  and  well.    Let  us  see  to 


464  HOME  RELIGION. 

it  that  the  surroundings  of  home  are  in  every  respsct  what  they 
sliould  be;  that  the  home  circle  is  free  from  all  influences,  whether 
in  the  form  of  literature  or  recreation,  which  have  the  slightest 
tendency  to  poison  the  springs  of  life.  Let  the  Sabbath  be  in 
our  homes  the  brightest  day  of  the  week,  and  not  a  day  in  which 
"irksome  restraint  and  burdensome  requisition"  are  the  prevailing 
features.  Let  us  take  every  care  that  our  children  are  regular 
in  their  attendance  at  public  worship,  and,  as  far  as  possible, 
let  the  family  pew  in  the  house  of  God  be  restored.  Let  us  see 
to  it  that  our  children  in  their  social,  school,  and  business  life 
are  not  needlessly  exposed  to  any  influences  which  are  contrary 
to  purity  and  righteousness  and  God.  In  a  word,  let  us,  in  the 
training  of  our  children,  seek  the  guidance  and  inspiration  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  we  need  have  no  misgivings  as  to  results. 
"Our  sons  shall  be  as  plants  grown  up  in  their  youth,  and  our 
daughters  shall  be  as  cornerstones  polished  after  the  similitude 
of  a  palace."  Yes,  it  stands  forever  true:  "Train  up  a  child 
in  the  way  he  should  go,  and  when  he  is  old  he  will  not  depart 
from  it." 

The  first  invited  address  was  by  the  Rev,  D.  S.  Bedford,, 
of  tlie  Wesleyan  Methodist  Cliiirch  in  the  United  States;  sub- 
ject, "Methods  of  Eeligious  Training  in  the  Home :" 

"God  give  us  men."  Voices  from  everywhere  utter  the  cry. 
The  State  looks  to  the  Church,  and  the  Church  looks  to  the  home. 
How  shall  the  home  produce  true  men  and  women? 

First  of  all,  it  must  be  a  godly  home,  where  prayer  is  easy 
and  natural,  because  it  is  habitual.  Sacred  is  that  first  shrine 
at  which  we  bowed  in  reverent  petition,  while  loving  hands  of 
benediction  smoothed  our  tangled  hair.  There  the  first  lessons, 
in  true  worship  began.  There  the  basis  of  a  practical  theology 
was  laid  of  more  real  value  than  all  the  abstract  reasonings  of 
a  life-time.  The  sense  of  the  Divine  Presence  and  of  submission 
to  God  learned  in  infancy  at  the  parent's  knee  is  of  far  greater 
value  than  the  sudden  transformation  of  a  hardened  sinaer. 
Through  the  medium  of  prayer  it  is  not  only  the  privilege  of 
parents  to  bring  their  children  to  God  and  hold  them  there  for 
conversion,  but  it  is  ulso  their  privilege  to  plead  the  victory  in 
Jesus'  name  in  their  behalf  when  they  have  actually  begun  the 
work  of  life  and  are  facing  its  problems. 

The  second  consideration  which  demands  our  attention  is  a 
proper  home  atmosphere  and  the  means  by  which  it  may  be 
created  and  maintained.  The  first  conscious  desire  of  the  child 
is  to  feel.  The  disposition  is  then  in  the  making,  and  is  largely 
the  product  of  environment.     Being  plastic,  it  will  be  molded  by 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  D.  S.  BEDFORD.  4G5 

the  things  that  touch  it.  Before  the  mind  has  learned  the  meaning 
of  words,  the  heart  interprets  the  moods  and  spirit  of  its  associates. 
The  spirit  of  the  parents  will  permeate  the  household  like  poison- 
ous gas,  killing  and  blighting,  or  else  it  will  be  like  the  aroma 
of  fragrant  flowers.  Old  age  and  infancy,  visitors  and  servants 
alike  feel  its  power  and  rise  up  to  bless  or  curse.  What  care 
and  personal  watchfulness  are  needed  in  the  home-makers?  The 
production  of  sweetness  and  self-control  in  children  is  of  far 
greater  importance  than  spotless  garments  or  fancy  pastries.  Time 
spent  w'th  them  is  not  lost.  The  greatest  demand  of  childhood 
is  fellowship.  It  is,  however,  often  true  that  toil  for  the  actual 
needs  so  engrosses  both  father  and  mother  that  but  little  time  is 
spent  for  rest  or  recreation.  Bodily  fatigue  and  worn-out  nerves 
have  much  to  do  with  the  moods  of  us  all.  The  one  final  most 
available  help  in  the  production  of  a  right  atmosphere,  one  that 
labor  need  not  interrupt,  and  cares  can  not  destroj%  is  fellowship 
with  God.  Let  parents  breathe  the  breath  of  God,  and  the  house 
will  be  filled  with  the  fragrance  of  heaven. 

Home  training  without  a  Bible  is  like  sailing  without  a  chart. 
The  Divine  Mind  canvassed  the  needs  of  humanity  before  man 
was,  and  the  needs  of  children  were  not  left  out  of  His  revelation. 
When  the  early  impulse  of  the  child  is  to  do  and  to  see,  let  his 
mind  be  filled  with  stories  of  God,  God  as  almighty,  all-wise,  and 
all-seeing.  Tell  him.  early  in  simplest  language  the  story  of 
creation.  Take  revelation  where  it  naturally  begins  even  with  a 
child,  and  we  shall  see  the  wisdom  of  the  divine  plan.  The  out- 
growth will  be  reverence  for  God.  Then  pass  on  to  the  stories 
of  nature  manifesting  God,  and  kindness  will  follow.  For  the 
development  of  the  imagination  supply  stories  of  action  and 
travel.  Let  the  heroes  be  Bible  characters,  but  do  not  leave  out 
their  failures.  Show  them  as  they  are  and  produce  faith  in  the 
Bible.  Hold  before  them  continually  the  doctrines  of  the  Church 
and  the  fundamentals  of  religion.  As  the  dispositions  to  become, 
to  excel,  and  to  associate  appear,  supply  biography  and  history 
of  achievement,  and  realize  as  the  fruitage  of  the  effort  heroic 
Christians.  When  the  youth  would  individualize  and  aspirations 
dominate,  give  them  studies  concerning  the  Church  and  Kingdom, 
and  make  them  workers  together  with  God.  Ruskin  said,  "The 
whole  period  of  youth  is  one  essentially  of  formation,  edification, 
instruction.  There  is  not  an  hour  but  is  trembling  with  destinies; 
not  a  moment  of  which,  once  passed,  the  appointed  work  can 
ever  be  done  or  the  neglected  blow  struck  on  the  cold  iron." 

Submission  to   government  is  an   essential   to   proper   Christian 

development,  and  must  begin  early.     Many  people  find  difficulty  in 

yielding  to  God   because   they  never  learned   to  yield   to   parental 

authority.     In  these  latter  days  men  become  "heady,  high-minded, 

30 


406  HOME  RELIGION. 

lovers  of  pleasure  more  than  lovers  of  God,  truce  breakers,  and 
without  natural  affection,"  because  genuine  home  rule  has  been 
wanting,  and  these  are  the  brood  hatched  by  disobedience  to 
parents.  Let  demands  be  reasonable  and  firm,  securing  obedience 
every  time.  Give  them  regular  employment,  for  Satan  always  finds 
work  for  idle  brains  and  hands.  Let  disobedience  be  punished, 
not  in  anger  or  in  haste,  but  after  deliberation  and  with  evident 
compassion.  Make  confidants  of  them.  Explain  their  knotty  prob- 
lems. By  interestedness  and  love  hold  their  confidence  so  that 
they  delight  to  talk  over  their  affairs.  Every  good  theory  of 
home  discipline  is  a  failure  without  love. 

"The  mind  has  a  thousand  eyes. 
And  the  heart  but  one; 
Yet  the  light  of  the  whole  life  dies 
When  love  is  done." 

Some  one  has  said,  "Children  have  more  need  of  models  than, 
of  critics."  We  never  outgrow  the  method  of  the  object  lesson. 
The  religion  of  Jesus  is  better  demonstrated  than  defined.  "Let 
your  light  so  shine  at  home  that  members  of  the  family  may 
behold  your  good  works  and  glorify  your  Father."  The  child  is 
an  adept  in  imitation,  hence  the  most  important  part  of  Christian 
training  is  right  demonstration.  The  Wall  Street  Journal  recently 
had  this  to  say  on  this  subject:  "What  America  needs  more  than 
railway  extension,  and  Western  irrigation,  and  a  low  tariff,  and  a 
bigger  wheat  crop,  and  a  merchant  marine,  and  a  new  navy,  is  a 
revival  of  piety,  the  kind  father  and  mother  used  to  have — piety 
that  counted  it  good  business  to  stop  for  daily  family  prayer  before 
breakfast,  right  in  the  middle  of  harvest,  and  that  quit  work  a 
half-hour  earlier  Thursday  night,  so  as  to  get  the  chores  done 
and  go  to  prayer-meeting;  that  borrowed  money  to  pay  the  preach- 
er's salary,  and  prayed  fervently  in  secret  for  the  salvation  of 
the  rich  man  who  looked  with  scorn  on  such  unbusinesslike  be* 
havior." 

When  parents  enforce  their  teaching  and  their  praying  by 
consistent  living,  when  they  make  the  whole  round  of  life  an 
argument  for  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures  and  the  all-sufficiency 
of  saving  grace,  then,  and  not  until  then,  will  children  see  Jesus 
exalted  and  be  drawn  unto  Him. 

"Thou  must  be  true  thyself, 

If  thou  the  truth  wouldst  teach; 
The  soul  must  overflow,  if  thou 
Another  soul  wouldst  reach. 
It  needs  the  overflow  of  heart 
To  give  the  lips  full  speech. 


ADDRESS  BY  MR.  RICHARD  T.  SMITH.  4G7 

Think  trulj%  and  thy  thoughts 

Shall  the  world's  famine  feed. 
Speak  truly,  and  each  word  of  thine 

Shall  be  a  faithful  seed. 
Live  truly,  and  thy  life  shall  be 

A  great  and  noble  creed." 

EiCHAED  T.  Smith,  M.  D.,  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Cliurch  of  England,  gave  the  second  invited  address,  on  "The 
Family  Altar :" 

The  central  thought  of  my  remarks  is  this:  that  the  purpose 
of  the  kindness  displayed  by  the  Father  of  our  spirits  in  the 
discipline  of  life  is  to  make  us  of  the  same  kith  and  kin  as 
Himself.  As  expressed  in  this  old  Anglo-Saxon  word,  we  share  a 
common  nature  and  our  mutual  presence  is  congenial.  Also  in 
the  Teutonic  race,  how  touching  is  the  exclamation  of  the  German 
mother  as  she  clasps  the  child!  "Das  kind!"  part  of  my  own  very 
self. 

The  joy  we  find  in  the  exercise  of  our  faculties  upon  the  work 
of  God,  the  pleasure  of  study,  and  of  having  a  hand  in  the  world's 
work;  what  are  these  but  illustration  of  the  truth  that  in  our 
mental  constitution  there  is  a  correspondence  and  an  affinity  with 
the  Author  of  nature?  I  mention  this  because  the  Bible  strongly 
urges  the  use  of  the  faculty  of  observation  if  we  wish  to  under- 
stand the  loving  kindness  of  God  and  because  family  worship 
finds  one  of  its  happiest  expressions  in  recognizing  this  in  various 
ways.  It  is,  however,  in  human  love  and  in  family  life  that  lie 
the  arcana  of  the  formative  forces  of  kinship  with  the  DeitJ^ 

The  Church  should  show  far  more  interest  in  marriage.  Does 
the  Eternal  Father  wish  to  assure  Israel  of  His  love  and  affection 
for  them,  it  is  figured  in  the  joy  of  the  bridegroom  rejoicing  over 
the  bride;  for  in  this  mysterious  relation  reside  the  germ  of  all 
domestic  happiness,  the  inexpressible  interests,  mostly  joyful,  but 
sometimes  sorrowful,  of  kinship,  and  the  very  foundations  of  na- 
tional security. 

Personal  purity  in  both  sexes  is  held  of  inestimable  honor 
and  glory  by  the  Eternal  Father,  and  "as  noblest  things  find 
vileness  in  abuse,"  we  are  distinctly  told  that  all  dishonor  to 
woman  is  hateful  in  His  sight.  Gladstone  never  spoke  a  nobler 
word  than  when  he  said,  "The  laws  of  marriage  test  a  nation 
to  the  very  core  of  its  heart." 

Logic  and  reason  in  man  are  good,  but  they  are  not  his  absolute 
monopoly;  add  to  these  the  infinite  affections  of  woman  (Long- 
fellow's estimate  of  her  peculiar  glory)  ;  add  also  mother  wit,  and 
you  have,  not  Monism,  but  a  trinity  of  Truth,  Kindness,  and  Com- 


468  HOME  RELIGION. 

fort,  which  shall  pass  from  generation  to  generation  as  each 
in  its  own  car  hears  the  fiat,  "Let  us  make  man  in   our  image." 

I  spoke  of  possible  sorrows  in  home  life,  for,  indeed,  this  Eden 
is  not  secure  from  the  vicissitudes  and  limitations  of  all  earthly 
good.  It  is  not  to  every  home  that  children,  with  their  meta- 
morphic  influence,  are  vouchsafed;  "There  are  who  sigh  that 
no  fond  heart  is  theirs,  none  loves  them  best;"  there  is  the  deep 
pathos  of  severe  illness  falling  on  a  new  home.  Again,  a  noble 
son  may  deny  himself  domestic  felicity  for  the  sake  of  a  sick  or 
widowed  mother;  a  brother  may  devote  himself  to  the  happiness 
of  his  sister,  or  the  converse. 

As  a  physician  I  wish  to  emphasize  how,  amid  these  limitations, 
most  mj'sterious  developments  of  goodness  and  active  benevolenca 
ensue.  Those  who  recognize  their  kinship  with  the  Divine  Father 
and  lovingly  accept  these  positions,  waiting  God's  time,  become 
some  of  the  noblest  types  of  men  and  women,  rich  in  all  kinds 
of  good  works.  Reading  and  keeping  God's  Word,  acquiescing  in 
His  dispensation,  Christ  tells  us  that  these  become  His  relatives 
and  a  home  is  made  for  them  which  is  complete  and  which  shall 
never  be  dissolved. 

The  family  altar  and  prayer  scatter  the  false  idols  of  agnos- 
ticism when  set  up  as  a  religion,  with  its  icy  coldness  and  its  idle 
and  ignoble  attitude  of  waiting  to  see.  It  withstands  all  attempts 
to  reduce  the  Father  whom  we  love  and  trust,  and  whose  training 
we  delightfully  embrace,  to  an  impersonal  force.  We  distinctly 
declare  thereby  that  we  know  God  by  our  understanding,  and 
knowing  Him  we  reverentially  fear  and  adore. 

The  head  of  a  family  holds  a  sacred  trust,  and  it  is  noteworthy 
how  in  the  early  ages  worship  was  a  domestic  act  consisting  iu 
the  offering  of  sacrifices,  the  training  of  children,  and  in  the  due 
recognition  of  the  value  of  servants.  The  servant  question  would 
receive  a  very  helpful  solution  if  we  prayed  more  for  them  and 
recognized  their  service;  for,  believe  me,  in  moral  education,  com- 
mendation of  what  is  good  is  a  far  more  powerful  Incentive  than 
constant  pointing  out  of  faults.  This  applies  equally  to  children. 
Never  more  than  now  was  needed  careful,  painstaking,  methodical, 
wistful  home-education  in  the  moral  law  as  revealed  in  the  Bible 
and  in  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  which  the  evils  of 
society,  its  frivolity  and  pride,  can  be  avoided,  and  by  which  the 
virtue  and  strength  can  be  attained  whereby  obedience  may  be 
rendered  to  everything  that  is  noble  in  humanity. 

That  was  a  great  truth  your  Justice  Banks  uttered  the  other 
day,  "No  amount  of  discipline  at  school  can  be  a  substitute  for 
what  a  child  ought  to  learn  at  home." 

In  family  prayer  a  truly  spiritual  sacrifice  is  offered.  By  this 
act  we  own  that  we  are  dependent  upon  God;   and  does  not  the 


ADDRESS  BY  MR.  RICHARD  T.  SMITH.  469 

altar  signify  that  we  confess  our  guilt  and,  in  common  witli  the 
heathen,  declare  that  we  are  conscious  of  having  offended  the 
Father  of  our  spirits?  We  equally  own  before  a  careless  world 
that  forgets  God  and  sometimes  tries  to  push  Him  out  of  His 
universe,  that  we  abide  in  peace  of  conscience,  that  His  favor 
is  our  highest  joy  and  enabling,  that  we  are  sheltered  in  His 
friendship,  and  that  we  will  not  leave  all  these  blessings  to  lie 
forgotten  in  unthankfulness,  and  without  praises  die.  How  sweet 
the  fragrance  of  the  incense  when  parents  bring  their  children 
to  the  Savior! 

We  have  in  England  a  saying,  "If  a  man  wants  to  be  useful 
in  the  Church  or  in  the  State,  he  must  ask  his  wife."  There  must 
be  harmony  between  the  family  prayer,  the  household  duties,  and 
daily  pursuits.  The  provision  of  the  opportunity  for  devotion  and 
worship  means  a  well-ordered  home,  tidying  up  on  Saturday  nights, 
breakfast  half  an  hour  earlier  on  Sundays,  the  forethought  by 
which  children  can  be  ready  for  school,  and  due  consideration  for 
servants,  each  member  of  the  household  working  conscientiously 
for  the  common  good.  Piety  at  home  has  the  energy  of  sun- 
shine. It  is  impossible  to  picture  the  beauty  and  happiness  of 
a  home  where  the  lives  and  beneficent  activities  (in  Church,  and 
various  kind  works)  reciprocate  the  prayers  and  become  them- 
selves a  kind  of  prayer.  And  how  the  members  of  a  family  do 
differ!  In  this  realm  for  certain  God  will  not  have  everything 
and  everj'body  alike.  It  has  been  well  observed,  "The  tenderness 
of  God  suggested  by  these  varied  affinities  and  sympathies  is  al- 
most ineffable;  by  them  we  are  saved  from  exclusive  devotion  to 
some  particular  truth,  and  from  an  exaggeration  of  some  simple 
phase  of  human  life.  The  family  life  saves  the  Church  from 
excessive  specializing. 

Can  it  possibly  be  true  that  in  all  the  Churches  the  family 
altar  is  being  thrown  down,  family  prayer  discontinued?  Then 
I  will  ask,  Can  we  possibly  be  sincere  when  we  say  we  do  n't 
know  why  the  Church  fails?  Have  we  not  all  gone  far  enough  in 
neglecting  habits  of  life  distinctly  ordained  by  God,  and  vindi- 
cated by  the  noblo  lives  of  our  forefathers? 

Are  we  always  to  act  simply  according  to  the  inclination  of 
the  hour,  and  not  by  method?  It  is  said  that  on  one  occasion 
when  religion  was  the  subject  of  conversation,  Tennyson  reraarlced 
in  a  seriofls  tone,  "I  dread  the  loss  of  form."  True  indeed  it  is 
the  letter  killeth,  the  spirit  giveth  life,  but  are  we  so  misguided 
by  the  fear  of  the  world  that  we  are  content  to  see  our  holy  religion 
made  featureless  and  formless  that  we  may  escape  having  to 
distinctly  own  that  we  are  Christ's  followers?  Are  we  loyal? 
Can  there  be  life  without  form? 

As  to  the  method  and  time  of  this  family  worship;   look  at  it 


470  HOME  RELIGION. 

in  the  light  of  Scripture;  have  a  family  consultation,  and  use 
sanctified  common  sense.  The  statutes  of  God  may  become  our 
songs  in  the  house  of  our  pilgrimage.  Set  them  to  music;  piano, 
violin,  flute,  organ,  let  these  be  consecrated  by  the  Word  of  God 
and  prayer.  "Our  homes  so  administered  shall  become  the  abode 
of  peace,  the  fortress  of  virtue,  and  a  foretaste  of  heaven." 

A  few  months  ago,  speaking  at  the  Ter-centenary  of  the  British 
and  Foreign  Bible  Society  in  London,  our  worthy  Prime  Minister 
used  some  such  words  as  these:  "The  Bible  was  never  more 
intellectually  studied  than  at  the  present  day,  but  never  so  little 
read  in  the  families  of  England.  England  and  America  owe  all 
to  the  Bible.  I  beseech  you,  go  back  to  the  Scottish  method  of 
reading  the  Scriptures,  and  go  home  from  this  meeting  to  build 
your  Family  Altar." 

The  general  discussion  was  opened  by  the  Eev.  John  Gould, 
of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church: 

Mr.  President,  I  rejoice  this  morning  with  exceeding  joy  that 
this  Conference  has  received  the  teaching  of  that  first  paper  with 
practical  unanimity.  There  was  a  time  in  my  ministry  when  the 
superintendent  threatened  me  with  discipline  for  heresy  for  daring 
to  enunciate  the  thought  which  we  have  so  gladly  received  this 
morning  that  every  child  born  into  this  world  becomes  a  member 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God;  and  I  rejoice  that  the  attitude  of  the 
Church  must  be  one  of  prevention  rather  than  cure,  that  we  have 
made  a  great  mistake  in  that  we  have  allowed  the  child  to  go 
astray. 

Mr.  President,  I  am  thankful  to  be  able  to  confirm  the  doctrines, 
to  which  we  listened  from  our  good  friend,  Mr.  Lark,  as  they  bear 
themselves  out  in  the  actual  wear  and  tear  of  a  Methodist  preacher's 
home.  If  children  scattered  over  three  continents  engaged  in  work 
on  the  mission  field  are  any  testimony  to  the  value  of  being  trained 
up  in  the  way  they  should  go  from  the  beginning,  surely  my  own 
household  would  bear  illustrations  to  this  fact,  that  they  never 
knew  the  time  when  they  did  not  know  the  Lord.  And  they  delight 
to-day  to  be  engaged  in  the  ministry  of  that  salvation  of  which  they 
have  been  the  heirs  from  the  beginning. 

Now,  I  want  to  say  that  in  my  judgment  the  weakness  we  are 
suffering  as  a  Church,  and  by  which  we  are  having  enormous  losses 
from  the  families  of  our  people,  is  that  we  do  not  carefully  screen 
our  children  from  what  I  venture  to  say  is  the  seamy  side  of  our 
Cliurch  life  and  our  Church  relations.  I  was  conversing  with  a 
father  of  a  large  family  recently  who  has  ten  children,  all  of  them 
members  of  the  Church  and  occupying  positions  of  honor  in  our 
Church,  of  trust  and  responsibility,  and  I  asked  him  ifow  he  ac- 
counted for  the  fact  that  out  of  his  large  family  not  one  had  seemed 
inclined  at  all  to  depart  from  the  Church  of  his  father,  and  he 
said,  "My  wife  and  I  made  a  solemn  covenant,  from  which  we  have 
never  departed  throughout  our  wedded  experience,  never  to  talk 
against  our  Church — [Great  applause] — never  to  reveal  in  the  pres- 
ence of  our  children  any  matters  that  were  of  an  irritating  charac- 
ter that  might  cause  us  pain."     I  believe,  sir,  that  if  in  the  family. 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  471 

the  parents  of  our  children  would  take  care  to  screen  the  children 
from  the  depreciation  of  the  minister  and  the  preachers  of  their 
Church,  it  would  be  an  enormous  gain  to  them  in  the  long  run, 
and  save  them  an  enormous  amount  of  heartbreak.  It  matters  next 
to  nothing  to  me  as  an  individual  what  the  members  of  my  congre- 
gation may  think  about  me,  but  it  matters  everj-thing  about  what 
your  children  think  of  your  pastor  and  of  your  Church.  Let  us 
with  jealous  care  protect  our  children  at  least  from  any  insinuation 
that  will  spoil  or  lessen  their  attachment  to  their  Church,  lest  they 
should  go  forth  into  the  world,  and  should  be  switched  away  by 
some  evil  influences  that  they  have  gathered  from  their  home. 

The    Eev.    John    Holland^    of    the    Primitive    Methodist 
Church : 

I  am  afraid  that  the  practice  of  family  worship  is  not  nearly  so 
general  as  twenty  or  thirty  or  forty  years  ago.  I  know  that  in 
these  days  many  reasons  are  given  for  its  discontinuance.  We  are 
told  that  the  claims  of  business  and  the  pressure  of  modern  life 
interfere  with  home  arrangements,  and  that  it  is  almost  impossible 
for  business  men  and  working  men  to  gather  the  whole  family 
together  for  worship  before  God.  I  believe  that  the  discontinuance 
of  that  practice  is  a  distinct  loss,  not  only  to  the  individual  but  to 
the  home  and  Church  and  State.  I  was  speaking  recently  to  one 
of  our  most  successful  business  men,  who  has  eight  children,  all 
associated  with  the  Methodist  Church,  and  some  of  them  occupying 
responsible  positions  in  it.  He  told* me  that  he  attributed  the  devo- 
tion and  loyalty  of  his  children  to  Methodism  and  Jesus  Christ 
very  largely  to  the  fact  that  always  there  had  been  the  family  altar 
in  their  home,  and  that  all  the  children  had  been  taken,  from  their 
earliest  days,  to  the  sanctuarj^  and  the  family  pew  had  been  a 
reality  in  the  life  of  that  home. 

I  owe  everything  under  God  to  the  influence  brought  to  bear 
upon  my  life  at  the  family  altar.  My  boyhood  days  were  of  the 
happiest.  I  was  brought  up  in  a  day  laborer's  cottage,  where  there 
was  a  large  family,  poverty,  difficulties,  sometimes  hardships,  but 
never  anything  but  brightness  and  joy  and  happiness.  We  knew 
when  times  were  hard  by  the  passages  read  at  family  praj'ers,  and 
by  the  joyous  and  confident  note  that  found  expression  there  in 
the  utterances  before  God.  The  passage  about  Elijah  being  fed 
by  the  raven  was  read  many  a  time,  and  some  of  the  beautiful 
promises  of  the  New  Testament  were  read  again  and  again.  The 
income  of  that  home  was  only  ten  and  sixpence  a  week,  never  more 
than  fifteen  shillings.  A  family  of  six  children  were  brought  up 
on  that,  and  all  trained  to  be  loyal  Methodists  and  loyal  to  Jesus 
Christ.  But  the  family  altar  was  a  reality;  and  the  happiest  recol- 
lections of  my  life  are  associated  with  those  days  of  struggle  which 
were  yet  days  of  joy  because  religion  sweetened  and  sanctified  every 
relationship  of  that  home  life. 

There  is  a  passage  in  the  Old  Testament,  a  fragment  of  an  old 
heathen  ritual  that  I  think  is  very  suggestive— r"The  children  gather 
wood,  the  fathers  kindle  the  fire,  and  the  women  knead  their  dough 
to  bake  cakes  to  the  queen  of  heaven."  The  whole  family  partici- 
pating in  the  worship!  The  ideal  in  every  Methodist  home  ought 
to  be,  every  child  trained  to  take  part  in  the  services  of  the  Church 
and  of  the  home. 


472  HOME  RELIGION. 

The  Eev.  Charles  E.  Beecroft,  of  the  Methodist  Church 
of  New  Zealand: 

Seventeen  years  in  the  British  Conference;  twenty-three  years 
in  the  Conference  of  New  Zealand.  Five  months  ago  it  was  my 
privilege  to  return  to  the  home  land  to  visit  the  home  of  my  late 
sister,  I  being  the  last  of  the  family.  In  that  home  I  came  unex- 
pectedly upon  one  of  the  heirlooms  of  the  family.  I  asked  that 
the  family  might  go  out  of  the  room  for  a  moment.  I  know  you 
will  not  blame  me  when  I  say  that  as  I  looked  at  the  plain  old- 
fashioned  arm  chair  by  the  iireside  the  tears  were  raining  down 
my  face.  I  will  tell  you  why.  Years  and  years  ago,  my  father 
brought  that  chair  into  his  home,  and  every  morning  father  gathered 
his  family  about  him  for  the  Word  of  God  and  prayer.  I  am  told 
that  one  after  another  the  children  of  the  household,  when  too 
young  to  understand  what  was  being  done,  were  put  into  that  chair 
and  with  his  hand  upon  the  infant's  head  the  father  prayed  that 
the  child  might  never  wander  fi'om  the  family  of  God. 

When  father  passed  away,  in  mid-life,  in  the  full  triumph  of 
faith,  my  mother  took  the  same  place.  From  January  to  December 
there  was  never  a  morning  tnat  she  did  not  kneel  down  and  ask  the 
blessing  of  the  God  of  all  grace  upon  that  household.  From  that 
home  the  echoes  of  petitions  offered  at  that  chair  follov/ed  us,  and 
I  have  seemed  to  hear  across  the  many  miles  of  intervening  land 
and  sea  my  mother's  pleadings  for  her  loved  ones.  We  had  not  only 
a  family  altar,  but  a  prophet's  chamber,  and,  of  course,  those  vis- 
itors led  our  family  devotions.  So  we  children  became  familiar  with 
the  faces  of  Charles  Garrett  and  Morley  Punshon  and  William 
Arthur,  and  other  saintly  men  who  read  the  Scripture  from  that 
chair  and  called  upon  our  father's  God.  And  when  with  the  years, 
temptations  and  doubts  assailed  us  it  was  no  difficult  matter  to  hold 
fast  the  beginning  of  confidence.  I,  for  one,  felt  that  before  I  could 
give  up  faith  in  the  reality  of  religion  and  the  blessedness  of  fel- 
lowship with  God  I  would  have  to  burn  my  mother's  arm-chair.  With 
these  memories  I  am  constrained  to  say  to  this  great  gathering,  that 
unless  we  retain  with  power  the  things  that  touch  a  man's  soul 
and  his  life,  we  shall  have  to  speak  of  the  decline  of  religion  in  the 
family  and  of  Methodism.  But  if  there  is  a  blessing  of  God  at  the 
family  altar,  the  decline  of  Methodism  will  be  ended.  Fire  from 
heaven  will  fall  upon  the  daily  sacrifice,  and  instead  of  sneers  at 
the  Church's  ineptitude  there  will  be  heard  the  exultant  cry,  "The 
Lord  He  is  God." 

Bishop  C.  H.  Phillips,  D.  D.,  of  the  Colored  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church: 

I  am  a  modest  man,  and  have  tried  to  see  how  reticent  I  could 
be  during  the  sessions  of  this  Ecumenical  Conference.  But  this 
subject  appeals  to  me  this  morning  in  a  way  that  none  other  has 
while  we  have  been  here. 

In  1887,  when  I  was  pastor  of  the  largest  church  of  my  denomi- 
nation in  the  State  of  Tennessee,  I  held  a  general  class  meeting 
on  one  beautiful  Sabbath  afternoon.  An  old  brother  rose  to  testily. 
He  was  a  good  man,  in  whom  the  people  had  the  most  unqualified 
confidence.  On  this  occasion  he  desired  to  impress  the  people  in 
respect  to  devotion  to  the  Master.  On  concluding  his  remarks  he 
said,  with  tears  streaming  down  his  cheeks,  and  the  congregation 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  473 

much  wrought  up  by  reason  of  his  remarks,  "Brethren,  I  have  been 
converted;  I  know  I  am  a  Christian.  And  if  you  don't  believe  it, 
you  go  home  and  ask  my  wife  and  children."  That  was  a  very 
commonplace  statement,  but  we  can  appreciate  its  force  and  its 
interpretation.  When  our  Lord  desired  to  impress  upon  the  people 
the  religion  of  the  home  and  the  responsibility  of  the  head  of  the 
family  to  that  home.  He  healed  the  demoniac  of  Gadara.  I  am 
quite  sure  the  higher  critics  will  not  object  to  our  believing  in 
demoniacal  possessions,  as  they  obtained  in  the  time  of  our  Master. 
Our  Lord  did  not  allow  him  to  accompany  Him  to  the  other  side 
of  the  sea,  but  said,  "Go  home  to  thy  friends  and  tell  them  how 
great  things  the  Lord  hath  done  for  thee."  A  religion  that  does 
not  shine  best  and  brightest  at  the  home  is  not  the  religion  of 
the  Bible.  The  home  underlies  the  whole  fabric  of  our  social,  po- 
litical, and  civil  institutions.  It  lies  at  the  basis  of  all  government. 
And  the  home  is  the  source  from  whence  we  get  such  men  and 
women  as  compose  this  Ecumenical  Conference.  The  purity  and 
sanctity  of  the  home,  when  it  is  Christianized  by  the  integrity  of 
marriage,  can  measure  the  civilization  of  any  race.  We  can  find 
from  the  history  of  Rome  that  when  it  departed  from  those  virtues 
and  graces  that  characterized  it  in  its  early  life,  it  was  overrun 
by  barbarian  tribes.  So  far  as  our  people  are  concerned,  we  are 
trying  to  prevent  the  decadence  of  the  home  by  erecting  as  never 
before  the  family  altar.  And  I  trust  we  may  ever  guard  the  family 
altar  with  ever  deeper  consecration,  hoping  thereby  to  preserve  the 
purity  and  sanctity  of  our  home  life,  and  to  transmit  it  to  our 
children  and  to  the  future  generations  as  a  precious  legacy.  In  the 
home  we  work  upon  the  Individual.  And  when  the  individual  is 
right  and  sent  out  into  society  thus,  society  will  be  right  in  all  its 
concreteness. 

Sir  George  Smith,  of  the  English  "W^esleyan  Methodist 
Church : 

I  have  not  felt  the  Impulse  of  intervening  on  other  subjects 
since  the  one  of  which  I  was  called  to  speak,  until  this  morning. 
But  I  do  feel  it  on  my  heart  to  express  the  conviction,  after  many 
years  of  observation,  that  there  is  no  subject  in  the  wide  program 
of  this  Ecumenical  Conference  of  such  imminent  importance  to  us 
as  this  of  family  religion  and  family  prayer.  Of  some  things  we 
are  sure.  I  am  as  sure  as  I  can  be  of  anything  human,  that  I  am 
among  you  as  a  member  of  the  great  Methodist  family  because  of 
the  family  influence  brought  to  bear  upon  me.  What  the  family 
altar  was  to  us  half  a  century  ago,  has,  under  God,  formed  me  year 
by  year  for  what  little  I  am.  The  knowledge  of  what  my  father's 
Church  was  to  him,  and  incidentally  of  what  he  was  to  his  Church, 
would  have  made  it  as  unthinkable  for  me  to  leave  the  Church  of 
my  father  as  to  change  my  nationality  for  a  barbaric  tribe. 

But  the  principal  thing  I  want  to  say,  after  that  personal  ex- 
perience, is  not  to  let  any  of  our  brethren  go  away  with  the  con- 
ception that  the  family  altar  is  all  in  ruins;  because,  thank  God! 
it  is  not.  The  family  altar  is  still  a  power  in  the  old  land.  I  hope 
it  is  here.  I  have  had  testimony  which  I  am  prepared  to  believe, 
that  the  family  altar  is  kept  alive  in  the  palace  of  King  George  V. 
[Great  applause.]  I  know  multitudes  of  families  in  which  it  is 
still  a  vital  power  for  good.  Lot  it  remain  so,  in  the  name  of  God 
and  for  the  benefit  of  humanity.     We  do  well  to  feel  our  solemn 


4^  HOME   BELIGION. 

responsibility  of  speaking  to  our  children,  of  holding  them  by  the 
hand,  of  arguing  and  making  representations  to  our  children.  I 
speak  as  one  who  has  found  that  the  nearest  way  to  our  children's 
hearts  may  he  by  way  of  the  throne  of  grace.  Our  children  will 
not  have  such  confidence  in  what  we  say  to  them  as  in  what  they 
see  in  us.  If  the  family  altar  is  intermittent  and  gradually  aban- 
doned, what  can  they  think  of  the  parental  character  which  is  ob- 
viously anxious  for  things  of  time  and  sense?  Our  children  are 
like  the  rest  of  mankind.  They  quite  wisely  do  not  believe  all  they 
hear.  But  they  will  very  largely  believe  what  they  see.  I  stand 
here  as  sympathizing  with  another  brother  who  knows  what  the 
ring  of  the  telephone  bell,  the  announcing  of  telegrams,  mean.  But 
these  things  must  not  interfere  with  the  things  which  we  theo- 
retically hold  to  be  first  and  in  our  solemn  judgment  know  to  be 
first.  Family  religion  must  survive  and  be  maintained.  I  entirely 
believe  that  infinite  harm  is  done  by  the  carping  criticism  which 
goes  on  in  the  presence  of  young  children.  Reform  the  Church  if 
it  needs  reforming.  Argue  with  the  minister  if  necessary.  But 
uphold  both  in  the  presence  of  our  families. 

Secondly,  maintain  the  Sabbath  in  the  home.  If  the  Sabbath 
is  not  maintained,  what  will  become  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race?  The 
Book  of  God  and  the  day  of  God  have  made  the  Anglo-Saxon  char- 
acter. This  is  the  unit  of  national  life.  These  are  the  bricks  out 
of  which  empire  is  built.  Unless  we  parents  keep  the  altar  fires 
burning  no  statesman  can  build  and  maintain  the  empire.  Noth- 
ing more  important  can  be  laid  upon  the  hearts  of  all  the  people 
than  the  work  of  building  again  the  altar  which  has  been  broken 
down. 

The  Rev.  Robert  Forbes^  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church : 

This  is  probably  one  of  the  most  important  subjects  that  will 
be  considered  by  this  great  Conference — training  a  child  in  the 
way  he  should  go.  The  home  is  the  original  institution,  older  than 
the  lodge  and  the  club,  and  even  than  the  Church.  The  home  was 
organized  by  Almighty  God  to  beautify  the  rosy  bowers  of  Eden 
before  sin  had  caused  its  glories  to  fade,  and  the  home  has  come 
down  on  the  waves  of  sixty  centuries,  the  most  important  institu- 
tion on  the  face  of  the  earth  to-day. 

Now,  children  are  born  members  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  The 
atonement  is  complete,  and  that  covers  every  case.  We  do  not 
baptize  our  children  to  take  them  into  the  Church,  but  we  do  bap- 
tize them  to  recognize  the  fact  that  they  are  in  the  Church.  When 
King  Edward  the  VII.  died,  that  moment  Prince  George  became 
king.  Later  there  was  a  Coronation  Day,  and  the  British  did  not 
crown  King  George  that  he  might  become  king,  but  to  give  the 
world  the  recognizance  of  the  fact  that  he  was  the  King  of  the 
British  Empire. 

The  practice  of  infant  baptism  should  be  greatly  revived  in  the 
Church.  We  baptize  our  children  and  parents  do  not  assume  obliga- 
tions when  they  promise  to  do  so  and  so,  but  they  recognize  before 
the  Church  the  obligations  already  existing.  There  should  be  no 
more  occasion  for  a  child,  born  in  a  Christian  home,  to  have  to 
make  application  to  become  a  member  of  the  Church  of  his  father 
and  mother  than  there  would  be  for  his  asking  to  be  admitted  into 
that  family.    He  was  born  into  it.    Suppose  one  of  my  boys  would 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  H.  M.  HAMILL.  475 

come  to  me  and  say,  "I  would  like  to  join  your  family."  I  would 
say,  "You  were  born  in  the  family."  My  boys  turned  out  well  and 
knew  nothing  about  joining  the  family.  They  were  baptized  in 
infancy  and  I  am  proud  of  them  and  they  are  proud  of  me,  too. 

I  believe  in  family  prayer.  Brethren,  there  is  a  feeling  about 
family  prayer  that  I  share  sometimes.  When  I  was  a  poor  boy  and 
working  out,  I  did  not  love  to  have  it  come  along.  A  man  would 
read  a  chapter  and  then  make  a  prayer  that  would  cover  everything 
from  the  fall  of  Adam  to  the  final  restoration  Of  the  Jews,  and  that 
made  me  tired,  and  I  was  gratified  when  I  became  a  man  and  as- 
sumed a  place  at  the  family  altar,  and  I  felt  like  what  was  described 
by  the  poet,  "Few  and  short  were  the  prayers  that  we  said."  Now, 
we  can  worry  our  children  with  that  sort  of  thing.  Give  the  chil- 
dren a  chance.  Do  as  Jesus  did.  He  was  a  brave,  a  loving,  and 
good  man,  a  true  man  in  every  way;  let  us  set  His  character  before 
our  boys. 

The  benedictioif  was  pronounced  1)y  the  President,  closing 
the  session  at  12.30  P.  M. 


SECOXD  SESSIOX. 

Bishop  T.  B.  Xeely,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  presided,  and  the  devotional  service  was  in  charge  of  the 
Pev.  "\Vm.  F.  Hovis,  D,  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
who  read  Matthew  18 : 1-10,  and  offered  prayer.  Tlie  hymn  was 
No.  838— 

"I  think,  when  I  read  that  sweet  story  of  old." 

The  daily  record  for  "Wednesday,  October  11th,  as  printed 
and  distributed,  was  adopted  by  the  Conference. 

Tlie  essay  of  the  afternoon,  on  "The  Psychology  of  Child 
Training,"  was  presented  by  the  Pev.  H.  M.  Hamill,  D.  D., 
of  the  Metliodist  Episcopal  Churcli,  South : 

First,  as  to  the  foundation.  One  who  would  build  a  psycho- 
logical system  of  Christian  training  for  childhood  needs  carefully 
to  study  the  ground  upon  which  modern  child-psychology  stands. 
In  general,  this  ground  is  neither  Scriptural  nor  Methodistic,  nor 
are  certain  of  the  more  recent  exponents  of  psychology  noted  either 
for  learning  or  orthodoxy,  their  chief  purpose  seeming  to  be  to 
challenge  the  judgment  of  the  Church  as  to  its  children,  and,  in 
the  name  of  science,  to  overturn  accepted  views  of  recognized 
theologians.  It  is  fair  to  say  that  not  a  little  of  our  recent  Amer- 
ican psychology,  as  applied  in  books  and  lectures  to  the  problems 
of  religious  education.  Favors  more  of  the  spectacular  than  the 
scientific.      In    our   conservative    Southland,    for    instance,    I    have 


476  '  HOME  RELIGION. 

again  and  again  been  forced  recently  to  take  the  platform  in 
defense  of  our  cherished  belief  and  practice  as  a  Church  against 
certain  peripatetic  iconoclasts  who  take  advantage  of  our  hospi- 
tality to  make  mock  of  our  old-fashioned  use  of  the  Church  Cate- 
chism, the  memorization  of  Bible  verses,  and  the  Scriptural  bring- 
ing up  of  our  children.  "What  the  Church,  guided  by  its  great 
students  of  the  human  mind  and  spirit,  has  held  for  centuries 
seems  of  small  account  to  amateurish  psychologists,  who  build  up 
revolutionary  schemes  of  child-study  and  training,  and  rush  into 
print  and  upon  the  rostrum  on  the  basis  of  alleged  scientific  knowl- 
edge obtained  through  some  hundreds  of  questionaires  perpe- 
trated upon  a  guileless  and  sometimes  too  gullible  constituency. 
How  many,  for  example,  have  taken  time  and  pains  to  inquire 
into  the  correctness  of  the  widely  heralded  ^discovery  that  ado- 
lescence is  the  favored  time  of  conversion,  or  the  companion  theory 
that  adolescence  in  itself  is  both  naturally  and  spiritually  eruptive 
and  perilous  beyond  other  periods  of  life?  From  the  latest  book 
on  child-training  that  has  come  to  my  desk  I  quote  brief  passages 
on  dealing  with  an  evil-tempered  child. 

"The  mother,"  it  declares,  "whose  child  throws  himself  upon 
the  floor  and  kicks  and  screams  in  blind  passion  until  he  is 
exhausted  should  understand  that  she  is  not  dealing  with  a  degen- 
erate, but  with  a  child  who  is  probably  normal,  and  who  is  mani- 
festing very  common  childish  impulses.  The  natural  tendency  is 
for  such  violent  passions  to  become  milder  and  more  controlled 
as  the  child  grows  older."  If  this  be  true,  nature,  and  not  psy- 
chology, should  take  in  charge  the  evil  passions  of  the  race.  The 
author  further  says: 

"When  one  is  assured  that  there  is  no  legitimate  occasion  for 
anger,  the  very  best  treatment,  when  it  is  possible,  is  wholly  to 
ignore  the  child  until  his  rage  has  passed.  Some  mothers  have 
said  to  such  a  child:  'I  can  not  talk  of  these  things  with  this 
angry  child.  When  my  own  good  boy  comes  back  we  will  talk  it 
over.'  'A  soft  answer  turneth  away  wrath.'  Sometimes  no  answer 
at  all  is  better  still." 

Perhaps  if  Solomon  could  read  this  application  of  his  proverb 
it  might  not  turn  away  his  wrath,  and  I  am  reasonably  sure  that 
if  Susannah  Wesley,  the  mother  of  nineteen  children  and  of  Meth- 
odism, could  give  her  judgment,  it  would  be  at  once  instructive  and 
convincing.  The  one  significant  commentary  upon  many  of  the 
leaders  and  much  of  the  doctrine  of  modern  psychology  is  that 
they  are  at  variance,  here  and  there,  with  both  Church  and  Bible 
in  matters  that  are  vital  to  the  constitution  and  need  of  childhood. 
One  of  the  foremost  of  these  leaders  makes  bold  to  say:  "The 
Church,  shut  in  with  creed  and  Bible,  has  declared  what  the  child 
ought  to  be;  while  science,  turning  away  from  her  pretensions, 
has  discovered  what  the  child  really  is,  and  how  he  should  be  dealt 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  H.  M.  HAMILL.  477 

with."  It  is  a  just  judgment  to  say  that  the  problem  of  modern 
psychology  as  propounded  by  some  of  its  foremost  teachers,  sets 
the  issue  distinctly  between  the  Church  and  the  Scriptures  on  one 
part  and  modem  rationalism  on  the  other  part,  and  that  a  more 
or  less  refined  materialism  is  its  working  basis. 

One  of  the  most  distinguished  of  our  American  writers  upon 
the  problems  of  religious  education  thus  states  the  issue  between 
the  Church  and  education: 

"Education  became  independent.  It  based  itself  upon  psy- 
chology and  child-study,  not  upon  Bible,  Church,  or  creed.  It 
has  built  up  a  set  of  principles  of  its  own  without  stopping  to  ask 
what  bearing  they  may  have  upon  religion.  We  have  to  deal,  ac- 
cordingly, with  two  apparently  unrelated  theories,  the  religious 
and  the  pedagogical,  and  with  two  independent  practical  activities, 
those  of  the  Church  and  those  of  the  school."  Then,  speaking 
for  himself  upon  childhood,  he  makes  use  of  what,  to  the  writer 
at  least,  seems  a  strange  Christian  theory  of  the  good  and  evil  in 
childhood: 

"The  two  sets  of  impulses,"  he  says,  "do  not  stand  on  quite  the 
same  footing.  One  set  relates  the  child  to  the  lower  animals,  the 
other  to  distinctive  human  life.  The  law  of  evolution  has  for  the 
first  time  enabled  us  to  see  such  facts  in  their  true  perspective. 
The  unlovely  impulses  are  traces  of  lower  orders  of  life  out  of 
which  man  has  evolved  and  out  of  which  each  individual  child 
develops.  The  individual  begins  life  on  the  animal  plane,  some- 
what as  the  human  race  did,  and  he  has  to  attain  through  develop- 
ment the  distinctively  human  traits.  But  it  is  natural  that  he 
should  attain  them."  Not  so  thought  David  when  he  wrote:  "What 
is  man  that  Thou  art  mindful  of  him?  and  the  son  of  man,  that 
Thou  visitest  him?  For  Thou  hast  made  him  a  little  lower  than 
the  angels,   and  hast  crowned  him   with  glory  and   honor." 

Here  is  the  doctrine  of  a  recent  Methodist  exponent  of  the 
new  child-psychology: 

"The  child  in  his  religious  life  and  growth  repeats  in  its  stages 
the  growth  and  progress  of  the  race.  Each  individual  human  life 
begins  with  a  single  cell,  and  in  its  stages  passes  through  many 
changes  through  which  the  race  is  believed  to  have  passed,"  the 
favorite  "recapitulation  theory"  of  evolution  from  a  level  with  the 
lower  orders  of  animal  life. 

He  further  declares:  "The  old  Jesuitical  notions  of  'original 
sin'  and  'total  depravity'  have  led  us  to  look  upon  the  child  as 
naturally  such  a  debased  creature  that,  instead  of  studying  his 
natural  instinct,  impulses,  and  interest,  it  has  been  our  chief  aim 
to  fight  against  these  with  might  and  main  and  to  cudgel  the  child 
into  the  adult  religious  path,  i-egardless  of  his  wicked  natural 
feelings  and  desires." 

It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted,  if  this  Methodist  critic  be  correct. 


478  HOME  RELIGION. 

that  John  Wesley  and  his  followers  around  the  world  have  im- 
posed upon  us  as  an  "article  of  religion"  the  doctrine  of  original 
or  birth  sin,  as  follows:  "Original  sin  .  ,  ,  is  the  corruption 
of  the  nature  of  every  man,  that  naturally  is  engendered  of  the 
offspring  of  Adam,  whereby  man  is  very  far  gone  from  original 
righteousness,  and  of  his  own  nature  inclined  to  evil,  and  that  con- 
tinually." 

This  same  Methodist  writer,  after  defining  religion  in  the  child 
as  one  of  the  natural  instincts  only  and  not  as  a  divine  and  in- 
tuitive bestowment  upon  all  human  beings,  declares: 

"The  doctrine  of  intuitive  ideas  is  an  exploded  doctrine.  Never- 
theless it  served  its  purpose  in  leading  to  the  clearer  idea  of  our 
day." 

One  might  venture  with  respect  to  ask  at  what  time  and  by 
whom  the  doctrine  of  intuitive  ideas  has  been  exploded;  and 
how,  if  religion  in  childhood  is  a  mere  instinct,  such  instinct  can 
break  all  bonds  imposed  upon  it  and  develop  into  the  dominant 
force  of  man's  whole  life,  bodily,  mentally,  and  spiritually?  Re- 
membering that  an  instinct  in  other  animals,  such  as  the  building 
of  its  nest  by  the  parent  bird,  maintains  its  monotonous  level  for 
a  thousand  years  of  bird  building,  I  deem  it  unfortunate  for  the 
cause  of  childhood  if  modern  psychology  has  exploded  the  long- 
honored  doctrine  of  a  religious  nature  in  the  child  and  put  instead 
an  instinct  in  common  with  the  brutes. 

Froebel,  the  German  master,  has  this  to  say:  "All  short- 
comings and  wrongdoings  have  their  origin  in  the  disturbed  re- 
lations of  these  two  sides  of  man:  his  nature,  that  which  he  has 
grown  to  be;  and  his  essence,  his  innermost  being.  Therefore, 
a  suppressed  or  perverted  good  quality — a  good  tendency,  only 
repressed,  misunderstood,  or  misguided — lies  originally  at  the  bot- 
tom of  every  shortcoming  in  men.  .  .  .  The  shortcoming  will 
at  last  disappear,  although  it  may  involve  a  hard  struggle  against 
habit,  but  not  against  original  depravity  in  man;  because  man 
himself  tends  to  abandon  his  shortcomings,  for  man  prefers  right 
to  wrong." 

Thus  speaks  one  whose  love  and  labor  for  childhood  are  honored 
by  all  men,  but  whose  foundation  principle,  as  above  stated,  is 
far  from  being  in  accord  with  that  older  master,  the  apostle 
Paul,  who  under  inspiration  declared  that  we  "are  by  nature  the 
children  of  wrath" — reKva  (pvaei  opyfis',  and  that  "by  one  man  sin 
entered  into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin;  and  so  death  passed  upon 
all  men,  for  that  all  have  sinned." 

An  American  book  of  wide  popularity  lays  repeated  emphasis 
on  the  doctrine  that  childhood  in  itself  is  an  entity,  and  that  the 
child  is  to  be  taught  and  trained  as  such,  and  not  in  the  light  of 
what  he  is  to  become,  the  child  himself  being  the  objective,  and 


ESSAY  OF  THE  RE\-.  H.  M.  lUMILL.  479 

not  the  adult  man.  or  woman  towards  whom  heretofore  educators 
have  been  directing  their  formative  efforts.  This  author  states 
his  case  as  follows: 

"The  truth  is  that  the  child  is  robbed  of  his  right  by  our  ever- 
lastingly thinking  of  him  as  the  coming  man.  We  think  too  much 
of  what  he  may  be,  and  not  enough  of  what  he  is.  .  .  .  Any 
child  may  finish  his  mission  in  childhood.  Out  of  every  thousand 
children,  over  two  hundred  die  before  they  reach  nine  years  of 
age." 

Another  autlior  reinforces  this  plea  by  the  singular  statement 
that: 

"All  the  faculties  and  capacities  of  adult  life  were  supposed 
to  be  present  in  the  smallest  child,  the  only  difference  being  in 
the  degree  of  development  and  strength.  Now,  it  is  clearly  shown 
that  some  of  the  most  important  faculties  of  the  adult  mind  are 
not  at  all  present  in  the  child." 

If  it  be  true  that  faculties  of  the  adult  mind  are  not  present 
in  the  child,  there  is  needed  a  revision  of  standard  works  on 
mental  philosophy  and  of  the  opening  chapters  of  the  Book  of 
Genesis  to  conform  both  to  this  newly  revealed  theory  of  post- 
natal creation.  The  protest  against  everlastingly  thinking  of  the 
child  as  the  coming  man  is  not  in  harmony  with  the  maxim  cf 
one  whom  we  were  taught  in  our  Catechism  to  revere  as  the  wisest 
of  men,  the  now  superannuated  Solomon,  who  admonished  parents 
and  psychologists  to  "train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go,  that 
when  he  is  old  he  may  not  depart  from  it."  If  one  child  out  of  every 
five  should  die  before  nine  years  of  age,  it  would  seem  that  the 
other  four  would  not  have  less  right  to  the  trained  manhood  and 
womanhood  to  which  two  score  and  more  years  of  their  lives  may 
be  devoted. 

One  of  our  Church  leaders  sets  forth  the  religion  of  childhood 
in  these  words: 

"Was  it,"  he  asks,  "Christ's  purpose  that  the  Kingdom  He  came 
to  build  should,  when  complete,  consist  of  an  elected  citizenship, 
gathered  here  and  there  throughout  the  ages;  a  few  comparatively 
brought  together  and  into  fellowship  with  Him  on  the  terms  of 
repentance  and  faith,  and  by  a  divine  nurture  fitted  for  a  place 
in  the  heavenly  Kingdom?  Or  was  it  His  intention  to  found  an 
enduring  empire  of  righteousness  among  men,  a  true  theocracy 
with  the  race  of  mankind  as  its  subjects?" 

Let  the  contrast  be  carefully  noted  between  the  two  kingdoms 
described  by  this  author,  one  composed  of  those  "brought  into 
fellowship  with  Christ  on  the  terms  of  repentance  and  faith,"  the 
other  a  "true  theocracy  with  the  race  of  mankind  as  its  subjects." 
Turning  away  from  the  first  kingdom,  which,  by  the  repeated  state- 
ment of  our  Lord  and  His  apostles,  is  the  precise  kingdom  He  came 


480  HOME  RELIGION. 

to  establish,  the  writer  fills  his  book  with  an  argument  for  the 
other  kingdom  of  human  invention  that,  so  far  as  the  child  is 
concerned,  would  make  him  inheritor  of  a  universal  and  irresistible 
salvation.  This  is  the  new  "culture  theory"  of  child  religion,  the 
earliest  exponent  of  which  in  America  was  the  good  and  famous 
Dr.  Horace  Bushnell,  whose  contention  was  that  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Christian  family  "the  child  should  grow  up  a  Christian, 
and  never  know  himself  as  otherwise."  If  Bushnell,  or  other 
writers,  great  and  small,  mean  that  the  child  becomes  a  Christian 
by  his  own  will  and  choice,  there  are  few  Methodists  around  the 
world  who  would  not  say  amen.  But  if  leaders  of  modem  thought 
concerning  the  child  mean  to  say  that  the  grace  of  God  will  and 
does  save  a  child  who  is  capable  of  making  choice  for  himself, 
whether  he  chooses  or  not,  because  of  the  Christian  nurture  and 
example  of  his  parents  and  teachers,  my  answer  is  that  no  such 
provision  for  child-saving  is  to  be  found  in  the  Scriptures  or  in 
the  creeds  of  Protestantism,  except  in  the  ranks  of  those  who  still 
follow  the  beckoning  hand  of  John  Calvin. 

The  doctrine  of  Methodism,  as  I  understand  it,  from  John 
Wesley  to  the  Fourth  Ecumenical  Conference,  is  this: 

The  child,  by  grace  of  the  atonement  through  Jesus  Christ,  in 
its  infancy  is  the  special  subject  of  divine  mercy;  and,  dying  in 
infancy,  is  taken  to  heaven.  In  the  tender  years  of  childhood, 
under  covenanting  parents  and  the  seal  of  infant  baptism,  with 
the  holy  influences  of  the  Christian  home,  the  pastor,  the  Church, 
and  the  Sunday  school  around  him,  especially  under  the  nurture 
and  admonition  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  is  ever  immanent  in  child- 
hood, the  little  one  combes  to  a  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  and 
for  himself  and  of  himself,  feeling  himself  to  be  a  sinner  by  nature 
before  God  and  in  need  of  the  atoning  blood  of  Christ  to  make 
and  keep  him  clean,  though  comprehending  these  things  in  the  sim- 
plest possible  childish  way  by  the  power  of  spiritual  impression  in- 
wrought in  the  heart  rather  than  upon  the  mind,  he  freely  receives, 
believes,  and  obeys  Jesus  Christ  by  a  definite  and  distinct,  though 
often,  in  after  years,  an  unremembered  personal  choice  and  de- 
cision. This  is  his  conversion,  and  this  does  not  in  the  least  jot 
or  tittle  alter  or  change  or  diminish  the  Word  of  Scripture  or 
the  creed  of  Methodism. 

Per  contra,  I  put  over  against  this  doctrine  of  Methodism  a 
statement  from  a  book,  recently  written  by  a  Methodist  of  ability 
and  reputation: 

"The  child  is  so  constituted  that,  under  proper  environment 
and  training  from  infancy  up,  he  will  never  be  for  one  moment  in 
life  consciously  astray  from  God.  .  .  .  His  first  real  conscious 
moments  will  find  him  in  the  service  of  God,  held  there  by  his 
very  nature  and  habits.  These  are  the  joint  product  of  natural 
tendencies  and  good  training." 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  H.  M.  HAMILL.  481 

All  of  which,  taken  at  its  face  value,  must  be  interpreted  to 
mean  that  the  religious  life  of  the  child  comes  not  of  and  through 
the  consent  and  choice  of  the  child,  but  by  and  through  his  parents 
and  friends;  a  doctrine  that  is  anti-Scriptural  and  un-Methodistic, 
a  putting  of  religion  into  the  child  by  outward  impression  and 
not  by  inward  choice,  a  denial  of  the  fundamental  doctrine  of 
Protestantism,  as  expressed  by  the  Prophet  Ezekiel  in  the  words: 
"Behold,  all  souls  are  Mine;  as  the  soul  of  the  father,  so  also  the 
soul  of  the  son  is  Mine;  the  soul  that  sinneth,  it  shall  die" — a 
doctrine  of  Protestantism  and  Arminianism  alike — the  right  and 
responsibility  of  the  individual  soul,  free,  voluntary,  and  uncon- 
strained, to  enter  into  and  maintain  personal  relationship  with 
Christ  and  His  Kingdom.  Methodists,  from  pulpit  and  press,  are 
deploring  the  rising  tide  of  worldliness  in  the  Church,  and  the 
zest  of  our  Methodist  young  people  for  demoralizing  amusements 
rather  than  for  Christian  service  and  study  in  Sunday  school  and 
League.  My  answer  as  to  the  causes  that  have  brought  upon  us 
this  confessed  and  evil  condition  is  not,  like  that  of  certain  of 
my  brethren,  that  the  Church  demands  too  high  a  standard  of 
living  for  its  young,  and  that  therefore  prohibition  and  rules  upon 
worldliness  should  be  stricken  from  our  books  of  law;  but  rather 
that  we  have  yielded  to  a  false  theology  and  have  "let  down  the 
bars"  of  our  doctrine  and  practice  as  a  people  under  sentimental 
and  blundering  counsel,  and  have  been  filling  our  Church  with 
unconverted  young  people  who  have  not  known  the  Holy  Spirit 
in  convicting  and  regenerating  power.  Make  sure  that  the  Spirit's 
transforming  touch  is  added  early  in  life  to  the  culture  of  home 
and  school,  and  the  card  table,  the  dance,  the  theater,  and  the  wine- 
cup  will  lose  their  hold  upon  our  young. 

Turning  from  the  varying  theories  of  the  child,  the  decision  of 
which  is  justified  only  by  the  fact  that  it  is  the  foundation  that 
must  give  form  and  strength  to  the  superstructure,  let  me  set 
forth  constructively  what  I  esteem  to  be  wise  methods  and  prin- 
ciples in  the  psychology  of  child  training. 

Child  life  ranges  from  birth  to  about  twelve  years  of  age,  ex- 
tending into  the  period  of  adolescence,  which  continues  on  to 
eighteen  years.  It  has  four  definite  stages  of  development,  each 
varying  from  the  others,  yet  all  constant  and  uniform  in  certain 
elements. 

First  is  the  "age  of  imitation,"  from  birth  to  six  years,  the 
kindergarten  period  of  secular  education  and  the  "cradle  roll"  and 
"beginners"  of  the  Sunday  school.  It  is  called  with  inexactness 
the  age  of  instinct,  as  the  child,  in  common  with  other  animals, 
is  ruled  in  part  by  instinct.  Socially,  it  is  the  sexless  period,  the 
time  of  self-unconsciousness,  if  the  child  is  not  spoiled  by  parent 
and  nurse.  It  is  the  period  of  perfect  docility,  if  from  the  cradle 
SI 


482  HOME  RELIGION. 

upward  there  is  firm  and  wise  direction.  It  abounds  in  activity, 
restlessness,  and  curiosity,  and  is  insistently  imitative.  It  is 
marked  by  a  credulity  that  later  becomes  the  foundation  of  intelli- 
gent faith.  It  is  the  concrete  age,  and  knowledge  comes  through 
the  senses,  though  not  exclusively  so.  It  is  the  time  of  emotion, 
and  the  heart  rules.  Religiously,  the  little  child  has  an  innate 
sense  of  God,  of  right  and  wrong,  and  is  taught  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 
The  teaching  at  this  period  should  aim  at  impression  in  objective 
ways.  It  is  a  time  for  training  rather  than  for  teaching,  and  to 
learn  by  doing.  The  points  of  contact  pedagogically  are  the  home 
life  and  the  nature-world.  The  parent  and  teacher  need  to  drill 
over  and  over  upon  the  simplest  concrete  truths  set  forth  in  the 
Bible,  the  home,  and  in  nature. 

The  "age  of  inquiry,"  from  six  to  nine  years,  follows.  It  is 
the  beginning  of  the  social  instinct,  the  age  of  questioning,  and 
the  stage  of  feeling  gives  way  in  part  to  a  keen  hunger  for  facts. 
Credulity  passes  over  into  Christian  faith.  It  is  the  beginning  of 
reason  and  judgment,  of  sensitive  conscience,  and  the  immanent 
Spirit.  The  real  choice  of  religion  is  made  at  this  time,  though 
the  public  confession  may  and  usually  does  come  later.  It  is  not 
an  accident  that  the  Church  generally  has  fixed  upon  this  stage 
as  the  real  crux  of  religion.  The  teaching  naturally  takes  the 
story  method,  but  great  care  is  needed  in  selecting  and  framing 
the  story,  which  is  never  for  its  own  sake,  however  entertaining, 
but  as  a  medium  of  truth.  It  is  a  child-parable,  even  as  the  parable 
of  the  sower  is  an  adult  parable.  The  story  should  be  followed  up 
closely  by  questioning  and  repetition  until  it  is  clear  that  the  story 
received  is  the  story  intended.  Let  the  teacher  of  this  age  observe 
these  maxims:  Satisfy  questioning;  direct  imagination;  stimulate 
thinking;  urge  high  moral  and  spiritual  ideals. 

From  nine  to  twelve  years  comes  the  "age  of  investigation," 
in  which  the  child,  no  longer  asking  "What?"  begins  to  ask 
"Why?"  and  "How?"  The  "beginner"  gathers  impressions;  the 
"primary,"  facts:  the  "junior"  boy  or  girl  of  this  period  calls  for 
reasons.  Socially,  this  junior  boy  or  girl  reinforces  himself  by 
the  "gang,"  and  the  gregarious  instinct  dominates  the  individual. 
It  is  the  clannish  age,  suspicious,  assertive,  inquisitive,  often  rude, 
self-willed,  and  given  to  teasing.  It  is  the  age  of  hero-worship, 
sometimes  with  heroes  of  inferior  quality;  a  time  of  optimism  for 
the  boy's  self,  but  of  iconoclasm  toward  others.  It  is  especially 
the  time  for  comradeship  between  the  boy  or  the  girl  and  the 
parent  and  teacher.  It  is  vitally  the  habit-forming  age,  and  is, 
or  ought  to  be,  the  time  of  open  religious  decision.  Appeal  should 
be  made  to  the  native  heroism  and  optimism  in  ways  of  biography 
and  in  the  lives  and  deeds  of  great  Bible  and  Church  characters, 
especially  the  heroism  of  missions  and  missionaries.    Organization, 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  H.  M.  HAMILL.  483 

by  class  or  club  or  team,  profitably  begins  here,  and  teasing  and 
rowdyness  must  be  overcome  through  the  "gang." 

The  "age  of  independency,"  from  twelve  to  sixteen  years,  comes 
last,  unduly  emphasized  as  a  period  of  "storm  and  stress."  As  a 
time  of  bodily  change,  there  come  certain  mental  and  spiritual 
changes,  with  sometimes  morbid  self-consciousness  and  acute  sensi- 
bility. It  is  what  Beecher  calls  the  "ugly  age."  Habit  finally 
"sets."  Ambition,  chivalry,  gallantry  begin  to  point  the  way. 
Mentally  and  spiritually  it  is  a  time  of  interrogation  and  inden 
pendency,  and  also  a  time  of  final  self-dedication  to  God.  Be- 
cause of  this,  it  becomes  a  tragic  age  to  parents  and  teachers, 
and  demands  their  gravest  thought  and  most  loving  sympathy. 
One  who  deals  with  this  difficult  period  must  be  guided  by  a  divine 
patience,  and  must  look  beneath  the  crust  of  ugliness  to  the 
possible  character  of  Christian  manhood  and  womanhood.  Appeal 
must  be  taken  to  ambition  and  reason,  and  one's  own  pure  life 
and  example  must  reinforce  the  word  of  counsel.  Though  yet  boys 
and  girls,  their  faces  are  turned  toward  the  future,  and  one  is 
wise  who  deals  with  them  as  the  men  and  women  they  aspire  to  be. 

Training  is  teaching  applied.  One  gives  knowledge,  the  other 
forms  character.  Teaching  sows  the  seed;  training  cares  for  the 
growing  plant.  The  training,  whether  in  home  or  Church,  or  public 
or  Sunday  school,  should  include  body,  mind,  and  spirit  of  the  child. 

It  must  train  the  physical  in  ways  of  health,  its  value  and  care, 
not  by  theory,  but  by  insisting  upon  the  observance  of  the  laws 
of  health,  in  right  habits  as  to  sleep,  food,  exercise,  and  all  that 
makes  for  a  sound  body  and  mind;  in  cleanliness  of  person  and 
neatness  of  dress,  for  which  end  every  Sunday  school  should  have 
a  lavatory  and  toilet  for  children;  in  self-control  and  self-denial,  as 
every  child  may  and  should  learn  this  lesson  before  he  is  six  years 
old;  in  service  and  v/ork,  for  the  child's  own  sake  and  for  others, 
that  the  art  of  industry  and  the  uprooting  of  idleness  and  selfishness 
may  begin  as  near  to  the  cradle  as  possible. 

The  training  of  the  child  mind  should  be  in  concentration  of 
attention,  observance,  and  thought,  however  small  and  crude  child- 
power  may  be;  in  investigation,  on  its  own  part,  into  the  real 
facts  and  reasons  of  the  case;  in  right  ways  of  expression  of  the 
knowledge  gained,  to  the  end  that  the  child  may  tell  accurately 
what  he  learns;  in  insistent  painstaking  in  all  that  he  does,  a 
habit  not  too  hard  for  a  child  to  learn;  in  self-reliance,  and  the 
doing  and  thinking  for  himself  to  the  limit  of  his  ability. 

The  social  training  of  the  child  should  include  the  choice  of 
right  associates,  on  the  basis  of  good  morals  and  manners;  in 
courtesy,  especially  to  the  old,  the  helpless,  the  dependent;  in 
amusements,  plays,  and  games,  that  body  and  mind  may  gain  and 
not   lose   by    reason   of   relaxation;    in   full    and   frank   confidences 


484  HOME  RELIGION. 

with  parent  and  teacher  in  all  that  affects  the  child's  life,  thereby 
forestalling  the  silly  habit  of  child  "secrets;"  in  loving  comrade- 
ship with  the  child,  making  him  one's  true  and  abiding  friend. 

The  training  in  morals  should  include  an  old-fashioned  sense  of 
honor,  so  that  the  child's  word  once  given  "on  honor"  should  be 
an  end  of  doubt  or  dispute;  in  prompt  and  unquestioning  obedience, 
not  with  eye-service,  but  for  conscience'  sake;  in  moral  courage  to 
say  "no"  or  "yes"  imfiinchingly,  as  the  right  may  demand,  like 
training  In  physical  courage  also  being  needed  to  free  children 
from  fear  of  darkness  and  "goblins"  and  superstitions;  in  charity, 
that  the  child  may  learn  early  to  think  and  speak  no  evil;  in 
temperance  and  purity  of  life  and  speech,  holding  both  boys  and 
girls  to  the  same  high  standard  of  observance,  and  following  every 
temperance  lesson  by  the  temperance  and  purity  pledge. 

The  religious  training,  in  the  sense  in  which  the  word  com- 
monly is  held,  should  begin  with  that  which  should  be  the  founda- 
tion of  all  American  child-training — a  revere^nce  for  parents,  for 
home,  for  the  Church,  for  the  Sabbath  (which  should  not  be  left 
to  the  child's  whims),  for  law  and  truth  and  God.  The  child 
of  tender  years  should  be  trained  to  Church  attendance,  upon  at 
least  the  morning  Sabbath  service,  no  matter  if  he  does  not  fully 
understand,  or  would  stay  away.  He  should  be  trained  to  read 
and  study  the  Bible  at  home  and  to  attain  a  systematic  knowledge 
of  its  stories  and  persons.  The  habit  of  private  prayer,  with 
knowledge  of  its  meaning,  condition,  and  use,  should  be  formed 
in  him.  Especially  he  should  be  trained  to  give  conscientiously 
and  regularly  to  the  Church  and  its  causes  and  to  know  something 
of  their  purpose  and  history.  Most  of  all,  and  as  early  as  possible, 
he  should  be  trained  to  know  and  accept  Jesus  Christ  as  his  per- 
sonal Savior  and  Friend,  and  be  made  ready  for  whatever  forms 
of  Christian  service  in  home  or  Sunday  school  or  League  or  Church 
a  boy  or  girl  Christian  is  capable  of  doing.  In  testing  the  Chris- 
tian life  of  childhood  and  youth  it  needs  to  be  considered  that 
such  test  is  not  whether  a  definite  act  or  hour  of  conversion  can 
be  recalled,  but  whether  the  child  now  heartily  believes  in,  obeys, 
and  serves  Jesus  Christ.  To  every  such  boy  or  girl  the  door  of 
the  church  should  be  opened  with  exceptional  honor  by  pastor  and 
people,  with  every  accessory  of  music,  flowers,  and  gladness;  a 
child  ritual  for  the  reception  of  children  into  the  Church,  simple, 
suitable,  and  most  impressive  should  be  used;  and  no  confirmation 
service  of  bishop  and  cathedral  should  exceed  in  beauty  this  white 
letter  day  of  the  Church's  calendar  when  its  children  appear 
before  its  altars  for  confession  and  covenant. 

I  close  with  a  brief  summary  of  psychological  principles  that 
should  underlie  the  work  of  home.  Church,  and  Sunday  school: 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  H.  M.  HAMILL.  485 

1.  The  child  inherits  an  evil  nature,  which  must  be  transformed, 
not  by  educational  and  religious  culture  or  constraint,  but  by  the 
action  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  we  commonly  call  "conversion." 

2.  This  conversion  is  conditioned  upon  the  active  intelligent 
faith  of  the  child  himself. 

3.  Childhood  is  not  in  itself  an  entity,  but  it  must  be  taught 
and  trained  for  the  uses  of  manhood  and  womanhood. 

4.  Childhood,  not  youth  or  adolescence,  is  the  crucial  religious 
period. 

5.  The  normal  child  develops  uniformly,  without  radical  and 
eruptive  physical  and  spiritual  changes  or  crises. 

6.  Wliile  it  is  wise  in  some  ways  "to  know  one's  self,"  such 
introspective   study  along  physical   lines  does  not  befit  childhood. 

7.  Even  the  little  child  should  be  trained  and  required  to 
"behave,"  and  to  practice  self-control  to  the  limit  of  his  endurance. 

8.  It  is  both  necessary.  Scriptural,  and  reasonable  to  punish  a 
child  corporallj',  as  a  certain  kind  of  evil  spirit  goeth  not  forth  by 
other  methods  of  expulsion. 

9.  Physical  heredity  does  not  bind  the  spirit  of  the  child,  how- 
ever it  may  affect  his  body.  God  will  give  every  child  a  fair 
chance  religiously. 

10.  The  child  learns  chiefly  by  observing  and  remembering; 
hence  the  value  of  memory.  He  memorizes  naturally  more  than  he 
understands;  hence  the  value  of  memorized  Scripture  and  the  Cate- 
chism. 

11.  The  child  receives  a  certain  measure  of  spiritual  truth 
intuitively;  hence  Scriptural  doctrine,  if  taught  by  a  capable 
teacher,  is  not  too  hard  for  him  to  learn. 

12.  The  child  should  be  taught  both  the  evil  and  the  good  in 
the  Bible  and  about  him,  but  so  far  only  as  to  enlighten  and  warn. 
The  suppression  of  the  "dark  side"  in  Sunday  school  lessons  is 
unscriptural. 

13.  The  growing  tendency  wholly  to  seclude  the  children  during 
the  Sunday  school  session  apart  from  the  others  is  without  war- 
rant educationally  and  Scripturally.  God's  ideal  school  is  the  home, 
in  which  the  younger  receive  instruction  and  inspiration  by  contact 
with  the  older. 

14.  The  use  of  the  objective  in  child  teaching  and  training 
is  easily  overdone,  the  child  often  seizing  upon  the  object  and 
failing  to  grasp  the  intended  spiritual  truth. 

15.  Here  are  tested  maxims  for  child-training:  "Restrain  the 
childish  imagination;"  "Use  memory  freely,  both  with  and  without 
understanding;"  "Appeal  to  judgment  and  reason  from  the  first;" 
"Discourage  self-consciousness;"  "Recognize  and  invoke  the  pres- 
ence and  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit." 


486  HOME  RELIGION. 

'i'he  iirst  invited  address  had  for  its  subject,  "Widening 
Mission  of  tlie  Sunday  School/'  and  was  given  hy  the  Eev. 
C.  E.  Wilbur^  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church : 

Judaism  was,  and  Christianity  is,  a  teaching  religion.  Tliey 
both  lay  tlie  stress  of  a  supreme  emphasis  upon  the  personal  touch 
of  tlie  teacher  upon  the  taught.  They  have  also  emphasized 
strongly  the  supreme  importance  of  the  definite  and  continuous 
education  of  the  individual,  beginning  with  the  earliest  childhood. 

Hence  it  is  easy  to  show  that  distinctive  Bible-study  under  a 
teacher  has  been  carried  on  continuously  from  the  time  of  Ezra, 
the  scribe,  until  now.  Still  it  is  true  that  the  Sunday  school,  as  it 
now  exists,  had  its  roots  back  no  farther  than  the  movement  of 
Eobert  Raikes,  of  Gloucester,  England,  in  17S0,  "for  the  instruction 
of  the  children  on  the  Sabbath  day,  in  the  rudiments  of  learning 
and  religion." 

The  essential  element  of  the  Raikes  movement,  in  contrast  with 
Judean,  Patristic,  and  Mediaeval  Christian  Bible  teaching,  was  not 
in  teaching  the  Bible,  not  in  doing  the  work  on  the  Sabbath;  but 
in  laying  over  upon  the  Church  as  a  whole  the  duty  and  oppor- 
tunity of  this  teaching,  rather  than  holding  the  clergy  entirely 
responsible  for  this  service  of  love. 

But  it  is  a  far  cry  from  the  Sunday  school  in  its  rude  beginning 
in  those  schools  established  by  Robert  Raikes,  touching  but  few 
here  and  there,  and  those  but  lightly,  owing  to  insufficient  means 
and  imperfect  methods,  to  the  present  magnificent  instrument  for 
Christian  service,  making  the  circuit  of  the  lands  and  the  seas  in  its 
going  forth  and  touching  profoundly  both  Christian  and  heathen. 
Two  essential  things  have  made  this  growth  possible. 

I.    This  modern  revival  of  Bible  study  fell  upon  propitious  times. 

1.  Through  the  Middle  Ages,  and  to  some  extent,  later,  learn- 
ing, both  secular  and  sacred,  was  largely  confined  to  the  clergy. 
Even  kings  and  nobles  bore  about  them  their  seal  rings  to  fix 
their  personal  authority  to  official  documents  in  wax,  because  they 
could  not  write  their  names,  while  the  middle  classes  with  the 
lower  were  almost  totally  ignorant  of  science  and  religion.  But  by 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  Revival  of  Learning  had 
extended  knowledge,  and  the  intelligence  that  goes  with  it,  more 
widely  among  all  classes. 

2.  The  Bible  was  a  closed  book  during  this  long  period,  both 
because  of  the  general  lack  of  intelligence  and  because  the  Roman 
hierarchy  thought  it  necessary  to  keep  the  people  in  ignorance  of 
its  teaching  and  sacred  pages.  The  fundamental  result  of  the 
Reformation  of  Luther  was  to  remove  the  supreme  authority  from 
the  Church  to  the  Bible.    This  led  to  the  presentation  of  the  Bible 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  C.  E.  WILBUR.  487 

in  vernacular  versions,  and  opened  its  sacred  pages  to  the  masses. 
Thus  the  way  was  made  ready  for  the  Sunday  school. 

II.  The  second  essential  element  in  this  new  growth  was  the 
call  of  the  laity  to  service  in  this  new  field. 

Bible  instruction  from  the  pulpit  and  in  the  catechetical  schools 
had  been  given  almost  entirely  by  the  clergj^;  they  now  call  to 
their  assistance  the  laity,  and  from  having  simply  a  teaching  clergy, 
we  have  a  teaching  Church.  A  magnificent  gain.  No  longer  do  we 
see  a  bare  skeleton  of  the  army  of  the  Lord,  conspicuous  leaders, 
leading  no  one,  but  themselves  pressing  forward  in  forlorn  hope 
to  sure  defeat,  but  a  splendid  army,  with  skilled  and  courageous 
officers,  full  battalions,  regiments,  divisions,  and  corps,  pressing 
forward  to  assured  victory. 

III.  But  the  Sunday  school  of  1780  was  a  mere  germ.  No  insti- 
tution, whether  of  human  or  divine  origin,  appears  at  first  in  its 
perfection — it  does  not  spring  into  its  battle  full-armed,  like  Min- 
erva from  the  head  of  Zeus.  It  gradually  finds  itself  and  its  work, 
and  gradually  procures  the  instruments  for  doing  its  work.  The 
growth  and  fruitage  of  the  Sunday  school  from  this  mere  germ  has 
been  along  three  lines. 

1.  In  itself,  making  itself  a  more  effective  instrument  for  its 
work. 

a.  It  has  gradually  been  changing  its  definition  of  itself,  until  it 
no  longer  understands  that  the  Sunday  school  is  a  few  devoted 
teachers  and  officers  of  the  Church,  serving  as  best  they  may,  while 
the  mass  of  the  membership  is  indifferent;  but  that  the  Sunday 
school  is  the  Church  as  a  whole  exercising  its  teaching  function. 
It  recognizes  individual  obligation  to  serve,  as  Paul  did.  He  was 
debtor  to  Greek  and  barbarian,  to  wise  and  unwise,  not  because  of 
what  he  had  received  from  them,  but  because  of  what  he  had 
received  from  God.  God's  method  of  instruction  is  from  man  to 
man.  He  has  made  the  Church  the  depository  of  his  truth  in  the 
world,  and  holds  the  Church  responsible  for  giving  it  to  the  world; 
and  each  man,  as  he  has  talent  or  attainment,  or  both,  in  this 
depository,  is  debtor  to  those  that  have  not  what  he  possesses. 

b.  This  recognition  has  led  to  profounder  Bible  study,  to  more 
accurate  teacher-training,  to  a  more  perfect  grading  of  the  scholars, 
to  a  more  scientific  adjustment  of  the  word  of  God  in  graded 
courses,  to  the  recognized  periods  in  child  growth,  to  the  formation 
of  the  organized  class — in  short,  to  the  more  perfect  adjustment 
of  what  may  be  called  the  machinery  of  the  Sunday  school,  to 
make  it  a  sharp-cutting  instrument  for  the  I^ord. 

2.  The  second  line  of  its  development  in  its  widening  mission 
has  been  in  the  increasing  number  of  classes  of  people  to  whom 
it  makes  its  appeal.     The  Sunday  school  at  first  reached  out  only 


488  HOME  RELIGION. 

to  the  ignorant  and  neglected  children  of  the  street;  it  has  grad- 
ually extended  its  outreach,  in  its  divine  hunger  for  souls,  until  it 
meets  mankind  at  every  stage  of  its  growth.  With  its  Cradle  Roll, 
it  takes  the  infant  just  opening  its  eyes  upon  the  circle  of  its 
mother's  breast,  thrusting  the  cross  before  its  vision,  new  to  earth 
and  sky,  and  attends  its  footsteps  with  heavenly  instruction  and 
ministry  until  old  age,  keeping  before  its  sight  the  same  symbol 
of  love,  with  its  message  of  hope  and  heaven.  The  Cradle  Roll, 
the  Primary,  Junior,  Intermediate,  Senior,  Advanced,  Adult — these 
cover  the  full  span  of  human  life.  Nor  is  it  satisfied  even  here; 
it  extends  its  fostering  care  and  ministry  outside  the  Church,  to 
the  indifferent,  the  invalid,  and  the  care-burdened,  until  six  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  souls  in  the  home  department  welcome  weekly 
its  heaven-sent  messengers,  bearing  healing  in  their  wings. 

Taken  up  as  a  heaven-given  agency  by  the  missionary  forces 
of  the  Church  universal,  it  is  used  to  plant  the  standard  of  the 
cross  on  prairies,  in  hamlets,  in  cities,  on  the  far  frontiers  of  our 
country;  in  the  islands  of  the  sea,  in  deserts,  plains,  and  mountains 
of  heathen  lands,  where  the  message  of  good  tidings  would  not 
otherwise  be  heard.  Schools  grow  into  churches,  and  churches 
become  new  centers  of  power,  thick  studding  the  earth.  So  is 
Christ  'steadily  drawing  the  earth  to  himself,  and  in  his  own 
appointed  time  will  clasp  it  in  his  own  loving  arms. 

3.  The  third  line  of  its  development  in  its  widening  mission 
is  in  physical  extent  and  increase  of  numbers. 

a.  Beginning  in  the  Old  Dominion,  it  has  extended  to  the  New, 
and  attending  upon  the  footsteps  of  the  missionary  of  the  cross,  it 
has  made  the  circuit  of  the  earth,  until  it  exists,  not  only  as  an 
individual  school,  but  as  organized  unions,  in  all  the  earth,  each 
giving  strength  to  the  other,  marching  forth  to  universal  conquest 
under  the  blood-stained  banner  of  the  cross,  keeping  step  to  the 
anthem  of  the  angels  who  sang  on  that  fateful  Christmas  morning, 
"Peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men." 

b.  And  what  shall  we  say  of  its  numerical  extent?  Nothing; 
its  millions  of  teachers  and  oflicers  and  its  tens  of  millions  of 
scholars  are  spoken  of  on  the  housetops. 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  widening  mission  of  the  Sunday  school 
covers  the  whole  Church,  for  the  whole  people,  over  the  whole 
world. 

Mr.  J.  H.  Freeborough^  of  the  "Wesleyan  Reform  Union, 
presented  a  second  invited  address,  on  "The  Equipment  of  the 
Sunday  School  Teacher :" 

I  do  not  suppose  that  for  length  of  service  or  work  accomplished 
I  can  compare  with  many  brethren  who  are  here  present  to-day; 


ADDRESS  BY  MR.  J.  H.  FREEBOROUGH.  489 

but  for  thirty-five  years  I  have  given  what  intelligence  I  possess 
with  untiring  zeal  and  delighted  devotion  to  this  vital  and  important 
department  of  Christian  work.  During  that  term  of  years,  speak- 
ing for  my  own  country,  I  have  observed  a  great  change 
come  over  the  habits  and  the  mind  of  the  people.  When  I  com- 
menced the  work,  the  national  system  of  education  was  then  in 
its  infancy,  and  the  beneficent  work  of  the  schools  was  at  its 
beginning.  From  time  to  time  gloomy  prophecies  were  uttered  of 
the  dire  results  that  would  be  sure  to  follow  the  education  of  the 
poor  man's  child. 

The  children  that  filled  the  schoolhouse  of  that  day  passed  into 
the  great  stream  of  life  and  their  children  have  succeeded  them. 
They  are  the  children  that  we  have  to  deal  with  in  our  Sunday 
schools  to-day.  If  I  may  so  describe  them,  they  are  the  first-fruits 
of  the  schools,  and  they  have  brought  with  them  a  change  in  the 
life  of  the  nation,  with  totally  different  ideals  to  their  forefathers. 
Some  time  ago  a  popular  preacher  and  novelist  stated  in  a  sermon 
that  the  last  few  years  had  seen  a  coarsening  of  the  ideals  of  the 
nation.  Personally,  I  see  no  evidence  to  warrant  such  a  statement 
I  do  not  suggest  that  the  ideals  of  the  people  are  by  any  means 
complete  and  perfect.  They  are  not,  however,  behind  their  fore- 
fathers, but  in  some  respects  are  higher  and  better. 

The  most  striking  feature  of  this  modern  life  is  the  enormous 
aggregation  of  population  within  restricted  areas.  The  last  two 
census  records  have  given  almost  startling  evidence  of  the  tre- 
mendous growth  of  the  manufacturing  and  commercial  towns  and 
cities.  Sheffield,  my  home,  in  the  last  two  decades  has  added  to 
its  population  something  like  80,000  souls,  and  this  large  figure 
is  by  no  means  the  largest  record  in  the  kingdom.  With  this  cen- 
tralization have  come  certain  facts.  May  I  be  permitted  to  mention 
a  few? 

1.  The  competition  in  life  has  become  keener  and  keener,  in 
some  cases  to  the  advantage  of  life,  in  others  to  add  to  its  burdens. 
This  competition  has  made  life  far  more  strenuous. 

2.  This  massing  of  the  people  has  facilitated  the  modern  con- 
ception of  education  and  made  the  way  open  for  a  bright  child 
of  the  industrial  worker  to  climb  to  the  topmost  rung  of  the  edu- 
cational ladder. 

3.  The  growth  of  civic  life  has  made  possible  and  has  brought 
about  an  amazing  supply  of  literature,  of  art  and  science.  The 
daily  papers,  illustrated  and  otherwise,  play  a  conspicuous  part.  « 

4.  The  organization  of  the  worker  into  trade  unions  and  the 
great  progress  of  the  friendly  society  movements  have  stimulated 
the  better  kind  of  workingman  and  made  him  an  efficient  organizer 
and  a  personality  of  power  among  his  fellows. 

5.  The  almost  universal   interest  displayed  in  athletics  of  all 


490  HOME  RELIGION. 

kinds   has   become    in   many    respects    less    of    sportsmanship    and 
more  of  greed  and  commercialism. 

6.  The  growth  of  new  movements,  of  social  and  political  influ- 
ence, have  for  the  present  diverted  much  of  the  enthusiasm  and 
power  that  were  once  at  the  service  of  the  Church. 

7.  The  inordinate  thirst  for  social  prestige  and  personal  lux- 
ury. 

8.  The  largest  and  perhaps  most  diificult  of  all,  the  spirit  of 
indifference  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  aspect  of  life. 

No  section  of  life  has  been  more  affected  and  disturbed  by 
these  changing  conditions  than  the  growing  childhood  of  the 
nation.  It  is  more  self-conscious,  more  in  demand.  The  calls  upon 
its  time  and  energy  for  education  and  social  engagement  are  almost 
ruinously  urgent. 

These  are  some  of  what  I  venture  to  term  the  most  palpable 
elements  of  the  complex  and  wonderful  thing  that  we  call  modern 
life.  In  the  new  and  altered  society,  we  ask,  has  the  Sunday 
school,  as  you  know  it,  still  a  place?  In  the  Pritish  Sunday  schools 
there  are  today  teachers  and  scholars  over  7,000,000.  The  popula- 
tion is  about  50,000,000.  Taking  the  usual  figures  of  five  to  a 
family,  it  works  out  that  in  every  other  family  there  is  at  least 
one  individual,  old  or  young,  personally  and  actively,  either  as 
teacher  or  scholar,  identified  with  the  Sunday  school.  No  other 
organization  in  existence  can  make  a  claim  quite  like  this. 

A  further  question  suggests  itself.  Granted,  nominally  and 
numerically,  that  the  Sunday  school  has  a  place  in  the  national  life, 
is  it  justifying  its  retention  and  its  position?  Is  it  exercising  quite 
the  influence  that  so  vast  an  organization  ought  to  upon  those  that 
are  brought  under  its  ministry?  The  answer  to  these  simple  ques- 
tions is  not  quite  so  easy  as  the  answer  to  the  first  question.  Where 
are  the  boys  and  girls  that  passed  through  our  schools  yesterday, 
and  to-day  are  men  and  women?  Practically  only  a  small  per- 
centage of  them  remain  active  workers  and  make  the  life-blood  of 
the  Church  today.  A  vast  crowd  of  them,  as  far  as  the  Sunday 
school  is  concerned,  seem  to  have  slipped  through  and  have  been 
swept  along  with  the  awful  tide  that  carries  the  crowd  into  the 
unknown  seas  of  life.  Has  the  Sunday  school  a  message  for  to-day, 
or  is  it  living  upon  the  great  capital  accumulated  in  past  years, 
a  thing  of  organization,  of  statistics  and  outward  semblance,  but 
of  an  enfeebled  and  inconsequential  power?  Has  it  given  place 
to  more  appropriate  movements  in  which  the  modern  intelligence 
and  strenuous  spirit  find  more  congenial  and  active  service? 

These  are  plain  questions  to  which  I  cannot  fully  reply.  On 
the  whole,  however,  I  take  my  stand  behind  one  strong  and  definite 
assertion.  I  confidently  reply  that,  in  my  opinion,  amidst  all  the 
other  clamant  voices  of  life,  the  Sunday   school  has   a  great  and 


ADDRESS  BY  MR.  J.  H.  FREEBOROUGH.  491 

peculiarly  beneficent  message  for  the  modern  world.  I  know  of 
no  other  organization  that  has  taken  or  ever  can  take  its  place. 
What  is  the  particular  work  of  the  Sunday  school?  To  take  the 
life  of  the  nation  before  it  has  become  muddy  and  spoiled  by  con- 
tact with  the  fouler  parts  and  obstructions,  so  to  preserve  it  while 
in  our  charge,  that  when  it  does  eventually  pass  from  us,  it  will 
carry  into  the  life  of  the  world  such  a  streaia  of  pure  and  generous 
influence,  that  the  evangelization  of  humanity  will  be  accelerated. 

Ours  is  not  a  problem  of  life  that  has  become  exhausted  and 
enfeebled  and  incapable.  The  responsibility  laid  upon  us  is  to 
meet  the  gush  and  rush  of  new  life  and  spirit  and  innocency  and 
unbroken  faith  with  a  larger  spirit  of  faith  and  hope  and  strength. 
This  enthusiasm  is  necessary  to  us.  To  compare  the  equipment 
of  the  Sunday  school  teacher  and  of  the  day  school  teacher  is  futile. 
They  do  not  even  run  on  parallel  lines. 

The  earlier  days  of  the  Sunday  school,  when  the  teacher  had 
to  wrestle  with  ignorance,  have  gone.  Our  scholars  are  early 
trained,  and  more  efficiently  in  the  day  schools,  and  it  is  not  the 
art  of  the  teacher  that  is  wanted,  but  the  soul  of  the  teacher.  The 
equipment  of  the  Sunday  school  teacher  is  not  intellectuality,  but 
spirituality,  and  even  that  is  not  an  adequate  description.  Spirit- 
uality alone  is  not  sufficient.  The  spirituality  must  be  very  near 
and  affecting;  something  that  does  not  put  him  apart  from  the 
scholar,  but  wonderfully  and  graciously  near  to  him.  I  grant  j'ou 
that  spirituality  and  intellectuality  combined  and  made  effective 
by  that  spirit  of  comradeship  which  people  class  as  human  kind- 
ness is  the  most  effective  and  powerful  instrument  of  the  work  of 
the  school. 

It  is  not  sufficient  to  read  portions  of  the  Bible  and  give  expla- 
nations, even  when  these  explanations  are  culled  from  the  valuable 
literature  issued  by  the  various  organizations  of  the  Sunday  schools. 
The  effective  application  of  a  Bible  lesson  is  that  which  comes 
through  an  effective  personality.  In  this  resi  ect  the  Sunday  school 
teacher  is  only  on  the  same  lines  as  the  successful  worker  in  every 
other  sphere  of  life.  There  are  no  fixed  standards  by  which  men 
can  be  judged.  Behind  all  the  successful  concerns  of  the  world 
you  will  find  some  great  and  effective  personality  who  is  the 
dynamo  of  the  concern. 

The  great  difficulty  in  speaking  of  the  equipment  of  the  Sunday 
school  teacher  is  that  there  are  in  the  schools  all  ages,  from  the 
infant  to  the  adult.  The  equipment  must  be  as  varied  as  the  neces- 
sity. I  have  noticed  on  many  occasions  when  brethren,  ministers 
and  laymen,  have  addressed  the  school,  they  appear  to  labor  under 
the  idea  that  the  Sunday  school  is  composed  of  little  children  and 
that  the  intelligence  and  illustration  required  is  that  suitable  to 
a  little  child.     The  result  being  that   the   larger   and   more   vital 


493  HOME  RELIGION. 

portion  of  the  school,  being  of  older  years,  is  utterly  passed  by 
with  this  kind  of  treatment. 

In  passing,  may  I  say  that  the  need  for  some  kind  of  reorgani- 
zation of  the  Sunday  school  is  manifest?  but  do  let  us  avoid  the 
worship  of  mere  names  and  phrases.  The  old  system,  slight  altera- 
tions under  new  and  imposing  names,  will  not  add  very  much  to 
the  real  success  of  the  school.  We  hear  so  much  about  grading 
and  departments,  and  some  of  our  excellent  friends  think  that  the 
defects  v/ill  be  remedied  by  rearranging  the  seats  of  the  building 
and  calling  the  division  by  new  names.  The  simple  faith  that 
attaches  such  importance  to  this  kind  of  thing  is  very  interesting 
and  very  plausible,  but  not  very  effective.  Much  has  been  said 
about  separate  classrooms,  but  unless  in  each  of  these  classrooms 
there  is  a  man  or  woman  capable  of  a  separate  classroom  and 
equal  to  the  seclusions  of  a  separate  classroom,  more  harm  is 
done  by  it  than  good. 

The  equipment  of  the  teacher  is  so  enormously  important 
because  the  life  committed  to  his  care  is,  in  its  growing  and  plastic 
stage,  so  amenable  to  outside  pressure  and  influence.  It  is  the 
great  privilege  and  opportunity  of  the  teacher,  as  well  as  his 
solemn  responsibility,  to  encourage  this  growth.  He  must  prepare 
himself  and  allow  that  growing  intelligence  to  think  for  itself,  and 
to  make  its  own  choice  of  things,  and  it  is  just  possible,  nay  prob- 
able, that  the  choice  may  not  in  all  cases  be  agreeable  to  him.  But 
he  must  continue  to  foster  the  distinct  personality  of  each  of  his 
scholars,  encourage  in  every  way  the  sense  and  dignity  of  the 
knowing  of  good  and  evil,  and  the  power  and  responsibility  of 
personal  choice.  This,  of  course,  involves  the  assumption  that  he 
himself  is  competent  to  do  it.  This  work  is  not  a  humdrum  and 
mechanical  round  of  duty,  but  a  great  standby,  to  watch  and  pray, 
supplement,  suggest  and  direct  the  development  of  character,  until 
one  more  capable  unit  is  added  to  the  commonwealth. 

Roughly,  I  divide  the  equipment  of  the  teacher  under  two 
heads,  the  natural  and  the  acquired.  The  natural  suggests  amongst 
others  three  palpably  necessary: 

1.  A  gracious,  winning  personality.  Without  this,  neither  week- 
day nor  Sunday  do  I  think  any  man  or  woman  can  be  regarded 
as  a  teacher  at  all. 

2.  An  infinite  capacity  to  take  pains. 

3.  Patience,  that  perhaps  greatest  of  all  virtues,  that  strong 
reserve  that  can  wait  the  desired  result  without  worrying  himself 
or  his  subject. 

Acquired: 

1.  Personal  and  definite  experience  of  divine  truth.  No  man 
can  lead  another  soul  into  an  experience  of  which  he  himself  has 
no  knowledge. 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  493 

2.  A  moderate  education,  so  that  he  shall  not  be  seriously 
inferior  to  those  under  his  charge. 

3.  An  interested  and  intelligent  knowledge  of  the  affairs  of 
daily  life,  made  useful  by  observation  and  illustration. 

4.  Careful  study  of  each  individual  brought  under  his  charge, 
with  utmost  respect  for  the  personal  idiosyncrasy.  To  use  this 
knowledge  as  far  as  may  be  reasonably  expected,  by  helping  the 
after  life  in  the  obtaining  of  trades  and  professions  and  in  the 
selection  of  companionships.  It  will  be  a  great  thing  gained  if, 
during  the  after  life  of  a  scholar,  in  any  time  of  difficulty  he  thinks 
of  and  seeks  the  aid  of  his  old  Sunday  school  teacher. 

By  these  means  the  divine  plan  of  human  redemption  is  being 
facilitated:  "Neither  pray  I  for  these  alone,  but  for  them  also  which 
shall  believe  on  Me  through  their  word." 

The  Rev.  John  Elsworth^  of  the  Britisli  'Wesle3^an  Meth- 
odist Church,  opened  the  discussion: 

I  am  the  only  representative  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church 
coming  from  that  land  of  Bibles  and  Sunday  schools,  the  land  of 
Old  Scotland.  My  church  is  in  the  City  of  Edinburgh;  and  it  is 
a  sight  on  the  Sabbath  day  to  see  the  young  people  of  our  Presby- 
terian and  Wesleyan  Sunday  schools  going  hour  after  hour  from 
one  school  to  another  until  one  might  sometimes  think  they  would 
get  a  surfeit  of  religious  teaching  and  truth.  And  yet  the  place 
that  the  Sunday  school  has  taken  in  Scotland  is  the  secret  of  the 
greatness  and  success  of  Scotsmen  around  the  world  to-day.  Every 
Scotsman  carries  with  him,  wherever  he  goes,  a  love  of  the  old 
home  and  the  old  Church.  He  carries  with  him  a  love  of  his 
father's  and  mother's  Bible,  and  that  conscience  that  keeps  him, 
however  he  may  drift,  somewhere  along  the  line  that  leads  to  God 
and  heaven.  I  stand  here  as  one  of  the  members  of  the  committee 
of  our  Wesleyan  Methodist  Sunday  school  department,  and  in  the 
absence  of  our  respected  secretary,  the  Rev.  J.  Williams  Butcher,  our 
treasurer  asked  me  to  say  a  word  about  the  work  we  are  seeking  to 
do  throughout  Great  Britain  in  our  Wesleyan  Churches.  I. am  glad 
that  the  visit  of  Mr.  Butcher  to  Canada  and  the  United  States  did 
much  to  infuse  a  new  spirit  into  our  Sunday  school  department.  I 
am  glad  that  we  are  taking  up  something  of  the  methods  not  simply 
from  the  Canadian  and  American  standpoint  but  from  the  British 
standpoint  that  he  brought  back  to  us.  We  are  emphasizing  the 
importance  of  teacher  training  classes,  those  classes  held  on  a  Sab- 
bath afternoon  in  the  school  itself,  and  consisting  of  the  members  of 
the  senior  classes  who  are  at  the  age  when  they  ought  to  be  trained 
as  teachers.  In  the  equipment  of  the  Sunday  school  teacher  it  is  no 
use  to-day  for  any  young  man  or  woman  to  go  into  the  Sunday 
schools  and  become  a  teacher  without  having  above  everything  else 
a  great  passion — a  passion  first  of  all  for  the  child,  and  then  a 
passion  for  Christ — a  passion  that  will  bring  that  child  into  direct 
contact  with  Christ,  and  therefore  the  teacher  Avill  seek  to  be  on  in- 
timate terms  with  both.  Every  teacher  must  get  into  the  presence 
of  Christ  and  then  get  directly  from  His  presence  to  the  class.  He 
must  understand  the  class,  but  study  every  verse  of  the  lesson,  and 


494  HOME  RELIGION. 

also  as  thoroughly  every  scholar  of  the  class.  And  he  must  have 
a  passion  for  the  Bible  truth.  The  only  regret  I  had  at  the  begin- 
ning of  this  week  in  the  discussion  on  Bible  questions  was  that 
more  was  not  said  as  to  methods  by  which  ordinary  preachers  and 
Sunday  school  workers  could  find  their  way  through  the  English 
Bible  and  first  make  it  their  own  and  then  give  it  to  their  young 
people. 

The  Eev.  Geo.  Elliott,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church : 

Some  one  wrote  a  footnote  to  James'  "Varieties  of  Christian 
Experience."  I  would  like  to  supply  a  footnote  to  Dr.  Hamill's 
paper,  partly  in  correction  and  partly  in  approval.  It  is  not  neces- 
sarily true  that  the  new  psychology  is  materialistic.  I  am  a 
thorough  convert  to  the  genetic  method  in  psychological  study,  and 
I  still  believe  in  intuitive  ethics.  The  spirit  of  the  genetic  method 
is  that  men  shall  be  so  enamored  of  the  reduction  of  all  things 
to  unity  that  they  shall  forget  the  glory  of  variety.  It  is  difference 
that  is  the  crown  of  evolution,  and  not  identity.  The  professors 
of  the  new  psychology  themselves  have  been  the  first  to  warn  us 
against  dangerous  applications  of  it  in  practice.  No  voice  has  been 
more  strenuous  in  warning  the  teachers  of  America  against  the 
danger  of  depending  on  the  results  of  psychological  study  than 
Hugo  Munsterberg.  But  let  us  take  the  question  of  the  important 
period  of  adolescence.  Every  working  pastor  knows  that  the  great 
majority  of  men  and  women  who  make  a  conscious  choice  of  Jesus 
Christ  do  it  between  the  ages  of  twelve  and  sixteen.  When  we  put 
that  beside  other  phases  of  physical  and  mental  change  at  the 
same  time,  the  thing  becomes  of  great  significance.  Yet  I  agree  to 
the  uttermost  with  what  Dr.  Hamill  has  said,  that  the  critical  period 
is  the  years  which  precede  the  age  of  adolescence,  where  we  have 
to  do  with  the  child  as  he  is  still  a  member  of  the  race  and  not  fully 
individualized.  That  is  the  time  when  authority  is  powerful.  That 
is  the  time  when  father  and  mother  and  teacher  can  speak  with 
power.  The  time  comes  when  the  child  becomes  an  individual,  when 
the  umbilical  cord  that  binds  the  child  to  the  race  is  broken,  as 
was  the  cord  which  bound  him  to  his  mother.  It  is  then  we  must 
make  the  implicit  choices  of  the  child  explicit.  So  I  think  we  may 
still  stand  on  the  old  theological  ground.  I  am  Augustinian  to 
my  very  heart,  yet  I  do  believe  with  Dr.  Pope  that  original  grace 
and  original  sin  meet  each  other  in  the  mystery  of  mercy  at  the 
gates  of  paradise.  No  man,  however  depraved,  can  be  considered 
apart  from  the  grace  of  God.  Wlio  are  we,  to  say  that  the  pro- 
foundest  grace  of  God  is  not  working  on  the  child  from  birth?  Why 
do  we  baptize  children?  I  think  that  one  reason  why  it  is  hard 
for  some  people  to  be  born  again  is  that  they  were  not  born  right 
the  first  time.  Right  generation  might  be  a  help  to  regeneration. 
Two  things  the  minister  must  work  at  continually:  the  redemption 
of  the  individual  and  the  lifting  of  the  race.  We  can  not  refuse 
the  new  knowledge,  but  we  can  refuse  to  be  dominated  by  it.  After 
all,  more  important  than  anything  else  is  spiritual  passion.  William 
Blake  said  that  "the  tigers  of  passion  are  stronger  than  the  horses 
of  instruction."  That  is  always  true.  Mothers  from  the  beginning 
of  the  world  have  acted  on  true  psychological  principles;  and  many 
a  teacher  who  goes  to  take  a  course  in  teacher-training  finds  that 
he  has  been  doing  the  thing  all  his  life. 


GENERAL  REIVIARKS.  495 

The  Iiev.  J.  "\V.  Jennings,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church : 

I  want  to  impress  the  great  need  of  emphasis  upon  training  up 
a  child  in  the  way  it  should  go,  but  not  driving  it  up  in  the  way 
it  should  go.  Lead  them  to  Sunday  school,  but  do  not  drive  them  to 
Sunday  school.  My  early  religious  training  I  owe  to  godly  religious 
teachers  and  pastors  in  the  Sunday  school.  I  can  not  say  like  some 
of  you  that  I  had  Christian  training  from  my  parents,  for  I  was  de- 
prived of  that  when  I  was  a  very  small  boy.  When  my  father  and 
mother  were  taken  from  me  the  Scripture  was  fulfilled — the  Lord 
took  me  up  through  the  mothers  and  fathers  and  brothers  and  sis- 
ters in  the  Sunday  school.  Thank  God  for  the  Sunday  school  as 
the  home  of  the  boy  and  girl.  I  want  to  give  you  this  thought  as 
a  matter  of  experience,  namely,  training  up  a  child  in  the  way  it 
should  go.  When  my  child  was  only  eight  years  of  age,  I  was 
assisting  in  conducting  a  special  meeting;  and  my  daughter  only 
eight  years  of  age,  sat  in  the  congregation.  While  we  were  inviting 
penitents  to  come  forward,  I  saw  my  daughter  looking  intently  at 
the  altar,  as  if  she  would  wish  to  be  there.  There  were  other  older 
children.  I  saw  my  daughter  looking  intently.  I  went  to  her  and 
said,  "Daughter,  do  you  want  to  come  up  and  kneel  there  with 
those  people  at  the  altar?"  "Yes,  father."  I  said,  "Do  you  know 
what  it  means?"  "It  means  that  I  love  Jesus."  No  one  can  give 
a  better  reason  than  that  for  coming.  From  that  time  she  dated 
her  religious  experience.  I  believe  a  child  is  born  a  member  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God;  but  I  believe  there  comes  a  time  when  it 
becomes  conscious  of  the  lack  of  spiritual  completeness,  and  if 
properly  trained  responds  to  the  rapping  of  the  Spirit  of  God  at  the 
door  of  the  heart  and  bids  Him  come  in  and  abide.  So  I  believe 
there  is  a  time  when  it  becomes  conscious  of  the  incoming  of  the 
Holy  Ghost;  and  we  are  to  train  them  up  so  that  they  may  properly 
receive  and  apprehend  Christ  as  an  indwelling  presence. 

The  Eev.  Wm.  F.  Hovis,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church : 

I  was  appointed  last  Monday  for  the  tenth  time  to  my  parish. 
I  have  been  there  long  enough  to  have  learned  a  little  history.  It 
is  fine  to  speak  of  theory  and  to  discuss  psychology.  I  want  to 
raise  a  practical  question.  I  am  not  a  pessimist.  I  am  not,  on 
the  other  hand,  an  optimist  of  the  kind  as  the  man  who  in  Chicago 
fell  off  a  fifteen  story  building  and  as  he  passed  the  fifth  story 
was  heard  to  say,  "All  is  well  yet."  I  do  not  believe  all  is  well. 
I  have  seen  the  city  in  which  I  live  grow  from  36,000  to  60,000.  I 
have  seen  my  Sunday  school  grow  from  an  average  attendance  of 
about  two  hundred  to  something  over  four  hundred.  I  call  to  mind 
the  fact  that  the  great  men  and  religion  movement  which  is  sweep- 
ing the  United  States  is  holding  a  special  session  in  my  city. 
They  are  emphasizing  the  fact  that  in  the  United  States  three 
million  fewer  men  than  women  go  to  Church.  Something  is  wrong. 
Not  long  since  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  of  my  city 
made  an  investigation  of  moving  picture  shows  on  a  Sunday  night. 
They  found  that  more  than  two  thousand  boys  and  girls  under  six- 
teen years  of  age  went  into  a  single  picture  show  on  a  single  Sun- 
day evening — more  than  the  Sunday  scholars  of  the  same  age  in 


406  HOME  RELIGION. 

all  the  Churches  of  our  city  on  the  same  day.  It  is  all  right  to 
talk  about  what  boys  and  girls  who  have  been  properly  trained  v/ill 
do  under  religious  influences.  But  what  are  we  going  to  do  in  the 
face  of  the  fact  that  the  great  multitude  of  boys  and  girls  are  not 
in  our  Sunday  schools?  They  are  on  the  streets  Sunday  nights. 
They  are  enticed  into  the  moving  picture  show.  I  would  like  to 
have  some  one  set  aside  the  discussion  of  psychology,  and  come 
down  to  hard  pan  and  tell  me  how  to  grapple  with  that  problem, 
and  interest  them  in  the  Sunday  school.  If  my  Sunday  school  had 
grown  as  it  ought  to  have  grown  in  the  past  nine  years  it  would 
be  three  times  as  large  as  it  is.  I  tried,  the  fifty-six  officers  and 
teachers  in  my  school  tried,  but  the  boys  and  girls  slipped  out. 
The  secret  of  the  whole  matter  lies  in  the  home,  I  think,  twice 
more  than  it  does  in  the  Church.  We  need  fathers  and  mothers 
who  will  re-establish  the  family  altar,  and  will  take  their  children- 
in  their  arms  and  will  hold  them  there,  and  not  come  to  pastors  and 
say,  "Bring  back  my  boy,  he  has  got  away  from  me."  We  ought 
to  empahsize  more  clearly  our  belief  that  our  home-life  in  the 
Methodist  Church  ought  to  be  of  a  better  type  and  finer  religious 
grade  that  it  seems  to  have  come  to  be. 

Sir  Egbert  "\V.  Perks,  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church: 

I  venture  to  speak  as  an  old  Sunday  school  teacher;  for  I  was 
thirty  years  active  in  Sunday  school  work.  I  want  to  set  aside  for 
the  moment  all  these  psychological  and  abstruse  metaphysical  ques- 
tions which  have  been  dealt  with  by  some  of  the  preceding  speakers. 
It  seems  to  me  that  three  of  the  most  effective  ways  of  handling 
scholars  in  the  school  are,  first,  to  know  them  in  their  homes;  sec- 
ondly, go  out  and  seek  them  in  the  streets;  and,  then,  when  you 
have  got  them  hold  on  to  them.  Many  years  ago  I  had  charge  of 
a  large  class  in  Highbury,  London,  of  something  like  sixty  men. 
Many  of  them  were  old  enough  to  be  my  grandfather.  One  Novem- 
ber Sunday  afternoon,  when  fog  was  enveloping  the  city  of  London, 
I  went  out  to  see  if  I  could  find  any  one  in  the  streets.  For  five 
years  I  spent  every  Saturday  afternoon  in  visiting  those  sixty  or 
seventy  men  in  their  homes.  We  used  to  put  a  placard  outside  our 
Church.  I  found  a  wretched  fellow  trying  to  make  out  what  was 
on  that  board.  I  said,  "Come  in."  He  said,  "Look  at  my  rags." 
I  said,  "Where  do  you  come  from?"  "I  have  walked  all  the  way 
from  Sheffield,  I  am  starving."  I  said,  "What  are  you?"  He  said, 
"A  mechanic,  and  my  business  is  to  piece  metal  together  so  that 
the  joints  can  not  be  discovered."  I  got  him  into  my  class  and 
rigged  him  out  with  clothes.  This  was  before  Christmas.  For  two 
weeks  after  Christmas  I  missed  him.  I  went  to  his  lodging  place. 
It  was  a  poor  one.  We  had  helped  him  to  a  situation,  and  he  had 
been  doing  well.  I  asked  the  landlady  where  he  was.  She  said, 
"On  boxing-night  some  one  gave  him  a  drink,  and  he  got  drunk. 
He  knocked  some  one  on  the  head.  He  is  in  such  and  such  jail 
in  London."  I  said,  "Can  you  hold  your  tongue."  She  said,  "Yes, 
I  can."  "Then  wrap  up  all  this  young  man's  things."  She  said, 
"That's  easy;  he  hasn't  got  much."  I  said,  "Don't  you  say  a  word 
about  where  he  is."  In  the  Bible  class  of  which  he  had  become  an 
interested  and  interesting  member  they  all  asked  where  he  was. 
I  said,  "He  has  removed  temporarily  to  another  part  of  London." 
That  answer  I  gave  for  three  months.  I  went  to  see  him  in  jail. 
Do  n't  lose  faith  in  your  scholars.    If  they  get  into  mischief  stand 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  497 

by  them.  There  are  friends  enough  when  you  are  all  right.  The 
time  you  want  one  is  when  you  get  down.  I  said,  "Do  n't  you  say 
a  word,  when  you  come  out,  about  where  you  have  been.  I  will 
have  a  situation  ready  for  you."  I  went  to  a  great  employer  of 
labor  and  said,  "I  want  a  situation  for  a  clever  mechanic."  The 
young  man  got  the  situation.  To-day  he  is  the  head  of  a  prosperous 
and  a  happy  home.  So  I  say  never  lose  faith  in  your  scholars. 
Stand  by  them  when  they  get  down.    Know  them  in  their  homes. 

The  Eev.  J.  W.  Makshall,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church : 

I  came  from  Yorkshire,  from  the  village  where  Sammy  Hicks 
was  born  and  was  buried.  I  wish  to  continue  what  Sir  Robert 
Peeks  has  been  saying,  only  perhaps  in  a  different  way.  I  wish 
to  give  a  brief  narrative.  I  used  to  be  in  the  Methodist  Sunday 
school  in  my  native  village.  We  had  a  good,  vigorous  Sunday 
school.  In  it  was  a  class  of  boys  about  twelve  years  old.  They 
were  lively,  and  they  made  it  lively  for  every  teacher.  The  sexton 
of  a  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  had  been  converted  in  a  Meth- 
odist revival.  He  was  soundly  converted.  He  came  to  the  super- 
intendent of  our  Sunday  school  and  asked  for  work.  The  superin- 
tendent said,  "I  have  nothing  for  you  except  a  hard  job."  "I  will 
take  it.  Where  is  the  job?"  "Over  there  in  the  corner."  He  came 
and  sat  down,  and,  of  course,  every  boy  supposed  he  would  begin 
with  the  lesson  or  the  catechism.  But  he  was  a  psychologist,  and 
he  did  not  know  it.  He  said,  "Boys,  I  want  to  tell  you  a  story." 
After  he  got  through  he  said,  "Now,  shall  I  tell  you  a  martial  or 
a  naval  story."  The  boys  said,  "Give  us  a  martial  story."  "There 
were  three  boys  in  the  class,  each  of  whom  had  the  name  of  James. 
The  teacher  loved  us,  prayed  for  us,  followed  us  day  by  day.  He 
won  our  hearts.  What  was  the  outcome?  Every  boy  in  that  class 
was  soundly  and  happily  converted.  One  of  the  Jameses  prepared 
to  become  a  medical  missionary,  and  went  out  under  your  mission- 
ary society  of  the  Wesleyan  Church  to  the  Fiji  Islands — James 
Newell.  Another  James,  James  Wilson,  went  up  to  Newfoundland, 
and  was  one  of  your  missionaries  there;  and  when  hard  work  was 
demanded  on  the  coast  of  Labrador,  he  went  there  and  preached 
the  gospel  to  the  fishermen,  and  through  them  very  largely  to  the 
world.  The  other  James  did  not  want  to  preach;  but  God  called 
him,  and  he  came  to  the  United  States  and  had  to  preach,  and  is 
before  you  now  in  the  person  of  the  speaker.  The  admonition  that 
I  want  to  give  is  this,  let  the  ministers  have  to  do  with  the  choice 
of  teachers  in  the  Sunday  school.  If  they  do  their  pastoral  work 
they  know  the  personality  of  the  people  in  their  congregations  and 
Churches,  and  they  know  who  can  teach. 

Mrs.  Katharine  Lent  Stevenson^  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church: 

If  there  is  one  subject  more  than  another  on  this  program  for 
the  discussion  of  which  a  woman  needs  no  apology,  it  is  the  subject 
of  the  child.  By  too  common  consent,  the  care  of  children  has 
been  very  largely  relegated  to  the  womanhood  of  the  Church  and 
nation.  I  want  to  speak  upon  the  child  not  from  the  standpoint  of 
psychology,  or  even  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Sunday  school,  but 
32 


498  HOME  RELIGION. 

from  the  standpoint  which,  embraces  both,  the  standpoint  of  en- 
vironment. 

•  It  seems  to  me  that  there  has  been  altogether  too  great  an 
ignoring  of  the  vital  importance  of  the  environment  of  the  claild — 
not  simply  the  home.  A  brother  a  few  moments  ago  said  that  the 
home  was  our  field.  But  my  concept  of  the  home  is  larger  than 
the  four  walls  of  any  individual  home.  It  takes  in  the  town  and 
State  and  nation;  and  all  the  forces  which  the  child  meets  are  to 
be  reckoned  with  in  the  development  of  the  child's  life.  I  am 
afraid  I  shall  differ  from  the  writer  of  that  very  able  and  inter- 
esting essay,  in  that  I  am  largely  a  believer  in  the  new  psychologJ^ 
It  seems  to  me  that  in  it  there  is  nothing  less  or  more  than  the 
return  to  the  teachings  of  our  Master.  When  an  adult  is  con- 
verted, he  is  to  become  as  a  little  child.  "What  in  the  name  of  all 
tha:t  stands  for  righteousness  and  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth 
is  to  prevent  us  from  taking  the  little  child  and  bringing  it  up  in 
the  knowledge  and  fear  of  God?  It  is  the  environment  of  the  child 
that  prevents  that  natural  reaching  out  for  God  from  coming  to  its 
full  development.  We  teach  our  children  to  be  honest,  and  then  we 
send  them  out  into  an  atmosphere  of  dishonesty.  We  teach  them 
purity  and  temperance  and  send  them  out  on  streets  where  the 
saloon  holds  sway  and  where  the  gambling  houses  have  sv/ay  and 
where  there  is  such  scope  for  the  passions  of  men.  There  has  been 
too  great  a  divorce  between  the  home  and  the  time.  One  of  our 
best  known  speakers  in  the  homeland  draws  an  inimitably  funny 
picture  of  the  fathers  in  a  town  drawn  up  in  a  line  on  the  street 
and,  as  the  children  open  the  doors,  saying,  "Go  back  into  your 
mother's  home;  get  off  your  father's  streets."  Our  boys  and  girls 
go  out  from  the  home  to  meet  these  temptations.  And  is  it  any 
wonder  that  with  all  the  efforts  of  the  home,  the  efforts  of  the 
purest  homes,  they  so  often  fall  victims  to  temptation?  We  need 
to  make  the  "child  in  the  midst"  the  symbol  of  all  our  civilization, 
and  to  see  that  it  is  in  the  midst  of  right  conditions,  in  the  midst 
of  things  that  make  for  holiness  and  righteousness.  There  is  a 
passage  in  Zechariah  that  you  are  all  familiar  with,  "The  streets 
of  the  city  shall  be  full  of  boys  and  girls  playing  in  the  streets 
thereof."  We  see  boys  and  girls  in  the  slums.  Zechariah  saw 
streets  so  safe  and  clean  and  protected  that  they  could  be  a  safe 
playground  for  the  boys  and  girls.  Another  text,  dearer  than  all 
others  to  the  heart  of  womanhood  is  this,  "All  thy  children  shall 
be  taught  of  the  Lord,  and  great  shall  be  the  peace  of  thy  children." 

The  Eev.  "Wm.  Bradfleld^  of  the  British  Wesle3ran  Methodist 
Church : 

I  confess,  Mr.  President,  that  I  am  passionately  anxious  that 
from  this  great  Conference  there  shall  go  out  a  word  of  encourage- 
ment to  the  great  army  of  Sunday  school  teachers  throughout  the 
world. 

There  are  three  things  we  ought  to  say  to  them,  and  the  first 
is,  that  children  of  all  ages  are  capable  of  the  religion  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  and  need  it.  We,  who  sing  in  praise  of  our  Master, 
must  declare  it  with  all  fervidness,  that  children  are  not  too  young 
to  become  the  children  of  God.  Secondly,  a  word  of  earnest  en- 
couragement in  child  study.  I  want  for  myself  to  thank  God  for 
psychology  and  express  the  great  indebtedness  we  have  to  the 
American  psychology.  I  want  to  thank  you,  for  I  am  sure  we  must 
encourage  our  teachers  to  begin  to  study  it.    Sir,  if  somebody  did 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  499 

not  go  deeply  into  the  science  of_ electricity,  the  cars  of  this  city 
would  not  be  now  driven  by  the  power  of  Niagara,  and  somebody 
must  study  psycliology  if  we  would  make  the  advance  we  need  to 
make.  Let  him  go  and  read  John  Wesley's  rules  about  the  Kings- 
wood  school,  and  he  will  realize  the  advance  that  we  have  been 
making  on  this  subject. 

And,  sir,  a  word  of  encouragement  to  use  the  Bible  stories  which 
contain  possibly  what  is  really  the  vasest  book  of  the  world  to  give 
us  child-culture.  Give  children  the  contents  of  the  book,  that  it  may 
become  their  book,  which  will  make  them  wise  unto  salvation.  It  is 
sorrowful  that  so  many  children  of  Anglo-Saxondom  do  not  know  the 
stories  of  the  Bible.  We  must  put  them  in  the  Sunday  school,  and 
we  should  have  a  testimony  of  this  assembly  that  would  win  the 
teachers  to  study  the  Bible,  and  thank  God  for  the  light.  We  be- 
lieve in  the  religion  of  children,  and  we  believe  with  all  our  hearts 
that  the  Bible  is  the  wisest  book  in  the  world  to  make  them  wise. 

The   Rev.    S.    S.    Hexsiiaw^   of   tlie    Primitive   Methodist 
Church : 

I  have  been  wishing  for  the  last  hour  that  I  was  twelve  inches 
taller  than  I  am.  I  want  to  say  that  I  believe  that  if  we  are  to 
effectually  educate  and  train  the  child  we  must  understand  the 
child.  I  believe  that  a  profound  ignorance  of  child-nature  has  been 
a  principal  source  of  tremendous  blunders.  I  am  not  sure  that  I 
followed  Dr.  Hamill.  If  I  did,  then  I  do  not  agree  with  him.  One 
of  the  best  definitions  of  the  child  I  ever  heard  came  from  a  Scots- 
man in  South  Wales.  He  told  us  that  a  little  stranger  came  to  a 
friend  of  his,  and  the  man  was  naturally  very  fussy,  and  when  he 
came  to  describe  the  merits  of  his  little  stranger  to  the  neighbors, 
he  said,  "Ah,  mon,  he  is  a  pocket  edition  of  humanity." 

You  can  exercise  too  much  discipline  over  a  child.  Oh,  the 
management  my  father  put  into  me!  He  was  always  managing 
me,  morning,  noon,  and  night;  and  as  I  look  back  I  am  rather  sus- 
picious that  I  began  to  manage  him.  I  have  a  great  deal  of  sym- 
pathy with  bad  boys,  for  some  people  thought  that  I  was  a  bad  boy; 
but  I  am  sure  I  was  not.  I  do  n't  mean  to  say  I  was  a  saiiat,  but 
I  was  not  a  bad  boy.  The  rogue  is  not  necessarily  wicked.  The 
bright  little  fellow  with  that  strange,  merry  twinkle  in  his  eye, 
and  with  a  laugh  about  his  lips,  who  teases  his  brothers  and  sis- 
ters to  death,  and  is  constantly  embroiling  the  house,  right  at 
the  core  of  him  may  be  as  good  a  Christian  as  many  of  his  grand- 
motherly critics. 

Now,  I  would  like  to  say  a  word  as  to  the  mission  of  the  Sunday 
school.  We  take  it  for  granted  that  it  is  to  make  children  and 
young  people  Christians.  After  that  I  want  to  hold  that  it  is  our 
duty  to  lay  emphasis  upon  the  churchmanship  of  our  children;  and 
if  we  expect  them  to  grow  up  to  be  Methodist  men  and  women  we 
should  tell  them  what  Methodism  is.  I  would  lay  some  em- 
phasis upon  numbers,  but  numbers  are  not  everything,  but  are  a 
great  deal  and  capture  the  imagination  of  adults.  I  sat  once  with 
a  gentleman  who  was  an  Anglican,  a  very  good  man,  built  on  narrow 
lines  and  extremely  bigoted.  How  I  longed  for  an  opportunity  to 
get  at  him!  I  got  a  chance  one  day,  and  told  him  there  were  sixty 
millions  of  Free  Churchmen  in  the  world.  He  opened  his  eyes  as 
wide  as  the  day,  and  I  was  sorry  I  could  not  say  six  hundred  mil- 
lions, but  I  tried  to  stretch  those  sixty  millions  out  as  though  they 
were  six  hundred. 


500  HOME  RELIGION. 

Then  we  must  impresf?  the  children  with  the  great  names  of  the 
Free  Church.  I  v/ould  tell  them  of  Richard  Baxter  of  the  Saints' 
Rest,  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  of  John  Wesley,  and  of  the  men  who 
made  these  great  Christian  Church  bodies.  I  think  the  mission 
of  the  Sunday  school  should  be  in  part  to  make  these  children  not 
only  good  Christians,  but  good  Methodists  and  good  citizens. 

The  Eev.  Edwix  M.  Randall,  D.  D.,  of  tiie  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church: 

I  apprehend,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  the  problem  of  saving  our  chil- 
dren as  a  whole  is  the  problem  of  saving  the  individual  child.  I 
believe  that  God  so  constituted  child-nature  that,  as  it  comes  from 
His  hand,  under  the  right  treatment  scarcely  one  ever  need  fail  to 
be  reared  to  Christian  manhood  or  womanhood.  But  at  the  same 
time,  while  I  believe  in  organizations,  I  believe  that  this  child- 
nature  is  so  delicate  that  it  can  not  be  treated  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  be  put  into  any  kind  of  machinery,  whether  constructed  by 
John  Wesley  or  by  modern  psychologists  and  run  through  any  me- 
chanical process  and  brought  out  any  such  product  as  we  desire. 
Every  life  that  is  reared  as  it  should  be  must  be  molded  by  the  right 
kind  of  personal  contact  and  be  the  result  of  the  molding  influences 
of  sanctified  manhood  and  womanhood. 

And  that  consideration  leads  me  to  believe  that  we  do  not  give 
as  much  thought  as  we  ought  to  the  way  of  dealing  with  the  child. 
It  requires  not  only  perfect  marble,  but  a  masterly  artist,  to  produce 
beautiful  statuary,  and  we  need  to  give  attention  to  the  manner  in 
which  we  work  upon  these  children. 

There  are  four  fundamentals  in  which  we  do  not  reach  up  to 
our  opportunity.  First,  in  ijarental  influence;  second,  in  the  sym- 
pathetic attitude  of  Christian  people  as  a  whole;  third,  in  recog- 
nizing the  Christianity  of  childhood;  discriminating  properly  be- 
tween that  and  what  we  ought  to  expect  of  adults,  giving  the  child 
credit  for  all  that  God  has  done  In  his  heart;  fourth,  the  way  in 
which  false  standards  of  criticism  are  applied  to  young  people  and 
children,  violating  their  moral  sense  and  driving  them  from  us.  One 
afternoon  a  junior  superintendent  in  charge  of  a  Junior  League 
asked  the  boys  and  girls  why  they  supposed  it  was  they  were  gath- 
ered on  Sunday  afternoon  and  so  much  done  to  instruct  and  enter- 
tain them.  One  of  the  girls  piped  up  and  gave  probably  a  true  an- 
swer. She  said,  "So  that  our  parents  may  have  a  quiet  hour  at  home 
on  Sunday  afternoon."  Those  little  folks  know  when  it  is  a  relief 
to  have  them  out  of  the  way.  Their  little  hearts  starve  for  the  love 
they  do  not  receive,  and,  yearning  in  vain  for  affection  and  sym- 
pathy at  home,  they  find  it  outside  of  the  home,  and  bye  and  bye 
they  go  outside  of  the  home  to  find  confidants  and  friends.  Later, 
as  they  approach  maturity,  perhaps  we  would  give  our  lives  to  have 
them  take  a  place  in  our  hearts,  but  they  will  not.  When  they 
wanted  to  live  in  our  hearts,  long  ago,  we  would  not  be  troubled; 
now  they  have  ceased  to  care,  and  our  influence  over  them  is  gone. 
That  is  the  reason  why  very  many  young  men  and  women  in  Chris- 
tian homes  go  wrong. 

Mr.  Thomas  Pratt,  of  the  "Wesleyan  Methodist  Church : 

I  have  sat  through  each  session  of  this  Conference  without  say- 
ing a  word — not  that  I  have  not  had  a  word  to  say  on  some  subjects, 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  501 

but  I  have  felt  that  many  gentlemen  and  ladies  who  spoke  knew 
more  than  I  did.  But  about  this  subject  this  afternoon  I  have  good 
reason  to  think  that  I  ought  to  know  as  much  as  most  people,  for 
I  have  ten  children.  Nine  of  them  are  sons.  I  am  quite  sure  that 
the  first  thing,  if  we  want  to  train  our  children  aright,  is  to  have 
the  family  altar.  There  must  be  the  daily  reading  of  God's  "Word, 
and  the  pleading  to  God  on  behalf  of  the  children  and  others.  That 
is  essential.  Then,  another  thing  that  I  am  quite  sure  is  necessary 
is  that  the  first  knowledge  that  the  child  gets  of  Scripture  must  be 
the  knowledge  imparted  by  the  father  or  mother.  I  know  that  great 
stress  is  laid  on  the  necessity  of  going  to  the  Sabbath  school;  but 
I  am  quite  sure  that  the  first  duty  of  the  parent  is  to  teach  the 
child  the  Scriptures.  And  I  believe  that  if  the  parent  did  so,  our 
children  would  go  into  the  Sunday  school  with  much  less  chance  of 
going  wrong.  There  is  another  thing  that  I  may  speak  about, 
although  I  am  a  layman.  I  believe  it  is  the  duty  of  the  pastor  of 
the  Church  to  look  after  the  children  of  the  members  of  the  Church. 
I  know  that  in  many  parts  of  England  that  duty  has  ceased  to  be 
done.  If  the  pastor,  when  he  visits  the  home,  will  speak  to  the 
child  of  its  duty  towards  God,  in  joining  the  Church,  we  shall  have 
very  little  reason  to  mourn  about  the  decrease  of  our  numbers  in 
Methodism. 

Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South: 

If  we  are  to  save  the  children,  there  are  four  things  that  we 
must  do.  The  first  is,  to  begin  early.  You  can  not  begin  too  early. 
No  matter  how  soon  you  begin,  you  will  find  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
has  been  there  before  you.  I  thank  God  that  I  can't  remember  when 
I  first  learned  to  pray;  but  I  can  remember  that  when  I  was  forty 
years  of  age — my  father  having  died  and  my  mother  having  come 
to  live  under  my  roof — as  bedtime  came,  a  flood  of  feeling  swept 
over  my  spirit,  and  I  got  down  on  my  knees  and  said  to  her, 
"Mother,  I  want  you  to  put  your  hand  on  my  head  and  let  me  say, 
'Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep.'  "  The  sweet  simplicity  of  our  earliest 
life  lingers  with  us  to  the  end  of  our  days. 

Secondly,  you  must  teach  by  example  as  well  as  by  precept.  If 
you  would  train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go,  go  that  way 
yourself. 

Thirdly,  do  n't  expect  the  manifestations  of  adult  piety  in  a  little 
child.  A  child's  religion  is  love  of  God  and  obedience  to  parents. 
Those  are  the  essential  ideas. 

The  fourth  thing  is,  depend  on  the  Holy  Spirit;  for  we  do  not 
by  the  use  of  means  undertake  to  dispense  with  the  influence  of  the 
Spirit,  but  simply  to  help  the  Spirit,  in  our  feeble  way,  to  do  His 
work. 

I  wish  to  protest  against  the  cowardly  abdication  on  the  part 
of  most  Christian  fathers  of  all  duties  of  religious  training  into  the 
hands  of  the  mothers.  During  the  first  six  or  eight  years  of  a  boy's 
life  he  needs  his  mother  more  than  anything  else  in  the  world.  But 
when  he  is  about  eight  or  ten  years  of  age  he  needs  a  masculine 
element  in  his  discipline.  I  know  this  is  the  age  of  women.  I  am 
not  at  all  disposed  to  quarrel  with  it.  Nevertheless  the  men  are  still 
of  some  account  in  the  world.  An  old  friend  of  mine,  who  was  criti- 
cising her  husband  very  severely  for  his  general  uselessness,  said, 
"After  all,  men  are  quite  handy  to  have  about  the  house." 


502  HOME  RELIGION. 

The  Eev.  Frank  Mason  North,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church: 

It  would  be  very  natural  and  very  pleasing  to  me  to  give  some 
history  of  my  own  beautiful  home,  and  to  tell  what  I  think  I  knew 
about  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  time  I  was  eight  years 
old.  But  in  the  city  where  I  am  working  we  are  dealing  with 
an  immense  and  varied  population  where  the  relation  of  that 
experience  and  the  incidents  of  that  life  would  mean  practically 
nothing  to  the  people  to  whom  I  would  relate  the  story.  I  face 
every  now  and  again  in  the  great  heart  of  our  city  hundreds  of 
men,  and  tens  of  thousands  of  men,  who  are  the  flotsam  and  jetsam 
of  your  civilization  in  Scotland  and  England  and  Canada  and  the 
United  States.  They  are  your  Anglo-Saxons,  of  whom  you  have  been 
speaking.  They  come  into  that  great  hall,  in  the  lower  part  of  New 
York,  after  the  experience  of  misfortune,  with  broken  hearts  and 
broken  bodies  and  broken  ambitions,  and  we  try  to  tell  them  again 
the  story  of  the  cross.  I  wish  to  say  this,  for  the  help  of  the  Sunday 
school  to-day,  that  those  whom  we  can  reach  are  for  the  most  part 
those  who  have  been  trained  in  the  home  and  the  Sunday  school. 
They  know  the  story  of  the  cross.  They  can  sing  in  the  phrases  of 
Methodism.  "Whether  it  be  a  Scotchman,  or  the  cockney  from  Lon- 
don, or  a  man  from  this  place  or  some  other  place,  they  have  had 
the  training,  and  they  know  the  thought  and  structure  of  our  re- 
ligious life,  and  they  can  be  led  and  held.  But  men  who  have  never 
had  a  home  or  Sunday  school  training  are  the  hardest  men  to  grip. 
So  I  say,  put  your  Sunday  school  teaching  and  home  teaching  into 
the  children.     And  perhaps  they  will  be  brought  in  at  last. 

We  are  dealing  also  with  a  great  Latin  population.  We  have 
600,000  Italians  in  New  York  City,  and  we  have  a  million  Jews. 
Tell  me  how  I  am  to  take  my  Sunday  school  and  Christian  home 
into  the  abodes  of  these  people.  That  is  the  question  for  us.  A 
home?  Yes.  The  training  of  the  home?  By  all  means.  But  how 
get  the  training  of  the  home  when  four  families  keep  house  in  one 
room?  These  Italian  children  and  Jewish  children  are  bright.  They 
are  as  keen  as  your  Anglo-Saxon  ever  was.  They  are  the  leaders 
in  our  public  schools.  They  take  the  prizes  in  our  education.  They 
are  the  boys  and  girls  whom  we  are  not  reaching.  How  shall  we 
reach  them? 

The  Ttev.  John  W.  Hancher,  S.  T.  D.,    of  the  Methodist 

Ej)iscopal  Church: 

On  September  10th  Archbishop  Quigley  is  reported  in  the  Chicago 
Tribune  and  the  Chicago  Record-Herald  to  have  said  substantially 
this:  "If  the  time  ever  comes  in  this  country,  as  it  came  in  France 
and  Portugal — and  the  time  is  sure  to  come — when  the  Church  and 
the  government  are  at  variance,  as  they  were  in  those  countries,  you 
will  find  the  orders  of  the  Church  ready  and  equipped  for  that  cru- 
cial period,  and  they  will  obey  the  instructions  of  the  hierarchy  to 
the  letter."  That  is  substantially  as  it  was  quoted  in  the  Chicago 
Record-Herald.  There  is  a  ring  of  confidence  in  it  that  means  much 
to  me  and  from  which  I  would  learn  a  lesson.  Why  is  he  so  sure? 
Because  the  Church  knows  how  to  keep  the  children  that  it  has.  I 
can  not  answer  the  question  of  Dr.  North,  how  we  shall  get  the 
children  from  these  congested  tenement  buildings  and  those  conges- 
ted districts;  but  I  have  reason  to  tell  you  how  one  pastor,  whom  I 
knew  very  well,  held  those  that  he  had.     At  his  teachers'  meeting. 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  503 

which  followed  the  prayer-meeting  on  Wednesday  night  once  a 
quarter,  he  addressed  to  each  teacher  this  series  of  questions:  "How 
many  members  are  in  your  class  now?  How  many  of  them  are 
openly  Christians?  How  many  who  are  not  openly  Christians  do  you 
believe  to  be  Christians  in  fact?  How  many  do  you  believe  to  be 
interested  in  his  or  her  salvation?  A  week  from  next  Wednesday 
night  I  want  you  to  tell  me  if  j'ou  have  seen  each  member  of  the 
class  during  the  week  and  have  talked  to  each  member  of  the  class 
according  to  his  need — to  the  non-Christians  about  a  personal  sur- 
render to  God."  The  next  Sunday  night  he  asked  them,  and  they 
answered;  and  then  thej'  had  a  prayer-meeting.  On  Sunday  morn- 
ing the  older  of  the  scholars  were  in  the  Sunday  school.  The  lesson 
was  shortened,  by  understanding.  By  and  by  the  pastor  began  to 
make  an  evangelistic  appeal  for  intenser  religious  experience  on 
the  part  of  those  who  were  Christians  and  for  the  present  surrender 
of  those  who  were  cold  or  in  doubt,  and  for  the  public  avowal  of 
those  who  had  not  professed  Jesus  Christ,  and  for  the  surrender 
of  all  of  them  to  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ.  "\^Tien  he  was  reach- 
ing the  climax  of  the  appeal,  a  table  was  brought  in  and  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  Lord's  Supper  was  administered  as  a  medium  of  re- 
sponding and  of  confession  and  joining  the  Church.  And  that  pas- 
tor saw  marvelous  results  in  housing  and  keeping  the  people  in  the 
Church  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Mr.  F.  A.  Arter,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church : 

I  do  n't  know  much  about  psychology.  I  do  know  something 
about  children  in  the  Sunday  schools.  I  have  been  with  them  all 
my  life.  As  a  superintendent  for  forty-five  years,  I  want  just  to 
speak  a  little  of  some  of  my  experiences.  I  want  to  say  for  the 
teachers  that  I  think  that  there  is  no  class  who  sacrifice  so  much, 
and  yet  seemingly  are  so  unappreciated,  as  the  teachers  in  the  Sun- 
day school.  But  let  them  not  lose  faith  and  courage.  It  is  like  sow- 
ing seed  beside  all  waters,  of  which  you  will  reap  the  harvest  by  and 
by.  I  used  to  teach  in  the  slums.  Saturday  night  a  carriage-maker's 
shop  was  swept  out,  boards  were  laid  around  for  seats,  and  we 
had  a  Sunday  school.  I  had  a  class  of  boys;  and  they  were  boys, 
just  as  full  of  mischief  as  any  boys  I  ever  saw.  I  used  to  get  down 
on  my  knees  and  pray,  and  I  was  accustomed  to  close  my  eyes. 
There  were  seven  boys  when  I  knelt  down;  and  often  when  I  got  up 
there  would  not  be  one.  They  had  jumped  out  of  the  window.  The 
next  Sunday,  instead  of  closing  my  eyes,  I  kept  them  open,  and  as 
the  first  boy  started  to  go  I  grabbed  him.  A  few  years  later  I  was 
going  through  a  market  in  a  distant  city  when  a  young  man  came 
up  and  took  me  by  the  hand.  Said  I,  "Who  are  you?"  "Don't  you 
know  me?  Don't  you  recall  the  boy  that  used  to  jump  out  of  the 
window?  I  am  that  boy.  I  am  keeping  a  meat-market."  He  told 
me  the  history  of  his  life.  He  said:  "My  mother  went  to  Pittsburgh 
and  gave  me  a  few  cents  to  buy  peanuts.  I  bought  them  and  sold 
them,  and  got  enough  to  start  a  fruit-stand,  and  then  to  start  a 
meat  market.  Now  my  mother  does  n't  have  to  do  any  more  wash- 
ing. And  I  want  to  thank  you  for  the  kindly  training  you  gave 
us  boys." 

On  motion  of  Dr.  Carroll,  it  was  voted  to  adjourn  after 
notices  sliould  have  been  given. 

The  session  closed  at  4.30  P.  M.,  with  tlie  l)onediction  pro- 
nounced by  the  Rev.  Dr.  II.  A.  Buttz. 


504  NEEDS  OF  YOUNG  PEOPLE. 


THIED  SESSION. 

The  Eev,  F.  L.  Wisemax^  B.  A.,  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church,  was  President  of  the  evening  session. 

The  devotional  service  was  in  charge  of  the  Eev.  J.  H. 
Goodman^  who  announced  Hymn  Xo.  23, 

"Young  men  and  maidens  raise," 

The  Scripture  selections  were  Matt.  19:16-22  and  1  Tim.  4: 
12-16. 

Mr.  Goodman  offered  prayer. 

In  the  absence  of  Bishop  J.  P.  Berei%  D.  D.,  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  his  colleague.  Bishop  W.  A.  Quayle^ 
D.  D.,  spoke  on  the  subject,  "Condition  and  Xeeds  of  Young 
People's  Societies :" 

The  caring  for  the  future  is  the  wisdom  of  the  world.  We  are 
not  the  people  of  a  day,  but  the  people  of  the  seons.  We  are  the 
debtors  to  all  the  to-morrows  and  are  the  makers  of  all  the  to- 
morrows. We  may  island  us  in  the  Now,  but,  as  Christians,  we  dare 
not.  We  are  not  transitory,  but  enduring.  We  are  in  migration, 
like  the  autumn  birds  which  disappear  from  one  clime  but  to 
appear  in  another  clime.  We  are  migrants  to  the  summer  land, 
the  holy  summer  land  of  God.  And  whenever  the  Church  has 
forgotten  or  in  agnosticism  has  not  understood  the  eternal  years, 
it  has  been  defeated  and  has  suffered  dismay.  The  narrow  view 
is  bound  to  be  the  wrong  view.  God's  outlook  is  on  the  eternities, 
and  such  as  fellowship  with  Him  and  name  Him  Father  in  earth 
and  heaven  must  have  their  Father's  vision.  They  must  climb 
some  exceeding  high  mountain  apart,  where,  as  Jesus  at  His 
mountain  of  prayer,  by  day  or  night  they  may  have  a  vision  of  the 
infinite;  for  have  v/e  not  heard  from  Him  of  the  golden  lips 
how  "the  things  which  are  seen  are  temporal,  but  the  things 
which  are  not  seen  are  eternal?"  Christians  must  look  at  their 
native  landscapes.  A  poet  has  sung  sublimely  of  the  "eternal 
years  of  God."  Let  us  consider  that  these  likewise  are  our  years. 
If  eternity  be  the  lifetime  of  God,  the  eternity  to  come  is  the  life- 
time of  man.  We  be  the  children  of  the  eternities.  The  breath 
of  all  time  is  in  our  nostrils.     We  are  fleet  of  foot  and  far  going. 

The  blunder  of  the  apostolic  Church  was,  it  did  not  take  long 
futures  into  account.  They  thought  God  would  wind  up  the  world's 
affairs  in  a  day  or  two,  and  so  they  instituted  a  commune.  God 
did  not.     God  is  not  communist;    God  is  individualist.     They  had 


Essay  of  bishop  w.  a.  quayle.  505 

best  have  taken  advice  from  God;  but  they  were  a  trifle  heady 
and  more  than  a  trifle  mistaken,  and  so  they  sold  their  goods  and 
made  common  property,  and  the  result  was  that  the  apostle  Paul 
was  constantly  taking  up  collections  for  the  "poor  saints  at  Jeru- 
salem." Their  folly  of  misapprehension  made  the  passing  of  the 
hat  for  their  relief  a  brotherly  necessity.  They  did  not  know 
that  God  had  plenty  of  time  and  would  use  all  the  time  He  needed. 
"They  who  believe,"  we  are  told,  "need  not  make  haste."  Much 
more  shall  He  in  whom  is  our  belief  go  on  His  hasteless  waJ^ 
The  vast  saying  is,  "In  the  fullness  of  time,"  which  seems  to 
fence  in  the  leisureliness  of  God,  a  thing  we  mortals  shall  never 
understand.  We  are  all  for  haste,  and  grow  sweaty  and  nervous 
though  we  make  no  great  speed.  God  has  the  long  time,  the  whole 
time.  Wise  men  must  take  into  account  all  to-morrows.  We  live 
at  to-day,  but  not  in  to-day.  And  no  man  can  lay  claim  to  any 
statesmanship  who  does  not  deal  lavishly  in  to-morrows.  Some 
things  can  not  come  to  pass  to-day,  and  therefore  God  supplies 
many  sunny  to-morrows.  YOUTH  IS  THE  TO-MORROW  OF  THE 
WORLD. 

The  Church  is  a  statesman.  As  its  Lord,  it  ever  has  the  forward 
look.  It  has  immortal  sunrise  on  its  day.  To-morrow!  We  need, 
not  little  lengths  of  landscape,  but  the  whole  length  of  landscape. 
You  can  break  your  heart  any  sunny  morning  of  any  day  by 
looking  steadfastly  at  gravej-ards;  but  you  are  to  renew  your 
courage  by  looking  at  the  sky  or  at  a  lowly  flower  or  the  face 
of  a  little  child  or  on  the  sunrise  face  of  youth  in  man  or  maid. 
Graveyards  do  not  constitute  the  totality  of  our  human  landscape. 
You  can  become  pessimist  in  a  half-hour  and  wail  like  a  dervish 
at  the  gate  if  you  limit  your  look  to  the  shame  and  shamelessness 
of  women  and  of  men.  But  sweep  the  landscape  with  your  eyes. 
Fasten  your  look  on  all  the  territory  of  the  human  heart.  See 
its  continued  sun-up  and  its  lesser  rise  of  stars  and  feel  the  rapture 
of  the  cleansing  of  the  world,  washed  by  the  blood  of  God;  and 
your  world  shall  break  into  irrepressible  laughter.  We  must 
look  across  the  years.  We  must  have  our  festival,  not  with  "The 
days  that  are  no  more"  of  which  the  Laureate  weeps,  but  with 
the  days  which  have  never  been  but  which  shall  very  surely  be. 
"Lift  up  thine  eyes  unto  the  hills"  said  one  long  since,  and  it 
was  weary  eyes  he  lifted;  but  they  saw  the  hills.  Lift  up  thine 
eyes  and  see  the  future  that,  too,  the  Poet  would  sing  out  with 
voice  of  lute  and  psaltery  and  mad  harp  to  help  his  singing  on. 
The  youth  are  in  to-morrow;  and  then  the  youth  are  to-morrow. 
All  hail  this  radiant  To-morrow! 

I  would  have  the  Church  stand  still  and  take  a  little  time  off 
and  look  steadfastly  in  the  face  of  youth.  It  will  be  better  than 
looking  in  the  eyes  of  a  hundred  risings  of  the  sun. 


506  NEEDS  OF  YOUNG  PEOPLE. 

"Young  People's  Societies,"  what  a  fine  phrase  that  is  to  LOSE 
the  youth  in.  The  word  "society"  is  much  like  the  word  "soci- 
ology." You  can  not  get  warmed  at  so  cold  a  grate.  A  young 
people's  society  is  nothing  other  than  young  people  in  a  crowd, 
laughing,  singing,  having  fun,  being  human,  taking  hazard,  making 
the  attempt  to  scale  the  Alp  of  life.  Let  us  not  lose  the  young 
people  in  the  word  "society."  Stick  to  young  people.  The  ques- 
tion of  young  people's  societies  is  a  vital  question  of  age  and  sex. 
Both  age  and  sex.  A  mixed  society  where  the  shuttles  God  throws 
are  weaving  to  and  fro.  Simply  a  question  of  youth.  We  do  well 
to  hold  close  to  the  human  life  of  it.  Let  us  not  be  diverted  from 
the  hot-breathed  throng  of  life,  the  aching  heart,  the  singing  heart, 
the  aspiring  heart,  the  loving  heart,  the  hating  heart,  the  untried 
heart,  the  youth-heart,  but  for  evermore  the  heart.  A  Church 
society  for  young  people  is  a  sane  attempt  on  the  part  of  the 
largest  agency  in  this  earth  to  take  care  for  Christ's  sake  of  the 
mightiest  force  in  this  earth.  The  Church  attempting  to  take 
judicious  care  of  the  youth,  we  have  no  weightier  business  in 
this  world.  The  whirlpool  is  at  the  foot  and  the  menace  is  very 
sure,  and  the  Church  KNOWS  about  it  and  cares  about  it.  That 
is  a  young  people's  society.  Society  is  folks  together,  and 
young  people's  societies  are  young  folks  together  for  the  sake  of 
the  Lord  of  life  and  glory.  But  always  just  YOUTH,  eager  youth, 
amazing  youth.  God's  youth.  It  is  so  surely  easy  to  dehumanize 
a  discussion  as  a  physician  dehumanizes  a  person  and  sees  in  him 
only  a  patient.  We  do  well  to  be  turbulently  impatient  with  any 
squint  of  mood  like  this.  And  the  squint  will  come  unless  we 
keep  very  close  to  the  living  and  loving  youth,  your  boy  and  girl 
and  mine,  and  feel  the  wonder  of  them  and  the  weariness  and 
the  tears  we  do  not  see  them  shed.  God  keep  the  Church  beauti- 
fully tender  with  its  youth! 

The  conditions  of  youth?  The  conditions  of  young  people's 
societies?  What  are  they?  Just  the  conditions  of  the  hearts  that 
are  young  since  God  made  a  young  person.  Youth  is  dreamful, 
full  of  wild  surmise,  hectic  sometimes,  very  lurid  often,  always  at 
dream,  always  challenging  to-morrow.  They  shall  not  all  see  any 
to-morrow;  and  many  of  them  shall  see  such  a  faded  to-morrow 
that  they  will  not  recognize  it  when  it  comes.  My  heart  breaks 
gazing  on  that  aspect  of  youth's  dreams.  But  he  will  dream* — 
and  dream.  And  youth  will  hope.  He  carries  rainbows  in  his 
pocket  and  plants  one  over  his  head  on  any  day,  whether  there 
be  sun  or  not.  What  matters  sunlight  if  you  be  proprietor  of  a 
hundred  thousand  rainbows?  And  youth  is  unafraid.  Frank  fear- 
lessness fills  his  soul  brim  full.  What  should  make  a  body  afraid? 
"If  a  body  meet  a  body  coming  through  the  rye,  should  a  body 
get  scared;  and  if  a  body  kiss  a  body,  should  a  body  cry?"    And 


ESSAY  OF  BISHOP  W.  A.  QUAYLE.  507 

there  is  a  multitude  of  good  reasons  why  she  should  not.  So  let 
the  matter  rest  there.  Unafraid,  undismayed,  with  tlie  song  on  the 
lips  when  bullets  sing  at  the  side  of  the  heart  and  chip  a  sliver 
from  the  cheek.  Youth  and  the  untried  hand.  The  hand  fitted 
for  something,  but  for  what?  Aye,  there's  the  rub.  The  hand 
feeling  for  its  task.  That  makes  a  strong  man  stagger  as  if  he 
saw  a  terror  of  the  dark  invade  the  day.  Youth  not  a  man's 
length  from  hell.  That  is  terrific,  but  that  is  how  it  is.  A 
stumble,  a  slip,  and  there  the  youth,  man  or  woman, 
sprawls  on  the  shameful  floor  of  hell!  Small  wonder  that  the 
Church  wants  to  be  close  to  youth  when  youth  is  circumstanced 
like  this.  It  must  stay  by,  not  as  a  critic,  but  as  a  lover;  stand 
CLOSE,  not  as  an  observer,  but  as  a  father  and  a  mother  stand 
close  to  their  best  beloved.  This  I  take  it  to  be  the  condition  of 
young  people  which  whittles  out  in  a  minute  the  condition  of 
j'oung  people's  societies.  These  young  people  together,  under  the 
kindly  and  genial  auspices  of  the  Church,  constitute  as  I  believe 
and  interpret  "The  Conditions"  named  in  the  text  of  the  theme 
of  this  talk.  There  they  stand — 'and  here  we  stand.  What  of 
them,  and  what  of  us?  This  is  an  intensely  personal  matter, 
this  young  people  matter,  for  they  are  this  world's  to-morrow  and 
they  are  the  CHURCH'S  TO-MORROW.  Let  the  Church  beware 
how  it  trifles  with  its  own  to-morrow. 

The  Church  needs  the  youth.  A  youthless  Church  is  a  moribund 
Church.  It  will  never  invade  to-morrow.  If  we  worked  for  our 
own  youth  as  we  work  for  the  slums,  so-called,  we  would  have 
vastly  manlier  returns  for  our  labor;  and  withal  our  own  children 
are  worth  saving,  even  though  they  be  not  in  the  realm  of  the 
neighborhood  house  which  is  so  dear  to  many  a  Church  reformer. 
All  life  for  God — slum  life,  rich  life,  poor  life,  anybody's  life, 
everybody's  life,  but  our  own  heart-folks'  life  in  the  list  of  heavenly 
possessions.  Hold  to  that.  Church  of  the  Christ.  We  need  the 
youth.  They  are  ours.  Christ  has  seen  to  that.  They  belong 
not  to  the  devil,  but  to  God.  Hold  them  fast.  Hold  them  with 
the  ungloved  hand.  Hold  them  with  the  gentle  grasp.  Hold  them 
with  the  word  of  laughter  and  of  heavenly  cheer.  But  HOLD  them. 
We  need  them  in  our  business.  We  must  bankrupt  the  devil.  He 
must  be  put  out  of  business.  He  must  not  fatten  by  our  daughters 
and  our  sons.  The  Church  has  need  of  the  youth.  Let  not  the 
Church  forget  that. 

Then,  the  youth  need  the  Church.  They  need  its  ministry 
for  their  brains.  Theology  is  great  brain  stuff.  They  need  its 
medicine  for  the  hurts  they  are  bound  to  wear  in  their  hearts  and 
possessions  and  longings  and  disappointments.  They  need  the 
Church  to  give  them  the  tune  for  high  and  unselfish  endeavor  and 
to  lead  them  to  the  Savior  of  the  world.     Thev  need  the  Church. 


508  NEEDS  OF  YOUNG  PEOPLE. 

It  is  such  a  hiding  in  the  tempest,  such  a  guidance  on  the  road, 
such  a  music  in  the  soul  silences  which  crush  like  the  tramp  of 
armed  men.  Youth,  thou  needest  the  Cliurch  more  than  thou 
needest  aught  save  God  and  a  mother  and  a  father. 

And  youth  needs  to  feel  that  it  has  the  faith  of  the  Church 
and  the  love  of  the  Church  and  the  co-operation  of  the  Church 
and  the  heed  of  the  Church  and  a  passion  for  holiness  caught 
from  the  Church.  Youth  needs  not  fussing  at  nor  cuffing,  but 
snuggling  up  to  and  loving  hard.  The  boarding  houses  are  such 
lonesome  plaaes  to  stay  in;  and  a  body  could  hardly  call  them 
places  to  live  in.  And  youth  needs  the  Church,  all  its  gentle 
ministries,  all  its  sense  of  fair  play  called  into  action,  all  its  gracious- 
ness  and  power  of  helping  people  over  the  tough  places  of  the  soul. 

Let  the  Church  withhold  its  censoriousness  from  youth.  Let 
it  pour  out  its  wealth  of  tenderness  as  if  it  were  a  mother  to 
evferybody  around.  House  youth  at  the  warm  heart  of  a  living 
Church  which  has  enough  of  beautiful  humanity  and  beautiful 
Christianity  to  bear  much  and  forbear  much  and  pray  much  and 
hope  very  greatly  and  yearn  after  youth  as  a  father  after  his 
daughter  who  dwelleth  afar. 

And  in  due  time  the  youth  will  help  the  Church.  I  was  once 
swimming  in  angry  water.  The  breakers  were  very  wild.  The 
windy  waves  crushed  and  crashed  and  their  tumult  was  the  voice 
of  many  waters,  through  which  one  would  have  guessed  no  human 
voice  could  be  heard.  I  had  been  in  the  surf  for  hours,  for  I  am 
Viking  born,  and  I  was  weary  beyond  my  knowledge  and  was  out 
in  a  strange  beach  to  me  and  so  found  myself  swimming  and 
making  no  headway  against  the  wave-wrath.  I  was  being  borne 
steadily  and  surely  out.  The  breakers  were  having  their  way  with 
me  and  crashing  over  me  full  of  sound  and  fury.  I  had  sandals  on, 
and  so  had  not  the  free  use  of  my  swimmer  strength  as  otherwise 
I  should  have  had.  There  was  the  boiling  water,  my  delight;  and 
it  was  gripping  me,  and  I  knew  it.  Death  was  not  half  a  boat's 
length  from  me  and  I  was  swimming  now,  not  for  fun,  but  for  life; 
and  the  tug  of  war  was  against  me,  my  fatigue  making  my  stroke 
a  random  venture;  and  I  turned  my  head  toward  where  my  son 
was  swimming  afar  in  the  same  wild  waters  I  loved  so  well  and 
giving  no  heed  to  me,  knowing  my  love  of  the  athletics  of  the 
sea  and  my  strength  as  a  swimmer;  but  through  the  hurly-burly 
of  the  crashing  waters  I  called  steady-voiced,  "Will!"  and  the  lad 
turned  swift  face  his  father's  way  and,  less  from  the  voice  he 
heard  than  the  set  determination  on  my  face,  as  he  said  afterward, 
knew  I  was  in  extremities,  and  being  a  powerful  swimmer  and 
wearer  of  many  medals  therefor,  he  dived  through  the  crush  of 
waves  which  was  beating  bitterly  on  me  and,  when  I  knew  not 
he  was  near,  he  rose  with  the  lift  of  the  sea  and  outside  from  me; 


ADDRESS  BY  PROF.  D.  J.  JORDAN.  509 

and  his  voice  swung  like  a  bell,  a  golden  bell,  "I'm  here,  old 
Daddy,"  and  gave  me  a  shove  shoreward,  and  then  another,  and 
I  was  safe!  And  I  am  here  to-night  because  the  boy  I  had  held 
in  my  arms  and  loved  through  his  childhood  had  helped  rae  in  my 
hour  of  peril.  Even  so,  this  is  the  parable  of  how  the  youth  of  the 
Church,  helped  of  the  Church,  will  in  its  day  HELP  the  Church. 

Church  of  God,  thy  youth  shall  bring  thee  into  the  far  and  fair 
to-morrows. 

The  first  invited  address  was  given  by  Prof.  D.  J.  Jordan, 
M.  A.,  of  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Cliurch,  on  the  sub- 
ject, "Sj^ecial  Worlc  of  Young  Peoi:)le  in  tlie  Churcli:" 

The  youth  of  Methodism,  like  the  j^outh  of  a  race  or  a  nation, 
are  always  either  its  most  valuable  asset  or  its  heaviest  liability. 
This  has  ever  been  true,  because  the  period  of  youth  is  the  time 
when  children  are  molded  into  men,  and  in  the  heart  and  mind  of 
every  child  lie  dormant  all  the  capacities  and  powers  for  good 
or  evil  that  can  possibly  manifest  themselves  in  the  men  and  the 
women  of  the  succeeding  generation. 

It  is  in  youth,  before  the  evil  days  have  come,  and  while  heaven 
yet  lies  about  us,  that  we  acquire  our  strength,  dream  our  dreams, 
and  form  the  ideals  that  shape  the  course  of  our  lives  in  all  the 
years  to  come.  And  fortunate  it  is,  both  for  the  child  and  for 
society,  if,  during  these  years  of  formation  and  growth,  the  young 
are  kept  constantly  under  those  influences  that  make  for  the  glpry 
of  God  and  the  improvement  and  ultimate  salvation  of  men. 

The  story  is  told  of  a  traveler,  who,  sightseeing  in  Venice,  found 
his  way  into  a  little  shop  where  he  saw  a  man  standing  at  a  table 
on  which  was  a  revolving  board  that  moved  so  rapidly  it  was 
impossible  to  see  what  was  upon  it.  As  the  board  sped  round  and 
round  the  workman  remained  very  intent  upon  his  task  and  kept 
his  hands  constantly  on  the  board,  as  if  kneading  or  molding  some- 
thing into  form.  Finally  the  revolutions  of  the  board  ceased,  and 
the  traveler  was  surprised  when  the  workman  exhibited  as  the 
result  of  his  labor  an  object  perfect  in  symmetry  and  beautiful  in 
design — a  specimen  of  Oriental  vase,  famous  throughout  the  world 
and  worth  its  weight  in  gold. 

But  the  traveler's  greatest  surprise  was  yet  to  come;  for  while 
he  talked  with  the  workman,  an  assistant  brought  in  a  pail  of 
what  seemed  to  be  common  clay  and  emptied  it  upon  the  table. 
"What  are  j'ou  going  to  do  with  this  clay?"  asked  the  traveler. 
"Mold  it  into  another  vase,"  replied  the  workman.  Then  he  went 
on  to  explain  how  men  of  his  craft,  with  no  apparatus  but  the 
revolving  board,  by  taking  clay  when  it  most  readily  responds  to 
the  intelligent  touch  of  trained  hands,  form  from  it  the  far-famed 


510  NEEDS  OF  YOUNG  PEOPLE. 

oriental  pottery  that  has  been  for  so  many  years  the  admiration 
of  the  world  of  art. 

Likewise,  if  our  young  people  during  their  impressionable  years, 
are  kept  under  the  intelligent,  loving,  sympathetic  hand  of  the 
Church  and  under  those  good  influences  for  which  the  Church 
stands  sponsor,  she  will  be  able  so  to  shape  their  lives  and  mold 
their  characters  as  to  make  of  them  souls  more  beautiful  and  far 
more  valuable  than  all  the  art  the  world  ever  saw.  Then  shall 
"our  sons  be  as  plants  grown  up  in  their  youth  and  our  daughters 
as  cornerstones,  polished  after  the  similitude  of  a  palace." 

I  make  this  brief  reference  to  the  importance  of  the  proper 
training  and  preparation  of  our  youth  for  Christian  service,  because 
it  is  as  a  result  of  such  training,  and  only  such,  that  the  young 
people  are  made  ready  for  the  work  of  the  Church,  thus  becoming 
forces  that  help,  rather  than  impediments  that  hinder. 

Methodism,  and  Indeed  the  whole  world,  is  greatly  indebted 
to  trained  young  people.  Samuel  and  David  and  Solomon,  of  the 
olden  days,  and  Luther  and  Wesley  and  Whitefield,  and  above  all, 
the  blessed  Christ,  in  this  new  and  last  dispensation,  are  a  few 
examples  of  the  thousands  of  trained  young  people,  both  in  church 
and  in  state,  who  have  made  the  world  their  debtor  because  of 
their  unselfish  labors  and  great  achievements  in  the  direction  of 
human  uplift  and  progress. 

While  there  is  perhaps  no  kind  of  Church  work  in  which  the 
young  may  not  properly  engage,  it  appears  to  me  that  there  are  a 
few  kinds  for  which  they  seem  peculiarly  adapted. 

i.  As  Missionaries.  Whether  in  the  local  parish  or  in  foreign 
lands,  the  successful  missionary  must  be  not  only  intelligent  and 
active  and  serious,  but  needs  also  the  physical  strength  and  endur- 
ance which  only  youth  may  be  expected  to  give.  The  best  results 
of  missionary  effort  are  obtained  by  faithfully  prosecuting  a  wisely- 
planned  campaign  that  usually  extends  through  more  years  than 
one  who  has  already  reached  middle  life  will  probably  be  able  to 
serve.  I  think,  therefore,  that  our  young  people  should  be  en- 
couraged to  prepare  themselves  for  this  work  and  enter  upon  it 
at  a  time  when  they  can  consecrate  all  their  powers  to  God  in  the 
enlightening  and  Christianizing  of  their  fellows. 

2.  In  the  work  of  social  and  political  reform.  I  rejoice  that 
it  is  now  generally  conceded  that  the  work  of  the  Christian  Church 
is  as  broad  as  the  needs  of  humanity;  and  to-day  the  forces  that 
make  for  social  purity  and  civic  righteousness  are  calling  loudly 
for  the  helping  hand  of  the  Church  in  their  contest  with  giant 
evils  whose  baneful  influences  are  manifest  in  every  part  of  the 
world.  Intemperance,  licentiousness,  graft,  the  denial  of  the 
brotherhood  of  man  in  the  treatment  of  the  weak  by  the  strong, 
the  assertion  of  the  hateful  doctrine  that  might  makes  right — the 


ADDRESS  BY  PROF.  D.  J.  JORDAN.  511 

warfare  against  all  these  evils  and  the  rest  opens  to  the  young 
people  of  the  Church  broad  fields  of  endeavor  worthy  of  the 
exercise  of  the  noblest  qualities  of  their  being. 

3.  Work  carried  on  by  the  Church  for  the  especial  benefit  of 
young  people.  I  think  that  experience  has  shown  that  our  Sunday 
schools,  leagues,  endeavor  socities,  etc.,  flourish  and  are  effective 
for  good  in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  real  interest  our  Christian 
young  people  put  into  them.  It  is  a  fine  thing  to  see  the  elderly 
and  the  aged  still  clinging  to  these  institutions  that  are  designed 
primarily  for  the  young,  but  it  is  very  much  finer  when  similar 
interests  and  activity  are  manifested  by  the  young  men  and  young 
women  whose  powers  of  perception  and  endurance  are  yet  at 
the  flood,  and  the  long  end  of  whose  lives  is  not  in  the  buried  past. 
"We  should  take  advantage  of  the  fact  that  there  is  among  per- 
sons of  similar  age  and  experience  a  kind  of  fellowship,  a  oneness 
in  sympathy,  in  point  of  view,  in  interest,  and  in  understanding, 
that  in  the  very  nature  of  things  cannot  exist  under  other  con- 
ditions. 

I  make  this  third  suggestion  for  another  reason.  There  is  a 
feeling  quite  general  among  young  people  that  it  is  easier  to  be 
a  Christian  after  one  has  grown  old;  that  the  evils  of  a  wordly  life 
are  less  alluring  after  two  score  and  ten.  Therefore  the  examples 
set  and  the  admonitions  given  by  those  who  have  crossed  the  line 
that  separates  j'outh  from  age  are  too  often  taken  by  the  young 
as  matters  of  course.  To  remove  this  notion  from  the  minds  of 
many  j'oung  people,  we  must  bring  forward  as  Christian  leaders 
young  men  and  young  women  of  their  own  age  and  class  who  daily 
exemplify  the  meaning  and  beauty  of  the  Christian  religion. 

4.  In  concluding  I  have  time  only  to  mention  the  Christian 
ministry,  Bible  reading  circles  and  the  shaping  of  the  social  side  of 
the  parish  life  into  Christian  channels,  as  other  important  fields 
which  our  young  people  should  be  encouraged  to  enter  more  largely 
and  with  greater  earnestness  and  zeal.  I  might  add  to  these  the 
service  of  song;  for  I  hope  that  in  no  distant  future  our  young 
people  who  possess  the  gift  of  song  will  be  so  fully  alive  to  their 
opportunities  for  service  as  to  make  unnecessary  a  paid  choir  or 
organist  in  any  Methodist  Church  in  the  world. 

The  future  of  Methodism  will  depend  upon  the  loyalty  of  its  young 
people  and  their  ability  and  willingness  to  serve.  It  is  our  duty, 
therefore,  to  open  to  them  every  door  to  Christian  usefulness  and 
encourage  tliem  to  "enter  into  His  gates  with  thanksgiving  and  into 
His  courts  with  praise." 

The  reports  of  the  prosperity  and  growth  of  Methodism  through- 
out the  world  are  indeed  gratifying;  and  we  greatly  rejoice  in  the 
heroic  endeavors  and  splendid  achievements  of  our  leaders  of 
to-day,  many  of  whom  are  already  venerable  with  age  and  with 


512  NEEDS  OF  YOUNG  PEOPLE. 

service.  But  we  must  look  to  the  future.  The  phenomena  of  the 
rising  and  the  setting  sun  are  alili©  beautiful.  When  Nature  paints 
the  Western  sky  in  a  thousand  hues  no  artist  ever  conceived, 
blending  'them  into  such  harmony  as  to  mali;e  the  picture  glow  and 
light  up  as  with  the  presence  of  Divinity,  we  cannot  but  stand  in 
admiration  and  awe.  But  even  as  we  gaze  enraptured,  we  are  made 
to  remember  that  the  day  is  done,  the  chill  and  the  darkness  of  the 
night  are  approaching,  and  all  this  glory  and  beauty  and  magnifi- 
cence are  but  Nature's  benediction.  But  when  we  turn  our  faces 
to  the  East  and  behold  the  rising  sun,  there  are  not  only  glory 
and  beauty  and  magnificence,  but  the  additional  elements  of  hope, 
of  trust,  and  of  promise.  And  so,  what  Methodism  has  already 
accomplished  through  its  present  leaders  is  but  as  the  glory  of 
the  setting  sun.  He  who  would  behold  Methodism  at  work,  Metho- 
dism conquering,  Methodism  triumphant,  let  him  turn  his  face  to 
the  dawn  and  contemplate  what  shall  yet  be  brought  to  pass  by 
the  hosts  of  young  Methodists  as  they  shall  arise  out  of  every 
nation,  every  race,  and  every  condition,  trained  in  body,  in  mind,  and 
in  spirit  for  every  Christian  service.  This  is  the  glory  of  the  coming 
day. 

The  second  invited  address,  on  "The  Church  and  the  Eecre- 
ations  of  Young  People/^  was  presented  bj  the  Eev.  L.  Hudson, 
of  the  Methodist  Church  of  New  Zealand : 

I  am  deeply  conscious  that  the  subject  allotted  me  bristles  with 
untold  difficulties  and  suggests  problems,  the  solution  of  which  has 
commanded  the  earnest  attention  of  our  highest  Church  courts, 
with  results  that  cannot  in  every  case  be  considered  altogether 
satisfactory.  The  importance  of  the  question  will  be  understood 
when  it  is  realized  that  not  only  the  well-being,  but  the  very  being 
of  the  Church  of  the  future,  depends  in  no  small  measure  upon  the 
character  of  the  rising  generation.  As  a  factor  in  the  molding  of 
character  it  must  be  admitted  that  recreation  occupies  a  large 
place. 

There  is  no  need  to  differentiate  between  recreation  and  amuse- 
ment, since,  according  to  a  high  authority,  spealving  generally,  all 
recreations  are  amusements  and  all  amusements  are  re-creative. 

One  of  the  first  conditions  of  life,  Herbert  Spencer  assures  us, 
is  to  become  a  good  animal.  In  view  of  the  commonly-acknowl- 
edged stress  and  strain  of  modern  experience,  the  fulfillment  of 
this  condition  becomes  increasingly  imperative.  There  is  an  uneasy 
feeling  abroad  that  Herbert  Spencer's  standard  bullvs  too  largely 
already  in  the  imagination  of  the  young.  It  is  painfully  evident  to 
the  most  casual  observer  that  the  love  of  amusement  is  growing  in 
various  directions.    Years  ago  it  was  stated  the  craze  for  amuse- 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  L.  HUDSON.  513 

ment  is  becoming  a  dangerous  fever  in  the  veins  of  young  men  and 
women  wlio  have  little  or  no  time  for  higher  things.  If  that  were 
true  then  it  is  none  the  less  true  now.  The  type  represented  by  the 
youth  who,  after  his  conversion,  refused  to  join  a  cricket  club  and 
declined  to  play  the  violin  at  Church  socials,  may  be  largely  con- 
sidered extinct. 

No  one  to-day  doubts  that  recreation  has  its  place  in  life.  John 
Wesley's  attempt  to  suppress  in  children  the  God-given  instinct 
for  pleasure,  was  long  ago  admitted  to  be  a  huge  blunder,  and  ended 
as  it  deserved  to  end,  in  ignominious  failure.  To  refuse  to  allow 
boys  and  girls  to  play,  on  the  ground  that  they  might  want  to  play 
when  they  become  men  and  women,  represents  a  policy  as  foolish 
as  it  is  grotesque.  Horage  Bushnell's  warning  not  to  reduce  religion 
to  the  gi-ade  of  a  police  arrangement  and  make  it  a  law  of  restric- 
tion upon  the  world's  innocent  pleasures  is  still  needed.  He  truly 
points  out  there  is  no  sound  principle  of  ethics  that  makes  it  a 
wrong  or  a  sin  to  indulge  in  amusements,  save  when  they  are 
carried  beyond  amusement  and  made  instruments  of  vice  or  vicious 
indulgence. 

Now,  while  all  may  be  agreed  as  to  the  lawfulness  and  expedi- 
ency of  recreation,  when  we  seek  to  decide  what  ought  to  be  the 
attitude  of  the  Church  toward  this  question,  immediately  our 
troubles  begin.  Men  equal  in  spiritual  mindedness  and  equally 
interested  in  the  well-being  of  young  people,  hold  views  as  opposite 
as  the  poles.  For  instance,  a  prominent  member  of  the  British 
Wesleyan  Conference  recently  stated  he  would  lose  no  opportunity 
to  controvert  the  idea  that  it  was  the  business  of  the  Church  to 
provide  amusements  and  recreations. 

A  good  Presbyterian  of  our  acquaintance  sees  no  harm  in  supplj-- 
ing  his  boys  with  a  billiard  table  at  home.  He  is  no.  recluse — is  in 
sympathy  with  athletics  and  we  should  probably  be  doing  him  no 
injustice  in  saying  he  would  not  object  to  attend  the  theatre  or 
join  in  a  dance;  but  he  would  protest  most  emphatically  against 
any  attempt  of  the  Church  to  cater  for  the  social  side  of  life.  He 
would  argue  that  the  Church's  operations  should  be  confined  to  the 
spiritual  realm;  that  to  go  bej'ond  would  be  to  exceed  the  commis- 
sion of  Christ  to  his  disciples,  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach 
the  gospel."  On  the  other  hand  there  is  the  institutional  Church, 
with  its  many-sided  organizations  for  the  moral  and  physical  uplift 
of  those  brought  within  its  influence. 

Who  is  right?  We  are  sometimes  told  that  Christianity  stands 
for  the  solidarity  of  family  life.  And  so  it  does.  But  how  many 
young  men  and  young  women  have  been  driven  from  home  to  seek 
their  pleasures  elsewhere,  because  they  have  found  themselves 
cribbed,  cabined  and  confined,  not  only  by  reason  of  space,  but 
by  the  circumscribed  views  of  the  head  of  the  household. 
33 


514  NEEDS  OF  YOUNG  PEOPLE. 

In  a  brief  address  of  ten  minutes  details  are  scarcely  possible, 
but  with  regard  to  indoor  games,  take  the  case  of  the  billiard  table. 
Ian  Maclaren  used  to  saj^  "The  best  of  indoor  games  is  billiards, 
and  one  of  the  -worst  places  a  young  man  can  go  to  is  the  billiard 
room.  If  I  had  the  ear  of  the  son,  my  advice  would  be.  Never  enter 
a  billiard  room;  and  if  I  had  the  father's  ear,  I  would  say.  Give  your 
son  a  table  at  home  for  himself  and  his  friends."  Not  every 
home  can  provide  the  luxury  of  a  billiard  table,  but  many  Churches 
could;  and  we  have  yet  to  learn  that  such  work  does  not  lie  within 
the  domain  of  the  Church's  function. 

The  time  has  come  when  the  Church  dare  no  longer  neglect 
to  shoulder  responsibility  in  relation  to  the  political  and  municipal 
government  of  the  world,  and  in  view  of  the  prominence  given 
to  amusements  in  these  days,  the  Church  can  not  afford  and  has  no 
right  to  say  she  has  nothing  to  do  with  these  things.  The  Church 
has  everything  to  do  with  whatever  touches  the  moral,  intellectual 
or  physical  life  of  the  people.  How  to  find  the  best  means  of 
guiding  the  social  impulses  may  be  diflftcult,  but  the  policy  of  drift 
is  suicidal.  Our  young  folk  have  a  right  to  expect  the  guidance 
and  practical  sympathy  of  the  Church  in  this  as  in  all  other  affairs. 

That  famous  aphorism  more  than  once  quoted  in  this  Confer- 
ence, "The  soul  of  all  improvement  is  the  improvement  of  the 
soul,"  is  not  forgotten,  but  I  venture  to  assert  these  oft-quoted 
words  do  not  contain  the  suspicion  of  a  suggestion  that  the  body 
is  to  be  neglected  or  treated  with  contempt.  The  training  of  the 
body  is  as  much  a  duty  as  the  training  of  the  mind.  Our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  died  for  the  tvhole  man — spirit,  soul  and  body.  Let 
it  be  understood,  Christianity  has  no  quarrel  with  wholesome 
amusements.  The  danger  of  many  recreations,  as  we  all  know, 
is  to  be  found  along  the  lines  of  association.  This  is  specially  true 
of  outdoor  sports.  The  prevalence  of  drinking,  gambling  and 
t)bscene  language,  too  often  connected  with  football  and  other 
games,  is  matter  for  keenest  regret.  I  am  speaking  from  personal 
knowledge.  In  New  Zealand,  which  I  have  the  honor  to  represent, 
and  Australia,  where  the  genial  climate  offers  inducement  to  sport 
as  no  other  part  of  the  world  does,  our  young  men  in  this  relation- 
ship are  brought  face  to  face  with  grave  moral  perils.  What  is 
true  of  New  Zealand  and  Australia  is,  no  doubt,  more  or  less  true 
of  other  places.  Recreations  may  vary  in  form,  according  to  local- 
ity and  climate,  but  the  evils  connected  with  them  are  probably 
everywhere  the  same.  Another  evil  against  which  ve  feel  compelled 
to  raise  a  voice  in  protest  refers  to  the  Sabbath.  It  is  deserving 
of  more  than  a  passing  word.  Those  who  have  at  heart  the  highest 
interests  of  the  community  must  deplore  the  growing  disregard 
for  the  sanctity  of  the  Lord's  Day.  We  would  not  if  we  could  recall 
the  old  Puritan  Sabbath,  which  has  gone  forever,  but  unless  we 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  L.  HUDSON.  516 

are  very  careful,  that  which  remains  to  us  of  the  day  of  rest  will 
be  filched  away  by  those  whose  love  of  pleasure  is  insatiable. 

The  exact  amount  of  recreation  to  be  indulged  in  is  impossible 
to  define.  Every  honest  person,  desirous  of  living  the  ideal  life, 
may  readily  ascertain  by  experience  what  is  helpful  or  otherwise. 
To  do  this  should  be  no  more  difficult  than  to  decide  whether  or 
not  one's  coffee  contains  sufficient  sugar.  It  is  with  amusements 
as  with  mixtures  and  compounds  of  drinks — everything  depends 
upon  the  proportion  with  which  the  ingredients  are  combined. 
Recreation  is  the  salt  of  life — a  means  to  an  end.  Amusements  are 
a  tonic,  but  overdoses  will  lead  to  fatal  results. 

While  our  ideals  of  life  make  it  impossible  for  us  to  be  satis- 
fied with  the  tone  of  many  present-day  recreations,  there  is  no 
cause  for  panic.  The  remedy  is  not  to  be  found  in  anathemas. 
"Wise  direction  and  sane  control  are  the  things  needed.  These 
should  be-  the  objective  of  the  Church.  Nothing  will  be  gained 
by  harsh  measures  or  sweeping  denunciations.  The  prohibition  of 
specific  amusements,  concerning  which  the  opinions  of  the  wisest 
and  best  are  divided,  will  result  in  no  permanent  good.  In  thus 
stating  the  case  we  are  not  pleading  for  the  lowering  of  ideals,  or 
the  whittling  down  of  convictions,  to  accommodate  the  weakness  of 
human  nature.  Ideals  must  be  raised  and  principles  calculated 
to  upbuild  character  must  ever  be  maintained. 

But  when  we  come  to  the  last  analysis  we  find  this  is  not  a  ques- 
tion of  ethics  merely — it  is  something  more.  It  involves  loyalty  to 
Jesus  Christ!  What  would  Jesus  have  me  do?  is  the  touchstone 
to  which  the  action  of  every  Christian  must  be  brought. 

In  a  great  sentence  Bushnell  gives  us  the  key  to  the  whole 
position,  "Free  to  amusements  and  too  free  to  want  them."  Time 
will  not  allow  me  to  pursue  the  line  of  thought  thus  suggested,  but 
you  will  readily  see  its  direction.  This  is  the  goal  toward  which 
our  young  people  should  be  urged.  "Free  to  amusements  and  too 
free  to  want  them."  The  restriction  suggested  by  these  words, 
however,  can  not  reasonably  be  applied  to  athletics  and  exercises 
for  the  development  of  our  phj-sical  power,  but  rather  to  those 
pleasures  about  which  many— even  those  who  participate  in  them — 
are  troubled,  because  they  are  not  quite  satisfied  as  to  whether  they 
are  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  Christianity.  The  high  altitudes 
referred  to  can  only  be  reached  by  those  whose  lives  are  dominated 
by  what  has  been  aptly  described  as  the  "expulsive  power  of  a  new 
affection."  St.  Paul  makes  luminous  the  situation  when  he  says, 
"All  things  are  lawful  for  me,  but  not  all  things  are  expedient — 
all  things  are  lawful  for  me,  but  I  will  not  be  brought  under  the 
power  of  any."  Interwoven  with  these  undying  words  may  easily 
be  discovered  principles  for  the  guidance  of  the  conduct  of  both 
the  individual  and  the  Church. 


516  NEEDS  OF  YOUNG  PEOPLE. 

In  the  general  discussion  Mr.  A.  M.  Schoyer,  of  tlie  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  led: 

As  a  well-trained  laymen  I  have  sat  through  the  proceedings  of 
this  splendid  Conference.  As  a  teacher  of  the  Bible  and  of  teachers 
of  the  Bible,  I  agree  with  higher  criticism  so  long  as  it  is  con- 
structive criticism.  I  believe  thoroughly  in  the  principles  of  Chris- 
tian socialism,  so  long  as  they  follow  the  principles  of  Jesus  Christ, 
the  first  Christian  socialist.  I  am  thoroughly  in  accord  with  the 
teachings  of  Christian  philosophy,  so  long  as  the  emphasis  is  put  on 
the  first  word.  But  there  is  one  doctrine  which  has  not  been  taught 
here  to  any  great  extent.  I  believe  that  it  profoundly  influences' 
the  growth  of  the  Christian  Church.  I  refer  to  the  doctrine  of  Chris- 
tian sociability.  No  man  can  stand  in  our  great  railway  stations 
and  see  those  young  people  pouring  into  our  great  cities  without 
wondering  where  they  are  going.  They  come  from  Christian  homes, 
followed  by  the  prayers  of  fathers  and  mothers.  Who  meets  them 
in  the  great  city?  Who  receives  them?  Who  helps  them  into  a 
Christian  home  and  Church?  Let  us  follow  one  of  those  young  men. 
He  comes  into  the  city;  and  let  us  say  that  he  has  got  through  with 
the  first  dangers  and  has  got  into  a  home  that  is  semi-Christian. 
He  has  perhaps  got  through  his  first  day  and  is  in  his  lonely  little 
room.  It  is  not  very  well  lighted  or  heated.  There  is  nothing  there 
to  attract  a  man  with  warm  blood  in  his  veins.  He  goes  out  into 
the  streets,  and  he  finds  on  every  side  a  saloon  with  the  bright  lights 
and  the  music  coming  from  it.  Perhaps  he  has  had  a  home-training 
and  has  a  letter  from  his  pastor  in  his  pocket.  He  goes  down  to 
one  of  these  splendid  churches,  such  as  I  worship  in  in  Pittsburgh. 
Does  he  find  it  open  and  lighted?  No!  It  is  Monday  night!  There 
is  no  light  except  one  in  some  back  corner  where  the  young  men's 
class  is  meeting,  and  which  is  difficult  to  find.  It  comes  Tuesday 
night,  and  a  similar  condition  prevails.  It  is  Wednesday  night,  and 
there  is  a  prayer-meeting  in  some  inaccessible  room.  So  he  goes 
out  on  the  street,  and  meets  his  temptation  again.  Let  us  say  that 
he  stands  that  first  week  and  comes  down  to  your  church.  He  has 
not  very  good  clothes  on.  What  kind  of  a  reception  does  he  meet? 
Suppose  he  meets  an  usher  more  gracious  than  some,  and  he  brings 
him  to  your  pew.  You  have  your  special  place  in  the  pew;  so  do 
you  wife  and  daughter  have  theirs;  and  you  don't  especially  like 
to  have  him  there.  But  you  let  him  come  in.  But  when  the  service 
is  over,  do  you  ask  him  to  come  to  your  home  and  take  dinner  with 
you?  Your  family  circle  won't  permit  that.  Or  you  want  to  see 
the  pastor,  or  Brother  Brown  who  lives  across  the  street;  and  the 
young  man,  before  any  one  speaks  to  him,  passes  out  into  the  street. 

The  Eev.  W.  Blackbukn  Fitzgeeald^  of  the  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church: 

I  am  the  secretary  of  the  Wesley  Guild,  the  youngest  of  the  great 
societies  which  have  sprung  up  in  recent  years.  I  stand  here  as  a 
profound  believer  in  the  possibilities  of  these  Young  People's  Soci- 
eties. We  have  as  yet  only  touched  the  very  fringe  of  the  work  they 
are  capable  of  doing.  I  am  in  hope  that  this  Conference  may  result 
in  a  magnificent  impulse  being  given  to  this  work  through  the 
world,  immediately.  I  would  like  to  emphasize  two  or  three  points 
absolutely  necessary  to  the  full  success  of  such  societies.    They  are 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  517 

all  represented  here:  Epworth  League,  Christian  Endeavor,  Wesley 
Guild,  and  others.  I  believe  that  the  same  principles  apply  to  them 
all.  In  the  first  place  the  young  people's  society  must,  all  through, 
be  spiritual  in  its  aims  and  methods.  Some  people  seem  to  imagine 
that  you  must  preach  to  young  people  as  to  a  skittish  horse:  with 
a  bunch  of  hay  in  one  hand  and  the  bridle  behind  your  back.  Any 
one  who  tries  to  win  the  youth  in  that  way  will  fail.  I  do  not  think 
that  we  can  set  before  our  young  people  too  high  ideals.  The  higher 
they  are  the  more  it  will  attract  them.  Some  time  ago  I  was  in 
Switzerland  and  was  impressed  by  the  thought  that  every  one  of 
these  peaks  has  been  climbed.  A  week  or  two  ago  I  was  in  the 
Rockies,  and  I  found  a  few  peaks  that  had  names,  and  scores  of 
others  had  no  names  at  all,  peaks  that  as  yet  no  man  has  scaled. 
We  must  make  our  young  people  feel  that  there  are  new  worlds 
still  to  conquer,  that  there  are  peaks  yet  to  be  climbed  in  the  spir- 
itual life.  And  if  we  set  these  ideals  before  them  I  am  certain  they 
will  respond. 

But  then  the  young  people's  society  must  likewise  be  compre- 
hensive. It  must  not  present  a  religion  that  is  narrow.  It  must 
be  a  religion  that  touches  every  element  of  life.  It  must  be  as 
broad  as  life  itself.  I  believe  tliat  those  societies  will  be  most  suc- 
cessful that  touch  not  only  the  directly  spiritual,  but  the  intellectual 
powers  and  the  social  instinct  and  the  recreative  instincts.  We 
must  make  our  young  people  feel  that  all  these  are  included  within 
the  range  of  religion. 

It  must  be  well  organized.  We  must  have  the  most  up-to-date 
machinery.  In  the  big  mills  to-day  old  machinery  is  scrapped  if 
it  does  not  do  its  wdrlc.  In  young  people's  work  we  must  have  the 
very  best  mechanism  that  can  possibly  be  devised.  I  am  afraid 
tliat  in  some  of  our  young  people's  societies  we  are  not  realizing 
that  even  ten  years  may  make  a  difference.  We  must  adapt  our 
methods  to  the  changed  conditions  of  the  present  time. 

Again,  whatever  kind  of  a  society  we  have,  it  must  be  worked. 
It  is  not  a  bit  of  use  having  fine  pieces  of  mechanism,  a  splendid 
constitution,  unless  we  put  our  souls  into  it.  I  mean  not  merely  th& 
young  people.  They  will  put  their  souls  into  it  if  they  are  encour- 
aged and  wisely  led.  I  would  appeal  to  the  older  members  of  this 
Conference  to  back  up  their  societies.  I  do  not  mean  that  we  should 
swamp  the  society  with  old  people,  but  we  want  the  young  people's 
society  to  have  the  encouragement  of  the  older,  more  responsible, 
members  of  the  Church. 

The  Eev.  S.  K.  Arbutiixot,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church: 

Three  thoughts,  each  of  them  illustrated.  First,  if  the  Church 
will  tenderly  bear  and  nourish  the  youth,  youth  in  turn  will  care  for 
the  Church.  Illustration:  It  was  my  good  fortune  one  time  to  see 
an  old  grandfather,  not  wholly  decrepit,  yet  needing  a  cane.  He  had 
a  grandchild  whom  he  much  loved,  and  who  loved  him.  The  little 
child  approached  and,  throwing  its  arms  open,  sprang  into  the  old 
man's  arms  and  took  his  cane,  and  the  old  man  carried  the  child, 
and  the  child  carried  the  cane;  and  that  was  a  splendid  illustration 
of  the  Church  and  its  youth.  The  old  man  for  love  of  the  child  for- 
got that  the  child  was  an  additional  burden;  and  the  little  child, 
loving  its  grandfather,  carried  the  cane  as  itself  was  carried  in  the 
arms  of  the  old  gentleman. 


518  NEEDS  OF  YOUNG  PEOPLE. 

Secondly.  If  the  Church  will  care  for  its  youth,  from  this  same 
army  of  youth  will  come  forth  a  champion  to  fight  its  battles.  Illus- 
tration: The  armies  of  Israel  were  defied  by  the  armies  of  Gath, 
and  they  searched  in  vain  for  a  champion.  The  older  soldiers  of 
that  army  knew  the  powers  of  that  giant  too  well;  they  heard  his 
voice,  they  feared  him,  and  trembled.  A  youth  from  the  country 
came  forward  and  said,  "I  will  fight  the  battles  for  the  army  of  the 
living  God."  And  David,  making  a  mistake,  induced  by  a  wisdom 
not  his  own,  tried  on  Saul's  armor.  But  when  he  took  the  simple 
instruments  of  his  youth,  he  went  forth  and  Goliath  was  slain. 
Men  and  women  of  the  Church  of  the  living  God,  Goliath  confronts 
and  confounds  and  alarms  the  Church  of  the  living  God  to-day.  But 
from  the  ranks  of  the  youth  there  is  yet  to  come  forth  the  David 
to  go  out  and  fight  the  battles  of  the  Church.  And  if  we  nourish 
the  youth,  that  David  will  be  found  in  our  own  ranks. 

Thirdly.  If  the  Church  of  the  living  God  nourishes  and  cares  for 
the  youth,  then  it  will  come  to  pass  that  the  youth  will  care  for  the 
declining  ones  in  the  Church  of  the  living  God.  Else,  what  mean  at 
this  present  time  the  Old  Folks'  Days?  What  means  the  most  com- 
fortable chair  by  the  fireside?  What  means  the  tender  solicitude  on 
the  part  of  young  men  and  women  for  the  parent  that  bore  them,  but 
the  very  expression  of  this  thought?  If  the  Church  is  wise  in  caring 
for  the  youth,  it  will  come  to  pass  that  the  youth  in  turn  will  be 
the  strength  and  supporter  and  bulwark  of  the  Church  of  to-morrow. 

The  Rev.  George  J.  Boxd,  of  the  Methodist  Church  of 
Canada : 

Mr.  President,  I  am  not  a  Presbyterian,  but  in  the  effort  needed  to 
catch  the  speaker's  eye  I  have  begun  to  believe  in  the  final  persever- 
ance of  the  saints.  Out  in  China  a  little  while  ago  a  convert  of  the 
Methodist  Church  and  a  convert  of  another  mission  were  discussing 
the  differences  between  their  two  parent  bodies.  Finally  the  other 
man  turned  to  the  Methodist  and  said,  "There  is  not  much  difference 
between  us,  but  you  Methodists  have  a  hsiao,  hsiao  poosa  cliao  Johan 
Weslayee,"  which  being  interpreted  means,  "You  Methodists  have  a 
small,  small  idol  called  John  Wesley."  Mr.  President  and  brethren, 
it  little  becomes  a  man  to  depreciate  John  Wesley  in  this  assembly, 
but  there  is  some  point  to  that  Chinese  convert's  remark. 

I  remember  standing  beside  my  friend,  Dr.  Bowman  Stephenson, 
on  the  floor  of  the  British  Conference  in  1886,  when  Hugh  Price 
Hughes  received  notice  of  his  election  to  the  Legal  Hundred.  He 
stood  up  and  said,  "I  take  my  theology  from  John  Wesley's  Sermons 
and  Journals."  Somebody  said,  "From  his  Sermons  and  Notes  on 
the  New  Testament?"  "No,"  said  Hugh  Price  Hughes,  "from  Wes- 
ley's Sermons  and  his  Journals."  That  surely  was  a  significant 
statement.  The  Sermons  are  the  doctrines  of  Methodism;  the  Jour- 
nals, the  history  of  the  exemplification  of  Methodism,  saving  Great 
Britain  from  revolution.  The  finest  example  that  can  be  given  of 
the  personification  in  modern  days  of  the  spirit  and  practice  of  the 
theology  of  our  Methodism  is  that  same  Hugh  Price  Hughes,  and  the 
finest  thing  he  ever  said  was  that  the  founder  of  Methodism  was 
not  John  Wesley,  but  Jesus  Christ. 

Now,  John  Wesley  never  properly  realized  the  value  of  young 
people,  or  rather,  he  never  understood  the  way  of  training  them.  He 
never  understood  that  they  needed  amusement,  or  how  to  co-ordinate 
them  most  perfectly.    John  Wesley's  work  was  largely  not  formative. 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  519 

but  reformative.  In  our  daj'S  we  have  a  different  problem.  The 
3'oung  people  are  with  us.  I  come  here  to-night  to  say  that  they 
are  the  greatest  asset  of  our  Cliurch  for  the  pastors.  I  come  here 
to  bring  to  your  notice  wliat  I  believe  is  the  finest  instance  the 
world  has  seen  of  the  co-ordination  of  young  people,  and  that  is  the 
work  in  the  Methodist  Chuixh  of  Canada  among  young  people.  "We 
have  an  Epworth  League,  which  began  in  the  "hurrah  period,"  with 
large  conventions,  and  afterwards  was  in  danger  of  declining  for 
want  of  an  objective.  At  that  time  God  raised  up  a  man,  a  mis- 
sionary enthusiast,  a  young  medical  student,  who  co-ordinated  the 
young  people  of  Canada  on  missionary  lines — [Applause]  a  heroic 
objective.  That  is  ever  the  strongest  appeal  to  young  people,  an 
appeal  to  the  heroic. 

We  may  talk  about  recreation.  The  young  people  have  keener 
interests  than  that,  especially  when  their  hearts  have  been  opened 
and  they  have  been  consecrated  to  the  work  of  Jesus  Christ.  We 
have  heard  of  Forward  Movements  that  go  nowhere.  I  want'  to  say 
that  our  Forward  Movement  for  Missions  has  set  the  pace  and  given 
the  plan  which  forty  other  denominations  are  following  at  this  hour. 
What  is  the  result  to-day?  In  our  Missionary  Board,  which  met  a 
few  days  ago,  we  tabulated  over  $100,000  raised  last  year  by  our 
young  people,  and  we  had  ninety-one  missionaries — forty-seven  of 
them  in  China,  thirteen  in  Japan,  and  thirty-one  in  our  own  great 
foi'eign  missionary  fields  of  Canada.  If  young  people  are  given  an 
objective  such  as  missions  present,  they  will  do  great  work  for  Jesus 
Christ  and  His  Church.  Mr.  President,  the  Church  of  to-morrow  is 
in  the  schools  and  colleges  of  to-day,  and  if  the  young  people  of  to- 
day are  marshaled  for  Jesus  Christ  we  shall  not  need  to  worry  about 
the  progress  of  the  Church  of  to-morrow. 

The  Rev.  Joseph  T.  Baekby,  of  the  Primitive  Methodist 
Church : 

There  are  a  few  things  that  I  can  claim  for  myself.  I  can  at 
least  claim  a  sincere  and  real  interest  in  young  men.  For  sixteen 
years  it  has  been  one  of  the  joys  of  my  ministry  on  the  second  Sun- 
day evening  in  each  winter  month  to  preach  specially  and  specific- 
ally to  young  men.  For  some  years  I  conducted  a  young  man's  cor- 
respondence column  in  our  weekly  denominational  paper.  I  have 
organized  recreations  for  young  men:  cricket  clubs,  football  clubs, 
and  a  multitude  of  other  similar  recreations.  I  have  asked  them 
to  meet  me  on  the  Monday  night  after  I  preached  to  them  on  Sun- 
day, to  discuss  the  subject  that  I  spoke  about  on  the  previous  Sun- 
day evening.  Sometimes  I  have  had  rather  a  warm  time  with  them; 
for  when  young  men  really  feel  that  they  are  on  the  floor  of  a  room 
near  to  the  man  to  whom  they  are  speaking,  and  who  is  speaking 
to  them,  they  do  not  hesitate  to  express  themselves  freely  and 
frankly. 

I  want  to  say  that  my  ministry  to  young  men  has  taught  me  that 
it  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  things  in  our  English  Church-life  first " 
of  all  to  lay  hands  on  the  young  men  at  all.  Some  of  us  in  Eng- 
land are  finding  that  it  is  very  difficult  for  us  to  get  the  people  gen- 
erally to  our  services.  But  we  can  for  the  most  part  get  our  j'oung 
ladies,  and  we  can  understand  that,  if  religion  be,  as  some  philoso- 
phers assert,  the  expression  of  the  heart.  But  it  is  supremely  diffi- 
cult to  get  young  men  to-day  to  come  to  our  services  in  England  and 
to  have  a  real  vital  interest  in  the  Church.     Though  it  is  difficult, 


520  NEEDS  OP  YOUNG  PEOPLE. 

it  can  be  done — done  when  the  young  men  feel  that  the  preacher 
who  preaches  to  them  is  in  spirit  himself  a  young  man;  when  they 
feel  that  the  man  in  the  pulpit  has  a  message  for  them  that  deals 
not  simply  with  such  subjects  as  "How  to  be  happy,  though  mar- 
ried," but  with  the  great  fundamental  truths  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion, and  thus  is  in  vital  contact  with  the  life  of  to-day.  When 
they  know  that  there  is  a  man  in  the  pulpit  who  has  something  to 
say  to  them  on  such  a  line,  they  will  come  to  hear  him.  But  my 
experience  has  taught  me  this,  that  if  you  only  think  of  attaching 
young  men  to  the  Church  because  you  have  a  billiard  table  in  the 
cellar,  or  a  cricket  club  in  connection  with  the  Church,  or  other  or- 
ganizations for  recreations  on  similar  lines,  your  work  among  young 
men  will  be  a  great  failure.  If  our  young  men  are  to  be  really  at- 
tached to  the  Church  and  to  be  made  men  who  will  carry  themselves 
in  all  the  actualities  of  life  as  men,  we  have  got  to  awaken  in  them 
a  deep  attachment  to  Jesus  Christ.  And  unless  they  can  be  vitally 
related  to  Jesus  Christ  they  have  no  interest  in  you  or  the  Church. 

The  Rev.  William  D.  JoHNSOisr^  of  the  African  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church: 

I  agree  with  the  idea  that  Jesus  Christ  was  a  Methodist,  because 
of  the  fact  that  when  walking  one  day  He  called  Andrew  into  His 
service,  and  Andrew  went  and  found  Peter  and  brought  him  to 
Christ.  We  find  in  that  the  mission  of  the  great  Methodist  Church, 
bringing  a  world  to  Christ.  One  said  a  few  nights  ago,  "Judge  me 
not  by  the  heights  I  have  attained,  but  by  the  depths  from  which  I 
have  come."  Every  man  in  this  lauilding  is  climbing.  Every  one 
of  us  has  been  in  a  low  state  as  an  individual  and  as  a  race.  We  are 
climbing.  But  while  we  remember  the  depths  from  which  we  have 
come,  we  are  climbing  still,  with  our  eyes  upon  the  heights  that 
we  desire  to  reach.  We  can  not  reach  those  heights  without  lead- 
ing the  young  to  Christ,  without  taking  care  of  those  entrusted  to 
our  care,  whether  they  be  old  or  young. 

I  believe  that  Paul  was  a  Methodist  preacher,  because  of  the  fact 
that  the  Master  said,  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gos- 
pel to  every  creature,"  the  j'oung  as  well  as  the  old.  America  owes 
its  strength  to  the  thought  it  has  put  upon  the  young,  to  the  care 
it  has  taken  of  the  young.  And  I  pray  that  Methodism,  American, 
English,  French,  Russian,  Italian,  Indian,  white,  yellow,  red,  brown, 
black,  represented  here,  will  return  from  this  Conference  determined 
to  take  a  firmer  grasp  upon  our  young  people;  for  in  them  is  the 
hope  of  the  future  Church.    One  poet  said: 

"If  among  the  elder  people 

You  may  not  be  apt  to  teach, 
'Feed  My  lambs,'  said  Christ  our  Shepherd, 
Place  the  food  within  their  reach." 

I  have  brought  the  youngest  attendant  to  this  Ecumenical  Con- 
ference. I  brought  him  here  that  he  might  imbibe  the  water  and 
the  fire  of  Methodism. 

I  believe  that  Peter  was  a  Methodist  preacher.  My  people  are 
said  to  be  an  emotional  people,  and  1  hope  I  will  never  live  to  see 
the  day  when  emotion  will  not  be  shown  by  them.  On  the  day  of 
Pentecost,  when  Peter  preached,  Parthians,  Cretans,  Medes,  Ara- 
bians, all  spoke  in  one  tongue,  because  they  had  the  baptism  from 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  521 

above.  Let  us  return  to  our  homes  with  a  determination  to  get  a 
firmer  hold  upon  our  young  people.  We  have  the  forces  of  the  world 
to  contend  against;  but,  as  said  one  of  old,  so  let  us  say: 

"Gladly  I  will  take  my  task, 

Gladly  work  on. 
All   in  this  world  I  ask 

Is  His  sanction. 
And  if  the  task  be  hard 

I  shall  work  on, 
Expecting  my  reward 

From  God's  own  Son." 

The  Eev.  Edward  Davidson,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church: 

I  greatly  rejoice  in  the  subject  which  is  called  to  the  attention  of 
this  Conference  to-day,  because  in  British  Methodism,  Sunday  next 
is  the  day  set  apart  when  special  prayer  and  special  effort  will  be 
made  and  special  sermons  are  in  order,  in  order  to  get  our  young 
people  into  saving  fellowship  with  Jesus  Christ.  I  believe  that  on 
Sabbath  next,  throughout  British  Methodism,  thousands  of  young 
people  will  consecrate  their  lives  on  the  altar  of  Christ's  cause. 
May  I  ask  for  the  prayers  of  this  congregation  and  of  this  Confer- 
ence, that  Sunday  next,  throughout  our  beloved  Methodism,  may  be 
a  great  day  for  young  people?  I  am  one  of  our  connectional  evan- 
gelists, and  have  been  set  apart  by  the  British  Methodist  Conference 
to  conduct  evangelistic  missions  throughout  our  beloved  land.  For 
over  twenty-five  years  I  have  been  engaged  in  this  work.  On  the 
first  Sunday  of  a  mission  we  have  a  service  for  young  people,  and 
in  connection  with  that  service  scores  of  the  youth  of  our  Churches 
give  themselves  to  Jesus  Christ. 

I  spent  this  last  week-end  at  Niagara,  and  I  had  a  great  joy  on 
Monday  morning.  I  was  taking  my  last  look  at  the  falls.  A  man 
about  thirty-five  years  of  age  stopped  me  and  said,  "Are  you  Edward 
Davidson,  of  England?"  I  said,  "Yes;  how  do  j^ou  know  me?"  He 
gripped  my  hand,  and  tears  began  to  stream  down  his  face.  He 
said:  "Twenty-two  years  ago,  at  Bridge  Street,  Boston,  when  I  was 
a  boy  fourteen  years  of  age,  in  a  mission  which  you  conducted  I 
gave  myself  to  Christ.  Three  years  ago  I  came  out  to  this  town, 
and  I  am  now  an  active  member  in  the  Church.  This  afternoon  I 
will  write  to  my  dear  old  mother,  as  I  always  do  on  Monday,  and 
will  tell  her  that  I  have  seen  you;  and  her  heart  will  dance  for  joy." 
I  remember  that  mission,  when  over  three  hundred  people  gave 
themselves  to  Christ,  seven  of  whom  are  this  day  preaching  the 
gospel  in  the  Methodist  ministry. 

I  believe  in  the  conversion  of  young  people.  The  duty  of  the 
Church,  first  and  foremost,  is  to  lead  them  to  Christ.  I  have  found 
that  young  people  are  kept  from  Christ  through  three  things.  First, 
they  think  that  if  they  get  religion  they  can't  keep  it.  Then,  the 
idea  that  they  will  be  laughed  at,  persecuted,  will  have  to  run  the 
gauntlet  in  the  shop  and  store.  This  is  a  great  difficulty  with  young 
people  in  British  Methodism.  A  young  man  eighteen  years  old  said, 
"What  you  say  is  all  true,  but  I  am  afraid  that  if  I  give  myself  to 
Christ  I  can  not  hold  out."  I  said,  "You  have  not  to  hold  out,  but 
to  hold  on.  Christ  will  hold  you."  "Oh,"  he  said,  "if  I  do.  the 
trusting  Christ  will  do  the  keeping?"     "Yes."    He  gave  himself  to 


> 

522  NEEDS  OF  YOUNG  PEOPLE. 

Christ.  Twelve  months  after,  as  I  passed  through  that  town  on  a 
railroad  car,  he  saw  me  and  he  said:  "It  is  true  what  you  said.  I 
am  holding  on,  and  the  Lord  is  attending  to  the  holding  out." 

The  second  difficulty  with  young  people  is  that  they  think  if  they 
give  themselves  to  Christ  it  will  put  an  end  to  all  their  pleasure. 

The  Eev.  Richard  F.  Bkoompield^  of  the  British  "Wesleyan 

Methodist  Church : 

I  desire  to  impress  upon  this  audience  the  great  importance  of 
Sunday  schools  taking  an  interest,  a  direct  and  practical  interest, 
in  the  employment  of  young  people,  helping  them  to  find  suitable 
employment,  and  guarding  them  in  the  early  stages  of  that  employ- 
ment. During  recent  years  I  have  had  special  facilities  in  finding 
out  why  young  people  wander  from  the  right  path;  and  I  have  been 
able  to  trace  the  early  history  of  a  large  number  of  young  offenders, 
both  in  our  own  country,  in  this  country,  and  in  many  continental 
countries.  I  find  that  the  years  of  perils  are  when  they  leave  school 
and  have  to  enter  on  the  world,  to  provide  for  themselves,  and  must 
face  life.  It  is  a  perilous  thing  for  young  people  to  be  without  em- 
ployment. They  should  pass  from  the  Sunday  school  or  the  day 
school  to  immediate  employment.  I  find  that  if  they  have  any  loose 
months  or  years  they  lose  a  great  deal  of  the  education  they  pre- 
viously obtained,  and  they  develop  habits  that  are  very  injurious. 
Who  should  take  such  care  of  the  young  people  just  at  that  crisis 
but  the  Sunday  school?  I  would  extend  the  work  of  the  Sunday 
school  to  the  safeguarding  of  those  years  in  a  young  person's  life. 
There  are  employers  connected  with  the  Church,  and  their  help 
would  be  of  the  greatest  possible  service.  Then,  it  is  necessary  that 
they  should  have  suitable  employment.  In  many  instances  the  par- 
ents do  not  know  how  to  secure  that.  It  is  possible  for  the  Sunday 
school  authorities  to  assist  in  securing  suitable  employment  for 
those  who  are  of  working  age.  That  may  not  press  upon  you  here, 
but  it  does  press  sorely  upon  us  in  the  old  country  and  in  other 
countries.  If  they  do  not  find  suitable  employment  they  take  un- 
suitable, and  that  leads  them  into  trouble.  Do  everything  you  pos- 
sibly can  in  helping  these  young  people  to  suitable  employment, 
when  they  face  men  who  are  not  wholesome,  and  have  to  earn  their 
own  living.  I  ask  one  other  thing.  I  do  not  wonder  that  young 
people  want  employment,  because  in  my  opinion  the  young  people 
in  business  are  cruelly  wronged. 

The  Rev.  E.  M.  Randall^  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church : 

I  am  the  general  secretary  of  the  Epworth  League  of  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church,  and  as  such  am  privileged  to  be  the  leader 
of  an  army  of  more  than  800,000  young  people.     (Applause.) 

The  ideal  that  we  have  before  us  is  that  it  is  our  privilege, 
through  this  army  of  young  people,  to  create  a  world-conquering 
Church  by  winning,  saving,  and  training  young  people  for  Jesus 
Christ.  Within  a  generation  Japan  was  transformed  from  one  of 
the  weakest  mediaeval  nations  into  one  of  the  great  nations.  How 
was  this  accomplished?  Her  public  schools  were  established  in 
1871.  The  boy  ten  years  of  age  that  crossed  the  threshold  of  Japan's 
first  public  school,  if  still  living,  was  forty-four  years  of  age  when 
he  joined  in  celebrating  the  victorj'^  of  his  empire  over  Russia.    By 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  523 

giving  adequate  training  and  ideals  to  the  young  men  of  Japan  when 
that  generation  entered  upon  the  scene  of  action,  and  the  older  gen- 
eration had  retired,  the  younger  generation  became  a  mighty  Japan. 

It  does  not  matter  what  our  difficulties  are  in  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  to-day.  If  we  will  occupy  the  youth  with  the  right  ideals, 
and  give  them  the  right  training  for  service,  the  .Church  of  to-mor- 
row can  do  anything.  We  have  found  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  most 
tremendous  magnet  for  attracting  the  youth  of  our  land  and  of  this 
old  world  that  has  ever  been  known. 

As  pastor  I  never  served  a  Church  where  God  did  not  give  me 
a  revival.  And  I  never  had  a  revival  of  which  the  young  people 
were  not  the  storm  center.  For  three  and  a  half  years  I  was  privi- 
leged to  be  the  pastor  of  a  league  where  the  weekly  devotional  meet- 
ing seldom  passed  without  people  being  converted.  During  more 
than  five  consecutive  months  there  was  not  one  devotional  service 
without  conversions. 

I  have  been  privileged  during  this  past  summer  to  witness  in  a 
development  that  we  call  "The  Epworth  League  Institute,"  one  thou- 
sand young  people  with  small  means  leaving  their  homes,  paying 
their  own  expenses,  and  paying  the  whole  expense  of  the  gathering, 
that  they  might  spend  an  entire  week  in  getting  near  to  God  and 
learning  how  to  serve  Him  better.  Out  of  those  institutes  are  gen- 
erated tremendous  spiritual  dynamics.  In  one  institute  a  young  lady 
came  to  me  for  advice  concerning  her  rural  chapter,  which  was 
about  as  dead  as  a  chapter  can  be.  I  explained  to  her  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  had  a  way  of  making  one  completely  surrendered  heart  a  cen- 
ter of  spiritual  life,  that  would  spread  by  a  holy  contagion,  by  which 
others  would  become  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit.  I  indicated  to  her 
a  course  of  action  by  which  this  could  certainly  be  accomplished. 
She  thought  about  it  for  twenty-four  hours,  and  the  next  morning 
came  and  said,  "I  have  praj'ed  over  it,  and  if  God  wants  me  to  be 
the  one,  I  will."  She  was  given  charge  of  the  devotional  hour  of 
her  chapter  on  the  first  Sunday  evening  after  her  return  home.  Be- 
fore she  closed  fourteen  of  those  young  people  bowed  with  her  at 
the  altar,  consecrating  themselves  to  God  to  be  or  to  do  anything 
God  wanted,  and  one  of  them  was  a  young  man  who  never  before 
had  taken  a  step  toward  the  Kingdom  of  heaven. 

At  these  institutes  hundreds  of  young  men  have  volunteered  to 
give  themselves  to  the  ministry,  and  other  hundreds  of  young  people 
have  volunteered  to  enter  the  mission  fields  and  other  special  forms 
of  Christian  work.  At  one  institute  but  one  young  man  volunteered 
for  the  ministry,  and  he  died  within  a  year.  But  after  returning 
home  he  lived  so  intensely  for  God  that  after  his  death  the  young 
people  of  that  city  voluntarily  held  a  memorial  service,  and  three 
hundred  young  people  that  his  life  had  touched  bowed  at  the  altar  at 
that  service  to  consecrate  themselves  to  live  nearer  to  God  because 
of  the  power  of  that  young  man's  life  over  them.  He  will  preach 
from  many  pulpits  instead  of  in  one. 

The  doxology  was  sung,  and  the  benediction  was  pronounced 
by  the  President. 


TENTH  DAY. 

Friday,    October    13th, 


Topic:     THE  LAYMEN'S  MOVEMENT. 


FIEST  SESSION. 

SIE  EOBT.  W.  PEEKS,  Bart.,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church,  presided,  and  the  devotional  service  was  con- 
ducted by  Mr.  Wm.  J.  Davey,  of  the  same  Church.  Hymn  454 
was  sung — 

"Soldiers  of  Christ,  arise." 

Mr.  Davey  read  Eomans  16 :  1-16,  and  offered  prayer. 

Secretary  Johnson  presented  the  report  of  the  Business 
Committee.  He  stated  that  permission  had  been  gi'anted  at  the 
meeting  of  the  Committee  hekl  last  night.  Bishop  Hamilton 
and  fourteen  members  being  present,  for  the  holding  of  an  open- 
air  meeting,  announcement  of  which  will  be  made  later. 

The  Committee  had  also  approved  of  the  holding  of  a  great 
Methodist  love-feast  and  prayer-meeting  on  Sunday  morning- 
next  in  this  Church,  at  9.30,  and  the  Secretaries  had  been  re- 
quested to  make  the  necessary  arrangements;  and  it  was 
thought  that  the  most  fitting  person  to  conduct  this  love-feast 
would  be  Dr.  Beiggs^  of  Toronto. 

On  motion  of  Secretary  Johnson,  it  was  agreed  that  tJiis 
meeting  should  be  approved  as  a  part  of  the  proceedings  of 
the  Conference,  and  that  Dr.  Briggs  be  requested  to  conduct  it. 

Mr.  Johnson  further  stated  that  a  resolution  had  come 
before  the  Committee  bearing  on  the  arbitration  treaty,  but 
that  the  Conference  had  already  taken  action  on  the  matter. 

Further,  that  they  had  had  before  them  questions  relating 
to  the  Ecumenical  Methodist  Commission,  witli  the  request  to 
consider  certain  details  that  had  not  been  filled  up  in  tlie  orig- 
inal resolution;  and  had  had  before  them  suggestions  made  by 

524 


BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS.  525 

Dr.  Henrt  Haigh  in  the  Conference  3^esterday  morning,"  and 
also  certain  written  suggestions  by  Drs.  Buckley  and  Haven 
and  certain  other  members  of  this  Conference.  He  continued: 
*'They  were  considered  very  carefully;  I  have  to  report  that  we 
have  to  suggest  some  changes  in  two  of  the  paragraphs.  May 
I  say  that  they  are  not  matters  that  touch  the  principles  in- 
volved in  these  resolutions;  hut  as  details  they  are  of  some 
importance  ?  Paragraph  3,  for  instance,  sets  forth  tlie  functions 
of  the  Commission  when  that  Commission  is  formed.  Eight 
in  the  middle  of  the  paragraph  you  have  this  as  one  of  the 
functions,  'To  promote  closer  relations  between  the  Methodist 
Churches.'  It  was  pointed  out  in  the  Committee  that  that 
might  be  misintei-preted.  It  might  carry  with  it  the  authority, 
in  promoting  those  relations,  to  interfere  with  the  domestic 
policy  of  the  difl'erent  Churches..  The  Ecumenical  Conference 
has  no  power  to  do  that.  In  the  standing  orders  on  which  we 
act  it  is  expressly  laid  down  that  we  have  no  authority  to  inter- 
fere with  the  jjolicy  of  the  different  Churches.  Our  position  in 
the  Conference  and  in  any  Committee  appointed  by  the  Con- 
ference is  a  purely  advisory  one.  In  order  to  make  that  per- 
fectly clear,  the  Business  Committee  suggest  that  instead  of 
*To  promote  closer  relations  between  them,'  the  clause  shall 
read,  'To  promote  closer  fellowship  and  co-operation  between 
them/  I  move  that  the  change  be  made  in  Paragraph  No.  3. 
In  Paragraph  'No.  4  we  find  that  in  making  provision  for  the 
appointment  of  these  Commissions  it  was  hardly  made  clear 
how  vacancies  could  be  filled  up  in  the  intervals.  The  Business 
Committee  suggest  tliat  the  addition  of  the  following  sentence 
^vill  make  it  clear:  'In  the  absence  of  any  other  provision,  and 
pending  the  constitution  of  the  permanent  Commisssion,  the 
present  Commission  shall  have  power  to  fill  up  any  vacancies.' 
I  move  that  that  sentence  be  added." 

These  motions  of  the   Secretary  were  agreed  to,  and  the 
resolutions  were  adopted  as  revised,  as  follows: 

ECUMENICAL  METHODIST  COMMISSION. 
The  Executive  Committee  of  the  Westeru   section  has   placed 
before   the   Business    Committee   a   suggestion   that   a   commission 
be  appointed  to  continue  the  Ecumenical  relations  of  the  various 


526  THE  LAYMEN'S  MOVEMENT. 

branches  of  Methodism,  and  similar  requests  have  come  from  other 
sources. 

Believing  that  the  advantages  to  our  common  Methodism  of 
the  periodical  Ecumenical  gatherings  may  be  wisely  and  helpfully 
conserved  and  extended  in  the  interims  of  the  Decennial  meetings 
by  such  a  commision  as  is  proposed,  the  Business  Committee  recom- 
mends: 

That  a  commission,  to  be  known  as  the  Ecumenical  Methodist 
Commission,  be  appointed  by  the  several  Churches,  consisting  of 
fifty  members  for  the  Eastern  section  and  fifty  members  for  the 
Western  section,  an  equitable  division  of  the  members  thereof 
to  be  made  to  the  various  Churches. 

The  two  sections  shall  unite  to  organize  a  Methodist  Inter- 
national Commission,  with  such  officers  as  may  be  thought  neces- 
sary. 

The  function  of  the  commision  shall  be  to  gather  and  exchange 
information  concerning  the  condition,  progress  and  problems  of 
the  various  Methodist  Churches,  to  promote  closer  fellowship  and 
co-operation  between  them,  to  further  great  moral  causes  affecting 
the  peace  and  welfare  of  our  respective  countries,  and  to  make 
arrangements  for  the  next  conference. 

Until  such  time  as  the  commision  shall  be  constituted  by  action 
of  the  Churches,  this  Conference  recommends  that  the  present  Ecu- 
menical Commission  serve  provisionally  and  secure  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  permanent  commission,  which  shall  serve  ten  years  and 
shall  have  power  to  act  and  to  make  report.  In  the  absence  of 
any  .further  provision,  and,  pending  the  constitution  of  the  per- 
manent commission,  the  present  commission  shall  have  power  to 
fill  any  vacancies. 

That  Dr.  Carroll  shall  be  secretary  for  the  Western  section. 

That  Dr.  Chapman  shall  be  secretary  for  the  Eastern  section. 

The  Rev.  E.  D.  Cokxish  :  "On  the  matter  of  the  resolution 
relative  to  peace,  is  there  an}''  provision  that  tliat  resolution  he 
forwarded  to  any  particular  party?" 

The  Peesident  :  "There  is  no  provision.  There  is  no  dif- 
ficulty in  forwarding  to  Washington  or  to  Sir  Edward  Grey^ 
if  so  desired." 

The  Eev.  E.  D.  Cornish:     "I  move  that  it  be  so  done." 

This  was  agreed  to. 

The  Eev.  C.  Ensor  Walters  :  "I  ask  with  reference  to  the 
report  of  the  Committee  as  to  a  meeting  in  the  open-air,  whether 
arrangements  have  been  made  by  the  Business  Committee/' 

Secretary  Johnsoi^:     "That  is  not  our  duty." 


ESSAY  OF  PROF.  S.  G.  ATKINS.  527 

The  Eev.  C.  E.  AV alters  :  "Those  of  us  from  England  who 
are  desirous  to  have  such  a  meeting  would  find  it  very  difficult 
to  make  such  arrangements.  We  do  not  know  Toronto.  We 
simply  suggested  that  as  a  great  Methodist  Assembly  it  would 
be  most  desirable  to  have  some  open-air  demonstration." 

Secretary  Johxsox  :  "As  tliere  is  a  Local  Committee,  it 
will  be  best  to  commit  the  matter  to  them." 

It  was  moved,  seconded,  and  voted  that  the  out-door  arrange- 
ments be  committed  to  the  Local  Committee,  with  the  request 
to  arrange  the  meeting,  if  possible. 

Prof.  S.  G.  Atkins,  Ph.  D.,  of  the  African  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Zion  Church,  presented  the  essay  of  the  morning,  on  "The 
Laymen's  Movement :" 

The  Laymen's  Movement  is  no  less  interesting  in  its  historic 
antecedents  than  in  its  genesis  and  remarkable  growth — and  these 
will  undoubtedly  be  overmatched  by   its  future   achievements. 

From  the  most  ancient  times  God  has  teen  speaking  directly 
to  men,  and  when  He  has  spoken  through  mediums  it  has  seemed 
to  be  in  the  nature  of  an  accommodation.  ¥/henever  people  have 
not  themselves  heard  God's  voice  they  have  lost  the  sense  of  respon- 
sibility, and  wandered  in  spite  of  their  priests. 

The  responses  of  the  God-called  from  time  immemorial  have 
represented  a  tendency  back  to  the  supernatural  center.  Every 
great  religious  movement  of  the  world  forward  and  upward  has 
been  a  sort  of  Laymen's  Movement.  The  world's  great  religious 
leaders  have  all  been  followers  of  the  "light  within,"  and  have 
recognized  no  necessary  intermediarj^  between  them  and  God — 
and  the  greatest  and  most  uplifting  impulses  of  the -world  have 
been  away  from  the  domination  of  priestcraft. 

These  leaders  all  stood,  and  have  stood,  upon  Luther's  defiant 
but  unshaken  platform  that  "The  true  Church  is  the  communion 
of  true  believers,  and  every  lay  member  who  holds  to  the  Holy  Scrip- 
ture is  more  to  be  believed  than  Popes  and  councils  who  do  not 
hold  to  it."  There  is  no  purpose  here  to  invalidate  the  significance 
or  the  authority  of  the  Church,  nor  is  there  any  purpose  on  my  part 
to  detract  from  the  God-called  ministrj\  I  am  only  suggesting  that 
the  evolution  of  Christendom  as  seen  in  the  Reformation  and  other 
great  reform  movements,  which  were  in  a  sense  the  birth  throes 
of  our  modern  world,  was,  in  its  essential  and  extensive  quality, 
non-priestly  and  of  the  people,  of  the  lay  people,  as  they  themselves 
or  their  representatives  were  moved  to  follow  and  obey  the  voice  of 
God.    Huss  and  Luther,  Calvin  and  Knox,  George  Fox  and  John  Wes- 


528  THE  LAYMEN'S  MOVEMENT. 

ley  all  became  obnoxious  to  the  established  religious  orders  of  their 
times,  and  thus,  by  voluntary  or  involuntary  separation,  became 
to  all  intents  and  purposes  leaders  of  great  lay  movements.  It  is 
not  because  of  their  departure  from  the  ecclesiastical  formalities  of 
the  day,  or  because  they  and  their  followers  thus  became  aliens 
and  separatists,  that  they  are  mentioned  here,  but  because  of  the 
distribution  of  religious  effort,  although  in  a  sense  an  enforced 
distribution,  which  attended  the  great  movements  thus  inaugurated 
— because  with  the  loosening  of  the  grip  of  priest  and  pope,  and 
with  the  throwing  off  of  priestly  domination  and  ecclesiastical 
oppression,  history  shows  the  result  to  have  been  an  ever-widening 
area  of  religious  activity  among  the  people  themselves.  And 
hence,  with  the  evolution  of  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church, 
perhaps  better,  with  the  evolution  of  medieval  and  modern  world 
history,  from  the  period  of  the  Reformation  and  the  Renaissance 
to  the  time  of  the  Puritan  and  the  Dissenter,  including  the  activities 
of  the  immortal  sponsors  of  these  areas,  from  Huss  and  Luther 
.down  to  the  acknowledged  religious  teachers  of  the  present  cen- 
tury, we  have  the  prophecy  of  this  great  movement  which  claims 
our  attention  to-day. 

The  Laymen's  Movement  was  born  in  a  prayer  meeting,  and 
it  is  interesting  to  note  that  it  was  born  on  the  occasion  of  the  one 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  Haystack  prayer  meeting.  How 
strikingly  significant  that  most  of  the  evangelical  world-saving 
movements  were  born  at  the  mercy  seat.  We  at  once  recall  the 
"Holy  Club"  at  Oxford,  because  of  whose  strict  habits  and  un- 
common piety  our  founders  were  designated  as  "Methodists," 
though  in  derision.  We  recall  also  that  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association  and  the  Christian  Endeavor  Society  had  almost 
a  similar  beginning,  except  the  derision.  Wesleyanism,  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association,  and  the  Christian  Endeavor  Society 
have  all  been  essentially  laymen's  movements.  It  has  been  some- 
where suggested  that  one  of  the  best  evidences  of  the  inspiration 
of  the  Scriptures  is  that  they  afford  inspiration  to  those  who  read 
them.  It  may  also  be  a  fair  scientific  assum.ption  that  the  presence 
of  life,  especially  when  that  life  is  militant  and  abundant,  signifies 
that  it  is  not  far  to  the  source  of  that  life.  Has  not  such  indeed 
been  true  of  these  great  evangelical  movements?  They  have 
been  attended  with  such  unmistakable  manifestations  of  the  Divine 
presence,  as  portrayed  in  our  Holy  Bible,  that  the  conviction  that 
these  movements  are  divine  is  irresistible.  How  true  has  this 
been  of  the  Laymen's  Movement!  Let  us  study  it  briefly  in  certain 
significant  particulars : 

1.  It  has  re-discovered  the  laity  as  in  fact  the  constituent 
element  of  the  Church,  and  that  perhaps  men  constitute  the  more 
important  portion  of  that   element.     The  testimony   of  a  reliable 


ESSAY  OF  PROF.  S.  G.  ATKINS.  529 

witness  is  that  "the  Church  had  largely  lost  its  laj'men,  and  lay- 
men as  largely  had  lost  the  Church." 

It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that  women  represent  a 
preponderating  majority  of  the  membership  of  the  Churches,  and 
that  men  have  been  drifting  away  from  the  Church, — and  thus 
the  Church  has  been  losing  in  a  large  and  increasing  measure 
the  very  strength  it  most  needs  in  the  militant  process  by  which 
it  is  to  work  out  its  great  mission.  How  fitting  and  opportune, 
then,  that  a  group  of  Christian  laymen  should  confer  in  prayer 
because  they  had  become  sensible  that  those  whom  they  repre- 
sented and  the  Church  were  practically  lost  to  each  other!  The 
remarkable  growth  of  the  movement  is  but  evidence  of  the  divine 
approval,  and  but  emphasizes  the  thought  put  somewhere  in  strik- 
ing epigram  that  this  movement  is  an  "inspiration  and  not  an 
administration."  No  more  convincing  evidence  of  this  could  be 
furnished  than  in  the  series  of  notable  conventions  held  last  year, 
and  this,  wherein  probably  more  than  100,000  men  were  affected, 
and  an  extraordinary  measure  of  attention  elicited  from  the  Church 
at  large  and  from  the  country. 

2.  The  oneness  of  Christ's  Church  has  been  tremendously 
stressed.  I  have  alluded  to  the  conventions.  I  wish  especially 
to  mention  their  inter-denominational  character.  They  were  mag- 
nificent  demonstrations   of   the   saci'ed    poet's   grand    conception — 

"The  Church's  one  foundation 
Is  Jesus  Christ  her  Lord." 

This  unity  of  effort  of  Christian  men  is  to  my  mind  the  most 
significant  fact  about  the  Laymen's  Movement.  This  movement 
is  presenting  to  the  non-christian  world  a  convincing  though  be- 
lated sign  of  Christian  solidarity.  Nothing  could  have  been  more 
profoundly  impressive  to  non-christian  peoples  than  a  recent  world 
itinerary  of  a  distinguished  group  of  Christian  laymen.  At  the 
suggestion  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Laymen's  Missionary 
Movement,  a  party  of  sixty  business  men,  representing  the  evan- 
gelical Churches,  not  long  ago  at  their  own  expense  made  a  tour 
of  investigation  of  the  foreign  mission  fields  of  the  world.  This 
tour  was  made,  not  because  of  any  question  in  their  minds  as  to 
the  claims  and  work  of  the  missionaries;  but,  while  really  in- 
vestigating and  finding  the  facts  regarding  the  vicarious  life  and 
efficient  labors  of  the  missionaries,  to  demonstrate  the  quickened 
interest  of  the  Christian  people  of  this  continent  in  the  salvation 
of  the  people  of  the  world.  More  than  anything  else,  it  seems  to 
me,  in  the  history  of  modern  Christianity,  this  joint  itinerary 
demonstrated  a  united  purpose  of  the  Christian  Church  in  regard 
to  the  religious  welfare  of  the  non-Christian  world. 

3.  The  more  definite  concrete  results  of  the  movement  should 
S4 


530  THE  LAYMEN'S  MOVEMENT 

be  noted.  An  interesting  fact  in  connection  with  the  activities  of 
othei'  large  evangelical  auxiliaries  of  the  Church  has  been  the  re- 
sultant effect  upon  the  Churches  themselves.  The  concrete  results 
of  the  Laymen's  Movement  are  even  more  noteworthy. 

(a)  The  educational  effect  upon  Church  membership,  especially 
the  contributing  portion  of  the  membership,  has  come  visibly  into 
evidence.  The  movement  has  been  a  sort  of  continuous  campaign 
of  education  and  training. 

(b)  The  habit  of  prayer  has  been  Inculcated  among  strong 
men  for  the  saving  of  men,  and  a  notable  effect  of  this  is  to  be 
seen  in  the  Men  and  Religion  Movement,  now  assuming  such  splen- 
did proportions  in  the  United  States. 

(c)  System  and  method  have  been  the  outgrowth  of  the  studies 
and  discussions  in  the  great  conventions,  especially  as  to  the 
raising  of  money  for  missionary  purposes,  which  has  resulted  in 
an  almost  startling  increase  in  missionary  contributions. 

(d)  I  think  I  see  also,  as  a  result  of  this  movement,  a  reassur- 
ing illustration  of  the  idea,  though  not  uqw  and  variously  phrased, 
that  life  and  prayer  should  be  in  accord;  that  we  shall  have  a 
better  praying  man  because  he  works  as  he  prays,  and  a  better 
working  man  because  he  prays  as  he  works.  This  is  the  spirit 
of  prayer  which  begets  the  spirit  of  consecration  and  co-operation. 

(e)  There  may  be  noted  as  another  concrete  result  a  splendid 
quickening  of  the  activities  of  the  Churches  in  regard  to  their  local 
and  domestic  interests.  While  perhaps  the  chief  object  of  this 
movement  was  and  is  "To  devise  a  comprehensive  plan  looking 
toward  the  evangelization  of  the  world  in  this  generation,"  it  is 
a  fact  borne  out  by  reliable  statistics  that  in  whatever  Church  or 
denomination  the  Laymen's  Movement  has  become  rooted,  with 
the  consequent  adoption  of  the  plans  and  suggestions  of  the  move- 
ment, there  has  come  into  the  affairs  of  such  Church  or  denomina- 
tion new  spiritual  life,  resulting  in  large  financial  gains  for  local 
work  and  home  missions.  The  movement  has  also  developed  un- 
doubtedly the  best  interdenominational  working  basis.  We  have 
here  an  arrangement  which,  without  requiring  the  slightest  aban- 
donment of  denominational  integrity,  exhibits  the  greatest  known 
progress  in  missionary  endeavor  and  support. 

(f)  Another  concrete  result,  a  result  no  less  concrete  because 
perhaps  farther  from  our  line  of  vision,  will  manifest  itself  in  the 
enheartening  and  encouragement  of  the  missionaries  themselves 
on  the  field.  When  we  would  discover  the  most  laborious,  the  least 
self-indulgent,  the  most  altruistic,  and  the  most  heroic  demonstra- 
tion of  human  interest  in  human  kind,  it  seems  to  me  that  it  is 
not  to  be  found  amid  the  stimulating  environments  of  civilization, 
nor  on  the  gory  battlefield  where  excitement  and  martial  music 
make  the  nerves  tingle  and  the  heart  throb,  but,  rather,  in  the 


ESSAY  OF  PROF.  S.  G.  ATKINS.  531 

expatriation  and  in  the  long-drawn-out  experiences  of  the  lonely 
and  almost  forgotten  child  of  God  on  the  distant  mission  fields. 
"Scarcelj'  for  a  righteous  man  will  one  die;"  "Peradventure  for 
a  good  man  some  would  even  dare  to  die,"  or  for  one's  country- 
men, or  kindred, — aye,  for  one's  country.  But  the  missionary 
hesitates  not,  and  is  found  in  lands  far  away  from  home  and  kin- 
dred and  friends,  in  lands  inhospitable  and  full  of  death;  there 
he  or  she  is  found  with  never  a  word  of  complaint,  with  only  a 
desire  to  serve  God  by  serving  humanity,  and  with  a  readiness  to 
die,  if  need  be,  for  tliose  who  are  yet  sinners.  It  is  quite  within 
the  reasonable  and  natural  that  they  now  and  then  should  scan 
the  horizon  for  the  sight'  of  some  reinforcement,  that  they  should 
at  times  listen  for  the  sound  of  friendly  footsteps  or  singing  in 
the  distance.  Thank  God,  the  waiting  is  not  to  be  as  long  as  it 
has  been,  and  this  movement  means  that  the  volume  of  singing 
by  the  relief  corps  is  increasing  and  coming  nearer! 

(g)  The  last  concrete  result  of  the  Laymen's  Movement  which 
I  am  led  to  mention  is  the  rapidly  crystallizing  sentiment  for  uni- 
versal peace.  May  we  not  hope  that  the  pending  arbitration  treaties 
between  the  mother  country  and  the  United  States,  and  between 
the  great  Republic  of  the  Old  World  and  her  elder  sister  of  the 
New,  shall  be  the  fruition  of  this  sentiment,  and  shall  hasten  the 
time  foreseen  by  Tennyson: 

"Till  the  war  drum  throbs  no  longer,  and  the  battle-flags  are  furled 
In  the  Parliament  of  man,  the  Federation  of  the  world?" 

I  have  spoken  of  the  historic  antecedents  and  of  the  remarkable 
scope  and  results  of  the  Laymen's  Movement, — but,  as  suggested  in 
the  outset,  I  believe  that  these  will  be  overmatched  by  its  future 
achievements.  I  stand  on  this  platform  as  a  delegate  of  one  of 
the  religious  denominations  of  the  Negro  people.  Unfortunately, 
the  Laymen's  Movement  has  scarcely  touched  the  denominations 
whose  membership  is  chiefly  African.  Of  the  group  of  Churches 
with  which  I  am  identified,  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
is  the  only  one  that  has  given  this  movement  any  consideration. 

There  is  perhaps  a  minor  and  a  major  reason  why  the  colored 
denominations  have  thus  far  been  so  little  affected  by  the  Laj'- 
men's  Movement.  The  first  reason,  which  I  undertake  to  call  the 
minor  one,  might  by  some  be  styled  "race  prejudice."  I  do  not 
think  such  a ,  designation  is  correct.  It  strikes  me  as  too  harsh 
a  term  to  be  used  in  trying  to  give  the  motive  for  the  trend  of 
things  in  this  connection.  If  there  may  be  back  of  the  motive  an 
"occasion"  of  the  motive,  I  would  rather  grant  that  race  prejudice 
is  the  "occasion"  of  this  trend  of  things.  But  the  motive  here 
suggested  I  think  may  be  best  expressed  as  the  habit  of  forgetting 
the  Negro  race,  or  excluding  the  Negro  race,  that  has  silently  and 


532  THE  LAYMEN'S  MOVEMENT. 

perhaps  imperceptibly  come  over  our  wliite  brottier  in  the  South, 
where  the  main  strength  of  the  colored  denominations  is  found. 
This  has  come  to  be  the  habit  of  our  more  fortunate  brethren 
in  almost  every  matter  of  a  public  nature,  even  though  a  religious 
matter.  Wherever  there  is  a  sign,  "men"  or  "women,"  displayed 
it  generally  means  "white  men,"  "white  women."  When  there  is 
over  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  doors,  or  doors  of  other  religious  centers, 
"all  men  welcome,"  or  "strangers  welcome,"  we  know  that  it  means 
"all  white  men  welcome,"  "white  strangers  welcome," — and  this 
habit  extends  throughout  the  entire  category  of  matters  relating, 
as  one  might  think,  to  the  public  at  large.  It  is  a  sort  of  social 
phenomenon  rather  than  an  evidence  of  race  prejudice.  It  is 
exclusive,  of  course,  and  smacks  of  race  prejudice,  but  it  does  not 
generally  mean  lack  of  interest  in  humanity  so  much  as  a  habit 
of  not  including  colored  humanity.  This  is  what  I  term  the  minor 
reason  why  the  Laymen's  Movement,  like  most  other  great  educa- 
tional and  religious  movements  in  the  section  of  the  United  States 
largely  occupied  by  the  Negro  people,  has  not  reached  the  brother 
in  black.  But  I  rather  think  the  major  reason  why  this  movement 
has  not  reached  my  people  is  to  be  found  elsewhere.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  this  is  a  new  movement  among  all  people.  It 
may  not,  then,  be  considered  especially  striking  when  I  give  as 
the  major  reason  under  this  head,  lack  of  an  impelling  missionary 
consciousness  among  the  Negroes  themselves;  certainly  I  do  not 
mean  that  this  consciousness  is  entirely  absent,  for  the  colored 
Methodist  Churches,  considering  their  history  and  limited  means, 
have  done  and  are  doing  a  remarkable  missionary  work.  It  can 
not  be  expected  that  a  people  whose  religion  rests  largely  in  emo- 
tion, mainly  because  of  a  condition  growing  out  of  a  long  period 
of  slavery  and  lack  of  opportunity,  could  have  a  very  deep  founda- 
tion for  its  religious  life,  or  an  adequate  foundation  for  missionary 
endeavor.  I  think  it  will  not  be  questioned  that  the  great  and 
often  rare  principle  of  altruism  which  impels  to  a  complete  sacri- 
fice of  self  for  others  is  the  outgrowth  of  training  and  is  founded 
in  intelligence  and  culture.  I  am  not  now  considering  the  spiritual 
element.  This,  of  course,  must  be  the  basic  and  propelling  influ- 
ence in  all  good  work,  and  I  think  the  colored  people  have  a  fair 
share  of  that.  But  the  members  of  the  colored  Methodist  Churches 
for  the  most  part  have  not  had  the  training  and  culture  which 
would  make  them  equal  to  these  great  altruistic  responsibilities. 
The  authority  of  the  Scriptures  and  of  the  Church  is  unquestionably 
at  high  par  among  them,  but  it  still  remains  for  this  deeper  and 
broader  cultural  work  to  be  done.  And  as  this  work  progresses 
in  the  cultivation  and  enlightenment  of  the  Negro  race,  this  race 
will  promptly  and  effectively  grasp  the  opportunity  offered  by  the 
Laymen's  Movement  to  give  enlightenment  and  salvation  to  an  ever- 
increasing  area  of  their  people  at  home  and  abroad. 


ADDRESS  BY  MR.  NORMAN  T.  C.  SARGANT.  533 

The  iirst  invited  address,  on  "Laymen  and  Home  Evan- 
gelization," was  given  by  Mr.  Xorjian"  T.  C.  Sargant,  of  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Church: 

There  has  been  stalking  through  this  Conference  the  ghost  of 
an  unholy  and  unchristian  pessimism.  I  feel  constrained  in  intro- 
ducing this  topic  to  advance  the  opinion,  which  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  controvert,  that  there  was  never  a  time  when  the  world 
was  better  than  it  is  to-day;  that  niever  was  there  more  of  the 
spii'it  of  Christ  among  the  people;  that  never  was  evil  more  frowned 
upon;  that  never  was  the  Church  more  effective  than  it  is  to-day. 
The  good  old  times  is  one  of  thje  biggest  frauds  ever  perpetrated 
on  the  human  race;  there  were  no  good  old  times:  they  are  now, 
in  this  year  of  grace  1911.  But  I  am  also  ready  to  assert  this, 
that  if  the  Church  is  to  keep  pace  with  the  times  and  to  lead 
them,  rather  than  be  led,  she  must  wake  up.  I  am  not  prepared 
to  assert  that  all  is  well  with  the  Church,  but  Christ  is  the  living 
Christ  and  He  shall  reign  forever  and  ever — of  His  ultimate  triumph 
through  His  Church  there  can  be  no  doubt. 

The  topic  immediately  suggests  difficulties  to  an  audience  like 
this;  what  is  home  to  me  is  foreign  to  many  of  you,  but  I  think 
we  are  here  to  discuss  the  topic  of  winning  for  Christ  those  who 
are  in  close  proximity  to  our  organized  Churches.  Reference  has 
already  been  made  to  the  influx  of  new  peoples  which  give  this 
home  missionary  topic  almost  the  aspect  of  foreign  missionary 
work.  Our  friends  in  the  States  deserve  the  sympathy  and  help 
of  world-wide  Methodism  in  their  great  task.  I  want  to  remark 
at  the  outset  that  the  position  and  activity  of  the  laity  in  the 
Church  is  a  very  important  indication  of  its  vitality  and  its  fidelity 
to  evangelical  truth. 

Looking  at  the  various  sections  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  we  find 
at  one  end  of  the  scale  the  little  Society  of  Friends,  in  vv^hich  all  ai'e 
laymen.  At  the  other  we  find  the  great  Roman  Catholic  Church,  in 
which  the  lay  element  regarded  as  actively  engaged  in  spiritual 
service  is  almost  entirely  eliminated.  One  can  hardly  be  in  doubt 
as  to  which,  in  proportion  to  its  numbers,  exercises  the  most 
powerful  influence  in  the  world  to-day  for  righteousness  and  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  Methodism  has  always  stood  high  up  at  the 
right  end  of  the  scale,  and  we  should  view  with  profound  dis- 
quietude any  falling  away  from  its  old  traditions  in  this  respect. 

Let  me  try  to  indicate  some  of  the  conditions  which  render  lay 
service  possible  and  beneficial.  (1)  The  Church  must  preach  a 
gospel  which  grips  the  heart  and  intellect  of  its  own  members  and 
those  who  are  outsiders.  The  thought  with  which  I  came  to  this 
Conference  was  this:  Is  our  Methodist  presentation  of  the  gospel 
of  Christ  gripping  the  world:  is  it?  Let  every  man  who  preaches 
or  teaches  ask  himself  this  question.     If  it  isn't,  I  believe  the 


534  THE  LAYMEN'S  MOVEMENT. 

fault  is  in  the  presentation  of  the  gospel,  not  in  the  world.  For 
many  years  I  have  taught  a  class  of  boys  in  the  Sunday  school 
and  have  had  my  fair  proportion  of  unruly  lads.  At  first  I  always 
felt  like  kicking  the  boy  for  his  unruliness;  to-day  I  feel  like 
kicking  myself  for  my  incapacity  as  a  teacher.  Let  us  as  a  Church 
look  to  our  presentation  of  the  gospel. 

During  th'e  last  three  or  four  decades  there  has  been  an  advance 
in  knowledge  and  civilization  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  the 
world:  has  our  presentation  of  the  gospel  advanced  in  life  manner? 
It  is  not  enough  to  hold  our  own;  we  may  drag  along  with  a  pro- 
fessional organization,  but  to  carry  the  laymen  with  it  our  Church 
must  possess  a  gripping  and  conquering  gospel. 

(2)  The  call  to  our  laymen  must  be  not  merely  a  financial  one 
or  an  administrative  one,  not  so  much  a  serving  of  tables  as  a  call 
to  spiritual  service.  Laymen  are  not  milch  cows  to  be  drained 
regularly  for  contributions  to  the  cost  of  Church  work.  They  must 
be  associated  in  spiritual  work  and  service.  If  lay  service  in  the 
Church  gets  thrust  into  the  background,  it  will  be  the  beginning 
of  the  end  of  religion  as  Methodism.  One  of  the  worst  results 
of  recent  religious  legislation  has  been  in  some  places  to  paralyze 
and  dethrone  the  class  meeting  and  thereby  limit  the  service  of 
large  multitudes  of  men  and  women  who  would  as  leaders  have 
been  a  power  in  the  Church.  There  is  a  similar  tendency  as  to 
local  preachers.  Do  n't  forget  that  cities  set  the  fashion  to  the 
country,  and  let  us  abjure  the  terrible  idea  that  it  is  better  to 
have  no  minister  at  all  than  a  local  preacher. 

Let  us  now  look  at  the  problem  confronting  us  and  inquire 
what  the  laymen  can  do  to  win  the  population  around  them  for 
Christ.  I  have  already  referred  to  the  vast  influx  of  new  peoples, 
and  this  is  forming  to-day  one  of  the  subtlest  dangers  to  our 
Christianity.  Into  the  home  countries,  the  nominally  Christian 
countries  of  the  world,  are  coming  multitudes  who  have  little  or 
no  idea  of  vital  religion,  many  indeed  anti-christian,  and  who 
are  upsetting  what  should  be  the  predominating  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity. It  seems  to  me  that  from  an  outside  point  of  view  the 
strategic  point  of  the  life  and  opinion  of  to-day  is  the  press.  Has 
the  Christian  faith  of  to-day  an  adequate  expression  in  the  press? 
I  have  little  sympathy  with  the  attacks  that  have  been  made  from 
time  to  time  on  the  press.  My  own  feeling  is  that  never  was  the 
tone  of  the  press  higher  than  to-day;  its  influence  for  purity  of  life 
and  straight  dealing  and  clean  living  was  never  greater.  Neverthe- 
less what  we  want  to  evangelize  the  masses  is  the  presentation  of 
views  from  a  spiritually  Christian  standpoint.  Although  it  is  said 
that  the  press  reflects  public  opinion  (undoubtedly  it  does),  but  it 
also  molds  and  colors  people's  view;  and  very  many  people's  politics 
are  solely  the  politics  of  their  favorite  paper.  Much  of  the  mate- 
rialism of  to-day  is  due  to  the  perhaps  inevitable  materialism  of  the 


ADDRESS  BY  MR.  NORMAN  T.  C.  SARGANT.  535 

press.  Is  it  asking  too  much  of  the  laymen,  with  their  enormous 
resources  on  which  you,  Sir  Robert,  are  a  great  authority,  to  give 
the  spiritual  side  of  life,  which  after  all  does  mold  conduct  and  life, 
some  adequate  expression? 

My  next  point  is  that  it  is  becoming  increasingly  necessary  to 
form  what  I  should  term  a  "campaign  fund"  for  aggressive  work 
In  new  large  centers  of  population.  In  this  problem  money  is  an 
essential  factor. 

Given  a  sudden  influx  of  thousands  of  new  population  to  a  new 
neighborhood,  perhaps  of  artisans  to  a  new  industry  or  miners  to  a 
new  mining  region  or  a  new  influx  of  immigrants,  who  is  to  start  the 
Church?  Money  must  be  found.  The  devil  finds  it  for  the  drink 
shops:  he  makes  a  splendid  profit  financially,  too,  and  so  should  we; 
but  our  gain  would  lie  in  souls,  not  in  cash.  "We  are  often  too  petty 
In  our  financial  demands.  We  need  to  strike  the  imagination  of  our 
people.  I  merely  note,  in  passing,  the  work  of  laymen  in  our  Sunday 
schools.  What  a  mighty  work  the  laymen  are  doing  in  the  Church! 
Is  it  adequately  recognized?    Whei'e  would  the  Church  be  without  it? 

I  want  to  refer  to  open-air  work.  In  England,  when  a  political 
contest  is  in  the  wind,  all  the  parties  turn  out  into  the  open  air; 
in-door  meetings  are  the  resort  of  people  who  are  already  converted, 
but  elections  are  often  won  in  the  open  air.  I  want  to  appeal  to  the 
highest  and  most  educated  type  of  laymen  to  respond  to  this  work. 
Why  should  the  witness  to  Christ  in  the  open  air  always  be  borne 
by  the  least  educated  and  least  influential? 

Then  sane  evangelization  demands  that  Christian  laymen  should 
interest  themselves  in  civic  and  political  life.  I  do  n't  lay  any  em- 
phasis on  this  or  form  any  undue  expectation;  but  I  just  say  it  is 
our  duty  to  help  the  poor  woman  whose  husband  was  addicted  to 
drink,  and  who  said  that,  although  she  could  get  her  old  man  past 
two  public  houses  on  his  way  home,  she  could  n't  manage  it  with 
fourteen.  I  appeal  to  the  laymen  and  women  to  become  class  lead- 
ers. Many  of  our  young  men  and  women  could  become  successful 
leaders  if  they  were  encouraged,  and  no  field  is  more  fruitful  than 
this  in  strengthening  the  Church. 

Then,  laymen  must  be  responsible  for  the  temperature  in  the 
Church.  Warmth  in  the  spiritual  life  of  a  Church  always  attracts, 
and  the  most  fervent  minister  will  soon  be  cooled  down  by  an  icy 
congregation.  My  mind  goes  back  to  an  incident  which  occurred 
soon  after  the  opening  of  one  of  our  churches  in  the  Highgate  Cir- 
cuit. It  had  just  been  opened,  and  the  chilly  days  were  setting  in, 
and  on  the  first  evening  that  the  heating  apparatus  was  used  it 
did  not  work  well.  The  society  steward  was  equal  to  the  occasion. 
With  his  coat  off  he  was  in  the  furnace-room  stoking  the  stove, 
while  the  preacher  was  in  the  pulpit  preaching  the  gospel.  It  is 
a  parable;    let  us  take  it  to  heart 


536  THE  LAYMEN'S  MOVEMENT. 

Mr.  Richard  Lee,  of  the  Independent  Methodist  Church, 
presented  the  second  invited  address,  on  "The  Priesthood  of 
the  People:" 

The  Apostle  Peter,  writing  to  the  Churches  of  Asia  Minor — ^not 
to  any  one  order,  such  as  ministers,  deacons,  or  evangelists,  but  to 
the  ordinary  members,  Jews  and  Gentiles,  male  and  female — speaks 
of  them  as  a  royal  priesthood. 

For  he  says:  "Ye  also,  as  lively  stones,  are  built  up  a  spiritual 
house,  an  holy  priesthood,  to  offer  up  spiritual  sacrifices,  acceptable 
to  God  by  Jesus  Christ."     (1  Peter  2:5.) 

When  Peter  wrote  these  words  it  Is  quite  evident  that  he  had 
his  eye  upon  the  great  temple  at  Jerusalem,  which  was  esteemed 
and  honored  by  the  whole  Jewish  race.  He  not  only  thought  of  the 
building  as  a  whole,  but  also  the  separate  stones,  each  having 
passed  under  the  builder's  eye.  Aiid  then,  by  a  bold  venture  of  the 
imagination,  he  thought  of  these  stones  as  endued  with  life. 

Notice  the  apparent  incongruity;  for  what  is  so  dead  as  a  stone? 
Yet  Peter  speaks  of  lively  stones.  Let  us  try  and  find  out  what  is  in 
his  mind. 

Is  it  not  this,  think  you,  that  if  the  stones  of  the  temple  could 
really  know  what  they  were,  and  the  purpose  they  served,  how  to- 
gether they  constituted  the  most  magnificent  building  ever  reared 
in  their  beloved  country,  and  reared  for  the  highest  purposes;  viz., 
the  worship  of  the  Lord  Jehovah;  then  they  would  rejoice  in  the 
honor  done  to  them  in  bringing  them  from  the  quarry  and  shaping 
them  and  fashioning  them  and  devoting  them  to  such  noble  use? 

Then  thinking  of  a  living  temple  made  of  men  and  women,  he 
says,  "Ye  also,  as  lively  stones,  are  built  up  a  spiritual  house."  And 
if  we  truly  realize  'that,  as  lively  stones,  we  are  a  part  of  Christ's 
world-wide  spiritual  temple,  even  His  Church,  then  we  shall  value 
our  place  at  the  very  highest  and  do  our  utmost  to  adorn  it. 

The  Church  is  composed  of  Christ's  disciples:  "a  royal  priest- 
hood, an  holy  nation,  a  peculiar  people;"  and  it  embraces  all  His 
followers,  however  numerous  or  scattered,  or  separated  into  distinct 
congregations. 

Spiritual  sacrifices  which  Christians  are  to  offer  are:  their  bodies, 
souls,  affections,  prayers,   praises,  alms,   and  other  duties. 

Dr.  Parker,  speaking  of  the  ministry  and  the  priesthood,  says  we 
are  all  ministers;  there  are  speaking  ministers,  and  giving  minis- 
ters, and  sick-visiting  ministers,  and  quiet,  sympathetic  ministers. 
We  are  all  the  Lord's  prophets,  but  are  only  in  the  apostolic  suc- 
cession so  long  as  we  adhere  to  the  apostolic  spirit.  Apostolicity  is 
not  an  order,  but  a  spirit. 

We  are  all  the  Lord's  priests,  but  we  are  only  in  the  holy  royal 
priesthood  so  long  as  we  are  offering  spiritual  sacrifices:  doing  kind 


ADDRESS  BY  MR.  RICHARD  LEE.  537 

deeds  for  Christ.  Priesthood  has  no  standing  but  In  holiness  and 
in  the  sanctification  of  the  will  and  heart  and  the  total  sacrifice  of 
the  man  to  God;  and  thus  we  maintain  the  priesthood  of  believers. 
"When  we  read  of  the  priesthood  of  the  people  in  the  New  Testament, 
and  the  sacrifices  they  are  to  offer,  we  must  remember  it  is  not 
what  it  was  in  the  old  order.  The  official  priest  was  disestablished 
when  the  Christian  Chui'ch  was  founded,  because  no  longer  did 
lambs  and  oxen  need  to  be  slain,  the  time  for  such  sacrifices  having 
passed  away. 

The  old  sacrifice  involved  the  taking  of  life;  the  new  Christian 
sacrifice  involves  the  using  of  life.  The  term  "sacrifice"  is  often 
used  in  a  secondary  or  metaphorical  sense  and  applied  to  the  good 
work  of  believers — such  as,  "To  do  good  and  communicate,  forget 
not;  for  with  such  sacrifices  God  is  well  pleased."  "I  beseech 
you  by  the  mercies  of  God  that  ye  present  your  bodies  a  living 
sacrifice,  holy  and  acceptable  to  God,  which  is  your  reasonable 
service."  A  service  rendered  by  the  reason;  intelligent;  self- 
dedication;  the  spiritual  in  opposition  to  the  carnal;  a  living  sacri- 
fice, in  contrast  with  the  dead  victims  under  the  law. 

The  priests  of  the  New  Testament  are  simply  ordinary  followers 
of  Christ,  and  the  sacrifices  they  offer  are  not  material,  but  spiritual. 

But  God  has  said.  The  blood  of  goats,  the  flesh  of  rams,  I  will 
not  prize;  a  contrite  heart,  an  humble  thought,  are  Mine  accepted 
sacrifice. 

What  are  spiritual  sacrifices?  Every  longing  and  aspiration  of 
the  soul  after  righteousness  and  lovableness  of  character  is  a  spir- 
itual sacrifice.  Every  prayer  coming  from  a  true  heart,  whether 
offered  privately  or  in  association  with  others.  Every  kind  thought 
and  every  kind  deed  which  springs  from  it;  every  service,  however 
small,  done  in  Christ's  name  and  for  His  sake,  is  a  spiritual  sacrifice. 
A  cup  of  water  given  as  Christ  desired;  the  widow's  mite  bestowed 
in  real  charity,  is  a  spiritual  sacrifice.  The  child,  moved  by  pity  for 
the  heathen,  who  puts  his  penny  in  the  missionary  box  instead  of 
spending  it  upon  himself,  offers  a  spiritual  sacrifice,  as  well  as  the 
missionary  who  gives  his  life  to  the  cause.  There  may  be  a  differ- 
ence of  degree,  but  the  same  spirit.  The  good  woman  who  sympa- 
thizes with  her  neighbor  who  is  unwell  and  not  able  to  do  her  own 
housework,  goes  in  and  does  her  week's  washing  for  her — she  is 
offering  a  beautiful  spiritual  sacrifice  amid  the  steam  of  a  wash- 
house.  Every  act  and  every  deed  that  has  in  it  the  spirit  of  Christ 
is  a  spiritual  sacrifice.  The  fruit  of  the  Christian  spirit  is  not  self- 
indulgence,  but  self-sacrifice.  A  millionaire  once  said  to  Lyman 
Abbott,  "A  millionaire  rarely  laughs;  we  do  not  get  our  pleasure 
from  what  we  possess."  We  get  our  pleasure  from  the  service  we 
render.  We  find  our  real  life  not  in  the  things  we  gain,  nor  in  the 
things  we  possess,  but  in  the  things  we  give  up.     In  Africa  some 


538  THE  LAYMEN^S  MOVEMENT. 

Englishmen  who  went  out  to  shoot  lions  and  elephants  spoke  to  Dr. 
Livingstone  about  his  self-sacrifice.  Livingstone  turned  to  them  and 
said,  "Do  n't  you  fellows  think  I  can  find  as  much  pleasure  in  doing 
good  to  men  and  women  as  you  do  in  killing  lions  and  elephants?" 
In  the  spiritual  world  w*  grow  more  upon -what  we  give  than  upon 
what  we  receive. 

When  Whittier  was  a  little  boy  of  seven  he  was  taken  by  his 
mother  to  see  a  girl  v/ho  had  wandered  far  into  sin  and  was  very 
ill.  The  boy  noticed  how  his  mother  addressed  her.  "My  dear," 
she  said,  and  she  gave  her  food  and  comfort.  In  after  years,  he 
says,  I  went  out  of  doors  and  looked  up  to  the  blue  sky.  I  thought 
that  God  who  lived  up  there  must  be  as  good  as  my  mother.  Since 
then  I  have  never  doubted  the  goodness  of  God.  That  was  beautiful 
spiritual  sacrifice  offered  by  Mrs.  "Whittier  which  helped  her  boy 
to  see  God  through  her.  He  climbed  up  through  the  human  love  of 
his  mother  into  the  divine  love  of  God. 

When  Telemachus  threw  himself  between  the  gladiators  and  cried, 
"Forbear,  in  the  name  of  Him  who  died  for  men,  Christ  Jesus,  my 
Lord,  I  say,  forbear!"  that  act  cost  his  life,  but  it  saved  the  gladia- 
tors. This  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  has  done  much  and  is  doing  much 
for  the  world.  It  freed  the  slave;  it  protected  the  captive;  it  nursed 
the  sick;  it  sheltered  the  orphan,  and  elevated  woman;  where  its 
tidings  were  believed  it  cleaned  the  life  and  elevated  the  soul  of 
each  individual  man. 

Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  was  a  priestess  of  freedom.  The  mother 
of  a  large  family,  and  a  capable  housewife,  when  asked  about  her 
book,  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  she  said,  "I  did  not  write  it;  God 
wrote  it."  The  truth  is,  God  helped  her  and  she  helped  God.  She 
received  a  letter  from  one  of  her  sisters  telling  her  of  the  heart- 
rending events  caused  by  the  enforcement  of  the  fugitive  slave  law. 
In  this  letter  she  said,  "Now,  Hattie,  if  I  could  use  a  pen  as  you 
can  I  would  write  something  that  would  make  this  whole  Nation 
feel  what  an  accursed  thing  slavery  is."  After  reading  it  to  her 
family  she  said,  "I  will  write  something,  I  will,  if  I  live."  This 
was  the  origin  of  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin."  From  that  time  onward 
her  life  was  a  beautiful  spiritual  sacrifice. 

Lloyd  George,  speaking  a  short  time  ago  at  a  religious  meeting, 
said,  "Destroy  the  spirit  of  religion  and  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice, 
and  the  country  will  be  turned  into  a  burned-up  wilderness." 

Find  out  what  God  would  have  you  do,  and  do  that  little  well; 
For  what  is  great  and  what  is  small,  't  is  only  He  can  tell. 
My  residue  of  days  and  hours  Thine,  wholly  Thine,  shall  be. 
And  all  my  consecrated  powers  a  sacrifice  to  Thee. 

"Unto  Him  that  loved  us,  and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  His 
own  blood,  and  hath  made  us  kings  and  priests  unto  God  and  His 
Father,  to  Him  be  glory  and  dominion  for  ever  and  ever.    Amen." 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  539 

The  President  :  "I  have  an  important  announcement  to 
make.  Some  of  us  liad  a  strong  conviction  that  we  ouglit  to 
send  from  tliis  Conference  a  message  of  warm  congratuLition 
and  welcome  to  the  Governor-General;  hut  the  Duke  of  Con- 
naught  has  anticipated  us  and  sent  us  a  telegram  from  Quehec. 
I  will  read  the  telegram: 

On  landing  in  Canada,  I  wish  to  send  warmest  greetings,  and 
hope  you  have  had  successful  meetings." 

"The  Business  Committee  suggest  that  this  shall  be  referred 
to  a  small  Committee  to  prepare  a  suitable  reply.  Meanwhile, 
probably  we  shall  decide  to  send  immediately  a  cable,  thanking 
His  Eoyal  Highness  the  Governor-General  for  his  message ;  and 
a  formal  reply  will  no  doubt  follow.'' 

Secretary  Chapmax  :  "I  move  that  a  telegram  acknowledg- 
ing the  greeting  be  prepared  and  sent  from  this  Conference  to 
the  Duke  of  Connaught,  and  that  the  telegram  be  prepared  l)y 
Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  D.  D.,  Mr.  N".  W.  Rowell,  K.  C,  and 
Sir  Geo.  Smith." 

This  was  agreed  to. 

The  President  :  "I  suggest  that  we  sing  two  verses  of  the 
national  anthem." 

In  response  to  this  suggestion  the  Conference  rose  and  sang 
these  verses  most  heartily. 

The  general  discussion  of  the  topic  of  the  session  now  pro- 
ceeded as  follows :  Mr.  George  Eoyle,  J.  P.,  of  the  British 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Church: 

It  is  impossible  for  any  one  man  to  survey  in  five  minutes  the 
work  of  laymen  in  connection  with  the  Methodist  Church.  I  want 
to  draw  the  attention  of  this  Conference  to  the  specific  work  in 
which  I  am  more  intimately  associated  and  interested:  that  of  the 
local  preacher.  The  thing  that  has  surprised  me  more  than  any- 
thing in  connection  with  the  Methodism  of  Canada  is  the  absence 
of  local  preachers  in  connection  with  your  work.  How  in  the  world 
you  get  along  without  them  I  do  n't  know.  In  British  Methodism, 
in  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church,  and  in  the  United  Metho- 
dist Church  we  have  11,4S0  chapels  or  churches  or  preaching  places. 
And  we  have  3,420  ministers.  Therefore  there  are  8, GOO  places  that 
have  to  be  filled  every  Sunday,  and  the  people  ministered  to,  by  local 
preachers;  that  is,  five  out  of  every  seven  services  in  the  whole  of 
British  Methodism  are  conducted  by  local  preachers.  We  have 
17,200  sermons,  at  least,  preached  every  Sunday  in  British  Metho- 
dism by  local  preachers;  and  we  get  it  all  fOr  nothing!  If  you  paid 
a  dollar  a  sermon  it  would  cost  you  $894,000  a  year.  The  whole 
of  that  is  saved.    And  even  from  the  point  of  view  of  finance  it  is 


640  THE  LAYMEN^S  MOVEMENT. 

a  great  contribution  to  the  Churcli.  These  26,000  local  preachers 
that  we  have  in  British  Methodism — and  I  had  the  honor,  two  years 
ago,  of  being  their  president  and  representing  them  all  over  the 
British  Islands — these  men,  as  we  have  heard,  in  this  country  are 
not  ordained  men.  I  heard  last  Sunday  regret  expressed  that  the 
man  who  was  appointed  to  preach  in  a  certain  place  was  not  an 
ordained  man.  I  ventured  to  tell  the  congregation  that,  as  a  local 
preacher,  I  had  an  ordination  given  me  that  was  grander  than  any 
bishop  of  any  Church  could  give  me.  When  I  was  ordained  to 
preach  this  gospel  the  ordaining  bishop  was  God  Almighty,  and  the 
cross  of  Jesus  Christ  was  the  altar.  When  a  man  receives  an  ordi- 
nation like  that,  God  blesses  his  work  and  goes  with  him  as  he  goes 
forth  to  proclaim  the  gospel.  Of  all  countries  in  the  world,  Canada 
ought  to  be  more  loyal  to  local  preachers  than  any  other  land.  It  was 
Duffy  who  planted  Methodism  in  Quebec;  a  local  preacher  and  a 
soldier.  It  was  George  Neal  who  on  the  shores  of  Niagara  planted 
Methodism;  a  major  in  the  army  and  a  local  preacher.  Charles  Mc- 
Carthy, in  the  Bay  of  Quinte,  started  Methodism;  and  he  was  a 
local  preacher.  If  it  had  not  been  for  the  Methodist  local  preacher, 
what  would  have  been  the  darkness  and  the  terrible  state  of  these 
Canadians! 

The  Hon.  "William  Burdette  Mathews^  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church: 

As  a  layman,  I  desire  to  call  the  attention  of  this  great  Confer- 
ence to  a  plan  which  has  been  put  into  successful  operation  by  the 
Laymen's  Association  of  the  West  Virginia  Conference  of  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church.  I  had  the  honor  to  suggest  it  only  a  year 
ago,  and  already  it  has  demonstrated  a  demand  for  it  and  the  use- 
fulness of  it.  If  extended  it  will  go  far  in  solving  the  problem  of 
the  weaker  and   inadequately-manned   Churches. 

We  all  recognize  the  waning  influence  of  the  exhorter,  and  I  am 
one  of  them  [Laughter],  and  also  that  of  the  local  preacher.  I  am 
glad  to  hear  the  brother  who  has  just  preceded  me  say  the  local 
preachers  in  the  mother  country  are  doing  such  great  work.  But 
in  this  strenuous  and  intensive  age  in  this  country  people  do  not 
assemble  to  hear  a  message,  however  important,  unless  they  feel 
that  behind  it  is  a  personality  who  can  give  that  message  clear  and 
forceful  expression. 

So  we  have  organized  what  we  call  a  Lay  Pulpit  Supply  Bureau, 
somewhat  along  the  lines  of  a  lecture  bureau  or  lyceum;  but  it  does 
not  consist  of  lecturers  who  deliver  lecturettes,  but  of  lay  preachers 
who  preach  lay  sermons  containing  the  simple  gospel  truth  as  it  is 
in  Christ  Jesus — the  old,  old  story  of  Jesus  and  His  love,  couched 
in  the  forceful  language  of  successful  professional  and  business  men 
with  the  gifts  of  speech. 

This  is  the  way  we  organized:  We  wrote  our  district  superin- 
tendents, eight  in  number,  to  nominate  for  this  work  at  least  ten 
of  their  most  eloquent,  distinguished,  and  godly  laymen  in  their  re- 
spective districts.  We  then  notified  these  men  of  the  high  honor 
conferred  upon  them,  and  invited  them  to  assume  the  duties  and 
responsibilities  of  this  call  from  God  by  preparing  one  or  more  lay 
sermons,  and  to  preach  them  under  direction  of  our  superintendents 
or  pastors  as  opportunity  was  afforded.  We  have  been  greatly 
gratified  at  the  number  and  character  of  the  acceptances.  A  goodly 
list  of  our  ablest  men,  together  with  the  subjects  of  their  discourses. 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  541 

■will  be  issued  in  the  form  of  a  prospectus  and  distributed  for  use 
among  our  pastors. 

I  personally  have  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing  a  number  of  these 
lay  sermons.  One  of  them  was  by  his  excellency,  Governor  Glass- 
cock, on  "The  Value  of  a  Good  Name."  Another  was  by  Judge  Rob- 
inson, of  our  Supreme  Court  of  Appeals,  on  "The  Law  of  the  Lord," 
and  he  has  another,  even  more  inspirational,  on  "The  Faith  of  the 
Fathers."  Another  was  by  my  long-time  friend,  ex-Governor  Atkin- 
son, now  a  judge  of  the  United  States  Court  of  Claims,  on  the  sub- 
ject, "The  Power  of  Patience  and  Perseverance,"  a  practical  preach- 
ment, surely. 

These  are  enough  to  indicate  to  you  the  class  of  men  who  have 
taken  up  this  work  and  the  range  of  subjects  discussed. 

Try  this  upon  your  constituencies.  With  all  due  respect  to  you 
ministers,  I  beg  to  say  that  if  the  same  message  which  you  deliver 
were  to  fall  from  lay  lips,  it  would  reach  some  tender  spot,  which, 
for  some  reason  I  do  not  understand,  is  barred  by  the  door  of  your 
ordination.  Laymen  have  a  subtle  influence  over  other  laymen,  and 
they  can  accomplish  good  where  a  professional  evangelist  or  regular 
minister  can  not.  When  gifted  men  of  affairs  and  influence  in  the 
community  v.-ill  undertake  this  work,  it  can  not  but  result,  under 
God's  blessing,  in  great  success.  It  will  supplement  your  work, 
benefit  the  public,  and,  moreover,  be  a  great  boon  to  these  laymen 
themselves;  for  the  more  they  preach  the  better  they  will  practice 
the  principles  and  precepts  of  our  holy  faith. 

Mr.  T.  T.  FiSHBURNE,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South : 

I  was  left  out  on  that  higher  criticism  a  few  days  ago.  I  was 
out  of  my  element.  But,  thank  God!  I  am  in  a 'field  now  where 
I  am  at  home.  I  think  the  problem  that  we  have  before  us  this 
morning  is  one  of  the  most  important  that  has  been  brought  to  the 
attention  of  this  Conference.  We  have  heard  a  great  deal  about  the 
yellow  men's  problem  and  the  black  men's  problem;  but  we  have 
heard  very  little  about  the  lay  problem.  But  it  is  before  us  now, 
and  it  is  a  problem.  It  not  only  involves  the  spiritual  condition 
of  the  Church  in  the  salvation  of  laymen,  but  it  involves  also  the 
wealth  that  God  has  poured  into  the  lap  of  the  Christian  Church; 
for  unless  you  can  save  the  laymen  to  the  Church  and  the  Kingdom 
of  God  by  putting  men  into  work  that  will  make  them  real  assets, 
you  have  lost  not  only  the  laymen  but  the  wealth. 

The  question  is,  Can  we  lay  our  hands  on  the  laymen  of  the 
Church  of  God?  I  stand  here,  for  one,  to  say  most  emphatically 
"Yes."  If  the  ministry  of  the  Church  of  God  will  use  the  best  and 
wisest  means  they  can  lay  their  hands  on,  almost  every  layman 
that  has  gifts  and  talents  worth  mentioning  can  be  utilized  for  the 
promotion  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  for  the"  salvation  of  the  world. 
A  few  weeks  ago  I  went  out  as  a  business  man  into  the  country  to 
talk.  I  said  to  one  of  our  judges,  "Won't  you  go  out  and  speak 
once?"  He  said:  "Fishburne,  I  don't  know.  What  can  I  do?"  I 
said:  "Go  out  there  and  tell  these  people  what  God  has  done  for  you. 
Tell  it  as  you  would  tell  a  jury  about  the  law."  He  went  out  there, 
and  for  one  hour  that  man  held  that  audience  spellbound,  and  there 
broke  out  a  revival  of  religion  from  Judge  Jackson's  appeal  to  them 
in  the  name  of  Christ  for  the  salvation  of  manhood. 

Fifteen  years  ago  the  pastor  of  my  Church  came  to  me  and  said, 


542  THE  LAYMEN'S  MOVEMENT. 

"You  go  out  yonder  in  the  mountains  and  speak  to  those  people." 
I  said,  "I  can't."  He  said:  "You  must;  God  has  put  oti  you  this 
responsibility.  I  see  no  other  way  to  answer  the  call  that  comes." 
Will  you  pardon  me  for  a  personal  reference  to  what  the  effect  of 
that  visit  was?  I  went  out  there  and  began  to  talk  as  a  business 
man  from  a  practical  standpoint  about  what  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ  meant,  if  it  meant  anything.  I  had  felt  that  God  called  me 
to  do  more  than  simply  have  my  name  registered  on  the  Church 
register  of  Green  Memorial  Church.  I  began  to  talk,  and  a  revival 
broke  out,  and  we  had  a  revival  with  fifty-one  conversions.  Since 
then  I  have  been  speaking  and  appealing  to  business  men  to  con- 
secrate tliemselves — their  spiritual  gifts  as  well  as  their  wealth — 
to  God  and  His  cause.  I  have  had  some  remarkable  experiences. 
At  the  close  of  one  Sunday  afternoon  service  I  went  to  see  a  large 
merchant,  and  began  to  appeal  to  him.  I  said,  "You  have  a  respon- 
sibility, which  means  that  you  must  meet  it.  The  salvation  of 
your  own  soul  is  involved."  He  said,  "Fishburne,  I  can't  under- 
stand how  I  can  conduct  my  business  and  be  an  active  Christian; 
I  would  be  criticised."  I  said,  "Did  you  ever  think  that  God  is  as 
much  the  author  of  your  business  as  of  your  soul's  salvation;  and 
that  until  you  can  take  God  into  your  business,  it  is  not  worthy 
of  a  man?"  I  said:  "Did  you  ever  read  God's  Word,  where  it  says, 
'Love  God  with  all  thine  heart;'  'Lean  not  to  thine  own  understand- 
ing;' 'Commit  all  thy  ways  unto  Him,'  the  Infinite  God  who  can  not 
be  seen  by  the  physical  eye,  'and  He  will  direct  thy  pathway'  as  a 
business  man?" 

Mr.  John  A.  Fatten"^  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church: 

I  am  sure  I  represent  the  sentiment  of  the  laymen  of  my  Church 
when  I  say  that*  the  concern  of  our  leaders  is  to  secure  the  pai'tici- 
pation  of  our  men  of  affairs  in  the  activities  of  the  denomination 
open  to  its  laymen  through  the  invitation  of  our  ministry  rather 
than  to  secure  further  concessions  in  economy  for  our  lay  member- 
ship. Further  modifications  will  no  doubt  come,  but  we  are  now 
busy  holding  before  our  men  of  strength  the  duty  and  the  privilege 
of  making  their  lives  count  for  the  most,  by  putting  them  squarely 
under  the  burdens  of  the  Christian  Church. 

Captains  of  industry  and  leaders  of  civic  affairs  who  come  to 
church  on  Sunday  morning  and  pay  their  quarterage  are  loath  to 
become  interested  in  the  great  general  and  connectional  undertak- 
ings of  their  denomination.  They  hear  the  dominant  Old  Testament 
message  to  subdue — to  possess  the  land;  but  it  is  more  difficult  for 
them  to  articulate  the  personal  note  in  the  New  Testament  call  to 
disciple.  I  do  not  know  a  better  measure  of  a  man  than  is  found  in 
his  practical  estimate  of  the  Christian  Church.  When  men  give 
that  great  call  to  disciple  consideration  and  study  they  soon  come 
to  right  perspectives  regarding  the  importance  of  Christian"  enter- 
prises. A  few  years  ago  the  head  of  an  ecclesiastical  organization 
in  a  certain  city  entered  the  office  of  the  president  of  the  city's  larg- 
est bank  and  solicited  the  interest  of  the  banker  in  a  large  home 
missionary  undertaking.  The  bishop  explained  the  necessity  for 
aid  to  struggling  churches  in  a  growing  section.  The  banker  said 
he  had  been  considering  that  very  problem,  and  agreed  that  action 
should  be  taken.  The  bishop  asked  him  if  he  would  be  one  of  ten 
men  to  provide  $10,000  each.  The  banker  replied  that  plan  would 
not  appeal  to  him;  and  when  pressed  for  a  reason,  said,  $100,000 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  543 

was  not  adequate  to  meet  the  crisis  those  city  churches  faced,  but 
that  he  would  gladly  be  one  of  ten  men  to  give  $100,000  each.  That 
$1,000,000  was  provided;  but  the  main  point  for  us  is,  that  this 
man,  who  was  dealing  in  units  of  millions  on  the  street,  had  so 
caught  the  vision  of  the  supreme  importance  of  the  Kingdom  that 
he  used  the  same  units  in  dealing  with  its  needs.  It  is  too  easy  for 
men  to  do  business  in  the  units  of  thousands  and  of  millions,  if 
they  can,  and  when  they  come  to  the  Kingdom — the  call  to  dis- 
ciple— to  drop  to  units  of  $10  or  $100. 

Lately  I  had  an  invitation  to  attend  a  conference  in  the  interest 
of  the  conservation  of  manliood  that  was  held  in  the  White  House 
at  Washington.  Mr.  Mott  asked  the  President  to  preside  at  this 
conference,  and  in  accepting  the  invitation  he  said,  "Would  n't  you 
be  willing  to  come  to  the  White  House  and  hold  your  meeting 
there?"  That  was  a  practical  estimate  by  the  head  of  our  Nation 
of  the  importance  of  the  work  of  the  Church.  That  was  an  effort 
to  make  adequate  provision  for  the  needs  of  the  Kingdom. 

I  place  a  high  estimate  upon  the  restraints  of  religion.  I  place 
a  higher  estimate  upon  the  impetus  of  religion.  The  teaching  of 
the  Christian  woman  that  gave  Shaftesbury  his  vision  of  service 
illustrates  what  I  mean.  John  S.  Huyler  as  a  young  man,  one  night, 
as  a  kind  of  joke  or  entertainment,  entered  a  Methodist  revival 
meeting  with  a  group  of  his  dissipated  friends.  God  spoke  to  Huyler 
that  night,  and  the  young  scoffer,  the  Broadway  sport  and  rounder, 
went  out  with  a  new  vision,  a  new  impulse,  a  great  purpose  to  make 
money  and  to  give  it  away,  it  is  said,  at  the  rate  of  a  thousand  dol- 
lars a  day.  Better  even  than  that  was  the  impetus  to  personal  serv- 
ice that  sent  him  to  the  Hadley  Mission  on  the  Bowery  more  often 
than  to  the  cultured  environs  to  which  his  position  gave  him  en- 
trance. 

The  powef  of  the  appeal  to  the  laymen  has  not  been  overesti- 
mated here  this  morning.  It  is  a  good  omen  that  men  of  standing 
with  no  professionalism,  in  a  natural  tone  of  voice  and  with  a  direct 
method,  are  more  and  more  counting  it  an  honor  to  bear  witness  to 
the  verities  of  the  great  Kingdom.  In  America  we  do  not  readily 
accept  the  term  "local  preacher;"  but  some  one  will  find  a  better 
title,  and  at  least  a  modification  of  the  system  to  which  British  Meth- 
odism owes  so  much  will,  we  hope,  again  come  to  its  own  in  the 
States. 

Mr.  S.  A.  Bridgewater,  of  the  United  Methodist  Chiireli:' 

I  have  spent  most  of  my  years  in  the  Midland  districts  within 
ten  miles  of  Birmingham,  and  for  the  last  eight  or  ten  years  a  good 
deal  of  time  has  been  spent  in  and  around  Oxford.  I  am  a  layman, 
and  I  am  glad  to  speak  here  on  behalf  of  that  honored  class  of 
workers  whom  I  have  the  honor  to  be  related  to.  It  has  been  my 
joy  in  a  humble  capacity  to  preach  the  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God 
for  nearly  fifty  years,  certainly  over  forty-nine  years,  and  there  is 
not  one  in  this  great  assembly  who  has  a  higlier  regard  for  the 
culture  and  trained  character  of  the  ministry  than  I.  But  I  have 
found  a  place  to  preach  the  gospel  in  the  chapels  and  in  the  streets 
for  the  glory  of  God.  I  have  had  the  joy  of  bringing. hundreds  to 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  I  am  not  here  as  a  rich  layman;  I  am  here 
in  this  Conference  by  the  recognition  given  me  of  the  services  I 
have  rendered  as  a  local  preacher. 

As  a  delegate  to  one  of  our  Annual  Conferences  some  years  ago, 
I  had  to  dine  at  the  house  of  a  gentleman  whose  brother  was  an 


544  THE  LAYMEN'S  MOVEMENT. 

■was  not  adequate  to  meet  the  crisis  tliose  of  city  churclies  faced,  but 
a  well-educated  man,  the  Rev,  E.  Holyoake,  was  also  a  daily  guest  of 
our  host;  and  with  his  education,  he  was  well  able  to  argue  with 
the  atheist  and  give  cogent  reasons  for  the  Christian  faith. 

That  circumstance  showed  me  the  importance  of  an  educated 
ministry. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  by  one  of  the  speakers  that  men  of  affairs 
know  the  people  to  whom  they  speak.  They  have  kindred  feelings 
and  have  the  same  kind  of  pursuits  in  life.  And  so  the  man  of  the 
common  people  knows  their  needs  and  aspirations  and  their  feel- 
ings, and  these  men  can  have  a  hearing  and  be  helpful  to  them, 
while  those  who  talk  about  the  poets  and  are  everlastingly  quoting 
poetry  and  higher  criticism  do  not  appeal  effectively.     [Applause.] 

When  I  went  to  live  in  a  town  not  far  from  Oxford,  and  I  had 
been  there  for  some  months  or  years,  a  schoolmaster  said,  "Mr. 
Bridgewater,  have  they  ever  asked  you  to  preach  in  that  church?" 
"No,"  I  said.  And  he  said,  "It  strikes  me  they  will  not,  for  they 
will  have  to  have  a  mandate  from  the  president  of  the  Wesleyan 
Conference  before  they  will  put  a  layman  into  that  pulpit."  How- 
ever, the  minister  fell  sick  and  had  to  leave  home  in  quest  of 
health,  and  I  was  asked  to  take  his  pulpit  in  his  church,  which  I 
did  the  next  Sabbath,  and  several  times  afterwards,  and  under  God 
was  made  a  blessing  to  those  that  heard  me. 

Mr.  W.  E.  Skinner,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church : 

I  am  a  local  preacher.  I  want  to  add  a  word  or  two  more  with 
regard  to  the  work  of  that  honorable  order  to  which  I  have  had 
the  pleasure  and  profit  of  belonging  for  about  eight  and  thirty  years. 
The  brother  before  me  omitted  in  his  statistics  that  great  Primitive 
Methodist  Church,  which  is  so  well  represented  here  to-day.  In- 
cluding the  Primitive  Methodist  local  preachers,  there  are  of  Eng- 
lish Methodist  lay  preachers  more  than  forty  thousand  men;  a  little 
more  than  half  in  the  Wesleyan  Church,  and  two-thirds  of  the  rest 
are  Primitives.  These  take  three-fourths  of  the  Methodist  services 
in  our  land.  Of  course,  the  great  bulk  of  their  work  lies  in  the  vil- 
lages of  England.  And  there  are  hundreds  of  English  villages  where 
the  gospel  would  never  be  preached  were  it  not  for  the  Methodist 
local  preacher.  We  have  great  regard  for  the  brethren  of  other  non- 
conformist Churches;  but  the  system  of  a  State  ministry  does  not 
adapt  itself  to  the  poor  little  hamlets  and  villages.  So  there  are 
hundreds  of  English  villages  where  the  unadulterated  gospel  would 
never  be  heard  if  it  were  not  for  the  Methodist  local  preacher,  the 
man  who  is  in  the  apostolic  succession,  who  provides  for  his  ne- 
cessities during  six  days  of  the  week  by  working  with  his  hands 
and  on  the  Sunday  preaches  the  gospel  without  fee  or  reward. 

There  is  one  point  in  regard  to  the  work  of  the  local  preacher 
that  I  would  like  to  commend  strongly  to  our  attention.  In  England 
the  Methodist  local  preacher  is  the  strongest  bulwark  of  Protes- 
tantism in  the  English  rural  districts.  He  defends  us  against  the 
rising  tide  of  sacerdotalism  in  the  English  national  Church.  He 
stands  for  the  voice  of  God  as  communicated  to  the  ordinary  man 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  directly,  and  needs  not  ordination. 

There  is  another  word  I  would  say,  and  that  is  this,  that  the 
local  preacher  has  one  qualification,  at  all  events,  which,  as  a  rule, 
the  ordained  minister  does  not  possess.     I  maintain  that  he  is  in 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  545 

# 

closer  touch  with  the  every-day  needs  and  feelings  and  experiences 
of  the  people  than  any  minister  can  be  who  is,  as  some  are,  pos- 
sessed of  two  of  the  divine  attributes — invisible  all  the  week  and 
Incomprehensible  on  Sunday.  The  man  who  works  among  the  people 
for  six  days  a  week,  whose  character  they  have  watched,  is  the  man 
whom  they  will  listen  to  when  he  talks  to  them  of  their  fears, 
hopes,  and  joys,  and  sorrows  on  the  Sabbath  day.  These  men, 
qualified  by  the  study  of  the  Word  of  God  and  the  baptism  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  are  listened  to  and  appreciated. 

The  Eev.  A.  G.  Ktnett,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church : 

I  want  a  moment,  this  morning,  to  call  to  the  attention  of  this 
great  Conference  the  challenge  which  lies  before  that  magnificent 
Laymen's  Missionary  Movement  in  the  home  problems  which  are 
pressing  in  upon  us.  Perhaps  I  might  divide  them,  in  the  great 
States  from  which  I  come,  into  three;  each  geographical  and  sec- 
tional in  one  sense,  but  in  the  larger  sense  national.  The  problem  of 
the  South  was  brought  upon  us  because  three  hundred  or  more  years 
ago  our  forefathers  brought  on  us  the  curse  of  African  slavery,  which 
brought  on  one  of  the  bloodiest  wars  of  history,  from  the  effects 
of  which  we  are  by  no  means  free.  When  Lincoln  issued  his  eman- 
cipation proclamation  there  were  numerous  voices  stating  that  the 
Negro  would  die  out.  But  the  4,000,000  then  have  become  10,000,000 
to-day,  and  there  is  no  sign  of  their  dying  out  or  emigrating  or  do- 
ing anything  but  remaining  a  constituent  part  of  our  nationality. 
Some  said  they  would  not  work.  There  are  many  idle  and  vicious 
charactei's  among  them.  But  there  are  such  among  men  of  our  hue. 
The  industrial  prosperity  of  a  great  section  of  our  Nation  is  largely 
dependent  upon  their  labors.  Some  said  they  were  incapable  of 
high  intellectual  development,  yet  the  concrete  answer  to  that  has 
appeared  on  the  platform  of  this  Ecumenical  Conference.  There  is 
that  problem;  I  have  no  easy  solution  for  it;  those  who  live  furthest 
away  sometimes  think  they  can  solve  it  most  easily;  but  I  am  satis- 
fied that  if  it  is  solved,  it  will  never  be  solved  under  the  spirit 
which  leads  to  riot,  but  under  Christian  education  and  by  the  laity 
of  the  Church  insisting  upon  applied  Christianity. 

Then  there  is  the  problem  bej^ond  the  Mississippi.  There  in 
Kansas  City  and  St.  Louis  home-seekers  are  pouring  through  at  the 
rate  of  more  than  100,000  a  month,  going  into  that  territory  of  the 
vast  Southwest.  The  secretary  of  a  certain  home  missionary  society 
told  me  he  had  just  received  from  Texas  a  list  of  one  hundred  towns 
able  to  support  a  minister,  where  there  is  no  minister  of  any  de- 
nomination. That  magnificent  Northwest  and  West  and  Southwest 
to  be  held  for  Christianity!  If  they  are  to  be  held,  we  can  not 
wait  for  the  ordained  preachers.  The  Methodist  layman  must  seize 
the  opportunity. 

In  the  East,  in  the  last  nine  years,  10,000,000  of  foreign  birth 
coming  in  upon  us!  Twenty-five  years  ago  the  center  of  immigra- 
tion into  the  United  States  and  Canada  was  found  in  Paris;  to-day 
it  is  found  in  Constantinople.  The  hundreds  of  thousands  among 
us  where  no  Methodist  preacher  has  gone,  and  where  there  is  no 
syllable  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  as  we  understand  it!  The 
problem  will  not  be  solved  until  Methodist  young  men  and  women 
learn  the  languages  of  these  people  and  consecrate  their  lives  to 
the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.    At  St.  Louis  a  physician  well  familiar 

S6 


546  THE  LAYMEN'S  MOVEMENT. 

with  the  facts  said  that  in  a  certain  town  there  were  10,000  Slavs 
and  three  infidel  churches — in  a  town  of  60,000  people! 

Mr.  Thomas  Woethingtox,  of  the  Independent  Methodist 
Church  of  England: 

I  do  not  know  whether  I  am  a  layman  or  not,  because  I  do  not 
know  what  a  laj'man  is.  I  have  looked  the  Book  through,  and  I 
find  that  the  Lord  has  fetched  some  of  the  prophets  from  the  plow; 
I  do  not  know  whether  they  were  laymen  or  not.  All  the  prophets 
came  from  work;  none  from  the  priesthood.  If  they  were  laymen, 
I  am  one.  I  always  feel  that  I  am  a  layman  when  my  message  has 
had  no  effect,  and  I  always  feel  I  am  a  minister  when  it  has  effect. 
I  think  it  is  about  the  same  with  those  who  are  ordained;  they  are 
laymen  at  one  time  and  not  at  another.  More  than  money,  Metho- 
dism wants  men  and  women.  When  we  find  a  man  or  woman  who 
has  received  the  grace  of  God  in  the  heart,  treasuring  it  up,  sitting 
on  a  cushion  in  the  church  and  paying  pew  rent,  and  going  to 
church  and  home  again  one  hundred  and  four  times  a  year — and 
therefore  calling  himself  a  Christian,  what  shall  we  say?  What 
would  a  farmer  do  if  he  reaped  all  his  wheat,  tied  it  up  in  a  sack, 
and  never  sowed  it  again?  He  would  be  lost  in  a  year.  The  only 
way  to  keep  wheat  or  corn  is  to  scatter  it.  You  can  not  keep  your 
grain  to  yourself.  You  must  lay  upon  every  member  of  the  Church 
that  he  has  not  come  there  to  be  stacked  up  like  wheat.  Rats  and 
stacks  go  together.  If  he  goes  to  work,  he  will  bring  forth  thirty 
or  sixty  or  an  hundred-fold. 

We  have  all  the  elements  about  us  for  carrying  on  the  work.  If 
physicians  have  intelligence  enough  to  go  before  a  board  and  pass  an 
examination,  surely  they  have  intelligence  enough  to  tell  the  story 
of  the  cross,  even  in  the  pulpit.  If  they  will  not  let  them  have 
the  pulpit,  let  them  tell  it  out  in  front  of  the  church,  and  they  will 
very  likely  fill  the  square,  while  the  man  inside  may  have  an  ordi- 
nary congregation.  It  seems  to  me  that  if  we  have  intelligent  men, 
who  have  come  through  the  universities  and  who  profess  to  be  re- 
ligious, and  who  are  members  of  the  Church  and  are  on  boards  of 
administration,  we  want  to  say  to  them,  "Come  forward  and  preach 
the  gospel." 

Then  there  are  other  men,  who  have  not  been  to  college  or  to  the 
university.  Lord  Watson  told  this  story:  When  I  was  in  London 
as  a  member  of  the  parliament  I  determined  that  I  would  hear 
Spurgeon  in  the  morning  and  Farrar  at  night.  As  I  was  walking 
through  the  Temple  after  tea,  a  man  stepped  up  on  a  stool.  All  I 
heard  him  say  was,  "Men,  I  have  not  been  to  a  university  and  I  have 
not  been  to  college,  but  I  have  been  to  Calvary."  So  Watson  said, 
"I  can  not  remember  what  Spurgeon  said  or  what  Farrar  said,  but 
I  can  not  forget  what  that  man  said."  Now,  I  have  not  the  slightest 
objection  to  a  university;  but  I  do  want  Calvary  seething  through 
all  things.  The  apostle  said,  "I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel  of 
Christ."  If  the  old  apostle  had  been  at  Toronto,  there  would  have 
been  thousands  converted  while  we  have  been  here.  We  are  talk- 
ing, talking,  talking.  The  man  in  the  street  says,  "What  are  you 
talking  about?    Let  us  see  what  you  are?" 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  547 

The  Hon.  J.  C.  Dancy,  LL.  D.,  of  the  African  Methodist 
Episcopal  Zion  Church : 

I  am  very  much  interested  in  the  discussion  this  morning,  espe- 
cially it  affects  me;  and  it  has  to  do  with  the  largest  class  in  any 
Methodist  Church,  the  laymen.  The  chapter  read  this  morning  is  a 
good  basis  for  this  discussion;  in  that  St  Paul  himself  recognizes 
the  laymen,  and  asks  especially  that  certain  persons  be  greeted, 
Priscilla  and  Mary  and  the  rest.  We  come  here  in  this  great  Ecu- 
menical Conference  to  legislate  chiefly  for  this  great  mass  of  our 
membership.  The  laity  have  a  responsibility  and  a  duty  that  it  is 
very  difficult  for  a  minister  many  times  to  understand.  They  can  not 
at  all  times  get  in  touch  with  this  part  of  the  membership.  I  be- 
lieve that  it  is  the  laity  largely  who  have  been  instrumental  in  af- 
fecting religiously  the  entire  world.  Sometimes  we  do  not  remem- 
ber that  Moody  and  Sankey  were  laymen;  and  they  were  the  Paul 
and  Apollos  of  the  nineteenth  century,  who  started  a  religious  move- 
ment that  affected  both  continents  and  wrought  a  result  on  the 
Christian  world  that  has  not  been  reached  since.  If  we  would  reach 
these  masses  of  laity,  we  have  got  to  touch  them  and  to  let  them 
know  that  we  are  in  sympathy  with  them — not  simply  talk  at  them, 
but  talk  to  them  and  with  them. 

I  have  been  a  layman,  and  nothing  but  a  layman,  for  thirty-six 
years.  I  have  filled  an  important  position  in  my  Church  for  twenty- 
five  years.  The  only  reason  I  have  been  able  to  hold  it  is  because 
I  have  been  in  touch  with  the  laity  and  have  put  the  entire  bishopric, 
the  leaders  and  the  rest  of  the  ministry,  in  touch  with  this  same 
laity.    We  must  arouse  this  laity  as  they  have  not  been  aroused. 

The  effort  to  arouse  the  laymen  of  the  world  is  an  effort  that 
means  more  than  appears  upon  the  surface.  This  twentieth  century 
is  to  do  more  than  any  other  in  the  world's  history.  You  talk 
about  arbitration  and  its  meaning.  It  is  the  Church  that  ia  effec- 
tually to  bring  peace  between  the  nations.  You  talk  about  brother- 
hood; this  must  be  brought  about  chiefly  through  the  Christian 
Church,  and  largely  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  laity  of  the 
Church.  I  rejoice  in  all  the  laity  have  done,  but  they  have  done 
nothing  yet  in  proportion  to  what  they  will  do.  The  action  of 
a  people  is  the  fruitage  of  its  thought.  What  is  the  whole  Church 
thinking  along  these  lines?  Is  it  awakening  to  a  consciousness  of 
its  opportunities?  Is  it  recognizing  the  teaching  of  Channing,  that 
it  is  religious  rights  which  first  opened  man's  eyes  lo  all  their  rights? 
If  we  do  our  duty  v/e  will  reach  that  conclusion  and  will  have  real 
heroes. 

Coun.  A.  Shaw,  J.  P.,  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church : 

Mr.  Chairman:  I  have  been  sitting  here  while  the  tides  of  elo- 
quence have  been  in  full  force  and  almost  as  torrential  as  the  Falls 
of  Niagara.  But  the  time  has  come  when  we  should  come  down 
from  the  heights  of  Olympus  and  deal  with  common-place  things; 
for  it  is  the  layman  that  is  to  deal  with  the  common-place;  and  I 
take  it  that  the  common-place  things  of  this  world  represent  nine- 
tenths  of  the  things  of  this  world. 

Now,  I  want  to  put  in  just  one  word  for  the  Church  I  represent. 
We  have  something  like  sixteen  thousand  local  preachers,  and  I 
want  to  say  this,  that  between  the  laity  of  the  Primitive  Methodist 
Church  and  the  ordained  ministry  there  Is  the  utmost  spirit  of  fra- 


548  THE  LAYMEN'S  MOVEMENT. 

ternity,  of  brotherliness;  and  it  is  because  we  are  recognized  as  a 
close  supplement  to  the  work  of  the  ministry  that  we  are  more 
than  tolerated.  I  believe  that  we  are  loved  and  respected  by  our 
ordained  brethren. 

And  now  I  want  to  say  a  word  in  regard  to  a  sentence  in  one 
of  the  papers.  It  conveyed  this  impression  to  me,  that  the  open 
air  preaching  is  largely  entrusted  to  ignorant  laymen,  or  at  least 
to  laymen  who  are  not  as  cultured  as  they  should  be.  In  my 
judgment  that  is  a  serious  libel  upon  the  laymen  of  the  great  Meth- 
odist Churches,  and  I  want  to  illustrate  in  this  way.  If  you  think 
that  our  laymen  are  not  cultured  and  educated,  let  me  tell  you  this, 
that  a  great  many  from  among  the  labor  leaders  are  in  the  British 
House  of  Commons,  and  a  great  preponderance  of  them  are  Metho- 
dist local  preachers.  If  you  think  these  men  are  ignorant  or  un- 
educated, I  would  like  to  ask  any  bishop  or  doctor  of  divinity  in  this 
assembly  to  talk  with  one  of  them,  and  I  think  you  would  have 
more  than  you  bargained  for. 

I  want  you  carefully  to  think  about  the  displacement  of  the  laity 
— and  there  has  been  a  movement  in  the  direction  of  the  displace- 
ment of  the  laity  from  the  pulpit.  But  is  it  not  a  significant  fact 
that  with  that  displacement  you  have  had  a  large  decrease?  Will 
you  remember  that?  If  so,  it  will  suggest  to  you  that  you  take  into 
consideration  the  larger  employment  of  the  laity,  who  give  us  so 
freely  of  their  sei'vices.  I  can  not  say  that  I  approve  altogether  of 
the  professional  ministry.  Whenever  I  think  of  the  Established 
Church,  how  it  has  driven  out  of  its  ranks  the  noblest  of  its  laity 
so  that  it  may  have  a  professional  ministry,  I  certainly  hope  that 
that  order  of  things  will  never  overtake  Methodism.  What  we  want 
to  do  is  to  preserve  our  laity  to  the  service  of  our  Church;  and  if 
we  do,  I  do  not  think  we  shall  have  to  anticipate  decreases  in  the 
future,  or  any  future  apathy  that  shall  cause  us  great  pain  of  mind. 

Mr.  George  Caer^  of  the  Wesleyan  Eef orm  Union : 

I  want  to  say  a  word  or  two  upon  laymen  and  home  evangelism. 
The  times  were  never  more  ripe  for  home  evangelism  than  now. 
There  is  a  spirit  of  uni-est  in  the  great  masses  of  our  people  that 
evidences  to  me  that  the  spirit  that  is  in  them  is  the  Holy  Spirit; 
because  I  have  come  to  this  conclusion,  that  these  great  forces,  such 
as  are  known  under  the  name  of  socialism,  anarchism,  and  the  great 
labor  movement,  are  evidence  that  they  are  seeking  better  conditions 
of  life  than  those  under  which  they  now  exist.  The  upward  move- 
ment in  every  ease  is  an  evidence  that  men  are  dissatisfied  with  the 
conditions  of  life  under  which  they  are  living,  and  they  are  seeking 
after  higher  and  better  things.  In  that  I  recognize  the  leaven  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  working  in  the  hearts  of  men.  Therefore  I  see  that 
the  fields,  if  possible,  are  more  ripe  unto  harvest  to-day  than  even 
when  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  bade  His  disciples  go  forth  into  the 
harvest  field. 

Who  is  better  able  to  expound  to  these  great  masses  of  people, 
the  working  classes,  than  men  from  their  own  ranks?  It  has  been 
well  said  that  the  leaders  of  the  British  laboring  men  in  the  British 
House  of  Commons  are  mainly  local  preachers  from  the  Methodist 
Churches.  They  hold  their  position  because  of  their  faith  and 
training  and  zeal  in  the  Christian  Church;  and  that  is  the  evidence 
that  they  have  got  the  ear  of  the  people,  and  that  their  character 
and  example  are  such  that  it  has  got  hold  of  the  people;  and  they 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  549 

are  leading  in  the  rigtit  direction.  What  the  laity  want  to  do 
to-day  is  to  copy  the  example  and  zeal  of  the  leaders  of  the  great 
movements  of  to-day.  If  in  our  cities  we  come  across  a  public  meet- 
ing being  addressed  by  one  of  these  socialistic  leaders,  we  find  him 
standing  up  upon  a  stool  and  beginning  out  of  the  fullness  of  his 
heart  to  tell  all  the  passers-by  what  his  gospel  is:  a  gospel  of  lifting 
men  up  from  the  slough  and  giving  them  a  hope  and  horizon  that 
they  have  not  yet  seen.  It  is  that  zeal  that  the  layman  wants  to 
copy  in  preaching  the  blessed  gospel  of  Christ,  that  is  going  to  win 
the  world  for  Christ.  If  you  will,  take  the  example  of  our  sisters 
in  their  exponency  of  their  principles.  They  are  not  afraid  of  get- 
ting on  the  wagons  or  any  pedestal  that  they  can,  and  pleading  out 
of  the  fullness  of  their  hearts,  and  pleading  for  their  cause.  That  is 
the  way  the  people  are  to  be  won;  it  is  by  the  humble  and  simple 
gospel  that  I  and  other  lay  preachers  are  trying  to  hold  up  that 
the  world  is  to  be  won.  I  want  you  ministers  to  get  hold  of  men. 
You  are  able  to  do  this  work.  Give  them  the  best  advice  that  you 
can,  and  fit  them  as  much  as  you  can  to  meet  the  questions  being 
put  first  by  one  and  then  another;  and  if  the  laymen  and  ministry 
can  work  hand  in  hand  we  shall  soon  see  a  better  day. 

The  Eev.  H.  IL  Hamill,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South: 

I  follow  the  suggestion  of  the  last  speaker.  I  am  an  ordained 
minister,  and  I  stand  in  this  presence  with  a  plea  for  the  laymen. 
The  only  difference  in  the  world  between  the  ordained  minister  and 
the  layman,  whether  in  Scripture  or  in  the  history  of  the  Church, 
is  in  the  fact  that  one  is  set  apart  by  the  call  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
confirmed  by  the  Church,  to  exclusive  Christian  service;  while  the 
layman  is  permitted  to  labor  at  his  avocation,  whatever  that  avoca- 
tion may  be,  and  add  to  it  the  work  of  the  Church.  There  is  a  slight 
undercurrent — and  this  is  not  spoken  in  any  way  of  criticism — that 
makes  it  seem  as  if  there  were  being  arrayed  one  against  the  other 
the  clergj^  and  the  laity.  There  never  has  been  a  time  in  the  his- 
torj'  of  Methodism  when  the  trained,  cultured,  and  ordained  minister 
did  not  rejoice  in  his  heart  over  the  uprising  of  the  laity.  And  if 
the  layman,  in  any  considerable  number,  in  any  section  of  Metho- 
dism, is  not  conspicuous  by  his  service,  it  is  chiefly  because  of  his 
vacating  his  own  oflice  and  oportunity.  That  is  particularly  true  in 
Southern  Methodism.  The  local  preachers  in  Southern  Methodism 
could  have  been  of  inestimable  service  to  us.  Great  is  the  need  in 
that  Church  that  on  the  Sabbaths  when  the  regular  preacher  can 
not  be  present,  the  local  preacher  shall  rise  again  and  take  his  place. 

I  spent  a  year  in  Japan.  On  the  steamship  Manchuria,  going 
over,  were  twenty-seven  missionaries,  twenty-one  of  them  women. 
Out  of  the  men  there  was  only  one  layman.  I  want  to  read  Scrip- 
ture in  your  hearing.  Where  do  you  find,  anywhere  in  God's  Word, 
when  men  were  sent  out  to  disciple  the  nations,  that  they  were  lim- 
ited to  men  that  were  ordained?  That  illusion  has  come  out  of  the 
Romish  Church,  and  there  is  no  warrant  for  it.  I  call  on  any  lay- 
man here  to  feel  as  much  commission  to  cross  the  seas  to  Japan  and 
China  and  Africa  as  any  other  man.  The  great  cry  of  the  Orient 
to-day  is  for  a  visitation  of  strong  Christian  laymen.  Every  mis- 
sionary who  goes  there  says  that  when  the  missionary  goes  as  an 
ordained  minister  he  carries  somehow  the  savor  of  a  perfunctory 
and  professional  service,  in  the  eyes  of  those  shrewd  men  of  the 


550  THE  LAYMEN'S  MOVEMENT. 

Orient.  Two  laymen  went  there  recently  from  this  country  who  did 
as  much  as  any  ten  ministers  could  have  done:  ex-Vice-President 
Fairbanks,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  W.  J.  Bryan,  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church. 

Alderman  Thomas  Snape^  J,  P.,  of  tlie  Primitive  Methodist 
Church ; 

Two  features  in  our  Church-life  call  urgently-  for  attention.  One 
is  the  serious  decline  in  our  Sunday  school  attendance,  and  the  cause 
of  it  as  affected  by  the  teachers  and  officers  of  those  schools.  I  can 
remember  when  in  my  early  days  men  of  high  social  and  civic  po- 
sition and  considerable  wealth,  and  many  times  of  conspicuous 
ability,  gathered  about  themselves  large  classes  of  young  men  who 
grew  up  to  be  recruits  in  the  ranks  of  the  Church.  We  can  not  get 
teachers  who  will  attract  the  scholars  on  the  Sunday.  One  delegate 
to  this  Conference,  a  member  of  parliament,  who  has  taken  an  active 
interest  in  the  work  here,  goes  down  every  Friday  night  from  his 
duty  in  the  House  of  Commons  to  his  home  in  Yorkshire.  One  Sun- 
day he  took  me  to  his  Sunday  school,  which  is  the  thing  that  takes 
him  down  to  his  home  every  week.  I  found  that,  largely  through 
his  influence,  although  of  course  not  through  that  alone,  there  are 
no  less  than  nineteen  hundred  scholars  in  that  school.  If  such  men 
will  only  come  to  the  front  again,  such  results  can  be  obtained  every- 
where in  our  country. 

Secondly,  the  question  of  local  preachers.  I  am  the  third  ex- 
president  of  that  Local  Preachers'  Association  which  exists  in  our 
country;  but  I  do  not  conceal  from  myself  that  local  preachers  are 
becoming  increasingly  unacceptable  in  our  pulpits.  It  is  not  merely 
that  they  want  better-educated  men,  but  that  men  seem,  I  was  told 
by  one  of  the  leading  bishops  on  this  side,  to  shrink  a  little  from 
the  idea  of  a  local  preacher.  Then,  change  the  name.  The  main 
thing  is  to  get  the  service  of  acceptable  men;  and  we  are  not  get- 
ting it.  Our  men  who  are  competent  speakers  on  the  platform  are 
not  the  men  who  go  and  fill  our  pulpits  on  the  Sunday.  We  have 
some  magnificent  men  from  the  working  classes.  The  Church,  in 
reference  to  these  two  aspects  of  lay  agency,  should  seriously  con- 
sider how  to  gather  into  the  work  of  Sunday  schools  those  who  have 
social  influence  and  high  position,  as  well  as  those  who  have  not, 
and  should  improve  the  local  preachers  in  such  way  that  instead  of 
its  being  an  unpleasantness  to  sit  and  listen  to  them,  they  shall  be 
as  attractive  as  any  other. 

Mr.  George  Warren  Brown",  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal- 
Church : 

I  represent  the  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  I  desire  to  read  a  letter 
that  I  received  yesterday,  that  I  may  be  excused  thereby  for  appear- 
ing before  you.  It  is  from  the  office  of  the  Laymen's  Missionary 
Movement  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  150  Fifth  Avenue, 
New  York  City,  October  9  th. 

"Dear  Brother  Brown:  Although  the  Laymen's  Missionary  Move- 
ment is  not  included  specifically  in  the  program  of  the  Ecumenical 
Conference,  it  has  seemed  to  the  Executive  Committee  that  oppor- 
tunity would  be  afforded  by  the  discussion  of  lay  agencies,  on  Fri- 
day, the  13th,  to  present  its  important  mission.    The  Executive  Com- 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  551 

inittee  at  its  meeting  in  New  York,  October  5th,  adopted  a  motion 
instructing  the  secretary  to  write  to  those  members  of  the  commit- 
tee who  are  attending  the  Ecumenical  Conference,  and  ask  them  to 
present  the  movement  in  every  proper  way.  Let  me  talce  the  op- 
portunity to  express  the  regret  that  you  could  not  be  present  at  the 
meeting,  which  was  well  attended,  and  developed  marked  intei'est." 
Signed  by  the  corresponding  secretary. 

Therefore,  Mr.  President,  I  take  great  pleasure  in  sounding  with 
every  emphasis  possible  the  note  of  the  Laymen's  Missionary  Move- 
ment. It  was  through  its  impetus  and  influence  that  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  was  able  to  take  a  step  forward,  in  place  of  a 
step  backward,  in  its  foreign  mission  field  in  1910.  Bishop  Bashford 
and  his  helpers  could  never  have  raised  the  special  fund  of  $100,000 
in  the  United  States  last  year,  which  saved  the  Church  from  embar- 
rassment in  foreign  work  that  year,  except  for  the  Laymen's  Mis- 
sionary Movement.  All  honor  to  Campbell  White,  the  man  with  a 
vision  of  Jesus  Christ  preached  to  all  the  races  of  heathendom 
■within  this  generation.  I  urge  every  delegate  in  this  Ecumenical 
Conference  to  make  the  most  of  this  opportunity  to  enlist  your  lay- 
men. Harness  them  to  the  plan  of  taking  the  gospel  to  the  utter- 
most parts  of  the  world  in  this  generation,  which  is  a  man's  job. 
If  you  have  not  organized  on  the  laymen's  plan,  send  for  literature 
and  instruction  to  the  headquarters  at  once.  If  you  can  convert 
your  men  to  greater  investments  in  foreign  mission  work,  the  same 
men  will  put  more  into  the  home  missionary  work  and  into  local 
church  support.  Lastly,  in  proportion  as  you  are  successful  in  get- 
ting your  men  and  boys  to  work  under  the  banner  of  the  Church,  in 
that  proportion  you  will  increase  the  membership  of  such  in  your 
Church  and  fellowship. 

The  President:  "I  propose  to  call  on  Mr.  Eowell  first, 
and  then  on  Dr.  Mott,  of  New  York^  and  to  ask  Dr.  Brook  to 
conclude;  and  we  shall  finish  our  meeting  in  about  twelve  or 
fifteen  minutes." 

Mr.  ]Sr.  \Y.  Eowell,  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada : 

The  Laymen's  Movement  was  spoken  of.  I  think  all  of  us  who 
have  had  any  experience  in  seeking  to  interest  men  in  the  work  of 
the  Church  will  agree  that  an  easy  religion  will  not  win  strong  men 
to-day,  and  that  the  Church  can  not  make  its  demands  too  exacting, 
if  she  sets  before  the  men  high  ideals  in  order  to  win  the  strongest 
men  in  the  community.  I  will  speak  of  Canada  because  I  know  it 
Let  me  give  you  a  word  of  testimony.  The  Laymen's  Missionary 
Movement  has  changed  the  attitude  of  those  men  toward  the  whole 
missionary  enterprise  of  the  Church.  Heretofore  a  great  multitude 
of  men  more  or  less  identified  with  the  Church  adopted  an  attitude 
of  indifference  toward  the  great  missionary  work  of  the  Church. 
Through  the  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement  that  indifference  has 
been  turned  into  interest  and  enthusiasm,  and  in  some  cases  into 
public  advocacy  of  the  cause  of  missions.  Some  reference  was  made 
this  morning  to  the  question  of  laymen  or  ministers  preaching  in 
the  pulpit.  Our  experience  is  that  the  audience  of  men  would  com- 
monly prefer  to  have  the  layman  address  them  on  this  missionary 
work.  When  we  can  not  secure  laymen  they  ask  us  to  give  them  a 
minister  who  talks  as  much  like  a  layman  as  possible.     It  means 


55^  THE  LAYMEN'S  MOVEMENT. 

this:  there  is  a  certain  directness  about  a  layman  in  making  his 
appeal  to  brother  laymen  in  the  way  he  does  in  the  courts  of  law, 
or  in  the  way  in  which  he  discusses  business,  which  does  appeal  to 
men.  You  state  your  case  earnestly  and  directly,  and  it  does  arouse 
an  enthusiasm.  If  there  is  any  Church  to  which  the  Laymen's  Move- 
ment should  make  a  direct  appeal,  it  is  the  Methodist  Church,  for 
it  was  largely  a  laymen's  movement  in  its  early  days,  and  still  is  in 
some  parts  of  the  world.  While  it  is  true  that  in  Canada  the  local 
preacher  does  not  occupy  the  place  that  he  does  in  the  mother  coun- 
try, we  are  raising  up  a  large  number  of  laymen  from  the  highest 
walks  of  professional  and  business  life  who  are  going  up  and  down 
advocating,  on  platform  and  in  pulpit,  the  extension  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Christ  and  asking  their  brother  laymen  to  be  interested  in  the 
greatest  work  of  the  Church.  It  has  quickened  and  deepened  the 
spiritual  life  of  multitudes  of  our  business  men.  It  has  given  them 
a  new  consciousness  of  the  place  and  power  of  prayer  in  their  lives, 
and  many  a  man  is  better  in  his  spiritual  and  religious  life  and 
whole  outlook  upon  life  to-day  because  of  the  work  of  the  Laymen's 
Movement  in  our  midst. 

It  has  given  us  better  methods  of  Church,  missionary,  and  local 
finances.  The  object  is  to  secure  from  every  member  of  the  Church 
systematic  contribution  week  by  week.  We  are  seeking  not  to  limit 
its  influence  simply  to  the  men  who  go  upon  the  platform,  but  to 
interest  every  man  in  the  Church  by  conferences  and  missions  at 
first,  and  then  sending  them  out  to  interview  their  fellow-men.  One 
of  the  foremost  members  in  our  bar  in  Toronto,  one  of  the  managers 
of  our  largest  manufacturing  plant  in  Canada,  went  to  visit  the  lead- 
ing layman  of  his  Church,  to  ask  him  to  give  a  missionary  contri- 
bution. When  he  and  another  prominent  public-spirited  citizen 
went  into  the  man's  office  to  wait  upon  him,  he  gave  earnest  heed 
to  what  they  had  to  say.  With  scarcely  an  exception  men  gave  a 
contribution  worthy  of  the  cause  and  of  the  men  who  asked  for  it. 
We  can  not  do  too  much  to  dignify  the  cause  for  which  the  Church 
stands  by  demanding  that  the  strongest  and  best  men  should  give 
themselves  in  its  advocacy  and  support. 

Mr.   John  E.   Mott,  LL.  D.,  of  the   Methodist  Episcopal 

Church : 

We  simply  must  have  the  larger  co-operation  of  the  strongest  lay- 
men on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  if  we  are  to  do  our  duty  by  the 
next  ten  years,  as  we  face  an  absolutely  unparalleled  situation  in 
the  non-Christian  world.  It  is  not  a  professional  matter.  It  is 
absolutely  necessary.  We  must  have  the  best  experience,  the  best 
judgment,  in  large  measure  of  men  of  great  affairs  if  we  are  to  co- 
ordinate the  forces  and  hold  them  in  any  adequate  way  in  these 
times.  I  was  talking  with  that  princely  layman  of  the  Presbyterian 
body,  John  Converse.  We  have  no  finer  example  in  any  communion. 
He  said  that  when  men  of  affairs  bring  the  same  energy  and  intelli- 
gence to  the  affairs  of  the  Church  that  they  give  to  their  commer- 
cial enterprises,  the  evangelization  of  the  world  in  this  generation 
will  no  longer  be  an  idle  dream.  He  is  absolutely  right.  Further, 
we  must  have  this  thrown  in  a  great  flame  into  the  mind  and  heart 
of  the  Church,  if  we  are  to  scale  up  the  giving  of  Christianity,  which 
must  be  scaled  up  to  meet  the  situation.  Within  the  next  ten  years 
men  must  be  giving  millions  where  now  they  are  giving  hundreds  of 
thousands.  There  are  hundreds  of  men  who  ought  to  be  supporting, 
each  of  them,  hundreds  of  missionaries,  who  are  now  giving  only 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  553 

ten  or  twenty-five  or  fifty  dollars.  Nothing  less  than  a  large  scale 
of  giving  will  enable  us  to  bring  to  bear  the  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity as  is  necessary.  We  must  expand  this  Laymen's  Missionary 
Movement  in  all  Churches,  in  order  that  we  may  Christianize  the 
impact  of  our  so-called  Christianity  upon  the  non-Christian  world, 
and  renew  commercial,  industrial,  and  other  relations.  As  our  army 
and  navy  reach  out  into  different  parts  of  the  world,  as  men  enter 
the  diplomatic  and  consular  service  and  go  to  hold  positions  under 
the  National  Government  and,  above  all,  in  the  network  of  commerce, 
there  must  be  the  Christian  impact  upon  them.  Laymen  can 
strengthen  the  hands  of  the  whole  Christian  establishment.  My 
journeys  in  the  non-Christian  world  have  thrown  me  chiefly  with 
what  j'ou  might  call  the  laymen  of  Hinduism,  Mohammedanism,  and 
Buddhism.  When  they  see  the  missionaries  they  consider  them  as  the 
so-called  "holy  men"  in  connection  with  their  religion.  When  there 
come  among  them  laymen  who  come  in  the  name  of  Christianity, 
speaking  the  messages  of  Christianity,  applying  the  principles  of 
Christianity  in  their  political  relationships,  that  is  something  they 
understand.  That  commends  Christianity.  That  opens  the  door  for 
the  missionary.  We  must,  therefore,  greatly  expand  this  agency  in 
all  our  Churches. 

The  Eev.   D.    Brook,  D.  C.  L.,   of  the   United  Methodist 
Cliurch : 

The  thought  that  has  compelled  me  to  offer  myself  for  a  moment 
to  your  attention  has  been  the  feeling  that  a  distinction  between 
the  ministry,  set  apart  especially  for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  and 
what  you  call  the  laity,  has  been  unduly  emphasized  in  this  dis- 
cussion. To  be  sure,  in  the  audiences  with  which  I  am  acquainted 
the  feeling  of  intense  friendliness  and  brotherliness  exists  in  every 
department.  But  that  would  hardly  appear  from  the  tone  of  the 
discussion  this  morning. 

Nevertheless,  I  can  not  but  feel  that  some  things  have  been  said  to 
which  ministers  might  well  pay  some  heed.  It  is  unfortunate  that 
any  considerable  number  of  men  living  among  us  and  in  our 
Churches  should  think  of  our  work  as  professional  in  the  ordinary 
sense  of  the  term.  From  the  beginning  of  things  in  Methodism  the 
ministry  has  not  been  a  profession.  And  the  allowance  or  stipend  is 
an  indication  of  that  fact.  Nevertheless  there  is  a  constant  peril  of 
the  professional  spirit  growing.  If  it  be  true  that  we  are  not  thor- 
oughly and  sufficiently  acquainted  with  the  ordinary  things  of  our 
people  so  as  to  speak  to  them  directly  and  with  force  on  all  ques- 
tions, there  is  something  that  ought  to  be  remedied. 

There  are  two  other  thoughts  that  I  have:  first,  undoubtedly  the 
splendid  Laymen's  Movement  in  America  is  something  that  we  want 
in  England.  There  should  grow  up  among  our  laymen  a  sense  of 
responsibility  for  the  gi-eat  missionary  undertaking  of  the  common 
Churches.  I  am  persuaded  that  the  ministers  as  such  have  no  de- 
sire to  be  leaders  in  the  financial  department.  They  would  be  very 
glad  if  the  laymen  would  take  that  largely  out  of  their  hands  and 
make  it  evident  that  they  are  putting  as  much  soul  into  the  raising 
of  the  finances  as  others  do  into  the  offering  of  themselves  for  the 
spiritual  work.  I  do  think  that  our  American  Churches  are  coming 
to  learn  from  the  English  Churches  in  regard  especially  to  the  de- 
votion to  the  spiritual  side  of  Church  work  of  our  large  family  of 
local  preachers.     Lastly,  I  do  not  think  that  among  the  laymen  in 


554  THE  WOMAN'S  MOVEMENT. 

connection  with  the  financial  operations  thei'e  ought  to  be  any  sort 
of  hindrance  set  up  to  ministers  taking  part  in  the  financial  work. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  the  Churches  of  America  there  ought  not  to 
be  any  difficulty  in  any  laymen  whom  God  has  given  special  spiritual 
gifts  for  spiritual  edification  finding  full  exercise  for  those  gifts  in 
class-meetings  and  in  preaching  from  time  to  time.  V\^e  have  much 
on  each  side  of  the  Atlantic  to  learn  from  each  other.  Pray,  breth- 
ren of  the  laity,  do  not  wait  until  you  are  old  men  to  do  your 
spiritual  work,  but  go  on  with  it  from  to-day,  and  then  God  will 
give  you  spiritual  fruit  when  the  evening  of  life  comes. 

The  doxology  was  sung,  and  the  benediction  was  pronounced 
by  Secretary  Chapmaisj". 


SECOND  SESSION". 


Topic:     WOMAN'S  CLAIMS  AND  EESPONSIBILITIES. 

Mrs.  W.  I.  Haven",  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  pre- 
sided at  this  session,  which  was  devoted  to  the  topic,  "Woman's 
Claims  and  Eesponsibilities.'^ 

The  session  opened  at  2.30.  The  devotional  service  was 
conducted  by  Mrs.  Katherine  Lent  Stevenson,  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  in  the  absence  of  Miss  Clementina 
Butler.  Luke  2:34-38  and  Acts  9:36-41  were  read,  and 
prayer  was  offered.    Hymn  432  was  sung — 

"Jesus,  Master,  whom   I   serve." 

The  essay  of  the  afternoon  was  by  Mrs.  Joseph  Johistson", 
of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church,  on  the  subject,  "Methodism 
and  the  Woman's  Movement:'^ 

"We  take  it  for  granted  that  the  majority  of  the  present  audi- 
ence recognizes  the  equality  of  the  sexes.  This  is  distinctly  Biblical 
teaching,  and  is  accepted  as  a  verity  of  the  Christian  faith.  We 
remind  ourselves  that  woman  was  chosen  as  the  medium  through 
which  salvation  should  come  to  the  race,  and  this  entailed  for  her 
multiplication  of  sorrows.  How  literally  prophecy  has  been  ful- 
filled in  this  respect  is  amply  proved  by  a  biological  history  of  the 
race;  and  if  capacity  for  suffering  and  unlimited  powers  of  endur- 
ance are  marks  of  greatness,  then  the  palm  must  be  awarded  to 
woman.  This  suffering  of  one-half  the  human  race  for  the  other 
is  doubtless  part  of  the  great  plan  of  the  Creator  for  the  evolution 
of  the  race;   but  it  has  never  been  a  pi'oof  of  woman's  inferiority. 


ESSAY  OF  MRS.  JOSEPH  JOHNSON.  555 

God  said,  "Let  us  make  man  in  Our  image,  after  Our  likeness;" 
these  words  anticipate  long  ages  of  progression.  Man  and  woman 
are  still  in  the  process  of  making.  The  Three  Persons  in  the 
Trinity  are  working  in  and  through  man  that  he  may  come  to 
perfection — to  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ. 
Truly  it  is  an  age-long  and  infinite  purpose,  but  sufficiently  advanced 
for  us  to  discern  that  man  and  woman  are  partners  with  God  in 
their  making. 

We  see  that  this  progressive  perfecting  of  the  human  race  has 
never  ceased,  but  that  it  is  inevitably  carrying  us  forward  to 
higher  planes  of  thought  and  life.  Old  conditions  are  constantly 
passing  away;  and  that  which,  for  want  of  a  better  name,  we  are 
pleased  to  call  "The  Woman's  Movement"  is  simply  a  wave  of  new 
thought,  of  new  life,  an  upward  tendency,  a  new  phase  in  the 
evolution  and  perfecting  of  the  race.  It  embraces  both  sexes.  Man 
can  not  advance  without  the  woman,  or  woman  without  the  man. 

Like  all  great  movements  it  is  essentially  spiritual  in  its 
origin,  and  as  such  requires  neither  argument  nor  justification.  A 
spiritual  wind  is  blowing  on  the  world  of  women,  we  hear  the  sound 
thereof,  and  we  believe  we  know  whence  it  cometh  and  whither  it 
goeth.  This  wind  of  the  Spirit  is  universal;  in  the  east  it  is  raising 
the  veil,  lifting  the  curtain  of  the  harem  and  opening  the  doors 
of  the  zenana;  while  in  the  West  it  is  manifesting  itself  by  wide- 
spread unrest,  rebellion  against  established  customs  and  the  demand 
for  women's  suffrage. 

Those  who  have  eyes  to  see  recognize  that  the  apotheosis  of 
brute  strength  is  doomed.  A  new  age  is  harnessing  the  subtle 
powers  of  nature  for  man's  use;  and  what  mankind  will  most  need 
in  the  future,  will  not  be  brute  strength,  but  mental,  moral  and 
spiritual  equipment  combined  with  physical  fitness.  Gradually  the 
more  feminine  qualities  in  man  will  be  emphasized  and  cultivated; 
and  thus  the  Woman's  Movement  will  prove  eventually  to  be,  not 
a  movement  of  severance,  of  greater  separation  between  the  sexes, 
but  a  movement  toward  each  other  manifested  in  common  occupa- 
tions, interests  and  ideals;  and  resulting  in  a  perfection  of  sym- 
pathy and  union  beyond  the  highest  dreams  of  our  imagination. 
We  have  no  patience  with  the  stupid  discussion  of  the  superiority 
of  one  sex  or  the  other.  There  are  complementary  differences  in 
the  sexes,  and  these  must  be  taken  advantage  of  and  used.  We  agree 
with  a  recent  writer  who  says:  'The  real  task  of  the  feminist  is 
to  devise  an  education  for  girls  so  that  they  shall  be  capable  of 
earning  their  living  and  sharing  in  the  world's  work,  and  3'et 
remain  fit  for  future  wifehood  and  motherhood." 

Our  topic — "Methodism  and  the  Woman's  Movement,"  however. 
Is  not  so  much  an  inquiry  into  the  movement  as  an  acceptance 
of  it;  and  our  business  is  to  consider  how  Methodism  shall  receive, 


556  THE  WOMAN'S  MOVEMENT. 

guide  and  conserve  this  great  movement  for  the  advancement  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Christ. 

The  gospel  gives  nothing  to  man  that  it  does  not  give  to 
woman.  Sharing  equally  in  the  world's  redemption,  they  are  bound 
to  respond  to  the  call  of  the  world's  Redeemer.  Their  responsibil- 
ity for  the  extension  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  being  equal,  they  must 
obey  their  Lord's  command  and  take  their  legitimate  share  in 
spreading  the  good  news  of  salvation;  but  it  does  not  follow,  that 
they  shall  work  in  the  same  way  and  use  the  same  methods  as  men. 
There  have  been  and  will  continue  to  be  pioneer  workers  among 
women — those  who  are  in  advance  of  others,  but  as  in  the  past, 
so  in  the  future,  they  will  be  the  exception  and  not  the  rule.  Fame, 
glory,  popularity,  as  such  do  not  appeal  strongly  to  women.  Like 
the  Master,  woman  has  come  not  to  be  ministered  unto  but  to 
minister.  Therefore  we  need  not  fear  that  women  will  be  found 
in  the  chief  places  of  the  synagogue.  Christian  women  will  always 
be  the  ambulance  corps  of  humanity.  They  will  be  the  sacrificial 
souls  following  in  the  wake  of  life's  great  battlefield,  gathering  up 
the  wounded  and  the  dying,  lifting  the  fallen  and  sheltering  the 
weak.  They  will  be  content  to  let  others  lead,  but  they  them- 
selves will  ever  be  ready  to  "follow  the  Lamb  whithersoever  He 
goeth." 

The  fitness  of  women  for  oflScial  position,  or  to  share  in  the 
many  ministries  of  the  Church  need  not  be  discussed;  since  the 
various  means  used  to  exclude  unfit  men  will  also  exclude  unfit 
women,  and  if  the  Church  is  not  always  successful  in  excluding  un- 
fit men,  it  will  be  no  worse  if  among  the  unfit  whom  it  admits 
there  should  be  women  as  well  as  men.  Granted  that  at  present 
only  comparatively  few  are  fit,  then  for  the  sake  of  the  progress 
of  Christianity  the  door  of  opportunity  should  not  be  closed  to 
these  few. 

That  women  have  failed  to  show  conspicuous  ability  for  active 
Christian  work  is  no  proof  of  their  lack  of  fitness  for  the  work. 
They  have  received  no  training  or  encouragement  equal  to  that 
received  by  men;  but  what  many  individual  Christian  women  have 
accomplished  for  the  Church  of  Christ,  in  spite  of  all  difficulties 
and  discouragements,  is  conclusive  evidence  in  their  favor. 

It  is  generally  understood  that  women  are  tactful,  that  is 
they  have  a  bent  towards  the  practical — an  insight  into  fact. 
Tactfulness  is  a  supreme  necessity  in  Church  work,  in  winning 
souls  for  Christ.  When  women  are  as  well  informed  as  men,  and  as 
much  pains  taken  in  their  training  and  education,  they  will  grasp 
a  situation  as  well  as  if  not  better  than  a  man.  Women  possess 
naturally  a  keener  and  a  quicker  insight  into  feeling  and  motives 
than  men,  and  this  quality  makes  them  peculiarly  successful  as 
Christian  workers. 


ESSAY  OF  MRS.  JOSEPH  JOHNSON.  557 

The  objection  to  women  because  of  their  highly  wrought  nerv- 
ous temperament  can  have  no  real  weight  in  argument.  Extreme 
nervous  sensibility  does  not  unfit  men  for  efl&cient  service  when 
balanced  by  self-control,  and  self-control  can  be  cultivated  by 
women  as  well  as  by  men;  with  the  result  that  the  very  nervous 
temperament  becomes  a  more  efficient  instrument  for  the  Master's 
use. 

An  argument  usually  employed  against  woman  is  that  in  the 
past  she  has  failed  to  distinguish  herself  in  arts,  science,  literature, 
or  theology.  This  argument  is  worthless,  when  it  is  shown  that 
hitherto  only  four  generations  have  passed  since  women  in  any 
appreciable  number  have  entered  the  field  in  these  directions. 

It  must  also  be  remembered  that  woman  has  not  had  the 
necessary  time  at  her  command  for  self  culture.  Not  long  since  the 
women  of  our  homes  were  the  bakers,  confectioners,  brewers, 
weavers,  seamstresses,  and  laundresses  of  the  household.  Until 
recently  these  were  all  domestic  arts,  now  they  are  carried  on  out- 
side the  home,  and  woman  is  free  to  develop  herself  in  other 
directions. 

That  the  majority  of  women  in  our  Churches  do  not  desire 
active  Christian  work  is  no  argument  for  repressing  those  who  do. 
A  woman,  married  or  single,  who  persisted  in  Christian  work  to 
which  her  husband  or  male  relatives  objected,  would  necessarily 
suffer  martyrdom.  Therefore,  women  can  not  be  expected  to  throw 
themselves  wholeheartedly  into  the  work  of  the  Christian  Church 
until  men  are  prepared  to  welcome  them  as  equals  and  fellow  work- 
ers in  the  great  task  committed  to  every  Christian,  whether  male 
or  female,  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature." 

Let  woman  be  trained,  guided  and  encouraged  to  take  up  active 
service  in  the  Church  of  Christ.  In  too  many  Churches  this 
encouragement  is  decidedly  lacking,  women  are  not  invited  to 
share  in  directly  spiritual  service  except  that  they  may  teach  in 
Sunday  school,  but  they  are  expected  to  serve  tables,  to  run 
bazars,  to  collect  for  missions,  to  raise  money  for  aggressive  work; 
but  they  are  not  encouraged  to  engage  in  public  prayer,  or  other- 
wise witness  for  Christ  in  speech.  Alas!  for  the  hardness  of  heart 
and  the  spiritual  blindness  of  many  who  are  offended  if  God 
speaks  through  a  woman.  We  verily  believe  that  if  God  manifested 
Himself  in  the  flesh  to-day  in  the  form  of  a  woman  He  would 
suffer  almost  universal  rejection. 

There  are  forms  of  social  service  which  can  only  be  fittingly 
performed  by  married  women.  Much  of  this  work  centers  round 
our  Churches  and  other  philanthropic  societies  and  will  readily 
occur  to  everyone.  It  is  an  outrage  to  send  young  unmarried  women 
to  engage  in  some  forms  of  rescue  work. 


558  THE  WOMAN'S  MOVEMENT. 

What  the  Church  needs  first  and  foremost  is  the  mother.  When 
the  Church  says  to  the  mother  what  the  Holy  Ghost  spake  through 
Elizabeth,  viz.,  "Blessed  art  thou  among  women  and  blessed  is  the 
fruit  of  thy  womb,"  when  men  realize  that  it  is  the  mother  who 
should  be  blessed  among  women,  and  that  the  fruit  of  her  womb 
is  blessed,  then  we  shall  have  the  millennium. 

For  long  centuries  the  mother  has  been  unblest.  She  has  not 
only  borne  children,  but  she  has  done  more  than  her  share  in 
succoring,  feeding  and  clothing  them.  We  have  however,  entered 
on  a  new  era.  Woman  is  beginning  to  realize  that  if  her  offspring 
is  to  be  blessed,  she  herself  must  first  be  blessed,  and  we  need  not 
deplore  a  decreasing  birthrate,  if  it  means  a  decrease  in  the  number 
of  unblest  children. 

If  a  mother  is  wise  she  will  not  wholly  lose  her  individuality 
even  in  her  children.  She  will  be  a  better  and  a  wiser  mother  if 
her  heart  and  mind  travel  beyond  the  walls  of  her  own  home,  for 
woman's  sphere  extends  into  all  parts  of  human  life  where  feminine 
qualities  are  required;  and  mothers  of  high  brain  power  are  as 
much  needed  for  an  advancing  race  as  fathers — rather  more  so  in 
fact. 

The  maternal  instinct  in  woman  is  the  secret  of  her  power. 
It  is  the  most  primary  of  all  her  qualities,  and  the  most  valuable. 
Every  woman  is  a  potential  mother,  and  as  such  is  the  most 
powerful  factor  in  the  human  race.  Let  it  be  the  business  of  the 
Church  to  see  that  she  is  given  her  rightful  place.  The  men  of 
Methodism  are  mainly  what  the  mothers  and  wives  of  Methodism 
make  them.  Our  greatest  heritage  is  a  sound  brain  in  a  healthy 
body,  for  these  we  are  largely  dependent  on  our  mothers. 

You  will  readily  grant  that  woman  is  the  centre  of  the  home; 
she  has  ever  kindled  the  fire  on  its  hearthstone;  it  is  no  less  her 
right  to  share  with  man  the  privilege  of  kindling  the  altar  fires 
of  the  Church.  The  Church  begins  first  in  the  home,  and  the 
extension  of  the  Church  must  proceed  from  the  home.  Again  the 
Church  must  lead  the  way  for  the  State  in  giving  woman  her  right- 
ful  place.     How  can  the   State   be   right   if  the  Church   is  wrong? 

Many  women  among  the  early  Methodists  realised  their  privil- 
eges, and  in  the  early  religious  zeal  of  our  Churches  godly  women 
did  pioneer  work  and  were  numbered  among  the  ordained  ministry. 
We  regret  that  the  women  of  British  Methodism  have  neglected 
their  privilege  and  opportunity  in  this  respect  and  they  are  to 
blame  for  not  having  entered  on  that  glorious  heritage  of  heroic 
endeavour  left  them  by  the  mothers  of  Methodism,  who  realised 
that  in  Christ  Jesus  there  is  neither  male  nor  female,  but  that  all 
are  one  in  Him.  Personally,  we  believe  that  the  world  will  never 
be  evangelized  until  woman  takes  her  due  share  in  proclaiming 
the  Good  News. 


ESSAY  OF  MRS.  JOSEPH  JOHNSON.  559 

The  unprecedented  success  of  the  early  Methodist  Church  was 
doubtless  due  in  equal  measure  to  the  women  as  to  the  men;  and 
we  venture  to  assert  that  there  would  be  no  arrested  progress,  no 
decrease  in  membership,  no  cooling  down  of  enthusiasm,  if  the 
women  of  to-day  had  more  closely  followed  the  hei'oic  example  of 
the  early  Methodists. 

Whatever  may  be  the  explanation  of  Paul's  teaching  regarding 
the  position  of  woman  in  the  Church,  we  are  persuaded,  that  no 
enlightened  Christian  can  read  the  Gospel  narrative  carefully  with- 
out seeing  that  the  ministry  of  women  was  accepted,  approved, 
and  directly  encouraged  by  the  Lord  during  his  three  year's  active 
ministry;  and  also  that  thej'  were  closely  associated  with  the  dis- 
ciples in  Christian  work  and  fellowship  after  the  Ascension. 
Further,  we  learn  from  the  Gospels  that  woman  has  the  Master's 
authority,  not  only  for  a  ministry  to  the  physical  needs  of  man- 
kind, but  she*  is  called  by  her  risen  Lord,  in  His  own  words  to  a 
higher  and  wider  ministry.  The  command  of  Jesus:  "Fear  not; 
go  tell  my  brethren  that  they  depart  into  Galilee,  and  there  shall 
they  see  Me."  was  given  not  to  men,  but  to  a  company  of  women, 
who  were  faithful  enough  to  be  last  at  the  Cross  and  first  at  the 
Tomb,  when  every  man  fled  in  terror  and  dismay;  and  this  clarion 
call  "Go  tell"  must  not  be  suppressed,  but  woman  must  be  encour- 
aged in  the  ministry  to  which  the  Master  has  long  since  called  her. 

Mrs.  Rendel  Harris,  in  a  valuable  paper  read  at  the  British 
National  Free  Church  Council  in  1907,  says: 

"But  the  primary  call,  and  the  dependence  on  constant  guid- 
ance from  above,  must  have  precedence  of  all  else,  so  that  the 
woman  preacher  may  never  be  found  speaking  out  of  her  own 
natural  resources,  or  touching  with  unhallowed  hands  the  Ark  of 
the  Lord.  No!  the  future  place  of  man  and  woman  in  the  Church's 
work  will  be,  we  are  assured,  that  described  in  the  words,  'Neither 
is  the  man  without  the  woman,  nor  the  woman  without  the  man 
in  the  Lord,'  'heirs  together  of  the  grace  of  life.'  Their  work 
must  be  side  by  side,  the  same  in  essence,  though  different  in 
expression.  'Not  like  to  like,  but  like  in  difference,'  and  both 
mutually  encouraged,  esteemed  and  supported.  Woman's  presen- 
tation, of  the  Gospel  has  never  been,  and  is  never  likely  to  be  the 
same  as  man's,  though  we  will  not  attempt  to  define  the  difference, 
hut  it  will  be  complementary  to  it,  and  supply  a  lack  from  which 
the  Church  has  hitherto  suffered." 

We  venture  to  affirm  that  because  woman  differs  in  her  pre- 
sentation of  the  Gospel,  and  because  her  presentment  is  comple- 
mentary to  man's  presentation,  she  ought  to  exercise  the  gift  of 
prophecy  given  at  Pentecost,  and  given  not  only  to  "sons,"  but  also 
to  "daughters,"  not  only  to  "servants,"  but  also  to  "handmaidens," 
and  given  not  for  a  season  but  for  all  time.     Alas!    that  in  these 


6G0  THE  WOMAN'S  MOVEMENT. 

latter  days  the  exercise  of  the  gift  has  been  repressed  and  arrested, 
except  in  the  Society  of  Friends  where  no  difference  has  ever  been 
made  between  men  and  women  in  the  matter  of  public  ministry. 
"We  however  rejoice  in  the  signs  of  the  times.  The  Salvation 
Army  testifies  to  the  spiritual  equality  of  the  sexesi,  and  the 
Deaconess  Movement  in  our  own  Churches  indicates  that  the  Church 
of  the  future  will  utilize  the  ministry  of  women  to  the  glory  of  God 
and  the  advancement  of  His  Kingdom  as  it  has  never  done  in  the 
past. 

In  the  absence  of  Miss  Belle  Bennett,  who  was  to  have 
spoken  on  "Woman  and  Missions,"  the  first  invited  address, 
dealing  with  that  subject,  was  given  by  Mrs.  T.  J.  Copeland, 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South: 

I  bring  to  the  subject  a  cup  of  expression  with  which  to  dip  up 
an  ocean  of  truth!  I  have  ten  minutes  of  time  in  which  to  com- 
pute cycles  of  eternity!  It  is  demanded  these  days  that  we  think 
in  world  terms,  and  count  by  millions.  Is  it  not  probable  that  we 
have  minimized  individual  service  by  this  wholesale  counting? 
Fathers  and  brothers,  help  us  to  save  ourselves  from  becoming 
material  in  soul.  May  we  not  reckon  "woman  and  missions"  by 
figures  as  to  equipment! 

Let  us  still  break  the  alabaster  box  of  ointment.  Let  us  still 
so  keep  the  little  home  in  Bethany  that  He  can  bless  it  by  His 
presence.  Let  us  so  order  our  wedding  feasts  that  He  may  on  oc- 
casion supplement  the  refreshments.  Let  us  still  go  early  in  the 
morning  to  anoint  His  body,  even  though  we  wonder  with  trembling 
hearts  who  shall  roll  away  the  stone.  Let  us  so  live  that  the  Pauls 
of  our  day  may  commend  us,  "servants  of  the  Church."  Let  us  so 
die  that  the  poor  may  weep  as  they  show  the  garments  that  we 
have  made.     Is  that  "Woman  and  Missions?" 

I  knew  a  woman  who  lived  on  a  Southern  farm  and  did  her  own 
housework,  and  in  restricted  environment  brought  up  her  children. 
On  Sunday  afternoons  she  gathered  them  around  her  and  told  the 
stories  of  Moses  and  Joseph  and  Samuel  and  Saul  and  David,  and 
made  beautiful  to  them  the  coming  of  the  Babe  of  Bethlehem.  By 
almost  unaided  effort  she  compassed  the  building  of  an  humble 
church,  from  whence  scores  have  gone  out  with  the  "light  that 
never  was  on  sea  or  land"  in  their  hearts.  To-day  five  of  her 
sons  are  stewards  in  five  different  Methodist  Churches;  one 
daughter  a  tireless  worker  in  the  Home  Mission  Society,  and  an- 
other prays  daily  that  she  come  not  up  to  the  great  day  empty- 
handed. 

Do  stories  like  this  have  to  do  with  "Woman  and  Missions?" 
With  schools  in  Brazil,  in  China,  and  Japan?     With  Bible  women. 


ADDRESS  BY  MRS.  T.  J.  COPELAND.  561 

and  native  preachers?  Are  not  these  institutions  collections  of  the 
histories  of  women,  who,  lilce  this  uncrowned  queen  of  a  queenless 
country,  have  loved  much? 

When  the  Christian  woman  bathes  the  fevered  brow  of  her  baby 
and  prays  to  the  Savior  of  the  mothers  and  sees  the.motherhood 
of  another  land  dumb  with  anguish,  because  she  has  no  Christ  to 
whom  to  go — there  is  "Woman  and  Missions."  Thank  God,  we  do 
not  have  to  "sing  like  angels"  nor  "preach  like  Paul."  We  only 
need  to  know  the  way  from  Gethsemane  to  Calvary,  and  that  knowl- 
edge builds  hospitals  and  schools,  and  sends  missionaries  to  tell 
that  "God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son." 

So  you  would  not  wish  figures  as  to  how  much  Methodist  women 
gave  last  year  or  the  last  ten  years  as  a  measurement  of  their 
obedience  to  "the  heavenly  vision."  As  well  try  to  estimate  the 
feelings  of  the  Master  when  He  said,  "Wherever  my  gospel  is 
preached  shall  this  ...  be  told  as  a  memorial  of  her,"  by  com- 
puting the  money  value  of  the  box  of  ointment. 

We  would  by  no  means  decry  the  value  of  mission  study,  of 
jubilee  campaigns,  and  world  conferences,  but  they  are  steels  on  the 
track  and  not  the  steam  that  pulls  the  engine  of  the  gospel  train. 
That  is  the  knowledge  that  accrues  from  the  application  of  the 
doctrine  of  assurance,  so  luminously  described  here  on  last  Satur- 
day— the  assurance  of  sins  forgiven. 

If  this  great  Conference  pray  and  make  of  this  church  a  place 
where, — 

"Heaven  comes  down  our  souls  to  greet, 
And  glory  crowns  the  mercy  seat," 

then  every  woman  of  us  goes  back  to  our  home  churches  with  a 
love  and  a  passion  for  souls  that  reaches  from  the  child  laborer, 
the  woman  wage  worker,  and  the  lonely  foreigner  in  our  own  lands 
to  the  child  wife  in  India,  the  victim  of  caste  in  China,  the  Korean 
without  a  country,  and  the  mother  who  is  not  a  wife  in  Brazil. 
So,  dear  fathers  and  brethren,  we  must  serve!  We  feel  not  to 
light  your  way,  but  where  you  go  we  will  follow  with  a  love  that 
does  not  fail  and  a  trust  that  does  not  falter.  I  would  not  hold  the 
work  of  my  own  dear  Church  so  close  to  the  eye  as  to  shut  off  the 
view  of  the  white  fields,  the  harvest,  and  the  other  reapers  therein. 
I  am  happy  in  the  gifts  laid  on  the  altar  by  the  women  of  the 
great  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  of  the  Wesleyan,  the  Primitive, 
etc.,  yea,  and  that  of  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  It 
does  seem  to  me  that  the  report  from  that  means  the  blessing  that 
goes  with  the  widow's  mite.  The  women  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South,  are  looking  towards  the  rising  sun,  and  across 
the  hills  to  a  city  "where  shall  gather  the  nations  of  them  which 
are  saved." 

36 


562  THE  WOMAN'S  MOVEMENT. 

We  ask  your  prayers,  not  on  the  ground  of  the  Church  (that 
tradition  locates  in  our  land,  but  which  location  history  does  not 
substantiate)  which  sent  up  this  annual  report:  "Amount  raised 
for  state  missions,  nothing.  Amount  raised  for  home  missions, 
nothing.  Amount  raised  for  foreign  missions,  nothing."  The  letter 
closed  with  this  request:  "Pray  for  us,  brethren,  that  we  may  con- 
tinue faithful  to  the  end."  We  have  not  left  undone  any  of  those 
things.  So,  "Pray  for  us,  brethren,  that  we  may  continue  faithful 
to  the  end." 

The  second  invited  address  was  by  Mrs.  Luct  Eider 
Meyer^  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  on  the  subject, 
^'Deaconesses  and  Sisterhoods:" 

I  believe  that  the  subject  I  am  to  present  is  as  important  as 
any  that  has  been  discussed  by  this  body.  May  I  illustrate  prac- 
tically? Many  of  you  before  me  are  actual  pastors.  What  would 
it  mean  to  you  to  have  in  your  parish  the  assistance  of  a  devoted, 
trained,  tactful,  first-class  woman,  giving  all  her  time,  set  apart 
to  the  work?  Or  two  women  or  three,  as  your  need  might  be? 
What  would  it  mean  if  in  your  parish — a  big  city  parish  perhaps — 
you  could  be  sure  there  was  no  neglected  family  unvisited,  no  sick 
one  lacking  skilled  care,  no  child  uncared  for?  A  single  church 
of  Constantinople  had  once  in  the  early  days  forty  deaconesses  ear- 
nestly pushing  its  work.  What  would  it  mean  to  a  hard-pushed, 
downtown  pastor,  nowadays,  if  he  had  even  ten  deaconesses — vis- 
itors, nurses,  kindergartners,  Sunday  school  workers,  rescue  work- 
ers— helping  him  in  his  work? 

The  modern  Sisterhood  and  Deaconess  Movement  plans  to  rein- 
force the  working  forces  of  the  Church  by  laying  hold  of  the  avail- 
able material  that  exists  in  almost  unmeasured  amount  and — you 
men  say — of  the  finest  quality,  in  the  latent  power  of  Christian 
womanhood.  Already  thousands  of  women,  whose  hearts  God  has 
touched,  are  stretching  out  their  free  hands  to  the  Church,  saying, 
"Take  them.  Train  them.  Show  us  how  to  work,  and  then  let  us 
work." 

A  single  instance  of  what  this  work,  yet  in  its  infancy,  may 
mean  to  the  Church.  In  June,  1887,  when  the  first  Deaconess  Home 
of  the  American  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  opened  in  Chicago, 
there  was  not  one  single  sick  person  being  cared  for  officially  by  the 
Methodism  of  America,  though  the  twofold  command,  "Preach  the 
gospel,  heal  the  sick,"  has  never  been  revoked.  Last  year,  by  the 
hands  of  its  deaconesses  alone — and  there  were  others — there  were 
cared  for  16,461  sick  persons  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Think,  if  you  can,  of  what  it  will 
mean,  when  instead  of  a  hundred  or  so  nurse  deaconesses  we  have 


ADDRESS  BY  MRS.  LUCY  RIDER  MEYER.  563 

thousands — when  the  sick,  sad  world  shall  say,  "Send  for  the  dea- 
coness," as  it  now  saj's,  "Send  for  the  doctor."  Think  of  the  con- 
vincing power  of  it.  How  vital  and  compelling  such  aid  as  this  as 
the  Church  "marches  unto  war,"  with  opposition,  indifference,  and 
misunderstanding,  and  lack  of  understanding! 

God  gives  us  one  chance  to  win  the  world  through  the  open 
hearts  of  little  children.  Then,  in  pity  of  our  slowness  and  neglect 
of  the  child,  He  gives  us  another  chance,  when  the  man  is  on  his 
back  in  sickness  or  leaning  over  his  dying  child,  and  must  think 
of  God.  Given  enough  deaconesses  to  care  for  the  child  and  nurse 
the  sick,  and  we  'd  almost  win  the  world  for  Christ  in  a  single 
generation! 

The  substance  of  it  all  is,  the  world  wants  mothering.  It  must 
have  not  only  bread  for  its  body,  but  love  for  its  heart.  The  need 
Is  imperious  and  as  old  as  humanity.  Many  there  are,  thank  God, 
who  find  both  bread  and  love  in  the  shelter  of  the  dear  domestic 
circle  and  of  the  blessed  Church,  but  many  more  there  are — ^hu- 
manity's sad  orphans — who  are  yet  shelterless  and  loveless.  It  is 
to  them  that  the  Church  through  her  women  must  stretch  out 
mother  arms  of  comfort  and  help  and  love.  And  this  work  must 
be  done  by  woman  or  it  will  be  forever  undone.  Woman  has  her 
ministry  in  the  Church  as  well  as  man.  Man,  by  the  very  fact  of 
his  sex,  can  not  do  her  work.  I  doubt  if  the  angel  Grabriel  would 
have  made  a  good  mother,  or  if  John  "Wesley  would  have  figured 
gracefully  as  a  kindergartner.  This  is  woman's  work.  And — while 
not  for  a  moment  disparaging  the  vast  work  that  is  being  done  and 
always  must  be  done  by  the  lay  woman — it  must  be  done  in  larger 
part  by  the  set-apart  woman.  The  need  is  not  new,  nor  is  the 
divinely-provided  supply  for  the  need.  Through  all  the  centuries, 
since  the  woman  ministered  to  Jesus,  there  have  been  deaconesses 
and  sisterhoods — set-apart  women  and  organizations  of  women — for 
this  work  of  the  Church. 

My  brief  time  will  not  allow  historic  treatment,  but  the  history 
of  sisterhoods  and  deaconesses  may  be  traced  back  to  the  earliest 
times.  I  can  only  mention  Phoebe  of  Corinth — for  Bible  illustra- 
tion— and  if  one  contend  that  she  was  "diakonos"  the  servant,  not 
"diakonissa"  the  Church  officer,  I  reply  that  the  two  things  are 
synonymous.  The  unnamed  "ministrae"  of  Pliny's  letter,  the  great 
groups  of  banded-together  women  in  the  first  centuries  and  the  lat- 
ter organized  sisterhoods  of  the  Roman  Church  contained  loving 
mother-souls  a  great  host.  Against  Luther's  judgment  this  form 
of  work  was  lost  to  Protestantism  for  a  time  in  a  reaction  against 
the  abuses  of  these  orders  in  Catholicism;  but  it  reappeared — it 
was  bound  to  reappear.  For  the  need  was  still  there — the  vast 
mass  of  unmothered,  unshepherded,  sick  and  sad  humanity — and 
woman's  heart  could  not  rest.    Fliedner  took  up  the  thread,  uniting 


564  THE  WOMAN'S  MOVEMENT. 

with,  it  strands  from  the  worli  of  Elizabeth  Fry.  His  great  con- 
tribution was  the  uniting  of  the  ideas  of  the  deaconess  and  the  sister- 
hood. The  worli  spread,  starting  up  in  different  countries  in  differ- 
ent ways.  It  began  in  the  Methodism  of  America  as  a  woman's 
movement,  an  outburst  from  woman's  loving  heart,  a  unique  inde- 
pendent thing,  and  with  almost  no  knowledge  of  the  work  across 
the  water.  So  true  it  is,  as  Isabella  Thoburn  said,  that  when  God 
would  make  a  great  river,  He  usually  does  it  by  many  lesser  rills. 

Two  principles  of  radical  importance  are  to  be  noted  as  explain- 
ing the  value  and  showing  the  possibilities  of  modern  deaconess 
work.  The  first  has  been  hinted  at.  Great  fortunes  have  been  made 
in  the  industries  by  simply  discovering  ways  of  utilizing  material 
before  unutilized.  Deaconesses  are  women  who,  but  for  their  ac- 
tivities as  deaconesses,  would  very  few  of  them  be  in  Christian 
service  at  all.  A  very  definite  and  imperative  pai't  of  Church  work 
it  is,  to  heal  the  sick  in  hospitals  and  poor  homes,  to  visit  Jesus 
Christ,  sick  and  naked  and  poor  and  in  prison  as  He  is  in  a  thou- 
sand homes  of  London  and  New  York  and  Chicago  to-day,  to  take 
the  little  children  into  its  arms,  to  guard  and  guide  the  steps  of 
our  young  sisters  in  dangerous  city  places.  And  this  is  largely  the 
work  of  the  set-apart  woman — the  deaconess.  By  her  the  Church 
puts  into  humanity's  sad  family  outside  the  domestic  circle  that 
which  it  needs  most,  the  true  mother. 

The  modern  deaconess  movement  rescues  the  hand  of  the  free 
woman  from  idleness  or  from  work  of  lesser  value,  trains  that  hand 
and  the  head  and  heart  behind  it,  and  sets  it  at  work  for  God. 
Jesus,  who  combined  in  Himself  both  manly  and  womanly  ministry, 
spent  His  time  not  only  in  His  great  sermons  and  in  important 
meetings  with  the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  but — a  great  deal  of  it — 
in  friendly  personal  conversations,  in  making  the  sick  well,  in  feed- 
ing the  hungry,  in  recognizing  the  child.  "We  have  as  yet  hardly 
touched  this  work.  We  could  not  hitherto  do  it,  or  had  no  arm 
of  service  for  it.  But  now  we  have  the  deaconess.  The  immense 
possibilities  here  grow  upon  one.  It  is  this  kind  of  work  that 
makes  real  to  a  doubting  world  the  genuine  friendliness  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  Church  of  Jesus  needs  every  ounce  of  reinforcement 
possible,  and  this  reinforcement  of  woman's  work  may  be  very 
great.  I  wish  I  could  put  before  you  the  picture  in  my  mind  of 
what  it  would  mean  if  for  the  next  thirty  years  the  Church  could 
fully  work  out  her  loving  will  in  humanity's  great,  loose,  swinging 
family,  through  the  hands  of  her  trained  women.  It  would  mean 
all  that  has  traditionally  gathered  around  that  word,  "The  millen- 
nium."    It  would  mean,  "Thy  Kingdom  come." 

But  deaconess  work  in  the  Church  is  of  enormous  moment  in 
view  of  the  deepening  social  unrest  around  us.  The  Church  is 
hardly  yet  awake  to  the  significance  of  that  unrest.     It  is  slow  to 


ADDRESS  BY  MRS.  LUCY  RIDER  MEYER.  565 

understand  that  it  is  all  God  moving  on  the  face  of  the  water — 
moving  in  a  mysterious  way  sometimes,  but  still  God.  Social  re- 
form has  nof  yet  raised  openly  and  often  the  banner  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  in  whose  Spirit  and  by  whose  energizing  it  is  surely  work- 
ing. It  has  not  j-et  found  itself  as  a  part  of"  the  great  world 
movement  toward  the  Kingdom.  But  consider  some  splendid  ideals 
of  social  reform  that  have  been  flung  up  from  the  turbulent  waters. 
The — not  the  care  of  a  few  sick  in  the  hospitals,  but  the  entire 
eradication  of  all  preventable  disease!  The — not  the  gathering  of 
a  few  poor  in  refuges  and  asylums,  but  the  abolition  of  all  poverty! 
The — not  the  snatching  as  brands  from  the  burning  of  a  handful 
of  our  poor  lost  sisters,  but  the  entire  wiping  out  of  the  social 
evil !  One's  very  soul  thrills  at  the  thought.  Does  n't  it  sound 
like,  "Thy  Kingdom  come?"  And  may  not  the  Church  bow  her  head, 
rebuked  and  ashamed  that  the  moral  splendors  of  such  a  program 
should  have  to  be  suggested  to  it  from  without? 

Now  in  her  deaconess  work  the  Church  links  herself  openly 
with  these  magnificent  social  ideals.  Through  the  deaconess  the 
Church  bears  glorious  and  clear  witness.  For  over  the  head  of  this 
our  minister  floats  always  the  flag  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Do  you 
wonder  that  I  long  that  her  work  shall  be  extended  till  the  banner 
of  my  Master  shall  float  unchallenged  over  all  social  reform?  It 
belongs  there! 

The  deaconess  helps  directly  in  social  reform  by  her  daily  toil. 
Because  of  the  unique  financial  plan  of  deaconess  work,  its  econ- 
omy, the  meeting  of  the  gift  of  life  (what  the  deaconess  has)  with 
the  gift  of  money  (what  others  have)  the  Church  can  put  the 
deaconess  in  large  numbers  right  into  the  thick  of  the  fight.  She 
is  even  now  the  principal  means  in  the  homeland  at  least,  by  which 
the  Church  makes  itself  understood  by  the  poor.  And  everywhere 
she  goes  she  commands,  compels  confidence.  Satan  still  sneers, 
"Doth  Job  serve  God  for  nought?"  The  deaconess  answers,  "Yes." 
We  who  understand  know  that  the  preacher  also  is  disinterested 
and  unselfish,  that  he  works  not  for  money,  even  though  it  be  with 
money.  But  he  who  runs  may  read;  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the 
devil  may  not  deny,  that  there  is  an  unseen,  divine  compulsion  of 
love  that  moves  the  Church  that  sends  out  the  deaconess  who  goes 
about  doing  good  with  literally  no  wage  of  earth's  gold. 

Moreover,  the  character  of  the  deaconess  compels  respect  and 
confidence.  She  is  a  modern,  trained  woman.  She  sees  not  only 
other  world  values,  but  this  world's  values.  She  not  only  pats  the 
heads  of  the  slum  children,  but  washes  their  dirty  faces.  She  is 
human  and  friendly  and  sensible.  She  compels  confidence.  Con- 
fidence in  herself?  That  is  the  least  part  of  it.  She  compels  con- 
fidence in  the  Church  behind  her.  She  is  an  object  lesson  known 
and   read  of  all  men.     Though  she  were  silent  as  the  grave  ,she 


566  THE  WOMAN'S  MOVEMENT. 

speaks  in  trumpet  tones.  Every  one  of  the  eighteen  hundred  dea- 
conesses at  work  in  world-wide  Methodism,  quietly  busy  in  her 
station,  is  a  point  of  transparency  through  which  there  pierce  ir- 
resistibly to  the  willful,  stubborn  world  some  rays  of  the  light  that 
shines  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  duty  of  Methodism?  Just  in  passing  let  me  say  I  believe 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  its  sacred  im- 
perative duty,  to  harmonize  its  deaconess  work.  And  it  is  the  duty 
of  all  Methodism  to  give  confidence  and  support,  not  only  financial 
but  moral,  to  the  movement.  And  most  of  all  give  us  the  women. 
Run,  speak  to  that  young  woman.  Send  them  to  our  school — we  '11 
take  them,  money  or  no  money.  And  the  womanhood  of  Methodism 
has  a  duty.  Fill  up  the  ranks.  Rise  up,  ye  women,  that  are  at  ease; 
hear  this  voice,  ye  careless  women!  No  place  big  enough  for  you? 
Make  the  place — there  is  at  least  room — room  for  all  the  gifts  and 
graces  woman  may  possess.  No  grander  opportunity  for  original, 
constructive  work  was  ever  offered  man  or  woman  than  that  before 
women  to-day  in  the  deaconess  work.  Leaders  are  wanted,  great 
women.  Physicians,  nurses,  editors,  visitors,  social  leaders, — all 
kinds  of  women.  Kate  Drexel,  some  years  ago,  gave  herself  and 
ten  millions  of  dollars  to  the  work  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 
Is  there  less  of  devotion  among  the  women  of  Methodism  than  in 
the  Roman  Church? 

The  need?  It  is  heart-breaking.  There  came  to  my  office  in  a 
single  day  a  while  ago,  after  the  year's  graduates  were  assigned, 
calls  for  five  women,  one  to  go  to  a  factory  community  where  the 
pastor  insisted — pray  God  he  was  mistaken — that  half  the  girls 
were  going  wrong  for  lack  of  a  Christian  woman's  influence.  And 
I  could  not  send  one  of  the  five!  Yet — "He  is  not  willing  that 
any  should  perish." 

Mrs.  Geo.  0.  Eobinson",  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
presented  the  Third  Invited  Address,  on  "Woman's  Worlc  in 
the  Church:" 

As  a  Methodist  woman,  a  rare  opportunity  has  been  officially 
granted  me,  viz.,  to  address,  in  one  audience,  representatives  of  the 
Methodism  of  the  entire  world.  Delegates  of  many  countries  and 
of  diverse  nationalities  are  united  here,  but  the  overwhelming  ma- 
jority owe  allegiance  either  to  England  or  to  the  United  States  of 
America.  This  fact  is  not  surprising  when  you  consider  that  over 
five  hundred  millions — about  one-third  of  the  people  of  the  globe — 
are  living  under  the  protection  of  the  "Cross  of  St.  George,"  and 
the  "Stars  and  Stripes."  England  and  the  United  States  lead  the 
vanguard  of  free,  democratic  nations,  but 

"Where  the  vanguard  camps  to-day 
The  rearguard  camps  to-morrow." 


ADDRESS  BY  MRS.  GEO.  0.  ROBINSON.  5G7 

Other  nations  are  following  closely  after.  We  women  would  not 
be  here  if  "the  age  of  the  common  people"  was  not  slowly  dawning 
over  the  world's  horizon. 

The  remark  attributed  to  a  fond  lover,  "We  shall  be  one,  darling, 
and  I  will  be  that  one,"  accurately  and  succinctly  states  the  rela- 
tive position  of  man  and  woman  in  the  Church  until  the  coming 
of  the  wonderful  nineteenth  century.  With  the  beginning  of  that 
century,  and  throughout  its  years,  the  condition  of  the  masses  of 
men  immeasurably  advanced,  and  women  advanced  with  the  men. 
Cruel  legal  disabilities  which  once  oppressed  women  have  been  re- 
moved. Educational  opportunities  have  opened  their  doors,  not 
widely  at  first  (sometimes  just  a  little  crack),  but  suflBciently  so, 
that  any  woman  who  really  desires  a  thorough,  substantial  educa- 
tion can  secure  it,  provided  she  has  the  health  and  means. 

What  has  been  the  result  of  this  increase  of  freedom  and  oppor- 
tunity? Why,  the  natural  result  of  a  vast  increase  in  woman's 
philanthropic  and  religious  activities.  She  rose  to  the  level  of  her 
new  franchises. 

In  the  long  struggle  to  free  the  African  slave,  who,  in  the  United 
States,  struck  the  most  effective  blow  in  breaking  the  shackles  that 
bound  them?  Answer — A  woman,  a  quiet.  New  England  woman, 
Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  who,  in  writing  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  fired 
the  shot  that  was  heard  around  the  world.  Who  has  been  the  most 
effective  temperance  leader  during  the  last  half-century?  Answer — 
A  woman — a  Methodist  woman — Frances  Willard,  the  leader  of  the 
white-ribboned  host,  and  while  her  body 

"  .  .  .  .  may  lie  moldering  in  the  grave. 
Her  soul  goes  marching  on." 

Who  has  so  far  most  effectively  arrested  the  thought  of  the  Ameri- 
can people,  and  compelled  consideration  of  the  rights  of  the  com- 
mon people  versus  "special  privileges?"  Answer — ^A  woman — a 
Methodist  woman — Ida  Tarbell.  Consider  the  work  of  the  Meth- 
odist women  in  home  and  foreign  mission  fields!  None  of  their 
organizations  are  more  than  a  half-century  old,  but  note  the  breadth 
and  power  of  their  activities! 

The  Laymen's  Missionary  Movement  is  a  grand  attempt  to  com- 
bine the  laymen  of  Protestantism  into  one  mighty  army  marching 
on  to  conquest — 

"With  the  cross  of  Jesus 
Going  on  before." 

This  great  movement  has  my  hearty  support,  especially  as  it  is  con- 
ducted here  in  Canada,  where  no  distinction  is  made  in  its  efforts 
between  home  and  foreign  missions.  Yet,  brethren,  will  you  pardon 
me,  if  I  point  with  pride  to  the  Lay-woman's  Movement  of  our 
foreign  mission  sisters,  who   last  winter   marched   eastward   in   a 


5G8  THE  WOMAN'S  MOVEMENT. 

grand  "processional"  of  rallies,  from  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  until 
stopped  by  the  waves  of  the  Atlantic,  holding  meetings  in  our  prin- 
cipal cities?  They  awakened  wonderful  enthusiasm,  especially 
among  the  women  who  had  not  before  been  greatly  interested  in 
missions,  the  women  of  the  well-to-do  and  leisure  classes. 

At  their  banquet,  in  my  home  city  of  Detroit,  twelve  hundred 
women  were  seated,  and,  at  the  close  of  the  repast,  they  listened 
with  keen  attention  to  the  wonderful  reports  of  what  women  are 
doing  for  women  in  heathen  lands.  At  the  close  of  these  rallies  it 
was  found  that  offerings  of  about  a  million  dollars  had  been  given 
to  advance  the  cause  of  Foreign  Missions.  Good  laymen  of  the 
Laymen's  Missionary  Movement,  have  you  done  very  much  better? 

Both  without  and  within  the  Church,  during  the  last  fifty  years, 
hundreds  of  women's  societies  have  made  a  record  of  heroism,  de- 
votion, and  success  which  deserves  to  stand  side  by  side  with  those 
registered  in  apostolic  times. 

Up  to  the  year  1900  we  women  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  did  not  know  our  status.  We  had  no  name  distinctively 
our  own.  We  were  sur6  of  the  statistics.  We  knew  that  there  was 
a  great  host  of  us.  We  knew  that  women  constituted  about  two- 
thirds  of  the  membership  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  even  though  we  were  so  sparingly  represented 
in  the  ofRcial  membership  that  our  existence  there  did  not  count. 
There  were  no  woman  bishops,  or  book  agents,  nor  missionary 
secretaries;  not  one  receiving  salaries  or  honors,  but  we  knew  that 
the  pastors  of  Methodism  leaned  hard  upon  the  services  of  the 
Ladies'  Aid  Societies;  we  knew  that  the  good  sisters  were  devoted 
upholders  of  the  class  meeting  and  of  the  prayer  meeting;  we  knew 
that  they  were  loyally  extending  the  good  work  of  Methodism  in 
all  directions;  in  short,  we  knew  that  the  seiwice  of  our  women 
members  constituted  a  substantial  foundation  iipon  which  rests  a 
large  and  important  part  of  the  practical  activities  of  Methodism. 
And  yet  ^we  did  not  know  what  we  were,  nor  just  what  relation 
we  sustained  to  the  Church. 

Some  suggested,  that,  as  there  is  the  high  authority  of  St.  Paul 
for  maintaining  that  in  the  Church  of  God  there  is  "no  bond  nor 
free,  no  male  nor  female,"  the  term  "laymen"  was  one  of  those 
general  terms  that  could  apply  to  both  men  and  women,  and  that 
women  members  of  the  Church  were  properly  designated  as  in- 
cluded in  the  term  "laymen."  But  this  was  strenuously  contro- 
verted. Our  good  Dr.  Buckley,  whom  we  all  honor  and  admire,  was 
one  of  the  doubting  ones,  and  he  used  his  powerful  pen  to  maintain 
that  women  are  not  "laymen." 

But,  strange  to  say,  there  was  a  logic  more  incisive  and  con- 
clusive than  even  that  of  our  beloved  chief  editor,  and  that  is,  the 
"logic  of  events."     The  General  Conference  of  1900,  at  Chicago,  iu- 


ADDRESS  BY  MRS.  GEO.  0.  ROBINSON.  569 

structed  and  supported  by  a  great,  vote  of  the  people,  declared  that 
the  women  members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  are  defined 
by  the  term  "laymen,"  and  so  all  the  rights  and  privileges  inherent 
in  the  laymen  of  the  Church  passed  to  them  with  this  definition. 
It  was  a  great  day  for  the  women  of  Methodism.  Our  status  was 
at  length  defined.  We  had  at  last  found  ourselves.  The  time  v/as 
ripe.  The  Church  was  psychologically  prepared  to  accept  such  a 
definition.  The  wider  education9,l  privileges  that  woman  had  at- 
tained had  fitted  her  to  fill  a  larger  and  more  important  function 
in  the  Church.  The  great  liberalizing  mevements  of  thought  had 
prepared  people  to  accept  her,  and  so,  for  the  first  time  in  history, 
Methodist  lay-women  were  given  the  rights  and  privileges  of  Meth- 
odist laymen. 

At  the  Ecumenical  Conference  held  in  London  the  following 
year,  1901,  a  further  step  in  the  progress  of  the  women  of  Meth- 
odism was  taken  by  the  women  themselves.  Methodist  women  from 
every  part  of  the  globe  were  there  assembled.  They  had  a  number 
of  meetings,  and  reported  on  the  work  that  women  were  doing  in 
China,  Japan,  Australia,  India,  South  Africa,  the  Continent  of  Eu- 
rope, and  the  American  Continent.  The  result  of  these  meetings 
was  the  organization  of  the  International  Committee  of  Women  of 
Methodism  in  two  sections,  constituted  as  are  the  sections  of  the 
Ecumenical  Conference  itself.  During  the  last  ten  years  our  West- 
ern section  has  so  far  accomplished  'the  larger  amount  of  work. 
We  have  entered  into  correspondence  with  the  chief  authorities  of 
the  twelve  sections  constituting  the  Western  section  of  Methodism, 
and  in  the  branches  of  the  denomination  where  women's  work  is 
well  organized  valuable  statistics  have  been  obtained  of  the  kind 
and  amount  of  work  that  women  are  accomplishing  in  Home  and 
Foreign  Missions  and  in  deaconess  work.  These  inquiries  have  led 
to  larger  interest  in  the  branches  of  Methodism  where  women'^ 
work  is  not  so  well  organized. 

We  understand  that  now  Sir  Robert  Perks,  Vice-President  Fair- 
banks, and  others  of  our  eminent  leaders  are  arranging  for  a  per- 
manent committee  of  the  men  of  world-wide  Methodism.  We  con- 
gratulate them  upon  this  measure.  We  have  found  it  has  been  a 
valuable  measure  in  the  interest  of  the  women  of  Methodism,  and 
we  desire  to  give  them  all  possible  encouragement.  Furthermore, 
should  we  women  take  any  other  advance  measure,  we  shall  feel 
complimented  if  our  brothers  take  like  measure. 

In  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  at  the  two  General  Con- 
ferences of  1904  and  1908,  there  were  between  twenty  and  thirty 
women  delegates.  In  this  short  time  they  have  justified  their  pres- 
ence, as  legislation  now  stands  in  the  Methodist  Discipline  govern- 
ing this  branch  of  Methodism,  some  of  which  was  planned  for  by 
a  Methodist  woman,  and  some  of  the  phrasing  of  which  is  in  her 
words. 


570  ■         THE  WOMAN^S  MOVEMENT. 

During  the  past  year  our  brethren  of  the  English  Wesleyan 
branch  of  Methodism  have  seen  a  great  light.  At  the  sessions  of 
the  Wesleyan  Conference  of  1911  were  present  fourteen  women 
as  lay-members,  Mrs.  Hugh  Price  Hughes  leading  the  noble  dele- 
gation. 

Mrs.  Hughes  has  indicated  some  ways  in  which  British  Meth- 
odism may  benefit  from  this  important  change  in  policj%  For  so 
long  a  time  women  have  stood  on  the  outside,  at  a  distance,  it  is 
possible  that  they  may  thus  have  secured  a  better  perspective  in 
judging  the  needs  of  the  Church.  Mrs.'  Hughes,  and  the  other  dis- 
tinguished Methodist  women  whom  she  consulted,  believe  that 
woman's  thoughts  will  be  especially  helpful  on  the  following  ques- 
tions,— 

1.  The  need  of  trained  leaders  to  recover  the  Church  from  a 
steady  decline  in  numbers. 

2.  Modern  equipment  and  more  effective  teaching  in  Sunday 
schools. 

3.  The  guarding  of  qualifications  for  Church  membership. 

4.  The  values  added  by  the  judgment  of  women  in  admitting 
candidates  to  the  ministry. 

5.  The  recognition  of  women  as  preachers. 

6.  The  demand  for  a  white  life  for  both  sexes  in  moral  issues. 

7.  The  more  intelligent  spiritual  care  of  the  children  of  the 
Church. 

Certainly  we  women  well  realize  how  difficult  it  is,  especially  in 
the  families  of  the  prosperous  and  well-to-do,  to  hold  the  children 
and  young  people  faithful  to  the  strict  tenets  of  Methodism  and 
loyal  to  the  Church. 

The  poets,  the  seers,  the  prophets  of  our  race  have  ever  been 
quick  to  recognize  the  value  of  woman's  qualities.  Over  a  genera- 
tion ago  Wendell  Phillips  said,  "Every  men's  organization  into 
which  women  have  been  asked  to  enter  has  been  bettered  by  the 
hospitality."  Tennyson,  our  English  master  of  rhythm,  declares 
that  there  are  needed 

"Two  heads  in  council 
Two  beside  the  hearth." 

Even  St.  Paul,  who  shared  in  the  Oriental  prejudices  of  his 
race  and  age,  in  a  moment  of  prophetic  inspiration,  wrote,  "There 
is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek;  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free;  there  is 
neither  male  nor  female;  for  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ  Jesus." 

Goethe,  the  great  German  poet,  noted  for  his  lofty  thoughts,  and 
the  complete  success  he  obtained  in  not  applying  them  to  his  own 
personal  conduct,  closed  his  immortal  poem  of  Faust  by  the  words, — 
"Das  ewig  Weibliche  zieht  uns  an," — (the  eternal  womanly  draws 
us  on.) 


TELEGRAM  TO  THE  DUKE  OF  CONNAUGHT.  571 

I  take  it  that  the  poet  meant  that  the  womanly  heart  qualities 
of  sympathy  and  lovingkindness  are  superior  to  the  head  qualities 
of  logic  and  reason.  If  that  is  what  he  meant,  he  was  stating  in 
one  way  what  Dr.  G.  Stanley  Hall,  one  of  our  educational  authori- 
ties in  the  United  States,  has  expressed  in  another  way,  when  he 
says,  the  highest  education  is  the  education  of  the  heart,  the  edu- 
cation of  the  inner  life,  an  education  that  lies  within  the  reach  of 
every  man  and  woman  who  accepts  God  as  his  Father  and  Christ 
as  his  Savior. 

I  am  one  of  the  women  who  believe  that  men  and  women  do 
their  best  work  when  they  work  together. 

Olive  Schreiner  is  not  noted  as  an  eminent  Christian,  but  her 
latest  book,  treating  of  the  effects  of  modern  civilization,  with  its 
gifts  of  opportunity  and  privilege,  upon  the  character  of  woman,  is 
an  epoch-making  book.  She  believes  that  both  men  and  women  are 
being  prepared  for  a  larger  destiny,  that  better  mothers  and  fathers 
will  produce  a  better  race — a  race  that  will  hasten  the  coming  of 
that 

"Faint,  far-off,  divine  event. 
Toward  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 

We  women  are  here  in  "the  fullness  of  time."  Humble  and  in- 
significant as  we  may  be,  the  forces  that  opened  the  door  for  us 
to  enter  are  world  forces,  part  of  a  vast  movement  tending  to  the 
betterment  of  the  race.  We  have  heard  much  in  this  Conference 
of  "the  unrest  of  the  nations."  Has  it  occurred  to  you  that  this 
unrest  may  be  but  the  tremblings  from  the  footsteps  of  the  onward 
march  of  the  democracy  of  the  children  of  Israel?  Be  that  as  it 
may, 

"The  Lord  of  Right  still  sits  on  His  throne. 
Still  wields  His  sceptre  and  rod; 
And  the  winds  and  the  waves  and  the  years  move  on. 
Doing  the  will  of  God." 

On  motion  of  Secretary  Jajies  Chapman,  the  daily  record 
of   October   12tli  as  printed  was  adopted  by  the  Conference. 

He  rejjorted  that  the  committee  appointed  this  morning 
had  sent  a  telegram  to  the  Duke  of  Connaught : 

Bis  Royal  Highness,  Field  Marshal  The  Duke  of  Connaught,  Gover- 
nor-General, Ottawa: 

The  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference  heartily  thanks  your  royal 
highness  for  j'our  gracious  message,  and  prays  God's  blessing  on  your 
royal  highness's  governorship  of  this  great  Dominion. 

Perks,  President. 
Cabboll,  Secretary. 


573  THE  WOMAN'S  MOVEMENT. 

Hymn  110  was  sung — 

"Jesus,  the  very  thought  of  Thee 
With  sweetness  fills  ray  breast." 

The  Eev.  William  Bkadfield,  of  the  British  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Cliurch : 

Having  had  to  do  with  the  preparation  of  a  hymn-book  in  Eng- 
land, I  had  an  opportunity  to  discover  whether  women  are  laymen 
or  not.  Almost  all  the  great  hj^mns  in  the  hymn-books  are  by  min- 
isters or  women.  If  it  were  not  for  the  English  poet  Cowper  and  the 
American  poet  Whittier,  the  laymen  would  have  a  poor  showing  in 
our  hymn-books.  That  throws  a  light  on  the  phrase  "the  ministry 
of  women."  From  the  beginning  they  had  a  share  in  the  ministry. 
Those  women  who  ministered  to  Christ  cared  not  only  for  His 
clothes  and  food,  but  for  His  gospel.  They  belonged  to  the  apostolic 
company  who  gave  us  the  New  Testament  and  had  their  share  in  it. 
Who  told  the  story  of  the  first  two  chapters  of  Luke  but  a  woman? 
Who  told  the  story  of  what  happened  on  the  cross  when  the  dis- 
ciples all  ran  away,  but  the  women  who  were  there?  People  refer 
sometimes  to  St.  Paul  as  if  he  were  somehow  an  enemy  of  women. 
He  had  two  oppressed  classes  to  deal  with:  slaves  and  women.  He 
gave  them  both  the  same  advice  and  told  them  both,  "You  are  free." 
He  told  them,  "In  Jesus  Christ  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free, 
male  nor  female;"  he  advised  them  both  to  make  the  best  of  the 
present  social  order.  He  did  it  because  a  social  uprising  of  slaves 
and  women  would  have  ruined  the  world.  You  have  no  more  right 
to  quote  St.  Paul  as  limiting  the  activities  of  woman  than  to  quote 
him  as  a  slave-owner. 

I  want  to  plead  that  the  women  should  have  an  opportunity.  I 
will  tell  you  why  they  have  not  exercised  their  ministry  in  some 
ages  of  the  Church  as  well  as  might  have  been.  You  find  two  things 
in  the  New  Testament.  When  the  day  of  Pentecost  comes  it  is  "your 
sons  and  your  daughters."  When  you  get  a  Church  like  that  in 
Corinth,  with  ugly  social  conditions  inside  the  Church,  it  is  "let 
the  women  keep  silence."  We  have  to  expect  from  our  women  in- 
finitely greater  things  than  we  have  yet  received,  when  we  are  good 
enough.  Meanwhile  we  have  to  wait.  I  do  not  think  we  will  have 
to  wait  much  longer.  I  am  happy  to  say  that  our  Wesleyan  Metho- 
dist Church  has  revised  its  regulations  so  as  to  give  those  women 
whom  God  has  called  to  preach  (and  He  has  called  some  of  them 
to  preach;  any  one  who  ever  heard  Catherine  Booth  can  not  doubt 
that) — I  am  glad  to  say  that  we  have  restored  our  ancient  liberty 
and  have  the  right  to  give  those  women  the  position. 

Miss   Lena   Wallis^   of   the   British   Wesleyan   Methodist 

Church : 

Among  the  many  demands  that  are  being  made  upon  the  time 
and  thought  of  earnest-minded  women  to-day,  I  think,  there  are 
none  more  insistent,  none  more  pressing,  than  those  made  by  the 
political  needs  of  our  time.  I  want  just  for  a  minute  or  two  to 
put  in  a  plea  for  the  Methodist  woman  who  has  thought  herself 
called  to  this  great  field  of  service.  I  know  very  well  that  I  am  not 
making  a  very  popular  plea  here.  I  listened  with  regret  to  the  state- 
ment made  by  a  delegate  here  the  other  day,  a  sort  of  contemptuous 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  573 

statement,  witli  regard  to  political  women;  and  I  noticed  that  it 
was  met  with  considerable  applause  by  people  in  the  gallery,  which 
might  be  expected,  and  also  that  it  was  met  with  applause  by  a  con- 
siderable number  of  delegates  who,  I  think,  ought  to  have  known 
better. 

We  were  reminded  of  that  old  statement  that  "the  hand  that 
rocks  the  cradle  rules  the  world."  I  entirely  agree  with  the  truth 
contained  in  that  statement;  but  I  want  to  ask  you  what  are  you 
going  to  do  with  the  women  who  for  various  reasons  to-day  are  de- 
nied the  rights  and  privileges  of  motherhood,  who  have  no  cradles 
of  their  own  to  rock?  Are  you  going  to  tie  their  hands  and  prevent 
them  doing  anything  by  means  of  which  they  can  lift  men  and 
women  nearer  to  God?  Do  j^ou  know  the  tremendous  forces  which 
are  driving  many  pt  the  best  women  in  England  into  political  life 
to-day?  Do  you  know  of  that  vast  army  of  women  of  the  under- 
world who,  night  after  night,  walk  the  streets  of  our  great  towns 
and  cities — the  "fathers' "  streets,  as  we  were  reminded  yesterday? 
They  walk  the  streets  night  after  night  in  a  hell  more  lurid  in 
reality  than  any  painted  by  our  forefathers. 

Do  you  know  that  in  England  the  law  allows  a  girl  to  sell  her 
body  for  her  own  ruin  when  she  is  a  mere  child,  and  forbids  her  to 
sell  a  foot  of  land  or  a  bit  of  property  until  she  is  twenty-one?  Do 
you  know  of  the  vast  number  of  women  who  die  in  the  vile  tene- 
ments, and  that  very  many  children  of  v/orking-women  die  before 
they  reach  five  years  of  age,  and  that  those  who  survive  have  the 
marks  of  disease  and  undergrowth  planted  in  their  tender  bodies? 
It  is  these  things  that  have  driven  us  into  politics.  We  have  found 
legislation  is  the  quickest  way  to  change  these  things,  and  the  only 
way  to  get  legislation  is  to  form  public  opinion.  We  happier  women 
have  banded  ourselves  in  political  associations,  and  we  are  knocking 
at  the  door  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  shall  not  cease  to  knock 
until  we  have  gained  for  those  women  something,  at  least,  of  the 
freedom  and  joy  that  we  ourselves  have. 

I  ask  you  to  believe  me,  friends,  when  I  tell  you  that  we  women 
have  gone  at  the  call  of  God,  just  as  surely  as  any  of  you  here  has 
heard  the  voice  of  God  saying,  "Whom  shall  I  send,  and  who  will 
go  for  us?"  So  surely  have  we  political  women  heard  that  voice; 
often  with  shrinking  hearts  we  have  answered,  "Here  am  I;  send 
me."  As  I  have  sat  in  this  great  Conference  and  listened  to  the 
great  discussions  taking  place,  I  have  felt  what  tremendous  ])ower 
lies  in  this  Conference.  But  there  is  one  supreme  need.  I  was  lunch- 
ing with  Lady  Carlyle  a  few  months  ago,  and  in  the  party  was  a 
young  man  just  entering  political  life.  Lady  Carlyle  turned  to  him 
as  we  were  discussing  some  political  problems  and  said,  "Do  you 
care  for  woman's  suffrage?"  He  said,  "Yes,  I  do."  She  said,  "Do 
you  care  so  much  that  it  keeps  you  awake  at  night?"  That  is  the 
supreme  need.  Do  we  care  enough  so  that  we  have  never  lost  one 
hour  of  sleep  because  of  the  suffering,  sin,  sorrow,  woe  of  the  world? 
We  go  out  at  the  call  of  God.  When  Joan  of  Arc  stood  before  her 
English  judges  they  asked  her:  "How  was  it  that  you  were  led  into 
France?  Was  it  by  your  own  desire  or  by  the  command  of  God?" 
And  she  replied,  "I3y  the  command  of  God." 

Mrs.  "\V.  Machin,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist  Churcli : 

Madam  President,  Brothers,  and  Sisters:  The  tendency  of  modern 
thought  is  to  emphasize  the  value  of  the  individual,  of  the  indi- 


574  THE  WOMAN'S  MOVEMENT. 

vidual  life  in  every  aspect.  And  tliis  is  right.  In  our  work  as 
women,  in  our  highest  worlt,  especially  in  our  temperance  work,  we 
emphasize  the  value  of  the  individual.  But  I  want  to  say  to  these 
my  sisters  here  who  may  think  they  are  not  strong  enough  to  do 
work  outside  their  homes,  that  in  this  fact  there  is  a  subtle  danger. 
We  realize  to-day,  as  dear  old  Doctor  Watts  could  not  have  realized 
when  he  wrote  his  hymn — we  realize  it  because  of  the  teachings  of 
modern  science — that 

Dangers  stand  thick  on  all  the  ground 

To  push  us  to  the  tomb. 
And  fierce  diseases  wait  around 

To  hurry   mortals  home, 

and  because  of  that  many  women  do  not  dare  to  visit  among  the 
poor  for  fear  of  infection.  They  will  not  allow  their  daughters  to 
do  work  among  the  poor,  for  the  same  reason,  I  want  them  to  re- 
member that,  though  science  teaches  us  these  things,  it  also  teaches 
how  to  cure  these  fierce  diseases  and  avoid  these  terrible  dangers. 
I  do  plead  in  this  matter  for  more  self-sacrifice.  I  do  not  know 
what  the  note  is  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic;  but  I  fear  that  in  Eng- 
land the  thought  of  self-sacrifice  is  not  popular.  We  are  continually 
being  told,  "You  owe  it  to  yourself  to  have  the  vote."  That  is  all 
right.  I  agree  with  Miss  Wallis.  She  knows  I  do.  "You  owe  it 
to  yourself  to  take  care  of  your  health."  Do  n't  let  us  utter  that 
note.  You  dear  people  take  care  of  us  if  necessary.  If  we  do  owe 
it  to  ourselves,  let  us  pay  the  debt  to  husband,  children,  and  Church, 
and  in  so  doing  pay  in  some  degree  the  debt  that  we  owe  to  our 
Lord  and  Master.  But  let  others  pay  the  debt  that  is  owing  to  our- 
selves. Let  us  not  trouble  about  that.  Here  I  would  say  a  word  to 
husbands  and  sons  who  sometimes  keep  us  from  doing  what  in  our 
inmost  soiils  we  know  to  be  our  duty,  because  they  say  we  are  not 
strong  enough.  Dear  brothers,  we  are  stronger  than  you  think. 
Do  n't  hinder  us.  We  have  to  let  you  go  out  into  the  world  to 
face  all  sorts  of  dangers.  Let  us  do  a  little  more  for  the  sake  of 
Him  who  said  to  us,  "If  any  one  will  come  after  Me,  let  him  deny 
himself  and  take  up  the  cross  daily  and  follow  Me." 

The  Eev.  Edward  J.  Beailsford^  of  the  British  "Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church: 

I  may  attempt  to  speak  on  the  cause  that  Miss  Wallis  has  al- 
ready spoken  on.  If  I  can  not  have  the  honor  of  introducing  the 
matter,  I  feel  proud  of  being  able  to  stand  by  her  side  and  give 
some  emphasis  to  her  appeal.  Wliat  I  would  like  to  say  is  that  I 
rejoice  with  all  my  heart  that  women  are  coming  into  their  place  in 
Christendom;  but  I  would  beseech  them  to  strengthen  their  position 
and  increase  their  infiuence  by  joining  with  their  sisters  in  Great 
Britain  and  so  many  other  parts  of  the  world  who  are  trying  to 
gain  and  use  the  citizenship  to  which  they  are  entitled.  I  shall  not 
plead  for  that  on  the  mere  abstract  ground  of  justice,  because  it  is 
apparent  that  if  there  is  perfect  equality  between  men  and  women, 
then  the  same  rights  should  be  given  to  the  women  that  are  given 
to  the  men  on  the  same  conditions. 

But  my  plea  is  this,  that  Christendom  can  not  do  without  the 
personal  consecrated  influence  of  womanhood.  And  when  you  think 
of  it,  of  what  legislation  now  is,  becoming  hands  to  the  helpless  and 


GENERAI.  REMARKS.  575 

feet  to  the  lame,  as  well  as  looking  through  its  eyes  with  tears  of 
infinite  compassion  on  the  miserable,  then  we  can  see  that  woman 
has  a  place  in  the  practical  legislation  of  the  twentieth  century. 
The  child  is  the  pivot  of  modern  legislation.  And  women  must  give 
hands  and  heart  to  the  welfare  of  the  child.  If  the  home  is  looked 
at,  its  purity  and  environment,  there  woman  presides.  There  she 
is  the  ruling  spirit.  Then,  there  is  disease  in  so  many  forms.  Above 
all  there  are  the  thousands  and  thousands  of  women  in  our  large 
centers  who  are  groaning  under  the  tyranny  of  the  industrial  sys- 
tem. For  them  women  themselves  should  have  a  voice.  Of  course, 
you  say  that  these  women  can  speak  through  mediaries.  My  claim 
is  that  they  are  worthy  to  speak  for  themselves;  and  instead  of 
holding  out  their  hands  and  taking  hold  of  the  hands  of  husband 
or  brother  or  friend,  let  them  put  their  own  hands  upon  the  helm 
of  State,  and  let  them  use  their  vote  in  the  forces  of  legislation. 
But  you  say  thei'e  are  difficulties.  Of  course  there  are.  "The  home 
is  the  proper  and  almost  bound-around  sphere  of  woman."  That  is 
simply  a  lingering  relic  of  Oriental  despotism.  Then  you  say,  again, 
that  the  woman  has  no  right  to  go  and  vote;_  for  she  can  not  take 
a  rifle  or  draw  a  sword.  I  say  it  is  a  nobler  'thing  to  bear  life  and 
save  life  and  sustain  life  than  to  take  life.  And  the  time  is  coming 
when  we  shall  learn  war  no  more.  But  you  say  women  do  n't  want 
it.  Some  do  n't,  perhaps.  Some  of  those  slaves  in  the  West  Indies 
didn't  want  it;  but  they  would  not  surrender  it  now.  Don't  say 
that  women  do  n't  want  it.  There  is  a  spirit  in  wofiien  seeking  for 
enfranchisement.  Last  year  there  walked  through  the  streets  of 
London  one  of  the  noblest  processions  that  has  marched  in  a  political 
movement.  Some  fifty  thousand  women  of  all  ranks  and  grades  and 
ages  were  there.  I  beg  you,  my  sisters,  to  open  your  heart  to  the 
new  age.  Christ  is  coming  again.  Lazarus  is  still  in  the  tomb.  But 
if  you  and  others  are  shrinking  arud  lingering,  listen  to  his  voice, 
"The  Master  has  come  and  calleth  for  thee." 

Mrs.  Medlock,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist  Clmrcli : 

Woman's  work  In  the  Church  is  so  important  and  at  the  same 
time  so  complete  that  one  finds  it  difficult  to  describe. 

Undoubtedly  much  of  woman's  best  work  is  done  in  the  home, 
and  I  believe  if  every  woman  did  her  duty  there,  the  Church  would 
never  lack  workers. 

The  mother,  with  the  love  of  Christ  in  her  heart,  can  do  great 
and  glorious  work.  By  teaching  her  children  to  love  God's  house, 
is  she  not  training  future  workers? 

By  attending  the  services  regularly  herself,  is  she  not  setting 
an  example  to  her  household?  ' 

By  her  quiet  and  gentle  influence  her  children  are  taught  to  look 
upon  the  Church  as  their  Sabbath  home. 

How  many  great  and  good  men,  men  who  are  the  mainstay  of 
our  Churches  to-day,  will  tell  you  they  owe  everything  to  the  influ- 
ence of  a  good  mother?  Then,  coming  to  our  own  Methodist  Church, 
was  it  not  Susanna  Wesley  whose  godly  discipline  and  Methodist 
training  helped  to  make  and  mold  the  characters  of  her  beloved  sons 
John  and  Charles  Wesley? 

This  much  we  do  know,  if  the  mothers  of  the  Church  fail  in 
their  religious  duty  in  the  home,  the  Church  will  be  the  first  to  feel 
the  loss.     A  good  mother  is  a  good  Church  worker. 

But  all  women  are  not  mothers,  and  the  abilities  of  women  are 


576  THE  WOMAN'S  MOVEMENT. 

not  the  same ;  they  differ  even  as  one  star  differeth  from  another  star 
in  glory.  There  are  women  who  are  doing  splendid  work  in  our 
Church  as  Sunday  school  teachers,  class  leaders,  tract  distributors; 
some  of  them  working  so  quietly  that  what  they  do  often  goes  un- 
noticed; but  who  can  tell  how  far-reaching  their  influence  is?  It 
was  a  scornful  critic  who  said,  "Your  churches  are  full  of  women;" 
and  some  one  smartly  retorted,  "And  your  jails  are  full  of  men." 
This,  of  course,  needs  qualifying,  but  it  is  certainly  true  that  women 
and  women  loorTcers  are  not  in  the  minoritj^  in  our  Churches.  Good 
men  and  good  women  are  both  needed  in  the  Church,  and  each  has 
separate  work  to  do;  at  the  same  time  there  are  some  things  in 
■which  they  can  join  forces  successfully.  How  could  the  Church  exist 
without  women? 

There  are  the  wives  of  our  ministers.  Do  we  ever  take  into  con- 
sideration the  work  they  do?  Often  with  a  family  of  young  chil- 
dren, and  yet  the  minister's  wife  will  find  time  to  conduct  a  mothers' 
meeting,  attend  committees,  work  for  bazars.  Her  work  is  never 
done;  and  in  spite  of  it  all  she  meets  her  husband  with  a  cheerful 
face,  encourages  him  when  he  is  depressed,  helps  him  in  a  dozen 
different  ways  by  her  tact  and  thoughtfulness.  All  honor  to  the 
wives  of  our  ministers.     We  owe  them  a  debt  of  gratitude. 

It  was  Charles  Kingsley  who  said,  "If  you  want  your  neighbors 
to  know  what  God  is  like,  let  them  see  what  He  can  make  you  like." 
Nothing  is  so  infectious  as  example.  We  women  must  be  up  and 
doing  and  show  the  world  what  God  is  like. 

There  are  burdened  hearts  longing  for  some  one  to  confide  in; 
there  are  some  things  that  can  only  be  told  to  a  woman  and  can 
only  be  met  by  womanly  love  and  sympathy.  A  kind  word,  a  shake 
of  the  hand,  or  even  a  smile,  will  sometimes  work  wonders. 

It  is  woman's  work  to  welcome  the  stranger,  to  visit  the  sick 
and  the  suffering,  to  sit  with  the  lonely  and  the  sad;  and  this  is 
work  that  should  not  always  be  left  to  the  deaconess  or  the  sister. 
Much  of  this  work  can  and  ought  to  be  done  by  the  members  of  the 
Church;  and  remember,  it  is  not  what  we  take  up,  but  what  we 
give  up  that  will  make  us  rich. 

We  thank  God  for  such  noble  women  as  our  beloved  Mrs.  Wise- 
man, Mrs.  Price  Hughes,  Mrs.  Bramwell  Booth,  and  others — women 
who  are  doing  so  much  for  the  sad,  sin-stained  members  of  their  own 
sex.  We  say,  God  bless  them!  and  if  we  can  not  later  take  up 
their  kind  of  work,  there  is  other  work  for  each  one  of  us  to  do  in 
our  own  little  corner  of  the  Church,  no  matter  how  small  that  work 
may  be.  There  is  so  much  to  be  done  and  so  much  that  can  only  be 
done  by  women. 

There  is  no  excuse  for  laymen;  let  us  go  right  forward  and  help 
to  prepare  the  way  for  His  Kingdom'  which  we  daily  pray  may  come. 

Woman's  woik  in  the  Church  should  be  to  bring  into  everything 
she  does  gentleness  of  spirit,  sincerity  of  purpose,  true  humility, 
and  a  determination  to  do  the  best  she  can  in  the  sphere  in  which 
God  has  placed  her. 

The  Rev.  Joseph  Johnson"^  of  the  Primitive  Methodist 

Church : 

There  is  only  one  sense  in  which  woman  is  inferior  to  man,  and 
that  is  physically.  I  believe  that  intellectually — give  her  the  same 
opportunity  of  education  and  culture — she  is  the  equal  of  man.  I 
am  certain  of  this,  from  my  lengthy  experience,  that  some  women 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  577 

are  superior  to  men.  Recognizing  that  fact,  it  does  become  Meth- 
odism that  we  should  utilize  woman  more  than  ever  we  have  done. 
I  belong  to  a  Church — and  I  am  proud  to  give  expression  to  this 
idea — where  a  woman,  if  she  has  the  ability,  may  become  the  presi- 
dent of  a  Conference.  In  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church  every 
official  court  is  open  to  women;  and  there  is  no  law  on  our  statute 
book  that  would  debar  a  woman  from  being  elected  to  the  presidency 
of  the  Church.  From  the  manner  in  which  this  good  lady  has  con- 
ducted the  proceedings  this  afternoon,  we  have  the  assurance  that 
she  knows  how  to  do  it.  If  she  will  come  over  to  England  and  join 
the  Primitive  Methodist  Church  the  possibility  is  that  she  may 
some  time  become  a  president  of  the  Church.  We  ought  to  remem- 
ber what  Mr.  Bradfield  pointed  out  so  faithfully  and  earnestly,  that 
some  women  are  called  to  preach;  and  the  pulpit  door  ought  not 
to  be  closed  to  women.  There  are  some  men  in  the  pulpit  who 
would  be  better  behind  the  plow  or  in  an  iron  foundry  than  in  the 
pulpit.  The  like  may  be  said  of  some  women.  [Laughter.]  (That 
reminds  me  of  a  gentleman  speaking  at  a  farewell  meeting  many 
years  ago.  Speaking  of  the  minister  who  was  leaving  the  circuit, 
he  said,  "Here  is  a  gentleman,  and  his  wife  too.")  Tliere  are  women 
called  to  preach;  and  we  ought  to  give  them  the  opportunity.  I  have 
a  woman  belonging  to  my  training  home  who  is  a  convert  from  Ro- 
man Catholicism.  She  is  twenty-three  years  old.  Up  to  nineteen 
she  was  trained  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  But  that  woman 
got  converted.  And  for  the  encouragement  of  our  local  preachers 
I  will  say  she  got  converted  under  a  local  preacher.  You  will  be  in- 
terested in  knowing  that  that  woman  is  a  gifted  preachei\  She  can 
see  into  the  Word  of  God  and  she  can  interpret  it  in  such  way  that 
she  makes  it  effective.  That  woman  rarely  ever  ministers  in  holy 
things  from  the  pulpit,  but  she  has  the  pleasure  of  leading  men 
and  women  to  Jesus  Christ.  We  ought  in  Methodism  to  make  it 
possible  for  any  woman  so  gifted  to  fill  the  pulpit  and  preach  the 
gospel. 

Mrs.  Katherine  Lent  Stevenson^  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church: 

If  the  selection  of  Scripture  passages  this  afternoon  had  been  left 
to  my  choice,  I  should  have  added  to  the  two  another:  "I  commend 
unto  you  Phoebe,  our  sister,  who  is  a  servant  of  the  Church  which 
is  at  Cenchreae:  that  ye  receive  her  in  the  Lord  as  becometh  saints, 
and  that  ye  assist  her  in  whatsoever  business  she  hath  need  of  you: 
for  she  hath  been  a  succorer  of  many  and  of  myself  also."  That  is 
the  message  of  the  manhood  of  Methodism  to  this  great  Ecumenical 
Conference,  that  you  assist  her  in  "whatsoever  business."  We  can 
not  define  the  business  of  an  individual  woman.  New  occasions 
teach  new  duty.  Anna  was  in  the  temple  from  the  time  of  her 
widowhood.  She  was  distinctly  called  to  that  ministry;  but  not 
every  woman  is.  Let  the  vocation  be  determined  by  the  voice  of 
God  and  by  the  opportunities  which  come  before  the  individual 
woman,  and  not  settled  by  any  mere  general  principle.  If  there  is 
anything  in  this  world  that  I  deplore,  it  is  seeming  for  a  moment 
to  set  the  two  sexes  over  against  each  other  in  opposition.  Brethren, 
we  have  not  chosen  that.  If  we  take  that  opposition  it  is  because  it 
is  forced  upon  us  by  the  exigencies  of  circumstances  which  others 
have  put  upon  us.    But  I  speak  for  the  entire  motherhood  of  Metho- 

37 


578  THE  WOMAN'S  MOVEMENT. 

dism  when  I  say  that  God  created  the  dual  human  unit,  man  and 
"woman;  and  that,  as  in  the  family  so  in  the  larger  worlc  of  the  State 
and  the  Church,  each  is  necessary.  Both  are  necessary  to  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  If  it  attempts  to  malve  one  the 
servant  of  the  other,  the  Church  is  not  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of 
the  gospel,  which  declares  that  in  Christ  JesuS  there  is  neither  male 
nor  female.  So  my  prayer  and  thought  to  you  to-day  is,  as  has  been 
so  well  voiced  by  the  brethren.  Open  up  to  us  these  larger  oppor- 
tunities. If  I  may  be  pardoned  (for  we  have  had  some  personal 
experience,  and  surely  Methodism  is  based  upon  personal  experi- 
ence), I  have  never  for  a  moment  doubted  that  at  the  age  of  eight- 
een God  called  me  to  preach  the  gospel  as  definitely  as  he  called 
my  father  and  grandfather,  both  of  whom  were  Methodist  ministers 
from  their  youth  to  their  death;  God  called  me,  and  and  after  a  long 
struggle  I  obeyed,  and  fitted  myself  just  as  well  as  1  knew  how 
for  the  work.  I  stand  a  graduate  of  the  Theological  School  of  Bos- 
ton University,  in  the  same  class  with  the  husband  of  the  president 
of  this  session.  I  did  all  I  could  in  obedience  to  God's  voice;  but 
there  came  a  time  when  the  Church  said:  "Thus  far  shall  you  go, 
and  no  farther.  You  can  fit  yourself  for  this  work,  but  you  can  not 
do  the  work."  I  have  not  any  ground  of  complaint  in  the  matter, 
for  a  great  and  effectual  door  has  been  opened  unto  me  through  the 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  of  the  World;  and  no  bishop 
or  district  superintendent  has  been  able  to  hinder  me  from  entering 
it  But  I  know  that  the  Methodist  ministry  was  that  to  which  I 
was  called,  and  there  are  women  just  as  truly  called  to  the  ministry. 
Not  that  all  are.  The  ordinary  work  of  woman  is  in  the  home,  and 
the  work  of  the  larger  part  of  womanhood  will  be  in  the  home;  but 
we  have  not  in  my  part  of  the  country  discovered  any  method  by 
which-we  can  keep  our  children  in  the  cradle.  My  youngest  grand- 
child h«s  been  out  of  the  cradle  seven  years.  I  can  not  possibly  get 
my  daughter  back  into  the  cradle.  And  why,  when  a  woman's  period 
of  rocking  the  cradle  has  eternally  ceased,  she  should  be  supposed 
to  go  on  rocking  it,  I  do  not  know.     [Great  applause.] 

Secretary  James  Chapman  :  "I  move  that  after  Secretary 
Snape  has  given  notice  of  a  motion,  which  will  be  then  referred 
to  the  Business  Committee,  this  Conference  adjourn." 

Secretary  Snape  presented  a  notice  of  a  motion  on  the 
desecration  of  the  Sabbath,  signed  by  James  E.  Ingram,  John 
F.  GoucHER^  Hugh  Johnston,  and  John  W.  E.  Sumwalt. 

After  a  moment  of  silent  prayer  on  the  part  of  the  Con- 
ference, the  presiding  officer,  Mrs.  W.  I.  Haven,  offered  prayer. 

Two  verses  of  Hymn  117  were  sung — 

"Jesus,  Lover  of  my  soul;" 

and  the  session  closed  at  4.30  P.  M.,  with  the  benediction  pro- 
nounced by  the  Eev.  Ezra  S.  Tipple,  D.  D. 


ELEVENTH  DAY. 

Saturday,     October    14th 


FIRST  SESSION. 

Topic:  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

MR.  GEORGE  CARR,  of  the  Wesleyan  Reform  Union,  pre- 
sided.    The  devotional  services  were  conducted  by  the 
Rev.  E.  Bromage^  of  the  same  Church. 
HjTnn  534  was  announced  and  sung — 

"O  Thou,  our  Savior,  Brother,  Friend." 

Mr.  Bromage  offered  prayer,  after  reading  Proverbs  23 : 
29-35 ;  Deut.  4 :  5-8. 

A  Delegate:  "May  I  make  a  suggestion,  that  after  the 
invited  addresses  and  speeches  are  given,  those  who  wish  to 
contribute  to  the  discussion  should  send  up  their  names  to  you  ? 
Then  the  President  could  select  from  the  names  sent  up  to 
him,  giving  suitable  representation  to  the  several  Churches." 

Secretary  Carroll:  "The  Business  Committee  have  con- 
sidered the  question  and  have  decided  that  that  shall  not  be  the 
method." 

The  essay,  on  "Temperance  Reform,"  was  given  by  the  Rev. 
Geo.  R.  Wedgwood,  of  the  Irish  Methodist  Church : 

This  problem  is  slowly  but  surely  reaching  a  solution.  So  much 
has  been  said  about  it  since  first  the  agitation  started,  that  it  can 
not  reasonably  be  expected  that  I  should  say  anything  new.  A 
distinguished  lady  advocate  of  temperance  recently  said,  when  asked 
for  her  views  on  the  best  methods  of  reform,  "Keep  pegging  away." 
I  have  no  new  method  to  sussest.  I  can  only  emphasize;  and  it 
is  by  emphatic  emphasis  that  we  can  to-day  effectually  impress 
Churches,  legislatures,  and  the  people.  For  one  from  little  Ireland 
to  attempt  to  instruct  Canada  and  the  United  States  on  this  sub- 
ject seems  audacious.     All   along  the  line  of  temperance   reform 

579 


580  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

you  are  far  ahead  of  us.  I  have  learned  that  in  the  United  States 
there  are  nine  States  from  which  the  saloon  has  been  banished; 
and  that  forty  million  citizens  are  living  in  "dry"  territory;  and, 
further,  that  at  least  two  millions  of  employees  are  occupying  posi- 
tions to  which  no  drinker  would  be  appointed.  And  during  the 
last  few  years  you  have  made  wonderful  strides  in  Canada.  At  the 
present  rate  of  progress  you  will  very  soon  be  a  "dry"  nation.  You 
have  local  option  in  full  swing  in  most  of  the  Dominion,  whilst  in 
the  United  Kingdom  it  is  still  but  a  theory. 

Temperance  reformers  may  well  be  encouraged  by  the  progress 
even  of  the  last  decade.  I  need  not  enumerate  the  legislative 
measures  which  have  been  enacted  and  put  into  operation  in  all 
the  civilized  nations  of  the  world.  Parliaments  everywhere  are 
awaking  to  the  fact  that  they  must  interfere  with  the  drink  traffic, 
or  the  national  life  will  sink  into  ruin.  An  immense  work  has  been 
done  in  a  variety  of  ways  to  educate  public  opinion  on  the  enormity 
of  this  gigantic  evil;  with  the  result  that  drunkenness  is  much 
less  common,  and  is  regarded  as  a  disgrace;  also  that  the  propor- 
tion of  total-abstainers  to  the  world's  population  is  much  larger 
than  it  ever  was.  In  all  ranks  of  life  they  are  now  to  be  found, 
from  kings  and  queens  to  men-servants  and  maid-servants;  and  no 
one  need  be  ashamed  to  be  recognized  as  such  to-day.  There  is  a 
general  consensus  of  public  opinion  in  favor  of  the  temperance 
movement.  And  throughout  the  world  are  found  truer  views  re- 
garding the  value  of  intoxicating  drink  for  health,  work,  and  even 
pleasure.  In  Ireland  to-day  every  Methodist  minister,  as  far  as  I 
know,  is  both  a  total-abstainer  and  a  non-smoker.  And  I  think  I 
am  safe  in  saying  that  four-fifths  of  our  people  have  ceased  to  be 
users  of  strong  drink.  In  a  small  country  town  a  stranger  recently 
asked  a  policeman  what  he  thought  of  a  certain  gentleman  who  is 
a  Methodist  local  preacher — was  he  a  sober  man?  His  reply  was, 
"Why,  bless  you,  he  would  n't  drink  spring  water  out  of  a  bottle." 
You  see  I  am  proud  of  our  little  Church,  and  surely  not  without 
reason.  Everywhere  we  have  reason  to  be  encouraged.  One  of  the 
most  cheering  forms  of  encouragement  is  that  the  medical  profes- 
sion has  been  largely  won  to  our  side.  Fifty  years  ago  physicians 
freely  prescribed  alcohol  for  their  patients.  To-day  the  majority 
of  them  denounce  it.  In  one  London  infirmary  the  cost  of  alcohol 
seven  years  ago  was  over  one  thousand  pounds,  but  last  year  it 
was  scarcely  forty  pounds.  In  another,  thirty-five  years  ago  it  was 
three  hundred  and  seventy  pounds,  but  last  year  only  about  two 
pounds.  And  this  is  the  record  from  all  quarters.  Yes,  thank  God, 
with  the  medical  profession  alcohol,  even  as  a  medicine,  is  taking 
a  back  place.  In  my  opinion  this  is  one  of  the  most  wonderful 
strides  which  temperance  reform  has  made  in  my  day.  Yet  the 
progress  must  not  slacken  our  work. 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  GEO.  R.  WEDGWOOD.  581 

This  "enemy  of  our  race"  is  still  with  us,  working  everywhere 
its  deadly  havoc.  The  extent  and  power  of  the  evil  is  undeniable, 
and  still  awfully  alarming.  The  London  Times  said  some  years 
ago,  "Drinking  baffles  us,  confounds  us,  shames,  and  mocks  us  at 
every  point."  From  myriads  of  hearts  we  hear  the  cry — Shall  this 
continue?  "How  long,  O  Lord,  how  long?"  But  how  to  get  rid 
of  it  is  the  problem  we  want  to  solve. 

There  is  the  almost  universal  craving  for  strong  drink  begotten 
of  thousands  of  generations  of  tipplers.  "The  people  love  to  have 
it  so."  There  is  the  almost  incorrigible  ignorance  of  the  people 
about  the  nature  and  effects  of  the  poison  they  swallow.  There  is 
the  fact  that  national  governments  find  the  drink  traffic  a  prolific 
source  of  revenue.  There  is  also  the  fact  that  the  majority  of  the 
wealthy,  powerful,  and  ruling  classes  believe  that  by  maintaining 
the  traffic  they  can  best  keep  the  working  classes  down.  And  then 
we  have  "The  Trade" — as  it  impudently  calls  itself — more  strongly 
entrenched  than  it  ever  was  by  the  multiplication  of  syndicates 
and  trusts,  and  the  support  they  get  from  all  sorts  of  story  writers 
and  degraded  and  degrading  newspapers.  It  has  been  truly  said, 
"The  vested  interests  of  the  rich,  and  the  ignorance  and  apathy 
of  the  poor  are  the  chief  obstacles  to  reform."  Verily  the  difficul- 
ties are  gigantic!  You  talk  of  all  sorts  of  national  perils — but  this 
drink  demon  has  its  emissaries  everywhere.  Not  a  few  of  those 
who  have  been  enriched  by  it  have  become  philanthropists;  but 
they  have  only  increased  the  peril  by  their  conspiracy  of  silence. 
Let  me  illustrate.  Quite  recently  a  little  book  was  published  bear- 
ing the  title,  "Towards  a  Social  Policy:  Being  Suggestions  for  Con- 
structive Reform."  I  thought  I  was  going  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  a 
Solon.  The  author  dealt  with  town  and  country  development,  with 
a  housing  policy,  with  unemployment,  with  poor  law,  with  trade 
unions,  and  some  other  similar  subjects;  but  from  beginning  to 
end  there  is  not  one  word  about  the  drink.  Some  time  ago  a 
series  of  meetings  was  held  in  Ireland,  under  the  most  distinguished 
patronage,  in  regard  to  national  health;  and  although  three-fourths 
of  the  evils  complained  of  were  caused  or  increased  by  alcohol, 
not  one  word  as  to  this  fact  was  uttered  at  one  of  their  meetings. 
About  the  same  time  another  great  philanthropy  held  its  annual 
meeting  in  England,  and  was  presided  over  by  a  celebrated  countess, 
and  the  same  thing  happened.  Now  why  was  this?  Simply  lest 
the  chief  supporters  of  these  philanthropies,  whose  wealth  came 
from  this  vile  business,  should  be  offended.  Thus  is  this  awful 
problem  trifled  with.  Surely  it  wei-e  better  to  do  without  their 
support,  than  thereby  retard  reform.  I  have  only  very  briefly  sum- 
marized some  of  our  difficulties  in  dealing  with  this  appalling  prob- 
lem. We  must  not  underestimate  them,  or  we  shall  lose  the  battle. 
We  must  survey  the  whole  field,  and  then  marshal  our  forces. 


582  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

Someone  has  said,  "The  best  way  to  do  temperance  work  is  to 
do  it  in  many  ways."  This  problem  is  so  many-sided  and  has  so 
many  ramifications,  that  it  takes  the  ingenuity  of  the  most  saintly, 
clever,  and  zealous  spirits  to  deal  with  it  We  are  spreading  the 
knowledge  of  the  facts,  and  scattering  broadcast  scientific  truth.  We 
are  educating  and  winning  the  young  life  of  the  nations  to  our  side. 
We  are  providing  almost  numberless  counter-attractions.  We  are 
infusing  into  the  minds  of  the  people  higher  and  purer  social  ideals. 
Pulpit,  press,  and  school  are  all  being  utilized  in  this  work  of 
temperance  reform.    What  more  can  be  done? 

The  legislative  assemblies  of  the  nations  have  still  much  to  do 
in  this  matter.  One  is  almost  staggered  by  the  amount  they  have 
tried  to  do.  There  are  so  many  statutes  on  the  British  law  book 
for  the  regulation  and  control  of  the  drink  traffic  that  one  wonders 
it  has  not  long  since  disappeared  from  the  United  Kingdom.  Close 
observation  for  many  years  in  large  cities  has  convinced  me  that 
the  best  legislative  enactments  are  futile  if  they  are  not  enforced. 
In  my  country  too  much  power  in  this  matter  is  given  to  the  magis- 
terial bench  which  is  often  composed  of  men  who  are  either  di- 
rectly or  indirectly  interested  in  the  trade.  And  although  there 
has  doubtless  been  a  great  improvement  in  the  constitution  of  legis- 
lative assemblies,  it  is  still  too  true  that  many  of  them  are  largely 
controlled  by  the  distillers  and  brewers  and  publicans.  But  even 
such  senates  have  passed  some  excellent  temperance  laws,  which, 
however,  have  frequently  been  partial  or  total  failures  through  lack 
of  honest  administration.  The  trade  that  will  poison  the  nation 
to  satisfy  its  greed  will  not  hesitate  to  cheat  and  thwart  the  na- 
tion's laws  for  the  same  end.  Whilst,  therefore,  we  are  seeking 
for  more  legislation,  we  must  insist  upon  more  faithful  adminis- 
tration. Why  the  regulation  of  this  great  social  evil  should  be  made 
a  political  party  question  has  always  been  a  great  puzzle  to  me. 
It  does  look  sometimes  as  if  there  were  not  anybody  for  the  State. 
No  matter  how  good  a  measure  of  reform  is  brought  in  by  the 
existing  government,  it  is  strenuously  opposed  by  the  opposition, 
and  not  unfrequently  defeated.  That  is  neither  good  statesman- 
ship nor  a  good  national  policy.  On  all  the  social  problems  govern- 
ment by  party  shows  itself  occasionally  to  be  disastrous.  This  at 
least  is  a  necessary  reform  on  which  all  true  patriots,  of  whatever 
hue,  ought  to  unite;  and  if  they  can  not  give  us  a  law  which  will 
satisfy  all  parties,  let  them  give  us  the  best  which  their  united 
wisdom  can  devise.  In  the  introduction  to  his  valuable  commentary 
on  "Jeremiah,"  Professor  Peake  has  said,  "Every  reformer  dis- 
covers that  he  has  to  be  content  with  less  than  the  second  best, 
and  to  work  with  men  whos«  motives  and  aims  are  other  than 
his  own.  For  the  sake  of  the  supreme  end,  personal  preferences 
have  to  be  set  aside,  and  measures  accepted  which  have  no  attrac- 
tion for  him." 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  GEO.  R.  WEDGWOOD.  583 

Everywhere  we  must  compel  such  legislation  as  will  lessen  and 
If  possible  prevent  temptation  in  the  days  to  come.  Many  of  us  are 
conversant  with  the  verdict  of  the  last  English  Royal  Commission 
on  Licensing, — "A  gigantic  evil  remains  to  be  remedied,  and  hardly 
any  sacrifice  would  be  too  great  which  would  result  in  a  marked 
diminution  of  this  national  degradation."  It  has  been  said  that 
in  dealing  with  it,  all  legislative  methods  can  be  divided  into  three 
classes — free  trade  in  liquor,  license,  and  no-license.  None  but  a 
fool  would  now  advocate  the  first;  and  the  second  has  been  a 
colossal  disaster.  "Deep  and  dismal  failure  is  written  over  every 
chapter"  of  its  history.  As  has  been  forcibly  said,  "The  court- 
house, the  jail,  and  the  scaffold;  the  hospital,  the  asylum,  and  the 
poorhouse;  the  slum,  the  inebriates'  home,  and  the  cemetery,  all 
tell  the  same  tale,  and  cry  aloud  the  failure  of  license."  Yet,  until 
the  public  conscience  has  been  fully  awakened  to  the  appalling 
curse,  we  must  persistently  appeal  to  our  legislative  assemblies  to 
protect  society  from  the  multitudinous  injuries  which  it  inflicts. 
The  recent  multiplication  of  drinking  clubs  has  become  a  great 
peril  to  our  social  life,  and  should  be  at  once  drastically  dealt  with. 
There  should  not  be  one  law  for  the  public-house  and  another  for 
the  club.  Whatever  makes  either  of  these  the  rival  of  the  home 
is  for  the  ruin  of  the  people. 

In  this  reform  social  influences  have  an  important  place.  I 
can  not  put  this  aspect  of  the  question  better  than  it  has  been  put 
by  Mr.  Philip  Snowden,  M.  P.  He  says,  "There  is  no  short  cut  to 
universal  abstinence.  The  relation  of  the  drink  question  to  the 
whole  social  problem  is  now  being  recognized  by  reformers  of  all 
schools.  In  so  far  as  we  elevate  the  ideals  of  the  people,  lessen 
the  strenuousness  of  commercial  and  industrial  life,  improve  the 
surroundings  of  the  poor,  increase  their  leisure,  and  provide  rational 
entertainment,  so  far  shall  we  work  most  effectively  for  temper- 
ance reform."  It  is  the  imperative  duty  of  governments,  municipal 
corporations,  and  Churches  to  grapple  with  the  social  causes  which 
make  men  drinkers.  What  are  these  social  causes?  Poverty,  poor 
wages,  wretched  surroundings,  love  of  conviviality,  benefit  society 
meetings  in  saloons,  consciousness  of  the  unjust  inequalities  of 
life,  and  in  many  a  real  disgust  with  life  itself.  How  are  these  to 
be  combated?  They  must  not  be  pooh-poohed.  They  are  solemn 
facts  which  must  be  faced.  More  than  once  even  brewery  companies 
have  accounted  for  the  depression  of  their  business  by  "the  better 
housing  of  the  working  classes,"  "a  change  in  the  habits  of  the 
people,  the  increase  in  all  forms  of  recreation  and  amusement,  and 
the  migration  from  densely  crowded  slums  to  healthier  surround- 
ings by  means  of  improved  methods  of  locomotion." 

Such  testimonies  show  that  it  would  be  well  to  begin  with  the 
home.     Local  authorities  must  think  more  of  the  comfort,  health. 


684  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

and  happiness  of  the  poor  than  of  satisfying  the  greed  of  the  rich. 
And  when  you  have  got  better  houses  you  must  endeavor  to  better 
the  inmates.  "With  parents  rests  the  bounden  duty  of  teaching  their 
children  the  benefits  of  sobriety.  To-day,  in  many  ways,  honest 
efforts  are  being  made  to  "teach  the  mothers."  As  Mr.  John  Burns, 
M.  P.,  has  said,  "A  nation  that  is  sucliled  on  alcohol  is  doomed." 
And  as  some  one  else  has  said,  "Alcohol  and  ignorance  are  the  two 
sharks  which  attend  the  cradles  in  slumdom  and  elsewhere."  Yet 
it  is  thought  by  some  philanthropists  that  the  home  life  of  the 
nations  was  never  as  sober  and  pure  as  it  is  at  present.  If  that 
is  so  it  only  shows  the  necessity  for  keeping  drink  out  of  the  home. 
Then  let  us  banish  it  from  the  market  and  the  fair;  exclude  it 
from  all  festivities  and  from  all  seasons  of  sorrow;  and  our  social 
life  will  unspeakably  gain  in  brightness  and  purity.  We  are  in- 
formed by  those  who  ought  to  know  that  there  has  been  during 
the  last  few  years  a  decrease  of  drinking  amongst  women.  Let  us 
hope  that  that  is  a  fact,  for  if  we  can  only  win  our  sisters  to  the 
side  of  temperance  reform,  we  shall  soon  see  great  changes  in 
universal  social  life. 

Only  in  recent  years  have  educational  authorities  allowed  the 
schools  to  be  used  for  teaching  the  science  of  temperance.  Now 
its  text-books  abound,  and  nearly  all  grades  of  teachers  are  com- 
pelled to  instruct  the  children  in  the  nature  and  effects  of  alcohol, 
in  the  evils  of  intemperance,  and  in  the  benefits  of  sobriety.  As 
Sir  Victor  Horsley  has  said,  "Alcohol  has  been  found  out."  Yes, 
science  has  proved  beyond  all  question  that  alcohol  is  not  a  food, 
nor  a  stimulant,  nor  a  heat-producer,  nor  useful  in  hot  climates; 
that  it  does  not  increase  physical  resistance  to  disease,  does  not 
increase  mental  activity,  and  does  not  add  to  the  pleasures  of  life. 
Such  is  the  verdict  of  science;  and  these  changed  views  are  re- 
sulting in  a  mighty  educational  movement  which  will  strike  at  the 
Very  root  of  the  social  evil.  As  Mrs.  Mary  H.  Hunt  has  said,  "The 
star  of  hope  of  the  temperance  reform  is  over  the  schoolhouse." 
It  is  safe  to  assert  that  the  decline  of  alcoholic  drinking  is  largely 
due  to  the  work  done  among  the  young  by  our  Bands  of  Hope  dur- 
ing the  last  forty  or  fifty  years.  And  now  the  Band  of  Hope  Union 
is  seeking  to  obtain  a  million  new  pledges  of  children  over  seven 
years  of  age  who  do  not  belong  to  any  Juvenile  Temperance  So- 
ciety, and  who  must  first  obtain  their  parents'  consent.  This 
must  be  done  before  the  end  of  1911,  and  thus  be  the  crowning 
event  of  King  George's  Coronation  Year.     And  it  will  be  done. 

And  further,  modern  industrialism  has  set  a  price  upon  total 
abstinence.  Let  this  illustration  suffice.  Quite  recently  a  public 
lecturer,  speaking  of  the  drinking  young  man,  said,  "The  railroads 
don't  want  him,  the  ocean  liners  don't  want  him,  the  banks  don't 
want  him,  the  merchants  do  n't  want  him."    Then,  referring  to  an 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  GEO.  R.  WEDGWOOD.  585 

advertisement  of  a  saloon-keeper  for  a  bartender  who  does  not 
drink,  "The  saloon-keeper  does  not  want  him."  This  is  becoming 
truer  every  day.  All  the  businesses  of  the  day  are  recognizing 
the  fact  that  industry  demands  sobriety.  I  need  not  say  anything 
more  about  the  work  of  the  Church  in  this  matter.  Whatever 
may  have  been  her  record  in  the  past,  she  is  most  assuredly  setting 
herself  now  to  stem  the  tide  of  intemperance,  and  to  produce  a 
sober  people. 

As  to  the  press,  one  is  sometimes  inclined  to  think  that  its 
influence  is  against  temperance  reform.  Not  a  few  of  the  leading 
editors  show  that  they  are  still  under  the  spell  of  the  brewer.  Yet 
they  are  not  all  so  bound,  nor  so  blind,  and  in  many  of  the  most 
widely  circulated  newspapers  the  work  of  temperance  reformers 
is  loudly  praised. 

Thus  all  the  social  influences, — the  home,  the  school,  the  busi- 
ness, the  Church,  and  the  press — are  uniting  their  forces  against 
the  drink,  and  helping  to  deepen  the  conviction  that  our  cause  is 
full  of  hope. 

And  so  it  comes  to  pass  that  nothing  plays  so  important  a 
part  in  this  reform  as  personal  habit  and  example.  This  has  been 
strikingly  illustrated  lately  in  Ireland  by  the  establishment  of  the 
"Catch-my-pal"  movement.  A  young  Presbyterian  minister  in  Ar- 
magh, the  Rev.  R.  J.  Patterson,  adopted  the  plan  of  setting  one  pal 
to  catch  another.  The  story  is  too  long  to  be  narrated  now.  Suf- 
fice it  to  say  that  the  Protestant  Total  Abstinence  Union  has  grown 
info  a  great  power  in  the  country.  The  founder  of  the  movement 
has  called  it  "a  drink  quake."  They  have  adopted  as  their  motto, — 
"We  will  see  this  thing  through."  No  wonder  that  drink-sellers 
are  getting  alarmed.  An  Armagh  priest  recently  said,  "The  day  of 
the  public-house  in  Ireland  is  nearly  over.  The  trade  is  doomed 
in  this  country."  And  all  this  has  come  out  of  one  man  influencing 
another,  and  that  one  another.  A  distinguished  Parisian  doctor 
has  said,  "The  best  method  of  making  temperance  work  effective 
is  the  example  of  abstinence.  Those  who  refrain  from  this  duty 
commit  a  social  crime." 

It  is  useless  in  these  days  to  say  that  the  Bible  does  not  teach 
total  abstinence.  We  reject  at  our  peril  the  apostolic  principle — 
"It  is  good  neither  to  eat  flesh,  nor  to  drink  wine,  nor  anything 
whereby  thy  brother  stumbleth."  And  surely  every  Christian  is 
bound  to  "abstain  from  every  form  of  evil."  It  is  not  for  you  to 
say  to  the  weak  brother  who  falls,  "Go  and  abstain."  If  you  de- 
sire your  advice  to  have  real  weight,  you  must  say,  "Come,  and 
let  us  abstain  together."  This  is  the  ruling  principle  of  the  Catch- 
my-pal  movement.  Self-preservation,  the  salvation  of  the  children, 
the  protection  of  the  weak,  the  happiness  and  prosperity  of  the 
home,  the  moral  and  commercial  welfare  of  the  nation;   all  these 


586  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

and  many  other  reasons  are  powerful  pleas  for  personal  total  ab- 
stinence. Then  when  we  have  got  a  sufficient  number  of  such, 
they  will  see  and  demand  that,  if  total  abstinence  is  the  only  pro- 
tection for  the  individual,  total  prohibition  is  the  only  safety  for 
the  State.  Said  a  working  man,  "If  the  great  folk  want  to  keep 
us  poor  folk  sober,  they  should  shut  the  traps  that  catch  us."  Mr. 
Gladstone  used  to  say,  "Give  me  a  sober  nation  and  I  can  find' 
money  enough  for  everything."  Then  why  not  stop  the  taps,  and 
burn  the  vats  and  the  stills? 

But  this  end  will  not  be  reached  until  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ  has  possessed  the  hearts  and  sways  the  lives  of  men.  Bishop 
Westcott  asked  one  of  our  best  known  labor  leaders,  "What  will 
cure  intemperance  and  gambling?"  He  replied  at  once,  "Nothing 
but  religion."  You  may  deal  with  the  confirmed  and  incorrigible 
drunkard  by  law,  but  that  does  not  cure  him.  In  his  "Psychology 
of  Alcoholism,"  Dr.  Cutten  says  that  conversion  is  practically  the 
only  cure  that  has  been  discovered.  Neither  patent  medicines  nor 
inebriate  homes  will  do  it.  At  a  meeting  of  the  New  York  Academy 
of  Medicine  in  1901,  none  of  the  specialists  referred  to  drug  or 
medicine.  But  Dr.  Starr  said,  "The  only  reformed  drunkards  of 
whom  he  had  knowledge  were  those  who  had  been  saved,  not 
through  medical,  but  through  religious  influence."  And  Dr.  Cutten's 
argument  is  that  conversion  creates  a  real  desire  for  reform,  it 
changes  the  associations,  it  provides  an  emotional  substitute,  and 
thus  becomes  "the  expulsive  power  of  a  new  affection."  O  how 
true  it  is  that  the  only  force  adequate  to  the  cleansing  of  the  soul 
thus  possessed  is  that  of  the  Holy  One  of  God!     For 

"Many  of  whom  all  men  said,  ' 

'They  've  fallen,  never  more  to  stand,' 
Have  risen,  though  they  seemed  as  dead. 
When  Jesus  took  them  by  the  hand."     - 

In  conclusion  let  me  say  that  there  is  one  end  before  us,  and 
to  reach  it  every  honest  means  must  be  employed.  Legislate? 
Yes!  Educate?  Yes!  Convert?  Yes!  But  ever  bear  in  mind 
that  in  trumpet  tones  the  call  comes  to  enter  into  close  conflict 
with  this  world-wide  evil.  Its  forces  are  strong  and  united.  We 
must  unite  our  forces  too,  and  recognize  that  our  aim  is  one. 
Some  battlements  we  have  scaled,  some  coigns  of  vantage  we  have 
gained.  There  are  others  we  shall  have  to  carry  before  the  summit 
of  our  aim  is  reached.  In  the  name  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts  we  must 
keep  all  at  it  and  always  at  it.  We  must  not  listen  to  the  craven 
cry — "Impossible!"  "Regulate  the  drink  traffic!"  Nay,  but  that 
is  the  impossible  task.  All  imaginable  expedients  have  been  tried, 
but  "it  passes  the  wit  of  man  to  devise  any  machinery  by  which 


r 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  P.  A.  BAKER.  687 

the  common  sale  of  intoxicating  beverages  can  be  made  productive 
of  more  good  than  harm."  That  Is  the  impossible  task.  "Uproot 
the  evil."  Yes,  that  we  can  do.  "All  things  are  possible  with  God." 
And  "all  things  are  possible  to  him  that  believeth." 

"Be  strong! 
It  matters  not  how  deep  entrenched  the  wrong. 
How  hard  the  battle  goes,  the  day  how  long; 
Faint  not;  slack  not.     To-morrow  comes  the  song." 

"To  this  end  the  Son  of  God  was  manifested,  that  He  might  de- 
stroy the  works  of  the  devil."  The  world's  great  evil  to-day  is 
drink.  If  we  are  to  have  a  saved  humanity  it  must  go.  There  is 
only  one  true  solution  of  the  problem;  and  by  pulpit,  platform, 
and  press,  we  must  let  all  peoples  know  that  our  grand  ideal  and 
aim  is, — total  abstinence  for  the  individual  and  total  prohibition 
for  the  State. 

Following  the  essay,  the  Conference  listened  to  the  first 
invited  address,  on  "Anti-Liquor  Legislation,"  given  by  the 
Eev.  P.  A.  Baker,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church : 

Every  civilized  country  on  the  globe  is  moving  against  the 
drink  traffic:  It  may  be  the  Gothenberg  method  in  Norway  and 
Sweden;  or  the  appeal  for  moderation  in  England,  Germany,  and 
France;  or  the  dispensary  as  tried  and  now  being  discarded  in 
some  of  the  Southern  States;  or  high  license;  or  local  option; 
or  State  and  national  prohibition.  No  country  or  people  are  now 
advocating  a  greater,  but  a  less  use  of  intoxicating  liquors.  Legis- 
lation is  changing — has  changed  from  the  extension  to  the  restric- 
tion of  the  traffic.  There  are  few  legislative  bodies  in  any  coufttry 
that  are  not  facing  the  problem,  and  being  compelled  to  answer 
to  a  constituency  that  is  becoming  daily  more  insistent  in  its  de- 
mands that  this  monstrous  evil  shall  be  destroyed. 

No  aspect  of  the  great  reform  has  been  so  poorly  conducted 
as  the  legislative:  First,  because  of  a  class  of  legislators  who, 
believing  themselves  to  be  more  indebted  to  the  liquor  dealers 
than  to  the  people,  have  striven  to  emasculate,  weaken,  and,  when- 
ever possible,  destroy  all  proposed  anti-liquor  legislation  which  they 
could  not  entirely  defeat;  and  secondly,  because  the  temperance  peo- 
ple have  seldom  been  a  unit  as  to  the  kind  of  legislation  to  be 
sought  for.  Here  personal  prejudice  and  petty  ambition  have  held 
too  large  a  place.  As  a  result  our  statute  books  are  burdened  with 
much  legislation  on  this  subject  that  is  not  enforceable,  and  was 
known  to  be  without  merit  by  those  who  placed  it  there.  We  are 
beginning  to  show  signs  of  adopting  saner  and  more  honest  methods. 

The   stock   argument   of   our   pro-saloon   advocates   against    re- 


588  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

strictive  or  prohibitive  legislation  is  that  you  can  not  make  men 
moral  by  law.  This  sort  of  reasoning  would  repeal  everything  from 
the  ten  commandments  to  the  latest  enactment  on  prevention  of 
graft.  From  the  beginning  law  has  been  a  deterrent  of  evil  doers; 
and  a  restraint  to  the  evilly  inclined.  If  men  can  not  be  made 
moral  by  law,  we  insist  that  they  shall  not  be  made  drunken  and 
immoral  by  the  authority  of  law,  or  in  spite  of  law.  The  evils 
of  the  drink  traffic  are  so  dangerous  and  destructive  that  it  has 
been  a  subject  of  increasingly  stringent  legislation  in  exact  ratio 
to  the  development  of  civilization.  Already  liquor  selling  has  be- 
come disreputable.  The  next  step  is  to  make  liquor  drinking  dis- 
reputable. 

No  evil  has  been  the  subject  of  as  much  puerile  and  partisan 
legislation  as  the  liquor  traffic.  Much  of  it  has  had  for  its  object 
the  reforming  of  the  traffic.  This  was  found  to  be  impossible,  for 
it  is  incapable  of  repentance.  Failing  in  this,  we  adopted  a  regu- 
lative policy  only  to  find  that  you  can  no  more  regulate  it  than 
you  can  regulate  the  firing  off  of  a  cannon,  for  the  liquor  dealers 
interpreted  the  law  and  decided  what  that  regulation  should  be. 
This  has  led  to  local  prohibition  in  all  but  three  of  our  States — 
Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and  Nevada,  and  to  State-wide  prohi- 
bition in  eight  States.  Other  States  have  adopted  this  latter  policy 
but  have  temporarily  swung  back  to  license. 

In  the  States  we  have  been  greatly  handicapped  by  the  present 
construction  of  our  Interstate  Commerce  law  which  permits  the 
shipment  of  liquor  from  one  State  to  a  consignee  in  the  "dry" 
territory  of  another  State  in  defiance  of  the  police  regulations  of 
the  State  into  which  it  is  shipped;  which  makes  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment the  ally  and  backer  of  the  illegal  and  clandestine  liquor 
sellers.  This  has  caused  some  prohibition  States  to  return  to  li- 
cense, and  some  local  prohibition  communities  to  permit  the  return 
of  saloons.  To  correct  this  disgraceful  condition  is  our  immediate 
issue  at  Washington. 

We  have  made  some  headway  during  the  past  f3w  years  in  the 
matter  of  securing  Federal  legislation  on  this  question.  We  have 
rapped  the  knuckles  of  "Uncle  Sam"  imtil  he  has  let  go  of  official 
liquor  selling  in  the  army,  in  the  navy,  in  Government  soldiers* 
homes,  at  immigrant  stations  and  in  our  National  capitol.  W^e  pur- 
pose continuing  to  rap  his  knuckles  until  he  lets  go  of  it  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  and  until  it  ceases  to  be  a  source  of  revenue 
with  which  to  operate  our  Governmental  machinery  and  break 
down  our  public  conscience. 

Legislation  on  the  liquor  question  has  revealed  more  hypocrites 
and  heroes  in  public  life  than  all  other  kinds  of  legislation  com- 
bined in  recent  years.  As  an  indication  of  the  progress  being  made 
in  anti-liquor  legislation,  only  three  state  legislatures  in  five  years 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  P.  A.  BAKER.  589 

have  enacted  legislation  favorable  to  the  liquor  traffic;  while  dur- 
ing that  period  thi'ee-fourths  of  the  legislatures  have  enacted  legis- 
lation inimical  to  the  traffic,  ranging  from  municipal  local  option  up 
to  state-wide  prohibition. 

Legislation  on  this  subject  records  the  prevailing  standard  of 
civilization.  As,  for  example,  Maryland,  in  1642,  enacted  a  law 
that  made  drunkenness  punishable  by  a  fine  of  one  hundred  pounds 
of  tobacco,  and  if  the  offender  be  a  servant  and  unable  to  pay  the 
fine,  he  must  be  set  in  the  bilboes  and  be  compelled  to  fast  for 
twenty-four  hours,  or  be  imprisoned.  Seventy-two  years  later, 
Maryland,  still  believing  in  the  efficacy  of  tobacco  as  an  article  of 
atonement,  enacted  a  law  assessing  a  fine  of  five  thousand  pounds 
of  tobacco  for  carrying  liquor  into  Indian  towns,  and  a  fine  of  three 
thousand  pounds  of  tobacco  for  selling  to  an  Indian  more  than 
one  gallon  per  day.  This  same  brand  of  statesmanship  is  mani- 
fested to-day,  not  by  demanding  more  pounds  of  tobacco,  but  more 
dollars  in  the  license  fee,  under  the  ludicrous  hallucination  that  an 
increase  of  dollars  will  effect  a  decrease  of  crime,  misery  and 
dishonorable  poverty.  "Woe  to  him  that  buildeth  a  town  with 
blood  and  establisheth  a  city  by  iniquity."  When  God  says  woe, 
it  is  always  time  to  stop. 

The  commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania,  however,  always  true  to 
her  chief  political  asset — the  rum  traffic — ia  the  earlier  Colonial 
days  gave  promise  of  her  future  attachment  by  adopting  the  fol- 
following:  "The  Court  apprehending  that  it  is  not  fit  to  deprive  the 
Indians  of  any  lawful  comforts  which  God  alloweth  to  all  men  by 
the  use  of  wine,  orders  that  it  shall  be  lawful  for  all  who  are 
licensed  to  retail  wines,  to  sell  also  to  Indians." 

This  at  a  time  when  nearly  every  state  and  territorj^  were  legis- 
lating to  protect  the  Indians  from  drink,  points  the  reason  why 
this  state  still  refuses  to  its  citizens  the  right  to  protect  themselves 
against  the  encroachment  of  this  traffic  by  any  form  of  self-govern- 
ment. Virginia,  in  1GG4,  determined  that  the  fountains  of  virtue 
should  not  be  poisoned,  enacted  a  law  that  "ministers  shall  not 
give  themselves  to  excess  in  drinking  or  rioting  or  spending  their 
time  idly  by  day  or  night  playing  at  dice,  cards  or  any  other  unlawful 
game."  A  short  backward  glance  through  legislation  on  this  sub- 
ject reveals  by  striking  contrast  the  pit  from  which  we  have  been 
digged.  We  have  spent  much  time  and  energy  in  s'ecuring  the 
enactment  of  laws,  local,  state  and  national,  that  have  had  little 
value  beyond  demonstrating  their  utter  ineffectiveness.  Gothenberg 
systems;  company  schemes;  dispensaries;  license  fees,  high  and 
low;  minor  and  drunkard  laws;  Sunday  and  early-closing  enact- 
ments, have  been  the  infant  diseases  through  which  the  great 
reform  must  pass  on  the  way  to  a  mighty  typhoid — state  and 
national    prohibition — which    is    to    revolutionize    and    purify    our 


590  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

entire  body  politic.  It  is  becoming  increasingly  evident  that  a  pro- 
bibitory  law  is  much  more  easily  enforced  than  a  regulative  law. 
The  only  successful  part  of  any  regulative  enactment  against  the 
liquor  traffic  is  its  prohibitive  feature.  While  we  may  not  take 
our  position  out  "upon  the  solitary  peak  of  abortive  righteous- 
ness," we  must  not  accept  the  half-loaf  theory  as  in  any  sense 
a  solution  of  this  difficult  problem.  The  only  solution  of  the 
saloon  problem  is  no  saloon. 

The  chief  difficulty  with  the  legislative  end  of  this  reform,  until 
within  recent  years,  has  been  that  we  have  concentrated  our  efforts  to 
secure  the  passage  of  laws  that  would  abolish  the  traffic  in  a  given 
state  or  community  and  have  neglected  to  build  up  a  system  of 
legislation  with  it  that  would  make  prohibitory  legislation  effective. 
We  have  urged  drastic  legislation  against  the  traffic,  but  failed  in 
the  necessary  legislation  to  compel  its  enforcement.  Prohibitory 
laws  against  vices  of  all  kinds,  because  of  the  character  of  the  men 
they  are  intended  to  restrain,  must  be  supported  by  other  laws 
that  will  make  their  enforcement  swift  and  certain.  Not  only  must 
they  be  made  enforceable  by  supplementary  legislation,  but  when 
enacted  must  be  placed  in  the'  hands  of  friends  of  the  law  for  exe- 
cution, if  they  are  to  be  effective.  We  must  not  overlook  the  fact 
that  we  confront  a  foe  that  has  ill-gotten  wealth  without  limit  and 
no  conscience  in  spending  it.  Love  for  country,  human  character, 
dom'Bstic  happiness,  personal  reputation,  have  no  place  in  its  code 
of  warfare.  Bribery  is  amongst  its  mildest  methods  for  accom- 
plishing its  purpose.  It  laughs  at  virtue;  it  mocks  religion;  it 
scoffs  at  common  honesty;  it  defies  every  appeal  of  outraged 
womanhood  and  robs  helpless  childhood  of  a  fair  chance.  It  lowers 
public  intelligence;  it  destroys  public  conscience;  it  forbids,  wher- 
ever possible,  right  representation  of  public  intelligence  and  public 
conscience  in  our  law-making  bodies  and  in  the  executive  depart- 
ment of  the  Government  as  well.  It  is  drunk  with  the  blood  of 
the  millions  it  has  slain.  When  laws  are  enacted,  this  treasonable 
institution  tramples  upon  them  with  impunity;  it  refuses  to  be 
regulated;  it  is  incapable  of  reformation;  "it  would  rather  die  than 
obey  law."  There  is  nothing  left  but  to  abolish  it  from  every  foot 
of  territory  everywhere  as  speedily  as  an  advancing  civilization 
and  a  developing  conscience  will  permit. 

The  second  invited  address  of  the  morning  had  for  its  sub- 
ject, "Substitutes  for  the  Liquor  Saloon/'  and  was  given  by  the 
Rev.  J.  Alfred  Sharp,  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church: 

The  previous  speaker  has  entered  an  eloquent  plea  on  behalf 
of  the  destructive  side  of  temperance  reform.  With  that  plea  I 
am  in  thorough  and  hearty  agreement.     As  an  old-fashioned  and 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  J.  ALFRED  SHARP.  591 

1-ed-hot  teetotaller,  it  is  impossible  for  me  not  to  be  a  prohibitionist. 
The  liquor  trade  is  an  evil  thing  and  should  be  destroyed.  It  is 
a  cancer  eating  into  the  very  vitals  of  the  body  politic  and  there- 
fore should  be  ruthlessly  cut  out.  At  the  same  time  it  will  be  well 
for  us  to  face  hard  facts.  At  the  present  moment,  at  all  events  in 
England,  we  have  not  reached  the  position  in  which  we  can  dare  to 
hope  for  the  immediate  realization  of  this  logical  and  heroic  policy. 
The  liquor  trade  still  stands  as  a  great  and  menacing  power.  The 
liquor  saloon  still  holds  with  firm  grip  a  large  number  of  our  fellow- 
creatures.  They  have  to  be  weaned  and  won  from  this  evil  traffic. 
Hence  the  need  for  the  constructive  side  of  temperance  reform. 
And  in  dealing  with  constructive  temperance  proposals  it  is  impos- 
sible to  ignore  the  question  of  substitutes  for  the  saloon. 

The  cause  which  has  pushed  this  subject  into  the  forefront 
during  recent  years  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  saloon  meets 
a  human  need.  The  social  instincts  of  humanity  are  among  the 
strongest.  Men  crave  for  the  company  of  their  fellow-men,  and, 
in  so  far  as  this  craving  is  legitimately  met,  no  ground  for  complaint 
can  be  laid.  As  temperance  reformers  we  do  not  protest  against 
houses  of  entertainment  and  social  converse,  but  against  the 
drink  devil  which  defies  and  corrupts  this  social  fellowship.  In 
demanding  then  the  displacement,  we  must  also  demand  the 
replacement  of  the  saloon.  The  social  instinct  must  be  recognized. 
Useless  will  it  be  to  indulge  in  fiery  declamation  and  bitter  denun- 
ciation, unl'ess  at  the  same  time  we  plead  for  something  to  take 
the  place  of  that  which  we  are  seeking  to  destroy. 

I  do  not  think  that  I  am  exaggerating  when  I  say  that  often- 
times the  liquor  habit  is  formed  not  for  its  own  sake,  but  for  that 
comradeship  and  recreation  which,  alas,  some  men  find  at  the 
liquor  bar.  Surely,  if  this  be  so,  there  is  a  remedy  for  it,  and  this 
remedy  means  well-conducted  and  attractive  temperance  saloons. 

I  am  not  for  one  moment  pleading  for  the  greasy,  grimy,  gloomy 
"temperance  tavern,"  with  its  dirty  windows,  sealed  against  God's 
fresh  air,  its  counter  and  tables  soiled  and  sticky,  its  atmosphere 
fetid,  and  its  manager  as  unkempt  as  his  house.  There  are  too 
many  of  such  places  already,  and  each  is  a  weakness  and  discredit 
to  the  cause  of  temperance.  My  plea  is  for  clean,  bright,  cozy, 
attractive  places,  where  men  can  resort  for  social  converse,  without 
being  brought  into  contact  with  that  which  is  always  and  ever  the 
foe  of  good  fellowship,  viz.,  drink. 

I  am  quite  conscious  that  the  real  difficulty  arises  when  the 
question  is  raised — Where  is  the  money  coming  from  to  do  this  on 
a  sufficiently  large  scale?  Messrs.  Rowntree  and  Sherwell  estimate 
that  in  England  an  annual  sum  of  not  less  than  one  thousand 
pounds  for  every  ten  thousand  of  the  population  would  b3  required, 
and  they  propose  to  raise  this  by  adopting  the  Scandinavian  sys- 


592  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

tem  of  disinterested  management.  Against  such  a  proposal  many 
of  us  would  fight  with  all  the  strength  we  possess.  Where  the 
drink  is  there  is  danger.  If  you  put  a  bishop  behind  the  bar  and 
he  sells  drink,  it  will  do  the  same  harm  as  it  would  if  it  were 
handed  over  the  counter  by  the  pot-man.  But  there  is  no  need 
to  resort  to  such  a  questionable  proposal.  It  is  not  clear  that 
anything  like  the  sum  mentioned  by  these  gentlemen  would  be 
required.  But  if  it  were,  a  nation  should  easily  find  the  sum,  to 
save  the  people  from  the  drink  habit. 

You  will  see  that  I  do  not  regard  it  as  the  duty  of  the  Church 
to  provide  such  places.  The  work  of  the  Church  is  the  work  of 
saving.  The  gospel  it  has  to  proclaim  is  the  gospel  of  salvation. 
I  am  thankful  for  what  the  Chui'ch  has  done.  The  splendid  insti- 
tute established  in  Birmingham  by  Doctor  Jowett,  the  new  institute 
founded  by  Sir  Jesse  Boote  in  connection  with  our  Nottingham 
Albert  Hall  Mission,  the  institutes  established  in  connection  with 
our  soldiers  and  sailors'  homes  and  great  mission  centers,  all  call 
forth  my  sympathy  and  admiration.  In  these  places  the  Church 
has  marked  out  the  way  for  the  state  to  follow.  In  educational 
matters  the  Church  was  the  pioneer.  But  there  came  a  time  when 
the  state  had  to  take  in  hand  what  was  obviously  a  state  duty. 
So  with  this  question  of  counter-attractions  to  the  saloon.  The 
Church  has  been  pioneering.  The  state  must  now  step  i;i  and  bear 
its  own  burden.  The  providing  of  counter-attractions  to  the  saloon 
is  a  state  or  civic  duty,  just  as  much  as  the  providing  of  public 
baths,  free  libraries,  and  the  like.  I  am  thankful  that  many  munici- 
palities are  recognizing  this.  I  believe  that  in  Glasgow  elementary 
schools  are  being  utilized  for  this  purpose. 

But,  after  all,  the  finest  counter-attraction  to  the  saloon  is  to 
be  found  in  the  old  and  sacred  cry,  "home,  sweet  home."  We  of  the 
Churches  must  strive  to  create  that  spirit  which  regards  home 
as  the  holiest  and  happiest  place  on  earth.  As  the  love  of  home 
deepens,  the  love  of  the  saloon  will  die.  Working  then  along  these 
lines,  we  shall  give  a  mighty  impetus  to  the  cause  of  Christian 
Temperance,  and  thus  help  to  bring  nearer  the  time  when  the 
world  shall  be  rid  of  its  greatest  foe,  alcohol. 

We  must  put  forth  all  our  strength  to  create  that  love  of  home 
which  will  ever  be  the  ^eternal  foe  of  the  drink  trade. 

The  Eev.  Geo.  C.  Eankix,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Ch-ureh,  South,  who  was  to  have  given  the  third  invited 
address,  was  not  able  to  appear.  On  short  notice,  the  Rev. 
H.  M.  DuBosE^  D.  D.,  of  the  same  Church,  took  his  place  and. 
spoke  upon  the  appointed  subject: 

I  have  had  but  a  few  moments'  notice  that  I  am  to  speak  now. 
I   deeply   regret  that  that  splendid  worker  in  this  battle   against 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  H.  M.  DuBOSE.  593 

the  saloon  is  not  here  to  read  his  own  paper  to  you,  as  he  has  had 
an  experience  in  the  Southern  end  of  the  great  republic  which  is 
unique.  The  martial  sound  of  the  topic  that  I  am  to  discuss  appeals 
at  once  to  every  one  who  has  iron  in  his  blood  and  through  whose 
gray  matter  aspires  the  flame  of  zeal  and  purpose.  This  is  a 
battle,  this  contest  of  the  Church  with  the  saloon.  It  rages  through 
the  land,  through  the  streets  of  every  city,  through  the  lane  that 
winds  through  every  countryside  and  every  village,  and,  alas,  down 
to  every  hearthstone  of  thousands  upon  thousands  of  homes  in 
Christendom.  The  appearance  of  the  problem,  of  prohibition  in 
the  concrete  form  in  which  it  now  appears  in  all  these  lands,  and 
particularly  in  the  great  republic  from  which  I  come,  and  from 
especially  the  Southern  end  of  it,  describes  a  matter  that  at  once 
becomes  a  surprise.  Particularly,  a  surprise  to  those  of  our  breth- 
ren who,  living  across  the  sea,  do  not  understand  the  conditions 
which  have  so  long  prevailed  there;  and  it  became  a  matter  of 
profound  surprise  to  ourselves  when  we  realized  how  far  we  had 
advanced  in  so  short  a  time  after  taking  up  the  matter  seriously. 
In  the  Southland  in  the  old  time  the  mint  julep  and  the  well-mixed 
drink  of  various  kinds  was  the  token  of  hospitality  in  those  splendid 
old  homes.  There  comes  to  me  at  this  moment  the  remembrance 
of  a  bit  of  history  that  came  to  me  from  the  state  of  Kentucky.  A 
Presbyterian  clergyman  noticed  in  his  congregation  in  those  long 
years  ago  a  certain  Colonel,  a  gentleman  of  much  wealth  and  influ- 
ence in  the  country.  The  minister  was  much  pleased  when  he  saw 
him  in  constant  attendance  upon  the  services.  He  felt  it  his  duty 
to  address  him  on  a  most  d'elicate  matter.  Said  he,  "Colonel,  I 
think  you  ought  to  quit  drinking."  Said  the  Colonel,  "Whoever 
heard  of  such  a  thing  as  that?"  "Colonel,  it  would  be  good  for  your 
influence."  "Doctor,  there  is  no  harm  in  that;  I  have  no  influence 
anyhow."  "Well,  it  would  be  good  for  your  health;  it  would 
lengthen  your  days."  Said  the  Colonel,  "Doctor,  I  believe  that.  I 
stopped  drinking  once  for  a  whole  day,  and  I  pledge  you  my  word 
it  was  the  longest  day  of  my  life." 

We  have  thrown  down  the  gage  and  have  entered  on  this  war- 
fare and  shall  not  call  off  our  forces  until  victory  shall  be  achieved. 
Since  the  time  is  so  short,  I  must  speak  in  parables  and  will 
speak  in  a  parable  of  the  vernaculai".  I  heard  the  story  of  a  good 
old  colored  man  in  the  region  where  I  was  once  preacher  and  pas- 
tor. He  was  given  to  his  cups,  so  that  his  humble  home  was 
reduced  to  a  condition  of  penury,  to  a  level  even  below  that  of 
his  fellows.  His  wife  and  little  child  of  seven  or  eight  shears  were 
in  want.  Being  strongly  urged  by  his  wife,  be  went  one  Sabbath 
evening  to  hear  the  elder  preach  at  the  colcred  Blue  Light  Taber- 
nacle. The  discussion  concerned  Pharaoh  and  his  dream.  Pharaoh 
saw  seven  fat  kine  and  seven  lean  kine,  and  Joseph  interpreted 

S8 


594  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

liis  dream.  Our  colored  friend  went  home  and  fell  into  slumber, 
still  weighed  down  by  the  impressions  left  upon  his  mind;  and  he 
dreamed.  He  saw  three  black  cats.  One  was  a  lean  cat,  one  was 
a  blind  cat,  and  one  was  a  fat  cat.  When  he  awoke  he  was  dis- 
turbed. He  appealed  to  his  wife.  "Mahala,  I  have  had  a  dream, 
seemg  a  lean  cat,  and  a  fat  cat,  and  a  blind  cat  Interpret  my 
dream."  She  said,  "I  can  not."  He  said,  "You  must."  She  said, 
"I  can't."  Little  Toby,  the  little  black  urchin,  said,  "I  can  tell 
you  what  it  means.  Let  me  tell  you."  'T  want  your  mama  to  tell 
me.'  "I  can't."  "Well,"  said  Toby,  "I  can."  "What  is  it?"  "It 
is  this  way:  The  lean  cat  is  me  and  mama;  and,  daddy,  the  blind 
cat  is  you;  and,  daddy,  the  fat  cat  is  the  saloon-keeper."  Now,  that 
is  the  whole  problem.  Certainly  it  is  the  industrial  and  social 
side  of  the  problem  as  we  in  the  Southland  first  saw  it.  It  was 
primarily  because  of  our  concern  for  those  great  masses  of  our 
black  population,  perhaps  primarily  because  thay  were  our  indus- 
trial population,  our  laboring  population,  and  their  efiiciency  was 
being  destroyed  by  drink — it  was  primarily  for  them  that  we  stood 
so  persistently  for  prohibition.  Then  we  were  converted  to  it  as 
a  principle  as  deep  and  fundamental  as  life.  I  might  in  pursuance 
of  the  true  indication  of  this  topic  briefly  review  the  territory  of 
prohibition  in  these  cities  in  which  it  has  been  adopted  in  the 
great  republic.  There  are  three  distinct  centers  of  this  move- 
ment; one  in  New  England,  of  which  Maine  was  the  nucleus;  one 
in  the  South,  where  we  have  five  or  six  states  under  prohibition. 
In  Oklahoma  prohibition  cam'e  in  as  a  constitutional  measure  in 
the  creation  of  the  state.  In  Mississippi,  which  was  one  of  the 
finest  in  this  matter,  it  was  an  industrial  question.  I  believe  there 
is  no  state  or  community,  perhaps  on  the  continent,  perhaps  on  the 
globe,  in  which  the  principle  of  prohibition  is  more  effectually 
carried  out  and  where  its  results  are  seen  to  be  more  beneficent 
than  in  that  great,  proud  state.  Tennessee,  Georgia,  North  Caro- 
lina, Alabama,  have  had  prohibition,  but  the  battle  has  been  more 
fiercely  contested  and  is  a  more  real  one.  But  we  shall  not  retreat 
from  the  position  we  have  taken,  but  shall  press  our  forces  forward 
every  day,  with  new  purpose  and  determination.  Speaking  particu- 
larly of  Alabama,  which  revoked  to  some  degree  the  statutory  pro- 
hibition which  had  heen  settled  upon  the  people,  I  have  this  to 
say,  that  though  by  act  of  legislature  the  statute  was  revoked,  the 
principle  of  prohibition  still  applies  to  the  state  as  a  whole.  There 
are  not  more  than  four  centers  in  the  state  where  license  has 
been  voted  in.  In  one  of  these,  a  very  populous  district  containing 
two  large  towns,  one  large  enough  to  be  called  a  city,  the  question 
was  put  to  the  people,  and  by  an  overwhelming  majority  license 
was  rejected.  In  North  Carolina  we  are  perhaps  approaching  ideal 
conditions.    Not  only  is  prohibition  in  force,  but  the  amended  laws 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  595 

have  put  out  of  business  the  so-called  "near-beer"  saloons.  In 
Georgia  we  are  in  a  life  and  death  grapple  with  the  traffic.  So  in 
the  state  of  Tennessee.  Only  the  principle  of  prohibition  is  to 
be  accepted;  only  that  will  be  tolerated  as  a  principle.  And  the 
principle  of  prohibition  will  at  last,  as  we  confidently  believe,  as 
we  see  as  in  a  vision  from  the  throne,  be  fully  accepted  and  fully 
established. 

On  motion  of  Secretary  Carroll,  the  daily  record  for  yester- 
day as  printed,  after  certain  corrections  were  made,  was  adopted. 
The  Conference  sang  Hymn  921 — 

"We  give  thee  but  thine  own." 

The  Eev.  L.  Hudson,  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  New 
Zealand : 

Mr.  President,  the  Conference  will  be  interested  to  know  the  con- 
ditions of  the  temperance  question  in  New  Zealand.  In  those  lands 
every  man  and  woman  has  the  opportunity  of  saying  whether  the 
traffic  shall  continue  or  not.  The  first  local  option  poll  was  taken 
in  1S94,  when  forty-eight  thousand  votes  were  recorded.  The  growth 
of  interest  on  this  subject  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  1908,  on 
the  occasion  of  the  last  poll,  221,471  votes  were  recorded,  with  a 
majority  of  33,331  in  favor  of  no-license.  Out  of  the  sixty-eight  elec- 
torates, only  fifteen  carried  the  vote  in  favor  of  the  continuance  of 
the  liquor  traffic.  Six  no-license  electorates  were  increased  to  twelve. 
"We  are  handicapped  by  the  necessity  of  having  a  three-fifths  ma- 
jority. Otherwise  thirty-five  additional  electorates  would  to-day  be 
enjoying  no  license,  if  we  had  a  bare  majority  vote. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  New  Zealand  the  people  will 
be  called  upon  next  month  to  vote  on  the  question  of  national  pro- 
hibition. No  one  at  the  present  time  can  be  served  with  liquor  under 
the  age  of  twenty-one.  There  is  no  legalized  traffic  with  regard  to 
Sunday  trading.  Sir  J.  G.  Findlay,  our  minister  of  jiistice,  said 
that  in  a  few  years  the  liquor  traffic  in  New  Zealand  will  be  entirely 
abolished.  He  also  said  that  tliousands  in  New  Zealand  who  are 
not  personally  abstainers  will  vote  for  national  prohibition,  because 
they  recognize  that  the  use  of  drink  is  a  constant  source  of  danger 
to  the  individual  and  a  menace  to  the  State.  No  finer  tribute  was 
ever  paid  to  the  social  conscience.  The  secret  of  success?  We  have 
had  men  who  have  spent  money  liberally  in  circulating  temperance 
literature. 

And  our  Churches  have  stood  squarely  with  reference  to  this 
question.  I  know  of  no  single  Methodist  minister  in  New  Zealand 
who  is  not  a  total  abstainer,  and  who  would  not  vote  prohibition  to- 
morrow if  he  had  a  chance.  Not  least,  we  are  greatly  indebted  to 
woman's  vote.  For  nineteen  years  women  have  had  the  franchise 
and  the  privilege  of  voting  on  this  question  right  along.  The  evils 
prophesied  therefrom  have  never  come  to  pass.  They  will  usually 
vote  for  men  of  moral  character.  They  would  rather  have  a  moral 
Tory  than  an  immoral  Liberal.  One  of  the  greatest  reformers  has 
died  since  I  left  home.  In  New  Zealand  Tom  Taylor  is  a  name  to 
conjure  with.     On  his  deathbed  he  said,  "This  year,  1911,  is  our 


^96  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

year  of  emancipation,  if  we  are  true  to  God  and  to  ourselves."  Wa 
vote  proliibition  because  we  know  fi'om  experience  tliat  no  other 
method  is  going  to  succeed.  Though  perhaps  the  time  is  not  yet 
when  we  may  secure  this  desirable  end,  it  is  coming.  There  is  not 
a  spot  on  God's  earth  that  presents  such  a  favorable  opportunity 
for  experiment  in  this  matter.  People  may  tell  us  that  prohibition 
has  been  a  failure;  but  it  has  been  a  splendid  success,  so  far  as  tried 
in  New  Zealand.  This  is  the  testimony  of  doctors,  business  men,  and 
others  who  know.  I  have  a  dream  that  when  prohibition  comes  to 
New  Zealand  we  shall  have  men  and  women  coming  to  New  Zealand 
■from  all  parts  of  the  earth — north,  south,  east,  and  west — in  order 
to  get  free  from  those  fetters  that  are  binding  them  in  other  lands, 
and  from  which  they  can  not  get  free  there. 

The  Eev.   JosErir  II.   Bateson^  of  the  British  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church: 

I  want  to  tell  the  Conference  this  morning  of  a  wonderful  vic- 
tory, the  greatest  moral  victory  ever  won  by  our  British  army.  In 
1880  the  Bi'itish  army  was  described  as  a  "national  school  for  in- 
temperance." Under  the  leadership  of  Lord  Roberts  the  matter  v/as 
taken  up  in  India,  and  now  we  can  claim  that  it  is  a  national  school 
for  temperance.  Beginning  with  an  army  in  which  every  man  was 
a  drinker,  and  intemperance  prevailed  to  a  terrible  degree  in 
1888,  when  I  went  to  India,  two  years  ago  the  result  of  our  work 
was  that  out  of  64,000  men  wearing  the  king's  uniform,  31,000 
were  total  abstainers.  This  was  brought  about,  first  of  all,  by 
counter-attraction.  Up  to  that  time  there  was  only  one  place 
for  the  men  of  the  barracks,  and  that  was  the  canteen.  Lord  Rob- 
erts is  a  genius.  He  is  the  soldier's  friend.  And  he  conceived  the 
idea  that  wherever  in  Indian  barracks  there  was  a  canteen  with 
intoxicating  liquor  to  be  had,  next  door  to  it  there  should  be  placed 
a  temperance  room.  He  said  that  the  canteen  should  be  only  barely 
furnished,  but  in  the  temperance  room  there  might  be  every  form 
of  comfort  and  luxury  to  attract  the  men.  And  the  very  moment 
that  was  done,  the  power  of  the  canteen  was  broken;  and  by  that 
policy  the  army  was  won  to  temperance.  It  ought  to  be  in  the  record 
of  the  proceedings  of  this  Conference  that  in  this  matter  our  great- 
est generals  were  our  leaders.  The  king  made  the  "Army  Temper- 
ance Association"  the  "Royal  Army  Temperance  Association."  King 
Edward  also  decreed  that  no  officer  should  be  required  to  drink  his 
health  in  intoxicating  liquors.  And  Sir  George  White,  the  hero  of 
Ladysmith — I  heard  him  say  publicly  that  in  Quettah — if  he  wanted 
a  small  striking  force  at  ten  o'clock  at  night,  he  would  send  to  the 
temperance  room  for  the  men,  because  he  knew  that  those  men 
would  be  fit  for  duty.  Lord  Kitchener  has  done  much  for  this  cause, 
because  he  said  that  in  war  that  man  is  the  better  soldier  who  has 
had  perfect  self-control  in  the  barracks.  And  he  let  it  be  known 
that  in  selecting  soldiers  for  actual  service  he  would  look  to  those 
regiments  having  the  most  temperance  men.  In  one  regiment  of  a 
thousand  men  there  are  seven  hundred  abstainers.  In  another  regi- 
ment there  are  only  seventeen  drinkers.  Thank  God  that  while  in 
India  we  are  supposed  to  be  keeping  the  British  flag  flying,  we  are 
not  holding  it  down  by  the  character  of  our  soldiers.  It  means  more 
than  a  temperance  army,  it  means  a  testimony  to  the  power  of  God 
working  in  the  hearts  of  our  men. 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  597 

The  Eev.  J.  S.  Eoss,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Church  of 
Canada : 

A  word  about  Canada.  Here  we  have  two  leading  laws  on  the 
subject,  by  which  we  can  suppress  tlie  liquor  traffic.  The  one  is  the 
Scott  Act,  originated  by  Senator  Scott  in  the  Senate,  and  passed  by 
the  Parliament  of  Canada  many  years  ago.  And  one  is  the  Local 
Option  Law,  which  unfortunately  is  handicapped  by  the  requiring  of 
a  three-fifths  vote.  Under  the  Scott  Act  we  find  in  the  Eastern  part 
of  the  Dominion  of  Canada  the  whole  Province  of  Prince  Edward 
Island,  including  the  city  of  Charlottetown,  totally  under  prohibi- 
tion. Then,  when  we  get  to  New  Brunswick,  I  understand  that  half 
or  more  is  under  the  Scott  Act.  In  Nova  Scotia,  I  understand,  every 
county  outside  Halifax  is  under  prohibition,  and  provision  has 
lately  been  made  by  which  in  course  of  time  the  temperance  forces 
may  be  so  rallied  there  as  to  have  prohibition  in  Halifax.  If  so, 
then  the  whole  Province  of  Nova  Scotia  will  be  under  prohibition. 
Coming  to  the  Province  of  Quebec,  where  there  is  such  a  large 
French  population,  it  is  gratifying  to  know  that,  largely  through 
the  influence  of  the  priests  in  some  municipalities,  under  a  sort  of 
local  option  method  half  the  province  is  now  under  prohibition.  In 
Ontario  we  have  over  eight  hundred  municipalities,  and  at  this  mo- 
ment there  is  a  majority  of  them  already  under  local  option.  In 
Toronto  we  have  a  city  recently  called  West  Toronto,  that  for  years 
was  under  prohibition,  carried  by  the  people  after  attempts  had  been 
made  to  break  it  down.  We  have  large  towns  in  Ontario  under  pro- 
hibition, and  scores  of  villages  and  townships.  Going  further  west, 
the  law  is  not  so  fully  in  operation;  but  there  are  municipalities 
throughout  Manitoba  and  Saskatchewan  and  Alberta,  and  probably 
some  in  British  Columbia,  where  there  is  good  temperance  senti- 
ment and  where  it  is  increasing.  And  shortly  we  expect,  in  a  very 
few  years  at  least,  we  shall  see  a  great  part  of  this  Dominion  under 
the  rule  and  authority  of  prohibition,  with  a  sober  people,  with  clear 
brains,  with  strong  constitutions,  able  to  do  our  part  in  helping  for- 
ward all  good  and  great  and  glorious  movements  in  the  world. 

The  Eev.  James  E,  Mason"^  .of  the  African  ]\Iethodist  Epis- 
copal Zion  Church: 

I  rise  in  this  place  to  bear  testimony  to  the  fact  that  the  Negro 
in  this  memorable  struggle  has  not  been  an  idle  and  indifferent 
spectator.  The  distinguished  Dr.  DuBose  referred  to  North  Caro- 
lina having  reached  the  ideal  of  all  the  Southern  States  in  the  great 
temperance  movement.  In  that  connection  I  will  say  that  it  has 
been  made  possible  by  the  enthusiastic  and  hearty  co-operation  of 
the  brothers  in  black.  Twenty-five  years  ago  the  late  Wm.  E. 
Dodge  was  asked  to  make  his  contribution  to  a  series  of  temperance 
meetings  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina.  His  answer  was,  "I  will 
send  my  brother  in  black;"  and  the  most  grandly  eloquent  Negro 
orator  of  the  United  States  came  forth.  Dr.  Joseph  O.  Price.  He 
and  ex-Governor  Glenn  went  throughout  the  State  and  crystallized 
public  sentiment;  and  the  rich  and  gratifying  fruitage  of  that  cam- 
paign is  now  being  enjoyed  throughout  the  State.  In  Livingston 
College,  which  I  have  the  honor  in  part  to  represent,  we  are  em- 
phasizing the  fact  that  with  our  students  and  with  all  who  come 
under  their  influence  we  are  dealing  with  a  gigantic  evil,  and  there- 
fore must  have  total  abstinence  in  the  individual,  at  least  local  op- 


598  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

tion  in  the  county  and  prohibition  in  the  State.  To  this  end  we 
tell  them  that  there  are  two  hundred  thousand  brewers  and  dis- 
tillers united  in  a  great  organization  representing  a  capitalization 
of  one  billion  two  hundred  million  dollars.  We  tell  them  that  mu- 
nicipal misrule  is  the  great  evil  of  American  cities  and  that  its  root 
is  in  the  liquor  traffic.  Years  ago  some  one  said  in  the  study  of 
social  problems  as  related  to  the  liquor  traffic  that  the  rapid  growth 
of  great  cities  would  destroy  the  American  Republic.  You  remember 
that  Beaconsfield  was  accustomed  to  point  his  finger  across  the  At- 
lantic and  say  there  was  not  one  great  American  city  well  governed 
by  universal  suffrage,  nor  ever  would  be.  Wendell  Phillips  declared 
so  long  as  rum  rules  the  great  cities  universal  suffrage  is  a  farce. 
But  we  do  not  believe  that  universal  suffrage  is  to  be  given  up,  and, 
as  has  been  stated  here  this  morning,  just  in  proportion  as  the  love 
of  home  is  developed  in  the  individual,  the  rum  traffic  will  recede. 
Then  we  are  attacking  another  side  of  it,  that  the  Christian  Church 
must  take  higher  ground  in  this  movement.  We  say  to  members: 
"You  have  a  legal  right  to  do  many  things  that  you  have  no  moral 
right  to  do.  You  have  a  legal  right  to  take  strychnine  or  arsenic, 
but  you  have  no  moral  right  to  commit  self-destruction.  You  have 
a  legal  right  to  visit  the  most  indecent  theaters,  whose  pictures  de- 
face dead  walls  in  our  cities;  but  you  have  no  moral  right  to  step 
your  foot  inside  such  a  place,  not  only  on  account  of  polluting  your 
own  memory,  but  because  that  place  may  be  to  many  a  young  man 
and  woman  to-day  the  crimson  gate  of  hell."  So  we  are  empha- 
sizing more  and  more  that  the  pathways  of  temperance  and  intem- 
perance are  like  the  letter  "Y,"  commencing  at  the  same  point,  but 
soon  parting  to  the  right  and  the  left. 

The  Eev.  James  Lewis^  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist 

Church : 

I  am  from  Cambridge,  England.  I  do  not  know  much  about  the 
liquor  traffic  as  it  affects  this  continent.  I  know  something  about 
it  as  it  affects  England  and  Scotland,  through  living  there.  I  have 
the  express  opinion  that  the  hypocrisy  of  the  Christiaa  Church  main- 
tains the  liquor  traffic  in  England  and  Scotland  to-day.  The  hy- 
pocrisy! It  is  a  well-.known  fact  that  large  numbers  of  persons  in 
the  Christian  Church  thrive  on  the  liquor  traffic.  This  is  not  merely 
true  of  the  lay  side  of  the  Church;  it  is  true  of  the  ministerial  sec- 
tion of  the  Churches  in  England  to-day. 

But  in  the  second  place,  in  the  Christian  Churches  to-day  there 
are  a  large  number  of  people,  and  have  been  as  long  as  ever  I  re- 
member, who  seem  to  think  that  something  in  the  shape  of  defile- 
ment, or  something  in  the  shape  of  temptation  that  ought  to  be 
avoided,  is  necessarily  connected  with  being  mixed  up  with  what 
you  in  this  country  call  the  primaries.  They  do  not  fling  them- 
selves into  the  municipal  and  national  politics.  They  do  not  deter- 
mine what  men  shall  be  chosen  for  positions  in  the  municipalities 
and  in  the  House  of  Commons,  that  are  to  deal  with  the  question 
of  this  fearful  traffic.  They  abstain  from  fulfilling  serious  duties 
in  the  State;  and  they  do  it  on  the  ground  of  assumed  piety! 

Now,  all  this  points  to  the  fact  that  our  people  in  England  need 
profoundly  to  be  educated  in  regard  to  this  great  matter.  Who  are 
the  members  of  parliament?  Are  they  the  men  that  are  outside  the 
Churches  of  England?  For  the  more  part,  not.  Who  are  the  mem- 
bers in  the  town  councils?  They  are  not  young  men  for  the  most 
part.    For  the  major  part  they  are  men  beyond  forty-five  years  of 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  599 

age,  men  who  have  succeeded  in  business.  Who  are  the  men  on 
the  magistrate's  bench?  Are  they  outside  the  Churches  or  inside  the 
Churches?  I  dare  to  say  that,  sir;  and  I  do  not  aslc  to  be  excused, 
for  I  know  the  bitter,  the  horrible  results  of  strong  drink.  I  would 
to  God  you  could  take  these  men  and  place  them  in  thousands  of 
homes  in  old  England  to-day,  where  to-night  the  women  will  be 
hurled  from  one  side  to  the  other  of  the  room,  and  the  children  will 
be  squealing.  The  Churches  in  England — thank  God  it  is  not  true 
of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church!  [A  voice:  "Nor  of  the  Primi- 
tive Church."] — but  the  Churches  of  England  are  tangled  up  in  this 
business,  and  there  needs  to  be  a  wide  and  profound  education,  espe- 
cially among  the  higher  classes  of  the  community.  I  come  from 
Cambridge,  and  know  what  the  sentiment  of  the  university  is.  It 
is  not  the  sentiment  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  nor  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  relation  to  the  matter.  Those  from 
England  know  the  general  sentiment  of  Anglicanism  in  regard  to 
this  matter,  with  your  deans  and  what-not  holding  shares  in  brew- 
eries. The  aristocracy  in  England,  the  ruling  classes  in  England, 
the  higher  and  middle  classes  in  England,  look  upon  this  temperance 
question  as  largely  a  fad.  Until  that  sentiment  is  altered  we  shall 
not  get  what  we  want.  I  pray  God  that  there  may  rise  up  among 
our  higher  classes  in  England  some  great  leader  who  shall  alter 
the   sentiment  there. 

The  Eev.  W.  Hodson-Smith,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  ]\Ieth- 

odist  Church : 

One  said  just  now  that  we  need  the  power  of  enactment  in  so 
far  as  legislation  bearing  upon  this  subject  is  concerned.  In  Eng- 
land the  need  of  the  hour  is  perhaps  to  make  the  existing  laws  op- 
erative. Many  years  ago  the  city  of  Liverpool  was  popularly  called 
"The  Black  Spot  of  the  Mersey."  The  chief  reason  was  that  the 
existing  law  was  practically  a  dead  letter.  What  we  need  to  do  on 
a  larger  scale  is  to  do  what  the  Churches  then  did.  They  formed 
a  solid  phalanx  of  defense  against  the  liquor  traffic.  It  seems  to 
me  that  if  we  could  unite  the  Churches  we  would  accomplish  much. 
To  an  extent,  what  Mr.  Lewis  said  is  true;  but  I  would  be  sorry  for 
the  impression  to  be  made  here  that  the  Churches  in  England  are 
as  bad  as  he  represented.  I  want  now  to  give  an  illustration.  We 
formed,  sir,  a  ministers'  conference.  In  that  conference  Father 
Nugent,  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  sat  beside  my  honored  super- 
intendent, the  best-loved  man  in  British  Methodism,  the  leader  in 
temperance  reform,  Charles  Garrett.  The  leading  High  Churchman 
sat  beside  the  leading  representative  of  the  Unitarian  Church. 
Every  Church  was  represented.  The  first  thing  that  conference  did 
was  to  form  a  vigilance  committee.  The  first  result  of  the  action  of 
that  committee  was  to  remove  the  chairman  of  the  Watch  Commit- 
tee, who  was  the  legal  adviser  to  the  leading  brewer  of  the  city. 
The  second  i-esult  was,  to  close  sixty  to  seventy  public  houses  per 
year  for  a  number  of  years.  Third,  to  close  in  one  year  eight  hun- 
dred houses  in  one  protected  area  that  shall  be  nameless.  During 
those  nine  years  of  strenuous  work  of  the  late  Charles  Garrett  the 
streets  of  Liverpool  were  swept  by  the  combined  action  of  the 
Churches  of  Liverpool.  Further,  they  took  into  consideration  the 
question  of  better  housing,  and  they  swept  away  hundreds  of  houses 
in  the  slums  of  that  great  city.  What  we  need  to  do  is  to  secure 
the  intelligent  union  of  the  Churches;  and  that  union  would  make 
the  law  as  it  stands  operative;  at  any  rate,  in  the  old  land. 


600  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

The  second  thing  I  want  to  say  is  this :  We  need  to  make  this  sub- 
ject educative,  scientifically  educative;  in  our  "Wesley  Guild,  in  our 
Christian  Endeavor,  in  our  Epworth  Leagues,  to  make  this  subject 
strictly  and  intelligently  educative.  We  want  to  take  the  subject 
into  our  schools.  The  third  point  is,  we  must  have  some  alternative 
from  the  saloons  and  from  the  public  houses.  In  the  old  country 
we  have  fine  chapels,  magnificent  schools,  a  large  supply  of  vestries; 
and  many  of  them  from  Sunday  to  Sunday  are  closed.  Why  should 
not  our  buildings  be  open  for  the  purposes  of  social  reform? 

The  Eev.  W.  B.  Lark,  of  the  United  Methodist  Church : 

I  want,  if  possible,  to  prevent  the  press  from  putting  into  cir- 
culation a  wrong  impression — a  wrong  impression  from  the  sweep- 
ing statements  of  Mr.  Lewis.  Reference  was  made  to  large  portions 
of  the  ministry  of  the  Churches  of  England  as  reaping  financial 
benefit  from  the  liquor  traffic.  Let  me  say  that  in  the  "share  lists" 
of  the  liquor  traffic  of  our  country  not  a  single  name  of  any  Free 
Church  minister  of  our  country  is  to  be  found  to-day.     [Applause.] 

Tlie  Eev.  Egbert  Forbes^  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church: 

I  would  rather  you  would  not  applaud  me,  but  give  me  all  the 
time.  The  liquor  traffic  is  the  giant  evil  of  this  age  wherever  it 
exists.  No  apology  can  be  offered  for  it  at  any  time  or  any  place. 
It  is  the  enemy  of  all  that  is  good  and  true.  It  takes  the  light  out 
of  woman's  eye;  it  takes  the  color  out  of  her  cheek;  it  takes  the 
beauty  out  of  her  face  and  the  happiness  out  of  her  heart,  as  she 
sees  husband,  brother,  or  son  dragged  down  to  a  premature  and  dis- 
honored grave,  whose  despair  takes  pity  by  the  hand  and  leads  her 
away  to  weep  alone  in  a  night  that  skirts  eternal  deserts. 

I  speak  only  for  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  but  I  think 
I  may  safely  say  that  I  am  speaking  for  all  the  Methodist  bodies 
in  the  country.  We  have  sixteen  or  seventeen  branches  of  Meth- 
odism.   There  are  too  many,  but  I  am  not  responsible  for  that. 

One  agency  which  has  been  most  efficient  in  developing  the  Anti- 
Saloon  movement  in  the  United  States  is  the  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  Union — a  band  of  noble  women  whose  prayers  have 
ascended  to  the  throne,  and  God  has  heard  and  answered.  The 
time  is  coming  when  American  manhood  will  once  again  rise  and 
pledge  its  life,  its  foi'tune,  and  its  sacred  honor,  and  swear  by  Him 
that  sitteth  on  the  throne  that  the  saloon  must  go.  I  have  nothing 
further  to  say.  I  have  lamed  my  back  in  trying  to  get  the  floor 
for  the  last  three  days.     [Laughter.] 

Mr.  William  J.  Davey,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist 

Church : 

I  desire  to  say  that  I  entirely  agree  with  everything  that  has 
been  said  this  morning  in  regard  to  total  abstinence  for  the  indi- 
vidual and  prohibition  for  the  State.  I  want  to  make  one  or  two 
suggestions  with  regard  to  Mr.  Sharp's  paper — counter  attractions 
to  the  liquor  saloon.  I  have  been  for  thirty-five  years  working 
among  the  young  men  of  England,  and  I  have  found  that  one  of 
the  greatest  difficulties  in  connection  with  temperance  reform  is 
the  non-provision  of  suitable  places  of  recreation,  and  counter  at- 
tractions to  the  saloon.     I  want  to  call  the  attention  of  this  Con- 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  601 

ference  to  a  movement  which  is  making  headway  in  London  and 
Manchester,  and  which  even  where  prohibition  reigns  supreme  may 
well  be  copied.  A  wealthy  lady  interested  in  temperance  reform 
offered  $500,000  for  the  establishment  of  non-alcoholic  billiard  sa- 
loons in  different  parts  of  London  and  Manchester,  and  put  that 
money  in  trust.  They  have  erected  during  the  last  five  or  six 
years,  in  different  parts  of  the  suburbs  of  London,  where  the 
young  men  engaged  in  commercial  houses  largely  reside,  about 
fourteen  of  these  establishments,  each  containing  eight  or  ten 
billiard  tables.  These  are  all  managed  by  a  committee  largely 
composed  of  non-conformist  religious  workers  of  the  districts.  Not 
only  have  they  proved  an  immense  boon  to  young  men,  as  a  counter 
attraction  to  the  public  houses,  but  they  have  become  renumera- 
tive,  so  that  the  capital  is  practically  intact  now.  The  same  thing 
has  happened  on  a  smaller  scale  in  Manchester.  And  I  would 
impress  upon  those  working  for  young  men  the  dire  necessity  of 
doing  something  in  this  direction,  if  we  are  to  do  something  for 
our  Churches.  I  have  been  taught  here  many  things  in  regard 
to  Methodism,  and, I  shall  go  home  a  wiser,  if  a  sadder  man,  in 
some  respects.  I  believe  that  this  new  Dominion  is  far  ahead  of 
us  in  England  in  regard  to  temperance  and  reform.  One  other 
word,  and  that  is  in  regard  to  the  provision  of  suitable  temper- 
ance hotels.  My  business  carries  me  all  over  the  country.  I  have 
been  sadly  disappointed  in  finding  that  in  hardly  a  half  dozen 
towns  in  my  country  is  there  a  suitable  temperance  hotel. 

The  Rev.  Levi  Gilbert,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 

Clmrch : 

I  am  an  editor,  and  stand  as  an  editor  in  behalf  of  the  Christian 
principles  constantly,  every  week,  against  the  saloon  forces.  I  think 
that  we  can  advance  this  question  and  this  reform  through  the  de- 
nominational press  quite  as  efficiently  as  by  any  other  agency.  And 
I  make  no  apology  for  persistently  pouring  a  fusilade  each  week  into 
the  saloon  ranks.  As  an  editor  I  read  every  week  a  number  of  the 
whisky  papers  for  which  we  subscribe.  Unfortunately,  they  won't 
put  us  on  their  exchange  list.  I  see  enough  in  every  column  of  these 
papers  each  week  to  prove  that  the  drink-traffickers  realize  that  they 
are  beaten,  tbat  they  are  under  retreat,  and  that  all  they  can  do 
is  to  put  up  weak  and  lame  defenses.  In  the  second  place,  there  is 
the  utter  incongruity  in  denouncing  prohibition  in  one  column  and 
in  the  next  advancing  the  claim  that  "more  whisky  is  sold  in  pro- 
portion throughout  the  non-licensed  territory  than  in  the  licensed 
territory."  My  third  point  is  this,  that  the  suffrage  shall  be  granted 
to  women.  The  saloon  supporters  know  that  as  soon  as  that  comes 
about  the  liquor  traffic  is  doomed  and  eternally  sealed.  [Applause.] 
And  I  am  glad  to  say  that  by  the  last  accounts  from  California  that 
State  is  now  a  woman  suffrage  State.  I  used  to  live  up  in  Seattle, 
where  the  women  once  before  held  the  ballot,  but  they  were  dis- 
possessed through  the  influence  of  the  saloons.  I  went  there  preju- 
diced against  woman  suffrage,  but  I  was  converted,  and  I  have  never 
associated  with  Christian  women  of  a  more  interesting  character. 
There  was  nothing  of  the  "blue-stocking"  order  in  them— nothing 
repellant.  They  felt  that  they  had  a  stake  in  the  country;  that,  as 
citizens,  they  must  keep  in  touch  with  civic  affairs  and  be  able  to 
discuss  rationally  all  national  problems.  They  were  the  leaders  in 
every  reform,  and  recently  they  were  the  chief  helpers  in  dragging 


60^  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

out  an  immoral  mayor  from  his  chair  because  he  stood  not  only  be- 
hind the  liquor  interests,  but  in  close  alliance  with  the  brothels  in 
that  city.  And  to-day  I  raise  both  hands  to  vote  for  the  suffrage 
boon,  to  place  women  on  an  equality  with  men  in  the  State,  in  the 
Nation,  and  throughout  the  world. 

The  Rev.  Claudius  B.  Spencer,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church: 

I  feel  like  saying  that  as  I  speak  from  these  tables  (the  press 
tables)  the  thought  impressess  me  that  the  real  audience  of  this 
Conference  is  not  in  these  galleries  or  in  this  Conference  or  in 
this  country,  but  in  those  remote  congregations  to  which  these 
men  will  speak,  and  in  that  company  to  whom  and  for  whom  these 
men  are  writting  when  the  city  is  sleeping,  these  men  who  can 
speak  to  millions.  It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  discuss  the 
academic  aspects  of  this  question.  The  temper  of  this  body  is 
that  what  is  morally  wrong  can  not  be  legally  right.  I  must  also 
interpolate  this  remark,  that  in  the  State  wl^re  I  used  to  live 
I  walked  by  my  wife's  side  to  the  polls,  and  though  I  voted  for 
John  G.  Woolley  for  President,  my  wife  persisted  in  voting  for 
William  McKinley.  I  wish  to  stand  here  and  bear  my  testimony  con- 
cerning prohibition  in  Kansas.  I  am  glad  to  do  this.  To-day  there 
are  following  the  plows  of  that  agricultural  and  homogeneous  State 
a  company  of  men  in  whose  veins  is  as  good  Plantagenet  blood  as 
you  can  find  in  England. 

You  ask  if  prohibition  prohibits  in  Kansas.  I  can  answer  that 
in  a  statistical  fashion.  The  population  has  increased  from  996,000 
in  1880  to  1,700,000  in  1910;  and  though  that  is  the  fact,  the  popula- 
tion almost  doubling,  the  prison  population  has  fallen  from  724  to 
GC8  in  the  same  time.  I  am  proud  to  bear  witness  also  that 
but  17%  of  the  population  in  the  prisons  in  Kansas  are  natives 
of  that  State.  In  ninety-six  out  of  105  counties  in  Kansas  there  was 
not  last  year  a  single  inebriate;  in  57  of  those  105  counties  there  is 
no  one  in  the  poorhouses,  and  the  poorhouses  have  been  let  to 
the  State  to  be  experiment  stations,  and  are  now  called  "Prosper- 
ity Farms."  [Applause.]  There  are  tens  of  thousands  of  boys 
in  Kansas  who  have  grown  to  manhood  who  have  never  seen 
a  saloon.  The  deposits  in  the  banks  have  risen  from  $09,000,000 
to  $113,000,000  in  the  last  ten  years.  When  Mr.  Bryan  came  to 
Kansas  to  lecture  on  "hard  times,"  the  farmers  turned  out  in  their 
automobiles  to  hear  what  he  had  to  say.  [Laughter  and  applause.] 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  gentleman  in  the  automobile  business  did 
actually  tell  me  that  he  sells  sixteen  automobiles  to  farmers  to 
one  that  he  sells  in  towns — "sixteen  to  one."  It  is  a  fact  that 
prohibition  does  not  always  prohibit  in  Kansas.  In  that  particular 
is  bears  some  similarity  to  the  Ten  Commandments.  But  the  pro- 
hibitory laws  are  as  rigorously  enforced  in  Kansas  as  any  other 
laws. 

The  Eev.  C.  Ensor  Walters,  of  the  British.  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church: 

I  want  to  bear  a  preliminary  testimony  to  the  growth  of  true 
temperance  sentiment  in  the  United  Kingdom.  I  imagine  from 
some  words  that  have  fallen  that  there  may  be  some  mistake  as 
to  the  temperance  position.  It  is  almost  impossible  for  some  to 
realize  the  difficulties  of  the  situation  in  England.     My  own  grand- 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  603 

father,  who  was  one  of  the  best  of  men  that  ever  lived,  was  a 
brewer.  Every  Monday  morning  he  used  to  have  family  prayers 
in  the  malt  house  with  all  the  men  who  were  employed  in  the 
breweries.  He  was  neither  a  hypocrite  nor  a  humbug;  he  was 
one  of  the  best  men  who  ever  lived.  But  at  that  time  the  light 
had  not  dawned.  I  do  not  want  any  to  imagine  that  I  am  a 
bloated  representative  of  brewers'  profits;  but  I  do  want  to  say 
that  in  spite  of  the  sentiment  of  England  there  is  an  extraordi- 
nary growth  in  the  direction  of  temperance.  Among  the  finest 
and  noblest  temperance  workers  in  England  are  the  clergy  of  the 
Church  of  England — that  Church  to  which  reference  has  been 
made  this  morning.  Some  years  ago  I  stood  as  a  municipal  candi- 
date against  a  saloon  keeper.  My  two  nominators  were  clergymen 
of  the  Church  of  England,  one  of  whom  is  a  distinguished  bishop 
to-day.  And  I  am  bound  to  acknowledge  that  again  and  again,  in 
my  own  enterprises,  I  have  found  no  truer  supporters  than  the 
clergy  of  the  Established  Church.  At  any  rate,  let  us  give  honor 
where  honor  is  due. 

But  there  is  one  other  word.  This  is  a  Methodist  Conference, 
and  from  all  that  we  have  heard  this  morning  one  would  imagine 
that  you  can  bring  the  millennium  by  acts  of  Parliament.  I  am 
a  Christian  socialist.  I  believe  in  law,  but  I  know  that  all  your 
prohibition  will  not  eradicate  the  demon  of  drink.  We  were  told 
t.hat  we  were  to  look  upon  Canada  as  a  model  of  temperance.  I 
quite  admit  that  you  are  in  advance  of  England.  You  have  a 
glorious  city.  We  go  back  thanking  God  for  Canada.  But  you 
have  drunkenness.  I  am  not  going  to  say  that  if  you  had  pro- 
hibition in  Toronto  you  would  absolutely  stop  all  drinking.  In 
spite  of  all  our  laws,  there  is  an  awful  population  in  the  grip  of 
drink.  Neither  signing  a  temperance  pledge  nor  mere  prohibition 
will  save  these.  God  has  given  me-y-I  say  it  in  all  humility — 
wonderful  power  with  the  drunkard.  I  go  into  the  open  air  and 
address  drunkards.  I  have  no  faith  in  temperance  meetings  held 
for  a  few  good  people  who  could  not  get  drunk  if  they  tried.  I 
was  speaking  in  the  open  air,  and  a  man  in  the  crowd  shouted 
out  some  insulting  remark.  I  fixed  him  with  my  eye,  I  impressed 
him  with  my  priestly  look,  and  said,  "You  be  quiet."  In  a  moment 
that  man  was  converted.  The  miracle  of  Sheffield  to-day  is  a  band 
of  men  who  have  been  thoroughly  revolutionized,  not  by  signing 
a  pledge,  but  by  getting  soundly  converted.  I  want  to  emphasize 
in  closing,  that  the  only  complete  remedy  for  intemperance  is  in 
the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 

The  Piev.  K.  A.  Jansson",  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church  (Sweden)  : 

It  is  not  easy  for  me  to  speak  in  your  language.  My  vocabulary 
is  not  rich  enough.  But  I  wish  to  say  a  few  words  about  the  tem- 
perance movement  in  Sweden.  I  do  not  know  if  in  any  country 
on  the  face  of  the  globe  the  condition  could  be  much  worse  than 
it  was  in  Sweden  a  few  years  ago.  Everybody  had  legal  right  in 
Sweden  to  distill  whisky  and  sell  whisky  as  much  as  he  pleased. 
And  the  great  majority  of  people  in  Sweden  used  strong  drink. 
Strong  drinks  were  given  to  the  children  in  the  cradle.  The  State 
Church  ministers  used  strong  drinks.  Scarcely  a  baptism  or  mar- 
riage or  funeral  or  anything  of  that  kind  could  be  performed  with- 
out strong  drinks.    Ministers  of  the  State  Church  used  intoxicating 


604  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

drinks  in  the  vestry  of  the  church,  to  get  inspiration.  I  have 
seen,  many  times  when  I  was  a  young  man  in  college,  intoxicated 
State  Church  ministers  whom  we  had  to  carry  to  their  homes 
because  they  were  so  intoxicated  that  they  could  not  walk  there 
themselves.  But  in  God's  providence  a  Wesleyan  layman  moved 
to  Sweden  and  settled  in  Stockholm.  In  his  home  he  organized 
the  first  total  abstinence  society  ever  organized  in  Sweden.  From 
that  time  we  have  been  trying  to  do  all  we  could  possibly  do.  To- 
day we  have  about  400,000  people  in  Sweden,  as  members  of 
churches  with  total  abstinence  principles,  and  in  the  Good  Templar 
lodges,  blue-ribbon  societies,  or  white-ribbon  societies.  We  have 
about  150  members  of  our  Parliament  in  Sweden  who  are  total 
abstainers.  In  many  places  we  have  local  option.  We  do  not  be- 
lieve in  the  Gothenberg  system  as  the  ultimate  solution  of  the 
liquor  traffic  question.  When  I  was  a  young  man  I  was  appointed 
to  a  small  village  or  town  with  1,300  people  and  eleven  saloons. 
Now  there  are  only  two  such  places  in  that  town.  We  are  press- 
ing on  against  very  many  difficulties;  but  we  are  sure  of  victory. 
I  hope  to  live  to  see  the  day  when  we  shall  have  prohibition  in 
Sweden. 

Mr.  Llewellyn  E.  Caimp,  of  tlie  British  AVeslcvan  Meth- 
odist Church: 

We  have  been  speaking  too  much  in  the  minor  key.  If  there 
is  any  class  of  people  on  the  face  of  the  earth  to-day  who  ought 
to  sing  the  doxology  it  is  the  temperance  and  religious  people. 
When  I  want  to  encourage  myself,  I  just  look  back  and  see  what 
the  temperance  cause  was  and  what  it  is  to-day.  The  mere  fact 
that  I  to-day,  as  an  advanced  temperance  reformer,  have  found  a 
seat  upon  the  magisterial  bocch  in  London  is  a  sign  of  the  times. 
Because  of  my  father-in-law's  temperance  principles,  he  was  kept 
off  for  twenty  years.     But  things  are  altering. 

We  have  great  cause  to  thank  God  for  advance  in  temperance 
things.  Take  a  fact  or  two.  If  you  go  to  the  National  Liberal 
Club,  of  which  there  are  several  members  here  to-day,  if  you  go 
through  that  large  and  magnificent  dining-room,  you  will  see  prob- 
ably only  two  or  three  men  taking  anything  of  an  alcoholic  nature. 
Even  twenty  years  ago,  if  you  had  gone  through  a  room  of  that 
description,  you  would  have  found  only  two  or  three  that  were 
not  using  a  stimulant.  Prevention  is  better  than  cure.  It  is  far  bet- 
ter to  prevent  than  it  is  to  pull  a  man  out  afterwards.  No  man  is  safe 
who  takes  a  drink.  That  is  the  result  of  my  experience  of  nearly 
fifty  years.  People  can  hardly  believe  I  am  so  old,  but  because  I  have 
been  a  total  abstainer  and  a  non-smoker,  I  preserve  my  youth.  I 
hope  when  I  am  a  hundred  I  shall  not  look  much  older  than  now. 
Prevention  is  far  better  than  cure.  I  have  been  told  many  a  time 
by  young  people  who  started  with  me  in  life  that  I  was  fanatical — 
many  of  them  are  in  dishonored  graves  through  drink.  My  own 
class-leader  of  years  ago  would  not  allow  us  to  mention  temper- 
ance, because  he  was  a  moderate  drinker;  but  he  lies  in  a  drunk- 
ard's grave.  I  could  give  you  many  instances,  and  many  I  have 
met  on  this  side.  I  have  never  met  such  generous  hospitality  as 
here  from  men  whom  I  had  never  seen.  One  gentleman  who  was 
pointed  out  to  me  was  a  man  who  twenty-five  years  ago  in  New 
York  had  a  tremendous  amount  of  business  all  over  the  place. 
He  gave  way  to  drink  and  lost  every  copper  he  had.     But  he  has 


ADDRESS  BY  BISHOP  E.  E.  HOSS.  605 

been  reclaimed,  and  is  leader  of  one  of  the  great  missions  there. 
I  have  been  entertained  by  a  gentleman,  born  in  one  of  the  best 
homes  in  England.  He  had  three  homes  and  a  shooting  box  in 
Scotland.  When  he  went  to  Oxford  his  dear  mother  asked  him  to 
promise  never  to  bring  disgrace  on  the  family  name,  but  at  Oxford 
he  began  to  drink.  He  became  a  drunkard  at  Oxford.  He  went 
into  the  army.  He  went  to  India.  There  he  was  a  confirmed 
drinker.  But  he  served  with  some  distinction  in  India.  He  was 
sent  to  every  kind  of  a  place  to  try  to  reform  him,  in  England, 
France,  Germany,  New  Zealand.  Then  they  sent  him  to  New  York, 
and  he  started  there  on  a  fresh  career. 

On  motion  of  Secretary  Carroll,  it  was  voted  that  after  the 
notices  should  be  given,  the  Conference  should  stand  adjourned. 

The  session  closed  with  the  benediction,  pronounced  by  the 
presiding  officer. 


EVENING  SESSION 

The  evening  session  began  at  7.30  o'clock,  the  Hon.  J.  C. 
Dancy,  LL.  D.,  of  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church, 
presiding.  The  Eev.  A.  J.  Burt,  of  tlie  Methodist  Church  of 
Australia,  had  charge  of  the  devotional  services.  He  read  the 
First  Psalm  and  offered  pra3^er.     Hymn  438  was  sung — 

"Listen,  the  Master  beseecheth." 

There  were  three  Addresses,  by  Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss^  D.  D., 
the  Hon.  J.  Frank  Hanly,  and  the  Rev.  J.  Alfred  Sharp. 

Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South: 

Drunkenness  is,  of  course,  a  great  sin.  That  is  a  fact  which 
the  Christian  Church  must  never  forget.  Not  for  one  single  day 
must  we  lay  aside  our  appeal  to  the  individual  drunkard;  not  for 
one  day  must  we  cease  our  protest  against  drinking.  But  I  come 
to  speak  to-night  not  so  much  of  drunkenness,  the  individual  sin, 
but  of  the  whole  question  as  a  social  and  moral  and  economic  ques- 
tion. I  took  occasion  to  say  the  other  day,  in  a  speech  all  the  most 
brilliant  parts  of  which  were  suppressed  by  the  gavel,  that  as  a 
general  thing  the  Church  should  be  very  careful  about  laying  its 
hand  upon  economic  questions,  for  the  reason  that  good  and  evil 
are  entwined  among  them  to  such  extent  that  it  is  not  always  pos- 
sible to  say,  "This  is  good  and  to  be  approved,  and  this  is  evil 
and  to  he  censured  and  condemned."  But  there  are  some  things 
which  are  so  essentially  evil  that  the  Church  may  speak  out  with- 
out a  moment's  hesitation  concei-ning  them. 


606  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

One  of  them  is  the  liquor  traffic.  I  began  my  ministry  some 
forty  years  ago  by  preaching  a  sermon  on  this  subject,  in  which  I 
laid  down  the  broad,  general  doctrine,  to  which  I  adhere,  by  the 
grace  of  God,  to  this  good  night,  that  no  man  has  a  moral  right 
to  engage  in  the  promiscuous  sale  of  ardent  spirits  as  long  as  he 
can  make  an  honest  living  by  stealing.  It  may  have  been  that  out 
of  this  statement  a  rumor  arose  that  I  am  an  Irishman.  I  was 
asked  the  question  one  hundred  times  in  Ireland,  and  finally  had 
to  say,  "If  you  ask  me  that  question  much  oftener,  I  shall  be  unduly 
inflated  with  self-esteem."  We  are  openly,  avowedly,  and  ever- 
lastingly opposed  to  the  open  saloon.  And  this  on  many  grounds — 
not  on  one  merely,  but  on  many.  Of  course,  the  fact  that  the  open 
saloon  is  a  drunkard  factory  is  itself  a  sufficient  reason  for  being 
opposed  to  it.  Nine-tenths  of  all  the  drinking,  in  the  United  States, 
at  any  rate,  is  the  drinking  which  either  originates  in,  or  else  is  kept 
up  through,  the  social  solicitation  of  the  open  saloon.  When  our 
Bishop,  Atticus  G.  Haywood,  twenty  years  ago,  raised  the  cry, 
"Down  with  the  saloons,"  he  was .  going  straight  to  the  point.  I 
venture  the  assertion  that  there  is  scarcely  a  man  fifty  years  old 
in  the  United  States  of  America  that  has  not  been  hard  hit  by  this 
liquor  traffic,  either  in  his  own  person  or  in  the  person  of  some  dear 
friend.  I  have  put  the  matter  to  test  in  many  large  companies  of 
intelligent  men  and  have  rarely  ever  failed  to  verify  that  statement 
by  their  personal  experience.  We  are  opposed  to  it  as  a  drunkard 
factory.  The  question  is  not  simply  whether  a  man  has  a  personal 
right  to  drink  whisky  if  he  can  get  it.  That  is  only  a  fragment  or 
single  aspect  of  it.  The  question  is  whether  the  Government  ought  to 
maintain  a  system  under  its  shield  and  protection  that  makes  it 
not  merely  possible  but  easy  for  men  to  procure  the  liquor  and  to 
drink  it. 

In  the  second  place,  we  are  opposed  to  the  saloon,  not  merely 
because  it  is  a  drunkard  factory.  That  is  only  one  count  in  the 
indictment.  In  our  country,  at  any  rate,  it  is  allied  with  every 
other  form  of  evil.  It  puts  the  brothel  and  gambling  hell  under 
its  protecting  wing.  It  sticks  its  corrupt  hand  into  our  politics, 
it  bribes  legislatures,  intimidates  governments,  corrupts  judges, 
and  does  not  hesitate  to  commit  murder.  There  have  been  martyrs 
to  the  cause  of  temperance  in  America,  who  have  died  because 
they  dared  to  antagonize  this  iniquity.  The  blood  of  young  Gam- 
brell  cries  out  from  the  earth.  The  murder  of  Haddock  is  not 
forgotten.  And  long  will  be  the  day  before  we  cease  to  cherish 
with  affectionate  regard  the  name  of  Edward  Carmack,  gentleman 
and  orator,  senator  of  the  United  States,  whose  blood  ran  red  in 
the  capital  city  of  my  native  state.  I  went  to  see  his  wife  the 
next  morning.  I  knew  I  must  see  her.  There  were  five  hundred 
people  in  the  house  and  on  the  grounds,  who  had  come  to  sym- 


ADDRESS  BY  BISHOP  E.  E.  HOSS.  607 

pathize  with  her.  WTien  I  sent  her  my  card,  she  asked  me  to  come 
up  to  her  room.  I  took  her  hand  and  sat  down  with  h3r  for  ten 
minutes  without  saying  a  word.  Finally  I  said  to  her,  "Mrs.  Car- 
mack,  it  is  almost  a  profanation  to  use  words  on  such  an  occasion 
as  this.  There  is  only  one  thing  I  can  say  to  you,  and  that  is  that 
there  is  only  one  place  to  which  you  can  go  for  help  now,  leaning 
hard  on  Almighty  God."  She  said,  "O,  Bishop,  I  have  known  the 
way  to  that  place  for  a  long  time." 

There  is  absolutely  nothing  that  the  liquor  devil  will  not  do. 
It  is  opposed  to  all  law.  It  rebels  against  even  the  statutes  under 
which  it  is  licensed.  It  defrauds  the  Government.  It  sells  to 
minors.  It  keeps  open  on  Sundays  and  election  days,  and  flaunts 
itself  in  the  face  of  decent  public  opinion  all  over  the  United 
States  of  America.  Bishop  McTyeire  said  twenty-five  years  ago, 
"We  must  put  it  down,  or  it  will  put  us  down."  That  is  in  very 
brief  form  the  indictment  which  we  bring  against  it,  and  these  are 
the  grounds  on  which  we  are  so  unalterably  opposed  to  it. 

What  do  we  propose  to  do  about  it?  Well,  everything  that 
can  be  done.  What  is  'the  best  method  of  dealing  with  it?  Every 
method  is  the  best  method  that  limits  it  or  restricts  it  or  regulates 
it.  But  the  one  and  the  only  aim  to  whicli  we  look  as  final  is  the 
absolute  extermination  of  it.  License  itself,  and  segregation,  were 
originally  intended  as  temperance  measures.  Before  license  came, 
everybody  was  free  to  sell  without  restriction  or  limitation  what- 
ever. But  we  very  soon  discovered  that  that  was  a  most  feeble 
and  ineffectual  way  of  restricting  and  limiting  it.  Local  option, 
which  some  of  our  brethren  in  some  of  our  states  are  pursuing 
very  diligently  just  now,  is  a  very  good  thing  as  an  initial  measure 
and  first  step — but  is  nothing  else.  Local  option  as  we  have  it 
in  America  is  too  often  a  substitute  for  downright  prohibition.  The 
whisky  business  is  as  much  opposed  to  local  option,  where  it  is 
possible  to  oppose  it  effectually,  as  it  is  to  actual  prohibition;  but 
where  we  are  strong  enough  to  plead  for  state-wide  prohibition, 
every  man  in  the  business  forthwith  becomes  a  local  optionist  and 
a  strong  believer  in  the  right  of  local  self-government.  Local  option 
is  very  much  of  a  fraud  in  very  many  of  our  American  commun- 
ities. For  example,  a  certain  community  or  a  certain  county  votes 
out  the  saloon.  Local  self-government  means  that  people  have  a 
right  to  keep  the  saloon  out.  But  under  our  very  remarkable  laws, 
a  wholesale  whisky  concern  in  a  distant  city  has  the  right  to  take 
express  orders  or  mail  orders  and  ship  the  whisky  in,  without  any 
restriction  whatever.  In  my  state  of  Tennessee  they  cried  long 
and  lustily  for  the  privilege  of  having  local  option  for  Memphis, 
Chattanooga  and  one  other  place.  I  said,  "If  you  will  keep  your 
whisky  within  your  own  limits,  there  might  be  some  rationality  in 
your  plea;   but  when  you  propose  to  ship  it  all  over  the  state,  in 


608  TEMPERANCE  REFORM, 

defiance  of  public  sentiment  that  has  voted  it  out,  it  is  a  piece  of 
impudence  to  put  forward  any  such  plea."  The  only  rational  thing 
to  do  with  a  thing  essentially  evil  is  to  fight  it  to  the  death,  to  make 
no  quarter  with  it  and  no  compromise,  to  give  everybody  to  under- 
stand that  while  we  are  going  only  as  far  as  we  can  go,  we  are 
going  right  on  to  the  end  and  do  not  intend  to  stop  until  we  get 
there.  No  matter  what  temporary  backsets  there  may  be,  or 
reactions  that  inevitably  come  in  the  course  of  every  great  reform 
movement,  we  are  not  going  to  stay  our  hand  or  cease  our  efforts 
for  a  single  day.    That  is  what  we  propose  to  do. 

Now,  what  are  the  forces  that  we  have  at  work  in  this  move- 
ment? I  have  heard  several  statements  in  regard  to  that  on  the 
floor  of  the  Conference.  I  desire  to  say  most  unhesitatingly  that,  as 
far  as  that  section  of  the  United  States  is  concerned  from  which 
in  the  good  providence  of  God  I  come,  the  chief  force  is  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  We  have  not  left  it  to  anybody  else  to  do  this  work 
for  us.  In  the  Christian  Church,  and  especially  in  this  particular 
fight  the  Methodist  Church,  has  been  the  Tenth  Legion.  I  wrote 
some  time  ago  a  series  of  articles  in  Collier's,  giving  an  account 
of  the  prohibition  movement  in  Mississippi  and  other  Southern 
states,  in  which  I  said  that  the  Methodist  circuit  rider  is  the 
responsible  author  of  most  of  it.  He  not  only  preaches  against  it, 
but  goes  home  with  the  class  leader  and  sits  on  the  porch  during 
the  afternoon  and  discusses  the  matter,  and  leaves  a  convinced 
prohibitionist  behind  him.  All  the  Methodist  Churches  hav3  been 
a  unit  on  this  subject.  Somehow  or  other  my  brethren  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  also  have  a  conference  in  Tennessee. 
That  is  neither  here  nor  there.  We  have  had  our  differences  in 
the  past,  but  in  the  last  great  fight  we  lined  up  elbow  to  elbow, 
shoulder  to  shoulder,  and  there  was  absolutely  no  distinction 
between  us.  But  the  Baptist  Churches  have  been  quite  as  forward 
as  we  have.  Fifty  years  ago  that  was  not  true.  There  is  a  tradi- 
tion that  fifty  years  ago  nothing  helped  an  old-fashioned  hard-shell 
Baptist  meeting  in  the  mountains  of  North  Carolina  as  much  as  a 
five-gallon  jug  of  whisky.  But  to-day,  in  that  Southern  country 
populated  by  those  people  patronizingly  called  the  "American 
Highlanders,"  there  is  the  cleanest  population  to  be  found  in  these 
United  States' — I  beg  pardon,  I  forgot  I  was  in  Canada.  The  Bap- 
tist Church  have  gone  side  by  side  with  us.  They  are  the  two 
great  Churches  of  the  people — the  democratic  Churches.  Dr.  John 
A.  Broadus,  the  foremost  theological  teacher  in  America,  said  that 
a  minister  of  another  Church  asked  him,  "Have  you  not  many  poor 
and  ignorant  people  in  your  Baptist  Churches?"  And  Doctor 
Broadus  replied,  "Yes;  and  what  in  the  name  of  God  have  you 
been  doing  that  you  have  not  got  them?"  When  these  Churches 
take  a  stand  together,  something  is  likely  to  happen.    And  I  wish 


ADDRESS  BY  BISHOP  E.  E.  HOSS.  609 

to  pay  a  tribute  to  the  various  colored  Churclies  of  the  Southern 
states.  I  can  not  go  so  far  as  my  friend.  Professor  Mason,  who 
said  that  temperance  legislation  in  North  Carolina  was  due  to  the 
colored  vote.  He  spoke  with  undue  emphasis  when  he  said  that, 
for  the  white  Churches  had  the  lead  in  that  matter.  But  I  do  not 
know  one  colored  Methodist  minister  who  has  not  been  on  the 
right  side  on  these  issues  in  these  states.  It  is  true  we  have  many 
very  ignorant  colored  people  down  there.  Ninety  per  cent  are  doing 
well.  It  is  the  other  ten  per  cent,  with  evil  white  men,  that  makes 
the  trouble.  I  do  not  want  to  be  held  responsible  for  what  any 
evil  white  man  may  do,  and  I  do  not  hold  any  decent  colored  man 
responsible  for  what  any  evil-minded  colored  man  does. 

The  Presbyterians  are  the  Gibraltar  of  our  modern  Protestant- 
ism. They  move  a  little  slowly,  tut  steadily;  and  they  tell  the 
truth  all  the  way  from  Scotland  to  the  Day  of  Judgment.  And  the 
most  of  the  ministers  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  have 
been  with  us.  Some  of  them  are  not,  and  some  of  the  bishops  of 
that  Church  have  come  out  openly  against  prohibition,  and 
denounced  those  in  favor  of  it  as  hypocrites.  So  much  for  the 
Churches. 

The  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  has  been  a  great 
help  to  us.  I  have  never  been  quite  able  to  accept  all  the  reforms 
that  our  dear  sisters  have  proposed.  My  powers  of  deglutition 
and  digestion  are  limited.  I  have  sometimes  thought  that  a  nar- 
rower program  would  be  a  more  effective  one.  But  in  a  thousand 
ways  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  has  contributed  to 
our  victories,  especially  in  the  Southern  states. 

We  have  a  Prohibition  party.  I  never  belonged  to  it,  because 
I  have  always  thought  that  it  is  better  to  get  men  of  all  political 
parties  into  this  work  without  reference  to  political  divisions  on 
this  subject.  Mr.  President,  of  our  Southern  Methodist  ministry 
in  the  state  of  Tennessee — perhaps  I  had  better  qualify  what  I 
was  going  to  say  about  that — ninety-five  per  cent  of  the  Methodist 
ministers  in  the  state  of  Tennessee  at  the  last  election  voted  for 
the  Republican  candidate  for  governor  because  he  was  a  decent 
man;  and  they  did  it  against  the  most  popular  Democrat  in  Tenn- 
essee, Bob  Taylor.  And  the  bulk  of  them  will  cross  any  party 
line  on  earth  if  it  interferes  with  the  progress  of  this  reform. 
When  we  had  our  last  great  fight  in  the  legislature  of  Tennessee, 
it  was  a  magnificent  spectacle — seventy-six  members  were  lined  up 
in  a  solid  column  that  could  not  be  broken.  The  whisky  men  said, 
""We  have  plenty  of  money,  but  there  is  not  a  man  for  sale."  There 
was  an  old  man,  Mr.  Sevier,  under  the  shadow  of  the  Smoky  Moun- 
tains. He  was  a  Republican,  too.  He  came  into  an  assemblage  of 
men  and  said,  "Men,  I  have  something  to  tell  you.  I  would  rather 
die  than  tell  you,  but  I  think  I  ought  to.  I  have  a  boy  in  the  pen- 
39 


610  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

itentiary."  He  broke  down  and  sobbed.  "I  have  had  eight  children, 
and  that  is  the  best  one  of  all.  There  never  was  anything  the 
matter  with  him  except  the  love  of  strong  drink.  Once  he  was 
drinking  with  a  companion,  and  got  into  an  altercation  with  him 
and  killed  him.  He  is  in  the  penitentiary  for  a  long  term  of  years. 
Two  days  ago  two  men  came  and  told  me  that  they  were  authorized 
to  speak  for  the  executive  authorities — the  executive  authorities 
were  fighting  us  at  that  time — and  said,  'If  you  will  change  your 
vote  on  this  subject,  we  will  secure  the  release  of  your  son.'  O, 
men,  I  had  an  awful  night;  I  did  not  sleep  a  wink.  I  got  up  early 
in  the  morning  and  went  out  to  the  penitentiary  and  sat  down  by 
my  boy  and  told  him  the  situation,  and  said,  'What  shall  I  do?' 
He  said,  'Father,  you  know  I  am  in  here  for  a  long  time.  I  want 
very  much  to  get  out.  But  whisky  has  brought  all  the  trouble 
that  ever  came  into  the  family.  You  go  back  and  do  your  duty,  and 
I  will  stay  here.' "  I  have  not  been  able  to  see  the  Governor  yet, 
but  when  I  do,  I  am  going  to  tell  him  that  there  is  a  better  place 
than  the  penitentiary  for  that  boy. 

It  is  surely  better  to  get  the  support  of  all  good  men  of  all 
parties,  than  to  antagonize  the  old  parties  by  denouncing  them 
because  they  won't  go  with  you  into  the  third  party. 

And  then  business  has  helped  us.  The  Nashville,  Chattanooga 
and  St.  Louis  Railroad  has  seventeen  thousand  men  in  its  employ, 
and  they  will  not  tolerate  a  man  anywhere  in  their  employment 
that  is  even  suspected  of  taking  a  drink.  They  say  that  if  he  takes 
a  drink  at  all  he  may  take  it  when  his  hand  is  on  the  throttle. 
It  is  another  illustration  of  the  fact  that  "the  earth  is  helping  the 
woman."  Over  and  above  all  this,  I  am  quite  sure  that  the  prov- 
idence of  God  has  been  with  us.  One  word  as  to  the  resolutions, 
and  then  I  will  quit.  Bishop  Candler  said  the  other  day  that  in  the 
territory  covered  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  South  we 
have  more  Methodists  and  fewer  saloons  than  in  any  other  similar 
territory  under  the  sun.  In  the  sixteen  Southern  States  there  are 
three  and  one-half  million  Methodists  of  varying  colors;  and  there 
are  just  about  that  many  in  the  other  thirty-four  States  and  terri- 
tories. The  State  of  Mississippi  was  the  first  to  lead  off  with  a 
statute  for  absolute  prohibition.  And  it  led  off  under  the  inspiring 
guidance  of  Charles  B.  Galloway,  the  matchless  orator  in  all  Meth- 
odism and  the  foremost  citizen  of  his  State,  whose  voice  counted 
more  on  all  public  questions  than  that  of  any  mere  politician.  We 
have  n't  had  much  help  from  them.  They  are  much  like  the  story 
told  by  Governor  Colquitt  of  Georgia.  He  said  that  those  politicians 
reminded  him  of  the  boy  in  Georgia  whose  mother  made  his 
trousers,  and  when  he  was  a  hundred  yards  away  you  could  not 
tell  whether  he  was  coming  or  going  from  you.  The  best  thing 
ever  done  for  the  crowded  negroes  of  the  congested  districts  of 
the  Mississippi  delta  was  the  closing  of  the  saloon.     Georgia  fol- 


ADDRESS  BY  BISHOP  E.  E.  HOSS.  611 

lowed,  and  our  good  friend,  whom  you  have  heard  with  pleasure 
here,  was  a  tremendous  factor  in  his  native  State.  There  is  not  a 
whisky  advocate  in  that  State  or  anywhere  else  that  you  can  get 
within  twenty  miles  of  an  open  debate  with  Bishop  Candler  on 
this  subject. 

North  Carolina — dear  old  Rip  Van  Winkle — I  suppose  to  be  the 
slowest  of  the  States,  the  most  pure  Anglo-Saxon  community  in  the 
States,  where  the  English  common  law  has  had  a  purer  develop- 
ment than  anywhere  else  in  the  world — North  Carolina  came  up 
with  her  Presbyterian  Governor  Glenn  leading  the  host,  and  there 
is  not  any  danger  of  reaction  there.  Alabama  followed.  There 
has  been  a  temporary  reaction  in  Alabama,  but  only  temporary. 
It  was  caused  by  the  injudicious  action  of  our  own  friends.  Then 
we  had  it  heated  and  hot  in  Tennessee.  We  have  not  quite  won 
out  yet.  We  have  had  for  twenty  years  the  "four  mile  law,"  which 
is  the  most  beautiful  law  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  They  began  by 
passing  a  law  in  the  interests  of  a  university  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church.  The  constitution  prohibits  passing  a  special 
enactment,  and  so  they  passed  a  general  enactment  (which,  how- 
ever, only  covered  that  particular  case),  forbidding  the  sala  of 
liquor  within  four  miles  of  a  school  or  within  four  miles  of  any 
incorporated  town  or  city.  It  worked  so  well  that  we  extended  it, 
until  it  now  prohibits  the  establishing  of  a  liquor  saloon  anywhere 
within  four  miles  of  a  schoolhouse  in  the  State  of  Tennessee;  and 
there  is  no  place  in  the  State  that  that  does  not  cover. 

English-speaking  people  do  not  always  adopt  precisely  the  same 
methods;  they  change  their  methods  to  suit  the  conditions.  Twenty 
years  ago  they  undertook  to  secure  prohibition  in  Texas.  A  certain 
member  here  the  other  day  was  deeply  distressed  about  the  prob- 
lem of  Texas.  Why,  there  are  more  Methodists  in  Texas  than  in 
any  other  State  in  America.  There  are  four  hundred  thousand  of 
them.  I  think  the  Texans  will  be  inclined  to  consider  the  problem 
of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  next!  Ten  or  fifteen  years  ago 
prohibition  was  defeated  in  that  state  by  a  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  majority.  A  few  weeks  ago,  what  came  to  pass?  The 
good  citizenship  of  that  State  polled  two  hundred  and  seventy-five 
thousand  votes  in  favor  of  prohibition,  laclving  only  five  thousand 
votes  of  making  it  effective  throughout  that  State.  But  for  some 
colored  men  who  were  not  like  the  colored  men  in  this  Conference, 
and  some  Mexicans,  we  should  have  carried  it  by  forty  thousand. 
The  liquor  men  in  Texas  know  they  are  defeated.  By  and  by  they 
will  fold  their  tents  and  silently  steal  away.  Amen  and  Amen! 
Already  that  state  has  234  counties.  It  has  257,000  square  miles 
of  territory;  each  one  of  those  counties  on  an  average  has  a 
thousand  square  miles  of  territory,  and  in  IT;?  of  them  now  there 
is  not  a  liquor  saloon  open. 

You  take  the  State  of  Kentucky,  and  even  Bourbon  County  is 


612  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

a  prohibition  county.  The  English  brethren  don't  see  the  point  of 
that,  but  everybody  in  America  understands  it.  That  is  the  county 
where  the  best  liquor  is  supposed  to  be  made.  Three-fourths  of  the 
counties  in  Kentucky  are  prohibition  territory. 

In  old  Virginia,  "mother  of  presidents,"  as  they  used  to  call  it, 
the  prohibition  sentiment  is  steadily  rising,  and  county  after 
county,  city  after  city,  many  of  them  of  fifty  thousand  inhabitants, 
have  been  voting  out  the  liquor  saloons.  That  is  the  state  of 
affairs  in  the  South;  and  don't  you  believe  anybody  that  says  pro- 
hibition is  not  prohibiting  in  the  South.  Of  course,  it  has  not  closed 
all  blind  tigers.  We  do  n't  expect  that.  We  know  the  devil  will 
never  fight  a  pitched  battle  if  he  can  avoid  it.  We  know  that  the 
battle  is  long  and  hard,  and  that  after  we  have  won  it  we  have  got  to 
fight  in  order  to  keep  it.  But  we  are  sure  that  sooner  or  later  we 
are  going  to  win  out.  And  we  believe  that  by  the  grace  of  God  the 
time  is  coming  when  civilized  people  will  be  amazed  to  know  that 
such  a  thing  as  the  indiscriminate  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  was 
ever  tolerated  by  any  decent  State.  I  am  happy  that  you  have  so 
many  able  speakers.  I  am  very  full  of  matter  on  this  subject,  but 
I  leave  many  of  the  best  things  unsaid — especially  as  this  is  Satur- 
day night,  and  you  are  all  tired,  and  so  am  I. 

The  President  :  "Bishop  Hoss  had  considerable  to  say 
about  ISTorth  Carolina.  I  think  he  told  one  or  two  jokes  about 
that  State.  I  guess  I  had  better  give  him  the  benefit  of  one. 
They  were  trying  a  man  down  there  in  western  North  Carolina 
for  moonshining.  The  fellow  was  brought  up  in  court,  and 
the  judge  asked  him  his  name.  "My  name?  It  is  Joshua." 
"Are  you  the  Joshua  that  caused  the  sun  to  stand  still  T'  "Xo, 
sir,  not  that  one.  I  am  the  one  that  made  the  moon  shine." 
We  have  as  the  next  speaker  a  man  who  has  been  very  prom- 
inent in  the  United  States  as  a  leader  in  the  temperance  cause. 
In  his  State  he  has  never  hesitated  to  keep  that  question  fore- 
most before  the  citizens  of  that  State.  He  was,  during  his  time 
of  office,  one  of  the  best  governors  that  the  State  of  Indiana  ever 
had.  That  fact  is  recognized.  He  had  opinions  and  convictions 
and  he  did  not  hesitate  to  stand  up  and  defend  them.  He  is  a 
man  who  has  always  believed  that  where  principle  is  involved 
compromise  is  destructive — Ex-Governor  J.  Frank  Hanly, 
of  Indiana." 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  HON.  J.  FRANK  HANLY.  613 

The  Hon.  J.   Fra^^k  Hanlt,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church : 

A  world  Conference,  representing  a  world  Church,  is  a  fitting 
place  for  a  debate  and  consideration  of  world  problems.  I  am 
conscious,  from  what  I  heard  in  this  morning's  session  of  this 
Conference,  that  there  is  no  need  of  a  call  to  repentance  upon  this 
bodj'  of  men  and  women  on  the  temperance  question.  You  seem 
to  be  all  of  one  mind  upon  the  proposition  that  a  licensed  liquor 
tralRc  is  a  world-wide  racial  evil.  So  I  am  not  much  inclined  to 
argue  the  question;  and  I  do  not  propose  to  call  you  to  repentance 
concerning  it.  But  I  do  speak  to  you  in  a  call  to  consecration 
concerning  your  conviction.  I  want  world-wide  Methodism  to 
become  a  world-wide  militant  power  in  this  conflict  for  the  sup- 
pression of  this  racial  evil.  The  need  in  my  country,  and  I  have 
no  doubt  in  yours,  is  for  a  consecrated  Christian  Church  on  this 
question.  I  plead  for  a  militant  Church,  possessed  of  profound 
conviction  in  this  behalf.  A  negative  Church,  composed  of  neg- 
ative men  and  v/omen,  never  will  do  the  part  the  Christian  Church 
should  do  in  the  suppression  of  this  traffic.  Only  a  consecrated 
people  can  do  that.  There  are  in  the  ranks  of  the  Christian 
Cnurches  of  the  world  to-day  too  many  men  and  women  who  are 
only  negatively  opposed  to  this  traffic,  too  many  men  and  women 
who  are  unwilling  to  bear  arms  against  it  and  make  sacrifice  in 
the  fight  against  it,  too  many  fair  weather  efforts,  too  many  tin 
soldiers  in  the  ranks.  So,  if  I  could,  I  would  stir  the  heart  of  Meth- 
odism on  this  great  question,  until  every  man  and  woman  would 
go  back  home  and  back  to  the  land  where  he  or  she  lives,  a  fiaming 
sword  in  the  conflict  to  suppress  this  traffic.  If  I  could  only  do 
that!  There  has  been  much  said  of  the  progress  made.  It  brings 
joy  to  my  heart  to  hear  the  story.  But  let  us  not  deceive  ourselves. 
The  hour  of  jubilee  has  not  yet  come.  We  are  engaged  in  a  terrible 
struggle  and  the  end  is  not  yet.  But  hear  me!  The  time  is  coming 
in  this  great  world-wide  movement  when  it  can  be  furthered  only 
by  sacrifice.  Sacrifice  of  wealth?  Yes!  Sacrifice  of  means?  Yes! 
Sacrifice  of  party  affiliations?  Yes!  And  it  may  be  for  some  a 
sacrifice  of  life  itself.  The  easy  battle  has  been  fought.  The  out- 
posts have  been  taken.  The  foe,  organized  and  aggressive,  is  pre- 
pared now  to  fight  as  it  has  never  fought  for  the  retention  of  what 
it  now  holds  and  for  the  recapture  of  what  it  has  lost.  It  will  only 
be  through  the  consecration  of  the  Christian  manhood  and  woman- 
hood of  the  world  that  the  battle  can  be  progressed  to  victory. 
Let  us  not  misunderstand  the  contest  that  lies  before  us.  And 
yet,  great  as  it  is,  difficult  as  it  is,  costly  as  it  will  be,  my  belief 
in  the  evolution  of  the  race  and  in  the  providence  of  Almighty 
God  stirs  within  me  the  hope  that  some  way,  somehow,  these  prob- 


614  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

lems  will  be  solved.  When  or  how  I  do  not  know.  My  way  or 
your  way  is  not  always  God's  way.  Sometimes  we  are  not  patient 
and  will  not  wait.  Sometimes  we  forget  that  in  the  long  fight 
stretching  through  the  centuries  His  army  is  the  strongest.  But 
in  the  providence  of  Almighty  God  it  must  be  that  a  great  evolu- 
tional cause  like  this,  a  cause  that  lifts  the  race,  a  cause  that  suc- 
cors childhood,  a  cause  that  ennobles  manhood  and  risks  and 
protects  womanhood,  ultimately  will  receive  the  crown  of  His 
benediction  and  His  ap])roval. 

Looking  back  through  the  cycle  glass  of  the  years,  I  behold 
the  centuries  red  with  blood;  some  of  them  a  sigh,  a  sob,  con- 
vulsing time  itself  with  grief.  And  my  heart  grows  faint  with 
fear.  Then,  looking  again  through  the  cycle  glass  of  the  3'ears, 
I  see  how  through  all  evolution  of  the  race  man's  need  has  been 
God's  opportunity;  and  my  soul  laughs  again  with  hope  and  faith 
and  confidence.  There  has  been  no  great  moral  question  in  the 
history  of  the  race  that  has  not  found  the  hour  when  its  progress 
could  not  be  furthei-ed  save  through  sacrifice.  But,  looking  back 
upon  that  history,  we  find  that  when  this  hour  has  come  and  the 
clock  of  time  has  tolled  the  need,  men  have  come  who  are  willing 
to  make  the  sacrifice.  The  need,  the  man,  and  the  hour,  have  met; 
and  the  -result  has  always  been  a  mountain  peak  in  human  history. 
And  so  with  this  great  cause — somewhere,  sometime,  somehow,  the 
man  will  come,  the  sacrifice  will  be  made,  time  and  need  and  man 
will  meet  again,  and  again  the  result  will  be  a  mountain  peak  in 
human  history.  It  will  be  a  sober  race,  a  saloonless  earth.  Hear 
me,  men!  You  have  been_ deliberating  for  weeks  upon  great  prob- 
lems; and  the  problems  of  the  world  are  many  and  diversified. 
But  the  evolution  of  the  race  has  brought  to  our  doors  two  causes 
that  are  supreme,  and  beyond  all  others  we  may  know  it.  And 
these  two  causes  can  be  named  in  a  single  sentence — world-wide 
disarmament  and  universal  peace,  and  a  saloonless  earth  and  a 
sober  race.  These  are  the  two  problems  in  which  the  Christian 
Church  of  the  world,  if  it  meets  its  obligations,  must  lead  the  civil- 
ization of  the  world.  And  in  that  leadership  Methodism  ought  to 
bear  the  banner  in  the  advance  guard.  Of  all  the  Churches  the 
world  knows,  it  is  the  Church  of  the  people,  the  Church  of  the 
Master.  And  it  ought  to  fight  the  battle  of  the  Master  in  this 
behalf.  I  know  what  some  men  say  about  these  two  great  causes. 
I  am  quite  conscious  that  there  are  materialists  among  us  who 
sincerely  believe  that  a  world  disarmed  and  a  race  at  peace  is  an 
iridescent  dream.  I  am  conscious  that  there  are  men  among  us, 
materialists,  who  sincerely  believe  that  a  saloonless  earth  and  a 
sober  people  is  a  barren  ideality.  I  know  that  they  urge  constantly 
that  war  is  a  racial  evil,  that  intemperance  is  a  racial  evil,  that 
both   always   have    been    and    always    will    be;    that   they    are   so 


ADDHESS  BY  THE  HON.  J.  FRANK  HANLY.  615 

enfibered  in  the  physical  and  mental  manhood  of  the  race  and  in 
the  womanhood  of  the  race  as  to  be  ineradicable  until,  as  they 
say,  we  change  human  nature.  And  then  they  tell  us  in  the  next 
breath.  You  can  not  change  human  nature.  Pessimists  every  one,  be- 
lieving neither  in  man  nor  in  God!  Blind  to  the  wondrous  pathway 
over  which  God  has  led  mankind!  Can  not  change  human  nature! 
We  have  already  changed  human  nature;  and,  please  God,  we  will 
yet  change  it  more.  If  we  had  not  changed  human  nature,  do  you 
think  this  assemblage  would  be  possible?  Think  a  little  of  the 
history  of  the  evolution  of  the  race  that  had  to  precede  a  world-wide 
convention  such  as  this.  Can  not  change  human  nature!  Wliy, 
men,  the  time  was,  you  know,  when  throughout  the  world  good  men 
believed  they  had  a  divine  right  to  own  the  flesh  and  blood  of 
others  and  sell  them  as  property  at  will.  The  time  was  when  men 
believed  that  earth  was  peopled  with  imaginary  goblins,  born  of 
superstition  and  fear.  The  time  was  when  men  found  in  wooden 
images  throughout  the  world  idols  to  be  worshipped  and  bowed 
down  to.  The  time  was  when  might  and  power  were  the  only 
admeasurement  of  right.  And  the  time  was  when  nowhere  beneath, 
the  circle  of  the  sun  could  be  found  a  representative  form  of 
government.  But  since  then  we  have  changed  human  nature.  The 
evil  of  ignorance  has  largely  gone.  Superstition  and  idolatry 
have  gone.  The  race  has  risen  above  it.  Man-made  gods  of 
wood  and  stone  will  no  longer  do  in  this  glad  morning  of 
the  twentieth  century.  Man  throughout  the  world  is  rising 
out  of  the  evil  of  human  slavery  and  out  of  the  tyranny  of  the 
past,  and  is  demanding  everywhere  the  right  to  administer  gov- 
ernment for  himself.  Aye,  and  because  of  all  that,  there  burns 
in  my  soul  to-night  the  hope  that  in  the  further  evolution  of  the 
race  the  time  will  come  when  men  will  rise  out  of  the  evils  of  war 
and  intemperance,  and  stand  like  an  angel  in  the  sunlight,  stripped 
of  the  sins  that  beset  his  kind.  Aye,  think  a  minute!  The  time 
was  when  a  great  reformation  was  a  forlorn  hope.  That  is  what 
some  say  this  dream  of  mine  is — a  forlorn  hope.  The  time  was 
when  religious  freedom  throughout  the  world  was  a  forlorn  hope, 
and  civil  liberty  everywhere  was  a  forlorn  hope.  Aye,  and  the 
time  was  when  representative  government  throughout  the  world 
was  a  forlorn  hope.  And  the  time  was  when  tlie  abolition  of 
human  slavery  was  a  forlorn  hope  in  every  land  beneath  the  sun. 
Aye,  and  the  time,  too,  when  the  Christian  religion  itself  to  a  mul- 
titude of  minds  was  a  forlorn  hope,  its  manger-born  Christ  hanging 
in  an  agony  upon  the  cross,  the  world  dark.  There  was  no  star 
in  all  the  sky,  and  hope  was  dead.  Aye,  but  Martin  Luther,  Savon- 
arola, John  Wesley,  Wilberforce,  Garibaldi,  George  Washington, 
Wendell  Phillips,  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  Jesus  the  Christ  touched 
these  forlorn  hopes  with  the  fire  of  their  sacred  genius,  and  they 


61G  temper.\jMce  reform. 

became  living  evolutional  forces  lifting  the  race  into  living  fi*ee- 
dom.  And  do  j'ou  think  that  the  providence  that  led  the  race 
thus  far  will  fail  to  lead  on  still?  About  that  I  am  not  concerned. 
I  know  that,  sometime,  somehow,  that  will  come.  But  I  am  pro- 
foundly concerned  that  in  my  time,  in  my  brief  hour,  I  may  do  a 
man's  full  share  in  bringing  about  the  time  and  hastening  the  hour. 
That  is  the  appeal  I  make  to  you  to-night,  that  Methodism  in 
every  land,  in  every  clime,  under  whatever  form  of  government, 
or  amid  whatever  class — that  Methodism  may  become  a  sacred 
inspirational  pov/er  to  men,  lifting  them  in  this  great  cause  into 
a  greater  birth  of  freedom  than  the  race  has  ever  known.  I  know 
there  are  those  who  insist  constantly  that  this  method  or  that 
method  is  the  only  one  that  can  bring  the  desired  end.  But  I  agree 
with  the  good  bishop  who  has  just  spoken,  that  any  way  that  limits 
the  sale,  any  way  that  puts  a  burden  upon  the  traffic,  is  a  proper 
way.  I  am  quite  agreed,  my  friends,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned, 
that  in  every  State,  where  that  is  the  best  that  can  be  gotten,  men 
may  have  municipal  option  or  county  option.  I  fought  for  municipal 
option  in  my  State,  because  I  knew  I  went  to  the  verge  of  prac- 
ticability; and  I  asked  my  people  to  follow  me  there.  Later  I 
fought  for  county  option,  because  I  believed  my  people  were  then 
willing  to  follow  me  in  this  larger  step.  And  to-day  I  plead  with 
my  people  for  state-wide  prohibition  of  the  traflfic,  because  I  believe 
through  these  five  years  of  education  and  appeal  they  are  reaching 
the  point  where  they  will  be  willing  to  put  their  hands  on  this 
traffic  and  destroy  it  in  my  time.  But  it  will  not  do  to  win  the 
county  or  the  State.  We  must  win  nations  and  peoples  and  gov- 
ernments and  worlds  to  this  conclusion.  It  is  indeed  a  world- 
wide problem. 

I  know  what  some  of  them  say  about  prohibition.  They  said 
in  my  State  that  county  local  option  could  not  be  enforced.  The 
governor  of  the  State  said  the  law  ought  to  be  repealed  because  it 
could  not  be  enforced.  My  answer  to  that  was  that  such  words 
ought  to  find  no  place  on  the  lips  of  any  American  executive,  sworn 
to  enforce  the  law.  There  is  not  any  law  in  my  state  that  could  not 
be  enforced.  But  they  repealed  it  and  passed  a  "Model  License 
Law"  last  winter.  And,  that  it  might  not  be  wrong  in  any  of 
its  provisions,  they  referred  it  for  the  writing  to  the  brewers' 
association!  And  the  brewers  wrote  the  law.  When  it  was  reported 
to  the  legislature  it  was  said,  "Here  is  a  law  that  we  wrote  our- 
selves. Here  is  a  law  that  we  will  be  satisfied  with.  Pass  this 
law  and  we  will  obey  it."  And  the  newspapers  of  my  city  echoed 
that  cry.  The  law  came  heralded  with  many  prenatal  promises 
of  good  behavior.  Our  people  passed  the  law.  That  was  some 
seven  months  ago,  and  I  want  to  read  briefly  from  the  same  news- 
papers who  then  promised  obedience  to  the  law,  a  little  testimony 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  HON.  J.  FRANK  HANLY.  617 

as  to  how  the  traffic  kept  Its  promise.  Said  the  Indianapolis  News 
a  little  time  ago,  "There  is  nothing  new,  nor,  we  are  sorry  to  say, 
strange,  in  the  evidence  presented  by  Mr.  Shumaker  as  to  the  open 
Sunday  saloon.  The  lack  of  strangeness  comes  from  what  seems 
to  be  a  quality  inherent  in  the  traffic — it  simply  will  not  obey  the 
law."  Some  of  us  knew  that  in  advance  and  told  them  so.  No 
change  of  circumstance  or  condition  works  any  change  of  charac- 
ter. We  have  now  the  new  Proctor  Law.  Under  it  the  saloons  are 
allowed  an  hour  longer  each  night,  closing  at  midnight.  The  usual 
Sunday  hours  were  maintained  and  the  high  license  was  laid,  thus 
driving  from  the  traffic  the  bad  men  that  persisted  in  bringing 
odium  on  it  by  their  lawlessness.  This  was  the  talk  of  the  pledge, 
so  that  under  this  new  regime  we  were  to  have  a  business  con- 
ducted as  a  decent  business  is  conducted.  Yet  the  law  is  flouted  as 
of  yore — and  the  police  can  not  see  it,  as  usual,  which  is  to  say 
that  those  who  control  the  police  can  not  see  it.  But  what  are  we 
to  think  of  a  traffic  that  with  all  of  its  fine  promises  performs  thus? 
It  is  bent  on  angering  the  whole  body  of  society  so  that  those  who 
do  not  oppose  the  saloon  in  the  abstract  shall  reach  a  point  of 
irritation  when  they  will  decree  its  utter  banishment,  simply 
because  of  its  impudent  and  arrogant  lordship  in  lawlessness,  its 
power  to  hypnotize  the  authorities  and  to  disregard  all  decrees  and 
demands  of  law  as  it  disregards  its  own  promises.  Think  of  this 
impudent  traffic,  defying  the  State  of  Indiana,  flouting  its  laws 
as  if  they  were  child's  babble,  while  it  does  as  it  will  with  all  the 
authority  of  this  great  citj^  presenting  daily  and  nightly  the  spec- 
tacle of  official  blindness  in  the  face  of  lawlessness — for  this  one 
traffic;  the  one  and  only  exception  held  up  for  us,  a  constant 
object-lesson  as  being  able  alone  to  override  the  law.  All  other 
law  deflance  must  be  at  its  peril.  But  this  king  of  anarchy  can 
take  its  ease  and  riot  at  pleasure.  It  will  not  always  be  so.  Nobody 
is  stronger  than  everybody.  If  it  was  just  ground  for  the  repeal 
of  the  county  option  law  that  the  law  was  not  enforced,  what  shall 
be  said  of  a  law  under  which  that  condition  prevails — a  law  written 
by  themselves!  It  comes  to  this,  that  in  my  State,  under  this  law, 
the  State  has  created  a  thing  that  disputes  with  it  its  own 
sovereignty  and  disputes  the  State's  power  to  be  sovereign  in  the 
enforcement  of  its  law.  And  it  is  bringing  men  to  see  that  truth 
in  a  new  light,  the  great  truth  that  a  traffic  that  will  not  obey 
must  be  destroyed. 

Be  not  dismayed.  Wherever  you  go,  preach  the  gospel,  if  you 
will,  of  restriction  and  regulation.  Preach  the  gospel,  if  you  will, 
of  local  option,  where  the  larger  thing  can  not  be  attained.  But 
do  not  deceive  yourselves  or  your  people.  Understand  that  the 
conflict  is  irrepressible,  and  that  nothing  short  of  extermination  on 
one  side  or  the  other  will  ever  settle  this  great  question.    I  would 


618  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

to  God  Methodism  could  lead  in  the  fight  for  its  utter  anmhilation 
and  abolition! 

The  President:  "We  have  had  the  two  sections  of  the 
American  people  represented  in  the  speeches  to-night.  Now 
we  cross  over  to  the  dominion  of  Great  Britain.  The  tem- 
perance cause  had  an  early  sympathizer  and  supporter  in  Eng- 
land. The  Bard  of  Avon  said,  '0  thou  invisible  spirit  of  wine, 
if  thou  hast  no  other  name  to  be  known  by,  let  us  call  thee 
devil.'  I  take  pleasure  in  introducing  to  you  the  Eev.  J.  Alfred 
Sharp^  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church." 

The  Eev.  J.  Alfred  Sharp: 

.  We  are  told  in  some  of  the  books  on  elocution  that  there  are 
three  points  to  be  observed  by  those  who  desire  to  become  effective 
public  speakers.  These  points  are,  have  something  to  say,  say 
it,  and  when  j'ou  have  said  it  sit  down.  They  are  three  admirable 
points  for  all  public  speaking.  I  will  try  to  carry  them  into  effect. 
I  hope  I  have  something  to  say.  I  will  try  to  say  it,  but  that  is 
not  always  the  easiest  thing.  And  I  promise  you  that  when  I  have 
said  it  I  will  sit  down,  though,  of  course,  you  know  that  to  start 
a  M'ethodist  parson  off  is  one  thing  and  it  is  another  to  get  him 
stopped.  I  heard  of  a  good  old  minister  who  was  asked  to  preach 
a  sermon  on  some  special  occasion.  A  little  later  a  friend  inquired 
how  he  had  got  on.  He  said,  "I  had  a  splendid  time.  I  preached 
about  three  hours  and  a  half."  "But  didn't  you  feel  tired?"  "No, 
I  did  n't  feel  tired  in  the  least.  But  it  would  have  done  your  heart 
good  to  see  how  tired  the  people  were."  I  must  not  follow  in  the 
footsteps  of  this  good  old  brother,  but  say  what  I  have  to  say  in  as  few 
words  as  possible,  remembering  the  beatitude  which  we  ministers 
of  England  often  quote  but  little  practice,  "Blessed  are  those  who, 
when  they  speak,  speak  briefly,  for  they  shall  be  asked  to  speak 
again." 

I  want  to  strike  a  note  of  praise  to  God  for  the  tremendous 
advance  that  the  temperance  cause  has  made  in  England  and  in 
the  lands  beyond  the  sea.  Sometimes  we  are  told  that  the  tem- 
perance movement  has  been  a  great  and  ghastly  failure.  If  it 
be  an  example  of  a  great  and  ghastly  failure,  we  can  stand  a  few 
more  in  the  world's  life.  I  do  not  know  of  any  cause  which  has 
gone  further,  accomplished  more,  succeeded  in  winning  more  vic- 
tories in  so  short  a  time,  than  the  cause  of  organized  temperance 
has  succeeded  in  accomplishing.  There  are  certain  things  that 
we  have  done  in  England.  I  may  say,  and  it  has  struck  me  very 
much  to-day,  that  the  emphasis  in  my  own  country  has  been  put 
in  another  place  from  the  emphasis  in  the  United  States  and  Can- 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  J.  ALFRED  SHARP.      619 

ada-  So  far  as  I  can  gather,  you  have  put  the  emphasis  in  tem- 
perance reform  largely  upon  legislation.  We  have  put  it  largely 
upon  education.  We  hold  that  our  movement  is  where  it  Is  in 
our  country,  because  we  have  brought  the  best  thought  of  men  to 
bear  upon  the  training  of  the  young.  I  thank  God  that  week  by 
week  in  the  little  country  whence  I  come  there  are  at  least  four 
million  children  receiving  instruction  in  the  great  cause  of  total 
abstinence.  We  are  not  afraid-  of  meeting  the  brewers.  We  have 
met  them.  We  have  fought  them  in  the  past.  Sometimes  we 
have  thrashed  them;  at  other  times  they  have  thrashed  us.  But 
we  are  ready  to  meet  them  again,  and  all  the  signs  of  the  times 
seem  to  indicate  that  we  shall  soon  have  another  battle. 

Three  years  ago  we  met  them  in  that  great  conflict  around  the 
licensing  bill.  As  the  temperance  secretary  of  the  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church,  I  had  the  honor  of  leading  the  hosts  of  Israel  in 
that  battle.  I  was  never  so  proud  of  the  Methodist  Churches  of 
Great  Britain  as  when  I  discovered  that  from  the  Primitive  Meth- 
odist Church,  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church,  and  the  other  Meth- 
odist Churches,  were  sent  three-fourths  of  the  signatures  in  behalf 
of  that  measure  to  the  House  of  Commons.  I  took  in  a  petition 
containing  620,000  signatures  on  behalf  of  that  measure.  Canon 
Wilberforce  came  to  me,  examined  it,  came  back  again  and  said, 
"Mr.  Sharp,  it  is  splendid.  I  wish  we  could  send  it  into  the  other 
place."  You  will  not  understand  that,  because  you  have  not  been 
burdened  in  the  United  States  and  Canada  by  that  horrible  excres- 
cence known  as  the  House  of  Lords.  It  was  to  that  that  Canon  Wil- 
berforce referred.  "^Tien  that  licensing  bill  received  its  deathblow, 
that  blow  came  from  the  representatives,  not  of  the  people,  but  of 
the  beer  barrel,  from  a  great  many  of  those  noble  lords  who  direct 
and  defend  and  have  a  financial  interest  in  the  liquor  trade.  We 
published  the  names  of  these  gentlemen.  I  should  hope  that  they 
will  remember  it  next  time.  I  was  in  the  House  of  Lords  when  the 
bill  received  its  deathblow.  I  was  there  when  Mr.  Halsbury  made 
that  astounding  statement  that  a  man  earning  a  sovereign  a  week, 
and  having  a  wife  and  four  children  to  keep,  was  perfectly  jus- 
tified in  spending  sixpence  a  day  upon  his  own  beer,  because,  said  Lord 
Halsbury,  "that  expenditure  represents  an  expenditure  upon  food 
and  upon  one  of  the  most  necessary  articles  of  food  for  the  work- 
ingman."  I  was  up  among  the  gods  in  the  gallery.  But,  as  I 
looked  down  upon  the  noble  lord,  I  thought  vigorously  and  some- 
what viciously.  I  would  not  better  tell  this  respectable  Ecumen- 
ical Conference  what  I  thought.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  looked  down 
at  him  and  thought,  "You  wicked  old  sinner,  if  I  had  my  way,  I  'd 
give  you  a  wife  and  four  children  to  keep,  with  a  sovereign  a  week 
to  do  it,  and  then  see  whether  you  could  afford  to  spend  sixpence 
a  day  out  of  that  sovereign  without  cheating  the  wife  and  children 


630  TEMPERANCE  REFORM. 

out  of  food  and  clothing."  Soon  another  lord  arose.  He  had  a 
lovely  musical  voice.  He  began  by  saying,  "My  lords,  I  will  quote 
you  a  poem."  I  said  quite  audibly  up  in  the  gallery,  "Thank  God 
for  that."  For  we  had  had  much  prose.  I  becan  to  wonder  what 
poetry  he  was  going  to  quote.  I  could  not  think  of  anything.  If 
ever  I  am  in  doubt,  I  work  to  Whittier.  But  he  did  not  quote  from 
him.  He  quoted  from  an  old  friend  of  mine,  the  only  difference 
being  that  I  would  not  term  it  a  poem.  He  said,  "My  lords,  the 
poem  that  I  will  quote  is  this: 

'There  is  a  little  public  house  that  everybody  knows, 
There  is  a  little  public  house  that  every  one  may  close; 
It  is  the  little  public  house  that  lies  beneath  his  nose.' " 

If  I  had  had  the  courage  of  a  suffragette,  I  should  have  jumped 
up  on  the  bench  and  called  to  this  man,  "I  hope  you  will  close  the 
little  public  house  that  lies  beneath  your  nose."  I  can  assure  the 
friends  here  to-night  that  when  these  gentlemen  do  close  their 
mouths  against  intoxicating  drink,  and  their  pockets  against  the 
income  from  intoxicating  drink,  we  shall  be  much  better  off  in 
the  homeland. 

"We  are  not  a  bit  depressed  at  having  received  that  setback. 
We  are  ready  to  fight  next  week.  There  is  a  trained  influence  in 
the  young  life  of  our  country  that  will  untimately  mean  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  evil  liquor  trade.  I  was  born  in  the  same  town,  trained 
in  the  same  temperance  society,  converted  in  the  same  chapel,  with 
Mr.  Charles  Garrett,  and  converted  to  temperance  there.  When  he 
was  fighting  the  life  and  death  struggle  in  Liverpool  against  the 
drink,  and  when  the  temperance  forces  had  been  defeated,  Garrett 
was  getting  into  a  cab,  very  much  depressed,  but  a  little  lad  came 
running  up  to  the  carriage  door  and  said,  "Never  mind,  Mr.  Garrett; 
we  boys  will  soon  be  men  and  then  we  will  work  and  vote  for 
you."  That  is  where  our  hope  lies.  We  are  training  the  young. 
The  process  of  education  must  mean  the  destruction  of  the  liquor 
trade.  Let  it  be  distinctly  understood  that  in  the  ideal  common- 
wealth there  will  be  no  room  for  the  legalized  drink  trade. 

I  trust  the  Churches  of  Methodism  will  respond  to  the  appeal 
that  has  just  been  made.  I  hold  very  strongly  that  the  time  must 
come  when  the  Methodist  Church,  and  all  the  Christian  Churches, 
will  have  to  cut  straight  off  altogether  from  any  relation  with,  or 
any  incubus  from,  the  drink.  Because  there  is  nothing  more 
clear  to  us  in  the  Old  Country  than  this,  that  the  great  foe  of  the 
Church  and  the  Sunday  school  and  the  Guild  is  the  legalized  drink 
trade.  I  believe  that  in  the  coming  years  the  forces  of  Christian 
opinion  will  be  so  manifest  that  the  drink  trade  will  be  swept  away, 
and  the  countries  over  the  sea  will  be  saved  from  the  debauching, 
degrading  effect  of  that  traffic.     As  I  look  out  into  the  future,  I 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  J.  ALFRED  SHARP.  G21 

have  my  dream.  And  I  am  as  certain  as  that  I  am  upon  this  plat- 
form, that  the  time  "will  comie  when  the  drink  trade  will  be 
destroyed,  and  the  sin  and  intemperance  that  now  hang  over  the 
world's  life  will  be  swept  away.  When  that  time  comes,  so  far 
as  my  own  dear  homeland,  the  little  island  in  the  seas  yonder,  is 
concerned,  then  and  then  only,  England  will  be  the  first  flower 
of  the  earth,  the  first  gem  of  the  sea. 

The  session  closed  with  the  doxology  and  the  benediction. 


TWELFTH  DAY. 

luNJ)AY,    October     15th. 


MOEXING  SERVICE. 

THE  Eev.  W.  L.  Armstrong,  D.  D.,  pastor  of  tlie  Metro- 
politan Church,  conducted  the  devotional  exercises.     He 
announced,  and  the  congregation  sang,  the  first  hymn — 

"O    for  a  thousand  tongues  to  sing." 

Prayer  was  offered  by  the  Eev.  G.  H.  Bridgman,  D.D.  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  The  second  hymn,  sung  heartily 
by  the  great  congregation,  was  No.  110 — 

"Jesus,  the  very  thought  of  Thee." 

The  sermon  of  the  morning  was  by  Bishop  W.  A.  Candler, 
D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South : 

"Wherefore  I  also,  after  I  heard  of  your  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus, 
and  love  unto  all  the  saints,  cease  not  to  give  thanks  for  you,  mak- 
ing mention  of  you  in  my  prayers;  that  the  God  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Father  of  glory,  may  give  unto  you  the  spirit  of  wis- 
dom and  revelation  in  the  knowledge  of  Him:  the  eyes  of  your 
understanding  being  enlightened;  that  ye  may  know  what  is  the 
hope  of  His  calling,  and  what  the  riches  of  the  glory  of  His  inher- 
itance in  the  saints,  and  what  is  the  exceeding  greatness  of  His 
power  to  us-ward  who  believe,  according  to  the  working  of  His 
mighty  power,  which  He  wrought  in  Christ,  when  He  raised  Him 
from  the  dead,  and  set  Him  at  His  own  right  hand  in  the  heavenly 
places,  far  above  all  principality,  and  power,  and  might,  and 
dominion,  and  every  name  that  is  named,  not  only  in  this  world, 
but  also  in  that  which  is  to  come:  and  hath  put  all  things  under 
His  feet,  and  gave  Him  to  be  the  head  over  all  things  to  the  Church, 
which  is  His  body,  the  fullness  of  Him  that  filleth  all  in  all." — Eph. 
1:15-23. 

It  is  a  striking  characteristic  of  our  holy  religion  that  among 
its  sacred  books  are  letters.  It  thus  stands  firm  in  history,  far 
beyond  any  region  of  myth.    For  letters  require  persons  to  write 

622 


SEHMON  of  bishop  W.  a.  CANDLER.  623 

them  and  persons  to  receive  and  read  them,  and  occasions  to  give 
rise  to  them.  Almost  all  these  letters  have  been  generally,  and, 
as  I  think,  correctly,  attributed  to  one  man,  the  apostle  to  the 
Gentiles.  Some  of  his  letters  gather  about  great  controversies. 
Paul  was  not  one  of  those  blind  optimists  who  would  not  he  op- 
timists at  all,  except  they  were  blind,  who  fancy  that  because 
truth  will  triumph  In  time  it  may  triumph  by  mere  ongoing  of 
time.  He  understood  that  the  truth  is  to  triumph  by  truth-loving 
men  standing  for  it  And  he  contended  very  earnestly  for  the 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  Against  the  enslaving  body  of  tenets  of 
the  Judaizers  he  threw  himself  with  infinite  intenseness,  claiming 
his  apostolic  authority  far  beyond  any  human  source,  from  God 
the  Father  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  He  had  sent,  and  from  that 
apostolic  authority  declaring  against  any  other  system  in  the  in- 
terest of  freedom  and  faith — "Though  we',  or  an  angel  from  heaven, 
preach  any  other  gospel  unto  you  than  that  which  we  have  preached 
unto  you,  let  him  be  accursed."  And  so,  as  against  the  incipient 
doctrines  and  principles  of  Gnosticism,  which  would  have  reduced 
the  humanity  of  our  Lord  to  a  phantom,  which  repudiated  the 
incarnation  and  denied  the  resurrection,  he  threw  the  weight  of 
all  h^s  apostolic  authority.  The  apostle  is  concerned  in  setting 
forth  the  place  of  Christ  in  the  universe,  the  Incarnate  One,  de- 
claring that  in  Him  dwells  all  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily. 
He  can  not  well  dwell  on  the  glories  of  the  Son  of  God,  the 
Bridegroom,  without  thinking  of  the  position  and  power  of  the 
Church,  the  Bride.  So  in  the  Ephesian  letter,  written  about  the 
same  time,  he  speaks  of  Christ  and  the  Church.  When  Jesus 
elicited  from  Peter  that  remarkable  confession,  "Thou  art  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,"  a  confession  which  he  declared 
was  not  run  out  by  the  processes  of  flesh  and  blood,  but  revealed 
by  the  Father  in  heaven,  after  the  Master  has  warmly  approved 
that  confession  instantly  he  goes  forward  to  declare,  "And  upon 
this  rock  I  will  build  my  Church,  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not 
prevail  against  it." 

The  Colossian  Epistle  in  some  sense  might  be  said  to  be  an 
expansion  of  Peter's  confession,  and  the  Ephesian  Epistle  the  ex- 
pansion of  the  Master's  words  of  approval  of  Peter's  confession. 
That  Epistle,  thinking  of  the  infinite  resources  of  grace  exerted 
on  behalf  of  the  Church,  has  not  a  hint  of  controversy  in  it.  It 
is  full  of  serene  peace.  The  apostle  breaks  forth  in  prayer  and 
thanksgiving  and  adoration.  His  words  seem  to  fall  upon  us  from 
out  the  upper  world,  from  out  the  heavenlies  of  which  he  spoke  so 
frequently.  It  is  remarkable  that  it  should  be  so.  He  was  a 
prisoner.  He  was  looking  out  upon  that  hard,  heathen  world,  in- 
tellectually wearied  to  faintness,  morally  languid,  spiritually  filled 
•yrith  despair.    All  sorts  of  questions  and  situations,  to  use  modern 


634  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

phrases,  confronted  liim.  Yet  none  of  these  things  dim  his  joy 
or  cloud  his  confidence.  He  has  great  hope  in  the  Church.  He 
sends  out  some  letters  that  would  not  have  been  worth  a  reception 
by  the  civil  authorities  if  they  had  cared  to  pay  any  attention  to 
them.  He  sent  them  to  little  groups  of  men  called  churches,  and 
yet  in  exemplification  of  the  very  power  he  is  speaking  of,  those 
letters  have  had  a  power  over  men  such  as  imperial  decrees  did 
not  exert.  Some  years  ago  an  impatient  Frenchman  said  that 
these  letters  of  a  wandering  Jew  had  had  more  effect  upon  man- 
kind than  all  the  elegant  epistles  of  Seneca  and  Cicero,  and  he 
•  was  very  much  disturbed  by  the  fact.  Nevertheless,  it  is  a  fact. 
They  have  changed  the  face  of  the  world,  and  continue  to  change 
the  face  of  the  world.  Yet  the  serene  confidence  in  which  the 
apostle  wrote  he  would  not  monopolize.  He  proposes  to  share 
it  with  the  companies  of  believers.  So  he,  recognizing  the  faith 
and  the  experience  into  which  they  have  entered,  nevertheless 
makes  mention  of  them  in  his  prayers,  that  God  would  reveal  to 
them  by  His  Spirit  the  hope  of  His  glory  and  the  riches  of  His 
clear  inheritance  in  the  saints,  and  the  exceeding  greatness  of  His 
power  to  them  who  believe,  according  to  the  working  of  His 
mighty  power  which  He  wrought  in  Christ  when  He  raised  Him 
from  the  dead  and  set  Him  at  His  own  right  hand.  Paul  knew 
well,  as  he  said  in  the  letter  to  the  Corinthians,  that  the&e  high 
things  may  not  be  compassed  by  any  carnal  process  of  knowledge — 
"Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither  have  entered  into  the 
heart  of  man,  the  things  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that 
love  Him." 

I  have  thought  that  as  we  have  come  to  the  last  Sunday  morn- 
ing of  our  Ecumenical  Conference,  it  could  be  good  for  us  to 
pray  one  for  another  that  God  would  open  to  us  the  same  vision 
which  stirred  the  imprisoned  apostle,  and  show  us  also  the  hope 
of/ our  calling  and  the  riches  of  His  inheritance  in  the  saints  to-day, 
and  the  mighty  power  with  which  He  continues  to  work,  even  the 
mighty  power  which  was  wrought  in  Christ,  when  He  raised  Him 
from  the  dead  and  set  Him  at  His  own  right  hand.  There  is  a 
very  prevalent  disposition  in  our  day  to  hold  the  Church  of  God 
cheap.  A  conscience-stricken  world,  undertaking  to  resent  the 
awakening  of  the  Church's  presence  in  the  earth,  condemns  it 
oftentimes  and  undertakes  to  lecture  it.  Unfortunately,  some  on 
the  inside  fancy  that  they  are  making  fair  weather  with  the  world, 
or  exhibiting  broadmindedness,  and  are  frequently  too  ready  to 
join  the  clamor,  to  make  some  sort  of  concessions.  But  when  you 
have  made  every  allowance  for  the  blemishes  and  imperfections 
of  the  Church,  let  it  be  asserted  with  all  authority  that  the  Church 
of  God  is  somewhat  yet.  It  is  absolutely  solitary  among  the 
bodies  of  men,  as  Jesus  was  without  a  peer  among  the  sons  of 


SERMON  OF  BISHOP  W.  A.  CANDLER.  025 

men.  Its  nature  is  supernatural.  Its  processes  and  resources  are 
not  of  the  earth  earthy.  Its  origin  is  far  back  in  the  counsels  of 
God,  and  its  destinies  in  that  great  future  wherein  the  apostle  dares 
to  affirm,  and  even  now  and  then  instructs  the  heavenly  hierarchies. 
The  Church  is  somewhat.  But  what  is  the  hope  of  its  calling? 
Nothing  short  of  being  the  body  of  the  sons  of  God.  "Blessed  be 
the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  hath  blessed 
us  with  all  spiritual  blessings  in  the  heavenlies  in  Christ,  accord- 
ing as  He  hath  chosen  us  in  Him  before  the  foundation  of  the 
world,  that  we  should  be  holy  and  without  blame  before  Him  in 
love,  having  predestined  us  unto  the  adoption  of  children  by  Jesus 
Christ  to  Himself,  according  to  the  good  pleasure  of  His  will,  to 
the  praise  of  the  glory  of  His  grace,  wherein  He  hath  made  us 
accepted  in  the  beloved."  Breathing  an  atmosphere  of  impatience 
with  the  supernatural,  we  are  likely  to  empty  the  words  of  their 
meaning  and  to  count  sonship  in  God  as  either  a  dream,  a  fanat- 
icism, or  a  mere  figure  of  speech.  It  lies  back  of  all  creation, 
and  persists  through  all  providence  and  through  every  dispensation 
of  grace. 

The  question  of  the  old  Presbyterian  Catechism,  "What  is  the 
chief  end  of  man?"  is  answered,  "To  glorify  God  and  enjoy  Him  for- 
ever." A  great  answer,  too,  if  you  will  hold  the  word  "glorify" 
to  the  weight  of  its  meaning  in  the  Scriptures.  But  as  most  men 
take  the  words,  I  very  much  fear,  a  poor  answer.  It  were  rather 
better  to  say  that  the  chief  end  of  man  is  to  be  God's  child  and 
to  glorify  Him  forever.  This  is  what  He  designed  in  Adam  at 
creation.  He  made  him  in  His  own  image  and  likeness.  This  was 
His  purpose  in  the  call  of  Abraham  and  the  development  of  the 
Hebrew  nation  as  a  commonwealth  of  a  supernatural  sort.  The 
call  of  Abraham  was  to  the  sonship  of  absolute  dependence  upon 
God.  It  is  the  terms  of  discipleship,  proclaimed  at  a  later  day — 
Get  thee  out  from  thy  kindred  and  country  and  thy  father's 
house.  A  very  wrenching  sort  of  call.  God  calls  him  away  from 
caution  and  every  earthly  source  of  light  and  power.  Then  He 
added,  "To  the  land  that  I  shall  give  thee" — respond  to  My  direc- 
tion as  an  obedient  and  sensitive  son,  sensitive  to  the  father's 
purpose.  When  He  comes  to  Isaac,  he  is  not  a  natural  born  son 
of  Abraham.  He  is  a  supernatural  son,  with  the  supernatural  mark 
made  upon  this  nation  always.  So  all  through  its  history,  dealing 
with  Jacob  and  the  subsequent  leaders  of  Israel,  He  is  constantly 
pressing  them  back  to  the  thought.  You  are  dependent  upon  Me; 
you  are  My  children.  It  was  a  very  difficult  lesson  for  Jacob  to 
learn.  He  had  a  high  reverence  for  high  spiritual  things,  but  a 
worldly  way  of  attaining  them.  An  old  preacher  said  once  that 
Jacob  was  a  very  pious  man,  but  Esau  was  the  more  religious. 
40 


626  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

By  and  by,  after  a  long  absence  from  his  native  land,  be  came 
back  to  his  father.  He  said,  "I  will  take  possession  of  this  land, 
I  will  take  it  on  a  quit-claim  deed  from  Esau."  When  he  put  his 
foot  on  the  frontier  of  that  part  of  the  land,  God  gives  him  to 
understand,  "Not  an  inch  of  it  by  a  quit-claim;  from  Me,  or  not 
at  all."  He  wrestles  with  Him  all  night.  But  finally  he  forgets 
the  land  and  everything  else  in  the  one  thought,  "My  supreme  need 
is  not  the  land  of  promise,  but  the  Promiser  of  the  land."  "Tell 
me  Thy  name."  He  had  come  to  know  God.  He  came  to  enter  into 
the  fellowship  of  sonship  with  the  Invisible.  And  God  blessed  him 
there.  The  ancient  Israelitish  host  was  a  company  of  saints  who 
arranged  their  tents  about  the  tabernacle.  They  did  not  move 
when  they  thought  it  wise  to  do  so;  they  followed  the  movement 
of  the  cloud.  God  was  at  the  center  of  the  nation.  And  that 
tabernacle  became  a  symbol  of  the  Messiah  yet  to  be,  in  whom 
God  should  be  manifest.  The  temple  afterward  fulfilled  the  same 
purpose.  All  through  that  history  is  this  persistent  purpose,  that 
men  become  the  sons  of  God.  Jacob  is  called,  being  a  patriarch 
of  the  kingdom,  springing  from  supernatural  birth,  God's  inheri- 
tance. 

Now  the  Church,  widened  by  the  coming  of  Christ,  the  perfect 
fulfillment  of  sonship  in  the  days  of  His  humiliation,  and  by  the 
triumph  and  the  glorification  of  His  Sonship  through  the  resurrec- 
tion— His  Church — is  called  God's  "inheritance  in  the  saints."  Wider 
than  the  inheritance  of  Jacob  is  that  of  which  God  spoke  when  He 
said:  "Thou  art  My  Son,  this  day  have  I  begotten  Thee.  Ask  of 
Me  and  I  shall  give  Thee  the  heathen  for  Thine  inheritance,  and 
the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  Thy  possession." 

The  making  of  the  sons  of  God  is  not  an  easy  process.  It  is 
not  an  easy  thing  to  achieve.  It  is  not  wonderful  that  such  a 
man  as  Nicodemus  should  have  said  in  the  presence  of  the  Man 
who  declared  to  him  the  need  of  the  new  birth,  "How  can  these 
things  be?"  Men  are  still  trying  to  answer  this  question  by  bring- 
ing some  sort  of  natural  method  to  make  sons  of  God,  and  they 
talk  to  us  about  "Natural  law  in  the  spiritual  world."  God  forbid! 
What  we  are  after  is  spiritual  law  in  the  natural  world,  that  shall 
set  aside  all  natural,  and  lift  us  up  to  the  heavenlies  in  Christ 
Jesus,  and  nullify  all  these  degrading  forces  of  the  earth  earthy, 
and  bring  us  into  the  liberty  and  life  of  the  children  of  God.  It 
is  done  by  a  tremendous  power — "The  greatness  of  the  power 
which  He  wrought  in  Christ  when  He  raised  Him  from  the  dead 
and  set  Him  at  His  own  right  hand  in  heavenly  places."  Wliat 
was  this  power  in  Christ?  In  the  days  of  His  humiliation  He 
perfectly  fulfilled  in  His  humanity  the  part  of  a  Son,  not  making 
Himself  an  exception  to  the  rest,  taking  His  place  with  us,  beset 
hy  all  the  sins  and  infirmities  of  humanity.     Surrounded  by  its 


SERMON  OF  BISHOP  W.  A.  CANDLER.  627 

difficulties,  subject  to  the  condition  of  mortality,  He  nevertheless 
shows  faith  and  sonship.  We  may  see  it  constantly  on  its  ethical 
side,  in  His  own  manner  of  life.  When  He  comes  into  the  tempta- 
tion it  is  an  assault  upon  His  sonship.  "You  are  a  Son  of  God. 
You  are  hungrj'.  Exert  your  power  to  feed  fourself.  You  can 
make  stones  into  bread."  So  He  could;  He  fed  the  multitude  in 
the  wilderness  by  multiplying  loaves  and  fishes.  But  He  fed  them 
by  the  will  of  God;  and  there  had  been  no  impulse  of  the  divine 
will  upon  His  heart  that  He  was  to  exert  that  power  now  for 
Himself.  So,  standing  as  a  hungry  Son  of  God  holding  to  His 
sonship  above  all  things  else.  He  replies,  "The  Son  of  God  shall 
not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out 
of  the  mouth  of  God."  It  is  infinitely  better  to  be  a  hungry  son 
of  God  than  a  man  who  has  taken  his  life  into  his  own  hands. 
His  idea  of  His  sonship  runs  counter  to  one  of  our  maxims.  We 
are  constantly  telling  ourselves,  by  way  of  salving  our  conscience 
for  violating  our  sonship,  that  "necessity  knows  no  law."  But 
Jesus  Christ  held  that  law  knows  no  necessity.  It  is  God's  law  that 
we  should  not  break  that.  Satan  says  to  Jesus:  "I  will  give  You 
the  glory  of  the  world  and  You  can  use  it.  You  are  protected  as 
a  Son  is  who  should  travel  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.  Bow 
down  and  serve  me" — stoop  to  conquer.  "I  will  not  conquer  as  the 
Son  of  God  by  the  process  of  stooping,  but  by  the  persistence  of 
sonship."  So  He  declares  always,  "I  do  always  the  will  of  Him- 
that  sent  Me."  And  again,  "The  Son  can  do  nothing  of  Himself, 
but  what  He  seeth  the  Father  do."  He  follows  that  Father's  will 
down  through  the  supremest  tragedy  of  life,  Gethsemane  and  Cal- 
vary. And  when  the  clouds  come  down  between  Him  and  the 
Father's  face.  He  cries  to  Him  still,  unable  to  see  and  unable  to 
touch  Him,  still,  "You  are  Mine,  My  God""" — "My  God,  why  hast 
Thou  forsaken  Me?"  So  that  from  beginning  to  end  there  is  not  a 
break  in  the  life  of  sonship,  no  activity  that  He  exhibits  other- 
wise than  by  an  unfaltering  and  persistent  filialness.  He  comes 
down  to  death  as  a  Man  who  has  exemplified  sonship. 

We  talk  about  the  difficulty  of  believing  in  the  resurrection. 
A  good  many  years  ago  some  talked  about  the  impossibility  of  it. 
At  Pentecost,  Peter  looked  at  it  in  a  very  different  way.  He  thought 
not  so  much  of  the  impossibility  of  the  resurrection,  but  of  the 
inevitability.  He  could  not  be  held  by  death.  He  was  bound 
to  get  up.  And  in  rising  from  the  death,  several  things  were 
achieved.  First  of  all,  He  rises  to  deathlessness;  it  was  the  con- 
quering of  death.  Death  was  the  consummation  of  all  the  forces 
that  could  hinder  a  man's  perfection;  and  He  has  come  to  bring 
forth  a  perfect  humanity.  So  He  rises  to  deathlessness,  strictly 
speaking.  It  may  be  doubted  if  yet  anybody  except  Christ  has 
been   raised   thus.     There  have  been  resurrections  to  life.     The 


638  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

Master  restored  the  daughter  of  Jairus,  and  the  son  of  the  widow  of 
Nain,  and  His  beloved  friend  Lazarus;  but  He  raised  them  to  the 
same  quality  and  type  of  life  that  they  had  before,  and  they  died 
a  second  time.  Perhaps  again,  when  He  was  out  of  sight,  Mary 
and  Martha  repeated  the  words,  "Lord,  if  Thou  hadst  been  here 
my  brother  had  not  died."  But  when  Jesus  Christ  rose  from  the 
dead  He  rose  into  deathlessness.  His  human  life  was  at  every 
point  perfect,  so  that  St.  Paul,  in  his  argument  in  Antioch  of 
Pisidia,  does  not  count  the  fulfillment  of  the  words,  "Thou  art 
My  Son,  this  day  have  I  begotten  Thee,"  as  being  in  the  event 
of  Bethlehem,  but  when  He  was  begotten  again  from  the  dead — 
the  resurrection.  In  Romans  he  declares  that  Jesus  was  "declared 
to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power,  according  to  the  Spirit  of  holi- 
ness, by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead."  Designated  and  pointed 
out;  yet  far  more  than  a  mere  designation.  The  perfection  of 
humanity  came  to  immortal  life  with  His  human  nature  perfected 
in  every  part,  the  spiritual  and  the  bodily,  but  the  glorified  body 
adjusted  to  the  heavenlies  in  the  sphere  of  which  it  is  to  move, 
rather  more  than  to  the  sphere  in  which  hitherto  He  has  moved 
in  the  earth.  When  He  rises  He  appears  to  His  disciples,  but 
not  as  aforetime.  "Tell  My  disciples  that  I  go  before  them  into 
Galilee" — but  not  that  He  is  going  to  walk  in  front  of  them,  but  "I 
will  be  there  in  advance.  I  will  meet  them  there."  There  is  no 
more  journeying  along  the  way  after  the  former  things.  He  belongs 
to  that  spiritual  world,  and  seems  to  have  its  impression  upon 
Him. 

Some  think  that  He  has  come  to  be  the  Head  of  the  race  and 
of  the  new  humanity.  I  do  not  know  that  we  can  use  a  better 
term  than  that  of  the  old  theologians — federal  headship.  He  has 
spiritual  forces  in  His  humanity  that  He  can  transmit  by  the 
power  of  the  Spirit  to  them  that  are  descended  from  Him,  though 
a  type  of  life  all  His  own.  He  was  not  a  "quickening  Spirit"  by  the 
birth  at  Bethlehem,  but  by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead;  and 
made  it  possible  that  by  the  power  of  the  Spirit  sons  and  daughters 
of  the  Lord  Almighty  should  be  born  to  Him  and  akin  to  Him. 
He  is  restrained  in  the  days  of  His  humiliation.  For  the  supreme 
thing  He  had  to  give  was  His  own — Himself;  for  He  goes  without 
no  test  that  His  people  undergo.  But  now  He  has  come  to  the 
altitude  of  a  perfect  humanity  that  never  can  be  marred;  and  so, 
while  before  His  resurrection  He  does  nothing  except  by  the  Spirit, 
after  His  resurrection  the  Spirit  does  nothing  but  by  Him.  "He 
shall  take  of  the  things  of  Mine  and  show  them  unto  you."  And 
so  there  falls  iipon  the  heart  that  receives  Him  no  mere  rhetorically 
described  birth,  but  a  real,  genuine  birth — "Being  bom  again  by 
the  power  of  life  that  was  wrought  in  Him  when  He  was  raised 
from  the  dead  and  sat  at  God's  right  hand  of  authority  and  power." 


SERMON  OF  BISHOP  W.  A.  CANDLER.  629 

It  makes  our  lives  of  an  unearthly  tj-pe.  It  is  not  all  that  is  wanted 
"When  we  are  merely  content  to  restrict  the  old  elements  of  life 
by  some  sort  of  moral  arrangement — the  qualifications  wanted  to 
make  up  a  sort  of  mosaic  of  a  negative  kind.  That  is  not  the 
type  of  life  which  Paul  would  have  approved  of.  These  are  ele- 
ments of  the  earth.  "But  if  ye  be  risen  with  Christ,  seek  those  things 
which  are  above,  where  Christ  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of  God;" 
"Ye  are  dead  and  your  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God;"  "When  He 
shall  appear,  we  also  shall  appear  with  Him." 

We  have  in  our  time  men  talking  about  "His  footsteps,"  about 
a  Christian  life  that  comes  from  copying  them  and  copying  the 
historical  Christ.  I  do  not  care  where  that  idea  has  ever  been 
attempted,  it  has  always  led  to  morbidness.  Thomas  S-  Kempis 
himself  could  not  escape  it;  and  less,  far  less,  men  now  who  give 
us  little  books  about  "In  Plis  Steps."  Our  life  is  not  a  mimicry, 
not  even  a  mimicry  of  the  historic  Son  of  God.  It  is  not  a  copying, 
it  is  not  undertaking  to  imagine  His  situation  and  fancying  we 
are  in  it.  It  is  a  participation  in  His  heavenly  life.  I  thank  God 
our  spiritual  life  does  not  issue  from  the  days  of  humiliation. 
Great  and  glorious  as  was  His  life  as  the  Man  of  Sorrows,  that 
is  not  the  life  in  which  our  hope  is.  We  never  shall  get  rid  of  it. 
We  do  not  undervalue  it.  We  pore  over  the  record  of  it  with 
hearts  weighted  by  the  story  of  the  depth  of  His  humiliation. 
But  the  humiliation  of  Jssus  Christ  no  more  measures  the  descent 
of  the  divine  life  to  reach  us  than  the  height  of  divine  life  to 
which  He  has  lifted  us.  We  are  to  partake  of  the  divine  nature 
and  come  into  a  sphere  or  level  of  life  that  you  can  hardly  state 
in  terms,  where  we  dwell  with  Him  in  the  heavenlies.  We  do 
not  belong  to  this  order.  Neither  can  you  gain  the  Kingdom  of 
God,  which  is  a  kingdom  of  new-born  souls,  by  merely  reconstruct- 
ing earthly  arrangements.  How  often  people  say  "Lo  here!"  or 
"Lo  there!"  But  this  machinery  does  not  seem  to  work.  You  can 
not  expect  to  go  out  with  any  system  of  reversed  pulleys  and  lift 
up  a  world.  We  are  not  commissioned  to  that.  We  are  to  go  out 
like  the  Son  of  God,  with  quickening  influences,  ourselves  saved, 
seeking  to  save  the  lost.  You  may  think  that  this  program  is  not 
quite  large  enough,  that  it  ought  to  have  more  ambitious  pre- 
tensions, and  all  that.  But  I  give  you  witness  that  when  a  son 
of  God  is  born  in  this  world  it  is  an  event  that  stirs  the  other 
world.  When  Jesus  was  born  in  a  manger  the  angels  broke  out 
singing  "Glory  to  God  in  the  highest;"  and  there  has  not  been  bom 
a  solitary  sinner  by  way  of  faith  and  penitence  that  has  not  brought 
the  same  rejoicing  over  a  son  of  God  come  into  the  Kingdom. 
That  is  the  one  thing  that  the  Scriptures  give  us  to  believe  makes 
any  stir  in  heaven.  You  can  start  movements — and  we  have  a 
fresh  one  almost  every  day — but  that  is  not  the  source  of  mighty 


630  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

power.  However  skillful  our  arrangements  may  be,  they  fall  short 
of  producing  a  child  of  God  and  thereby  enlarging  the  kingdom  of 
new-bom  souls,  except  as  those  plans  of  God  bring  home  upon  the 
hearts  of  men  the  life-giving  power  of  the  Son  of  God. 

We  have  been  here  talking  of  situations.  I  suppose  we  ought 
to  have  done  so.  But  I  notice  that  when  I  look  too  much  on  situ- 
ations and  the  difficulty  "of  doing  here  or  there,  I  get  very  discour- 
aged. I  can  think  of  more  things  that  ought  to  be  but  are  not, 
and  more  things  that  are  but  ought  not  to  be,  than  the  strength 
of  my  natural  hope  can  carry.  But  when  I  think  of  Jesus  Christ, 
raised  from  the  dead  for  no  other  reason  but  to  perfect  our  humanity 
and  become  the  Dispenser  of  spiritual  gifts.  Himself  the  Son  of 
God,  I  care  not  how  complicated  the  situation  or  how  difficult  the 
conditions  are,  I  have  hope  in  Him.  By  this  process  He  was  to 
make  all  things  new.  I  see  before  me  some  missionaries  with 
whom  I  have  stood  in  foreign  lands  where  everything  seemed 
hopeless  and  we  were  just  a  very  small  band,  as  small  and  insig- 
nificant as  this  Ephesian  Church  in  that  great  city  was.  If  you 
will  let  me  speak  a  word  to  my  old  comrades,  I  will  stop  long 
enough  to  say:  Don't  be  afraid;  Jesus  the  risen  Lord  is  going 
before  you,  working,  down  beneath  all  human  excitements  and 
forces  or  passions,  the  mighty  work  of  making  sons  and  daughters 
of  the  Lord  Almighty.  And  because  He  has  risen  from  the  dead 
we  shall  not  labor  in  vain.  You  have  reform  schemes,  and  they 
won't  work  out;  they  never  have  worked  out.  They  bring  as  much, 
trouble  as  they  remove.  But  making  sons  and  daughters  of  the 
Lord  Almighty  assures  the  renewing  of  the  earth  in  righteousness 
and  true  holiness.  We  Methodists,  of  all  people,  ought  to  remember 
that.  You  remember  what  Wesley  sung  when  his  followers  were 
only  thirty  thousand — yet  he  began  to  sing: 

"O  the  wonderful  love  that  has  deigned  to  approve 

And  prosper  the  work  of  my  hands! 
With  my  pastoral  crook  I  went  over  the  brook. 

And  lo!  I  am  broken  in  bands. 
Who,  I  ask  in  amaze,  has  begotten  me  these? 

And  inquire  from  what  quarter  they  came. 
My  glad  heart  replies,  They  were  born  from  the  skies. 

And  gives  glory  to  God  and  the  Lamb." 

The  birthplace  of  Methodism  was  not  Aldersgate  Street,  but  the 
council  chamber  of  the  risen  Son  of  God.  I  care  not  what  the 
complications  may  be  to-day,  they  are  no  worse  than  those  that 
Paul  looked  upon.  You  think  that  the  twentieth  century  is  crowded 
with  devilments  of  every  sort;  but  Paul  looked  upon  the  beasts 
at  Ephesus.  You  do  not  look  out  upon  any  a  worse  century  than 
the  one  that  Wesley  looked  on.    And  we  have  no  less  power,  if  we 


SERMON  OF  BISHOP  W.  A.  CANDLER.  631 

will  only  come  very  close  to  Him,  to  have  that  power  and  share 
its  life  and  become  dispensers  of  it.  If  we  will,  we  can  be  life- 
giving  spirits  in  the  sense  that  there  are  quickening  influences 
that  go  from  the  Church.  As  was  said  in  the  paper  by  one  of 
the  brethren  from  England,  we  are  the  salt  of  the  earth;  and  a 
little  downright  good  salt  will  go  a  long  way.  In  another  sensa, 
we  are  the  light  of  the  world.  And  if  we  are  a  light  from  this 
supernatural  source,  more  and  more  we  shall  transform  the  nations 
that  we  touch,  and  contribute  to  the  furtherance  of  that  divine 
event  when  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  shall  have  become  the 
kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  His  Christ. 

Let  me  say  another  thing.  It  will  relieve  us  of  a  good  deal  of 
despair,  as  I  have  already  intimated.  We  talk  much  of  heredity 
and  environment.  There  may  be  much  in  it.  It  is  a  feai-ful  thing 
to  have  a  bad  heredity,  and  there  is  scarcely  any  on  earth  that 
Is  not  somewhat  doubtful,  even  the  best.  It  won't  do  to  hunt 
your  heredity  too  far.  You  will  at  last  land  at  Adam.  I  am 
ready  to  recognize  whatever  is  in  heredity  and  environment;  and 
if  we  had  only  a  natural  force  with  which  to  combat  these,  we 
might  as  well  have  the  world  wound  up  and  go  into  the  hands 
of  a  receiver,  if  anybody  could  be  found  to  receive  it.  It  is 
absolutely  bankrupt.  But  when  we  remember  that  we  have  the 
power  which  was  in  Him,  when  God  raised  Him  from  the  dead 
and  set  Him  at  His  own  right  hand  in  the  heavenly  places  and 
gave  Him  superiority  above  every  force,  whether  hostile  or  in- 
different or  friendly,  for  the  renewal  of  the  earth,  your  processes 
of  heredity  and  environment  can  not  withstand  that.  Our  gospel 
is  able  to  work  in  what  the  miners  call  "mighty  low-grade  ore" — 
refractory  ores.  And  think  of  one  of  those  tragic  figures,  a  woman 
on  the  streets,  whose  name  has  been  so  smirched  by  shame  and 
disgrace  that  the  inspired  evangelist  does  not  seek  to  recall  her 
name,  and  only  calls  her  by  that  pathetic  word,  "A  woman  of  the 
city" — He  could  touch  her  with  life-giving  power  and  set  her  before 
the  view  of  the  Jews  as  the  exemplification  of  redeeming  power. 
He  could  gather  a  thieving  tax  collector  into  the  college  of  the 
apostles,  and  salvation  came  to  another  when  he  had  heard  only 
so  much  gospel  as  he  could  hear  from  the  top  of  a  fig-tree.  We 
have  been  working  in  low-grade  ores  for  a  long  time.  I  have  been 
surprised  at  the  surprise  of  the  Christian  world  over  the  book 
"Twice-born  Men."  If  you  will  go  to  Wesley's  old  Arminian  Maga- 
zine, you  will  find  more  tales  of  that  sort  than  Mr.  Begbie  ever 
knew.  It  has  been  going  on  all  these  years.  I  could  tell  from  my 
ministry  some  stories  of  twice-born  men  and  women  that  came  up 
from  depths  where  everybody  had  given  them  up,  and  became 
beautiful,  blameless,  holy  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Lord  Almighty. 
May  I  tell  you  one?     I  went  to  a  neglected  part  of  the  city  where 


633  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

I  was  pastor  once,  and  stretched  a  tent.  Never  put  up  a  tent  where 
you  have  a  church,  but  only  where  you  have  no  church — I  do  n't 
propose  to  use  a  spectacle  to  draw  people  to  Christ.  So  we  put 
up  a  tent,  and  the  people  came.  One  night  a  woman  came,  heavily 
draped  in  black.  I  was  talking  with  her  when  one  came  and  said: 
"I  want  to  speak  to  you.  Do  you  know  to  whom  you  are  talking?" 
"I  have  not  the  slightest  idea  in  the  world."  "That  is  one  of  the 
most  shameful  women  of  the  city."  I  never  did  know  how  either 
he  or  some  others  had  such  particular  information!  I  said,  "I 
have  no  time  to  talk  with  you,  then.  She  needs  the  gospel."  So  I 
talked  with  her  as  best  I  could.  It  seemed  to  me  that  if  some 
godly  woman  should  counsel  her  and  pray  with  her  better  results 
might  be  achieved.  So  I  looked  over  the  large  audience  and  saw 
one  woman  who,  I  thought,  would  dare  to  do  it.  She  did  dare  it. 
And  presently  that  poor  mortal  lifted  the  veil  that  had  been  hiding 
her  shame,  and  her  face  was  full  of  glory  and  of  light.  On  the  fol- 
lowing Sabbath  when,  after  talking  with  her  and  finding  how 
genuine  her  experience  was,  I  took  her  into  the  Church,  men  won- 
dered. I  will  never  forget  her  baptism.  There  were  scores  around 
the  rail,  and  we  went  from  one  to  another.  The  little  children  could 
give  their  names.  Hardened,  old,  disgraced  men  could  give  theirs. 
Eventually  I  came  to  her  and  said,  "Your  name?"  There  was  a 
hard  case.  Should  she  give  the  name  of  her  childhood,  and  let 
the  world  know  the  shame  of  her  family?  Should  she  give  the 
fraudulent  name  that  would  discredit  her  baptism  and  sincerity 
before  her  Lord?  Then  in  a  voice  which  was  almost  a  whisper 
she  uttered  the  name  that  her  mother  had  given  her  before  the 
name  of  shame  was  spoken.  And  with  that  name  I  laid  her  back  in 
her  Father's  arms,  a  new-born  soul.  Yet  some  said,  "What  will  you 
do  with  her?"  "Do  with  her!  Love  her  like  a  sister,  because  she 
is  a  sister — not  a  sister  by  mere  relation  of  flesh  and  blood,  but  a 
sister  by  relation  of  a  common  kinship  to  Jesus  Christ,  our  risen 
Lord.  To  this  day  she  is  walking  worthily  of  the  vocation  where- 
with she  is  called.  I  am  glad  we  have  got  a  gospel  that  will  work 
among  people  of  that  sort,  a  gospel  that  can  defy  all  your  heredity 
and  environment  and  difficult  situations,  and  live  like  Daniel, 
fragrant  and  faultless,  there  in  Babylon.  We  talk  about  eugenics. 
I  suppose  there  is  something  in  that;  but  I  have  more  faith  in 
regenics.  Regeneration  by  the  power  of  the  Son  of  God  comes  down 
upon  us  like  the  cloud  above  the  tabernacle,  and  we  feel  His  pres- 
ence near  and  meet  the  Lord  in  renewals  of  life  and  true  holiness. 
It  is  getting  on  towards  time  to  quit.  I  have  just  one  other 
thing  to  say — many  other  things,  but  I  will  omit  them — to  say  one 
thing  in  conclusion.  When  this  spiritual  life  that  has  come  out 
from  heaven  is  in  us,  it  becomes  the  best — I  will  not  say  argu- 
ment, but  the  best— assurance  of  a  future  life.    It  is  "Christ  in  us 


SERMON  OF  BISHOP  W.  A.  CANDLER.  633 

the  hope  of  glory."  Wherefore,  says  the  apostle,  "He  is  the  earnest 
of  our  inheritance,  until  we  come  into  that  life."  Remember  the 
story  of  Joseph  in  Egypt  when  he  lay  dying.  Four  hundred  years 
stretched  between  him  and  the  exodus.  No  priest  is  there,  no 
written  Scripture  of  which  we  have  knowledge.  And  yet,  fore- 
seeing by  faith,  he  gives  commandment  concerning  his  bones. 
The  Canaan  begun  within  one  may  be  a  cheerful  prophecy  of  the 
Canaan  to  come.    In  Wesley's  day  we  find  the  song — 

"But  this  I  do  find,  we  two  are  so  joined, 
Ke  '11  not  live  in  glory  and  leave  me  behind." 

There  is  but  one  place  where  a  son  of  God  can  go — "Because 
I  live,  ye  shall  live  also."  God  is  never  the  God  of  the  dead,  He 
is  the  God  of  the  living.  He  is  not  going  to  have  any  sons  that 
He  will  slay  or  let  another  slay.  So  it  is  not  only  true  that  Jesus 
Christ,  the  first  begotten  from  the  dead,  was  one  who  could  not  be 
holden  of  death,  but  every  son  of  God  comes  to  his  perfection 
by  the  same  process,  and  can  not  be  holden  of  death.  If  we  are 
asked,  "With  what  body  do  they  come?"  we  shall  answer,  not 
simply  with  the  words  of  the  apostle,  "Thou  foolish  one,"  but 
rather  with  the  words  of  the  Master  to  the  Sadducees,  "You  do 
greatly  err,  not  knowing  the  Scriptures  or  the  power  of  God."  The 
power  of  life  within  us  at  the  source  of  being  gives  assurance  of 
the  world  to  come.  I  do  not  know  any  illustration  that  would 
exactly  express  it.  Perhaps  there  is  a  little  parallel  in  that  story 
of  Columbus  sailing  over  these  Western  seas,  trying  to  find  a  land 
out  of  sight.  His  companions  were  beginning  to  be  mutinous  and 
distrustful  of  his  enterprise.  Standing  on  the  deck  one  morning 
in  the  light  of  the  dawn,  while  as  yet  he  could  not  descry  the  shore 
line,  he  saw  the  birds  come  sailing  from  the  land,  and  the  fruits 
floating  on  the  bosom  of  the  deep,  and  then  the  cry  was  raised, 
"There  is  land  ahead!"  And  so,  coming  up  across  the  unknown 
sea  that  lies  before  us  as  men,  for  every  man  has  to  go  over  an 
uncharted  sea,  some  of  us  with  many  fears,  acain  seeing  the  fruit 
borne  to  us  on  the  waves,  in  the  midst  of  all  our  fears  we  cry 
out,  "There  is  land  ahead."    And  there  is! 

The  service  closed  with  the  benediction. 


634  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 


AFTEENOOIST  MEETI^TI. 

The  afternoon  session  opened  at  tliree  o'clock,  under  the 
presidency  of  Bishop  C.  W.  Smith,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church. 

The  Eev.  C.  B.  Mitchell,  D.  D.,  of  the  same  Church,  had 
charge  of  the  devotional  exercises. 

Hymn  653  was  sung — 

"O,  day  of  rest  and  gladness." 

The  Scripture  selection  was  Mark  2 :  23-28,  and  Dr.  Mitchell 
offered  prayer. 

Addresses  were  delivered  on  "The  Ol^sorvance  of  the  Lord's 
Day"  by  the  Eev.  W.  J.  Youxg,,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  the  Eev.  A.  J.  Coultas.,  D.  D., 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

The  Eev.  J.  A.  James,  of  the  United  Methodist  Cliurch,  who 
was  to  have  given  one  of  the  addresses,  was  prevented  from  so 
doing  hy  a  somewhat  serious  accident  which  confined  him  to  his 
bed.  His  place  was  taken  l)y  the  Eev.  W.  J.  Young,  D.  D.,  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

He  said  that  tlie  subject  was  too  large  to  be  fully  discussed 
on  such  an  occasion.  The  treatment  of  it  would  depend  largely 
upon  one's  point  of  view,  and  upon  the  section  of  country  from 
which  he  comes.  Into  many  places  is  creeping  a  larger  and 
larger  tendency  to  violate  the  Sabbath. 

I  suspect  that  those  who  formulated  this  subject  had  in  view 
in  referring  to  past  observance  of  the  Sabbath  the  conditions  that 
prevailed  in  most  of  our  Christian  homes,  when  preparation  was 
made  on  the  Saturday  so  that  all  save  absolutely  necesary  work 
on  Sunday  was  avoided.  Sometimes  we  speak  of  the  "Puritanic 
Sabbath"  with  a  sneer.  But  it  was  vastly  preferable  to  the  manner 
of  spending  the  Sabbath  which  is  prevalent  in  many  places.  "We 
have  come  to  a  time  when  men  glory  in  a  growing  sense  of  the 
sacredness  of  all  days,  and  offer  that  as  an  atonement  for  absent- 
ing themselves  from  God's  house  on  the  Sabbath.  But  we  need  to 
sound  a  different  note  and  insist  upon  the  importance  of  the  divine 
origin  and  nature  of  the  Church  of  God  and  upon  the  importance 
of  observing  the  Lord's  Day. 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  A.  J.  COULTAS.  036 

Whatever  we  may  think  as  to  the  origin  of  the  Sabbath  law,  a 
necessity  for  Sabbath  observance  remains  in  our  own  natures  and 
in  the  constitution  of  things  around  us.  Tlie  hearts  of  men,  though 
they  may  not  know  it,  cry  out  for  tilings  unseen.  What  a  demand 
for  rest;  what  a  demand  for  fellowship  with  God! 

When  we  gather  together  on  the  Sabbath  we  have  an  Easter. 
Upon  the  Lord's  day,  in  the  place  of  prayer,  there  comes  a  vision 
of  the  heavenly  life.  It  is  they  who  have  come  together  for  woi'- 
ship  on  the  Lord's  Day,  and  have  found  their  minds  and  hearts 
going  out  into  the  heavenly  life  so  that  heaven  has  come  dov/n 
their  souls  to  greet — it  is  these  who  have  a  vision  of  heaven  upon 
the  mountain  tops  and  on  the  ocean  and  In  the  vales  they  tread. 

Not  always  have  we  been  wise  in  our  observance  of  the  day. 
Sometimes  it  has  been  unattractive.  Often  there  is  a  demand  for 
recreation.  Men  who  are  tired  sometimes  contend  that  it  is  better 
for  them  to  go  out  and  commune  with  nature  than  to  go  to  God's 
house.  And  there  has  been  an  unsettling  of  faith  in  various  direc- 
tions. And  foreigners  unused  to  Sabbath  observance  have  come 
into  our  lands.  Now,  is  there  anything  that  can  be  done?  Yes! 
The  State  can  do  something.  It  can  at  least  make  it  possible  for 
men  to  abstain  from  all  except  absolutely  necessary  labor.  It  can 
pass  laws  against  violation  of  the  Sabbath.  It  can  make  it  possible 
to  worship  in  quietness.  It  can  put  into  power  men  who  will  en- 
force good  laws. 

The  Church  can  do  much.  It  can  make  the  Sabbath  attractive. , 
It  can  help  to  break  the  hold  that  material  things  have  on  men. 
It  can,  itself,  be  more  spiritual,  valuing  spirituality  above  beautiful 
houses  of  worship  and  fine  music.  Much  can  be  done  by  the  home. 
Here  is  the  citadel  of  the  Church's  life,  and  of  the  nation's  wel- 
fare. In  nine  out  of  ten  cases  of  violation  of  the  Sabbath  the 
trouble  is  in  the  home. 

I  call  to  mind  my  own  childhood  home,  when  on  Saturday  every 
preparation  to  keep  the  Sabbath  holy  was  made  beforehand.  And 
the  Sabbath  was  to  us  the  most  attractive  of  all  days.  What  our 
land  needs  is  a  revival  of  religion  that  shall  stir  the  deeps  of  the 
nation's  heart. 

The  Rev.  A.  J.  Coultas,  D.  D.,  of  the  Metliodist  Episcopal 
Church : 

The  Sabbath  is  deeply  founded  in  the  will  of  God  and  in  the 
needs-  of  society. 

Whatever  may  have  been  its  origin,  it  stands  in  the  Decalogue 
as  the  fourth  commandment,  coequal  in  authority  with,  and  as 
binding  as  the  first  or  fifth  or  any  one  of  the  ten. 

It  has  been  held  to  be  a  derived  institution,  brought  over  to 
the  Hebrew  nation  from  more  ancient  peoples.    There  is  no  unques- 


630  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

tioned  proof  of  this,  but  evea  if  there  were,  the  Hebrew  Sabbath 
stands  out  clear  and  distinct  in  principle  and  practice  from  all 
other  appointed  days. 

The  important  question  is  not.  How  ancient  is  the  Sabbath? 
but.  What  authority  has  it  over  life  and  conduct? 

There  can  be  but  one  answer  to  that  question,  for  the  fourth 
commandment  ranks  with  the  other  nine  in  the  tables  that  were 
written  in  stone,  and  which  were  afterwards  to  be  written  on  men's 
hearts.     And  if  the  other  commandments  are  divine,  so  is  this. 

There  are  certain  fundamental  and  eternal  principles  underlying 
all  the  commandments.  The  underlying  principle  of  the  fourth 
commandment  is  physical  rest  and  spiritual  culture.  The  com- 
mandment is  economic  and  ethical. 

There  may  be  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  origin  of  the  Sab- 
bath, and  there  may  be  differences  of  opinion  as  to  how  it  should 
be  observed,  but  there  can  be  no  difference  of  opinion  regarding 
its  benefits  to  the  morals,  the  health,  and  the  progress  of  a  people. 
The  Sabbath  can  not  be  profaned  without  a  loss  to  body,  soul,  and 
mind.  A  corrupt  Sabbath  means  corrupt  morals.  The  lowering 
of  the  standards  of  Sabbath  observance  means  a  blunting  of  the 
conscience  and  a  weakening  of  moral  fiber.  To  deny  the  soul  the 
spiritual  culture  which  it  should  receive  upon  the  Lord's  Day 
impoverishes  and  dwarfs  man's  highest  nature. 

Medical  science  and  political  economy  attest  the  value  of  the 
rest  of  one  day  in  seven.  The  Sabbath  is  a  day  of  compensation, 
making  up  in  the  poise  and  strenrth  of  mind  and  body  what  the 
ordinary  rest  fails  to  bestow.  The  Sabbath  is  as  much  physi- 
ological as  it  is  theological.  It  stands  for  renewed  vigor  of  mind 
and  body.  The  laboring  world  can  not  be  without  it.  Lord  Macau- 
lay  said,  and  well  said,  "While  industry  is  suspended,  while  the 
plow  lies  in  the  furrow,  while  the  exchange  is  silent,  while  no 
smoke  ascends  from  the  factory,  a  process  is  going  on  quite  as 
Important  to  the  wealth  of  the  nation  as  any  process  which  is 
being  performed  on  more  busy  days.  Man,  the  machine  of 
machines,  is  repairing  and  winding  up,  so  that  he  returns  to  his 
labors  on  Monday  with  clearer  intellect,  with  livelier  spirits,  and 
with  renewed  corporeal  vigor." 

It  has  been  stated  by  those  who  have  made  a  study  of  the 
question  that  the  life  of  the  laborer  who  works  seven  days  a  week, 
year  after  year,  is  limited  to  twelve  j'ears. 

These  are  among  the  considerations  that  establish  the  reason- 
ableness and  necessity  for  the  Lord's  Day. 

Now  the  fourth  commandment  simply  states  a  principle,  a  fun- 
damental precept  or  law.  The  details  for  carrying  it  out  are  not 
indicated. 

In  its  interpretation  men  go  to  extremes.     At  one  extreme  we 
have  the  Puritan  Sabbath,  at  the  other  the  Continental.  The  Jews, 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  A.  J.  COULTAS  637 

in  their  final  application  of  the  law,  went  to  an  extreme,  and  the 
Sabbath  of  Judaism,  especially  the  Sabbath  of  the  scribes,  became, 
by  its  restrictions,  an  intolerable  burden.  The  scribes  prohibited 
no  less  than  thirty-nine  different  kinds  of  work.  Some  of  their 
refinements  were  petty  and  ridiculous;  as,  for  example,  the  tying 
or  the  untying  of  a  knot  was  counted  a  violation  of  the  Sabbath. 
They  made  this  rule  more  ridiculous  by  the  exception  which  they 
allowed,  namely,  that  if  the  knot  were  tied  or  untied  with  the 
right  hSnd,  it  was  lawful.  Thus  the  Sabbath  was  turned  into  a 
day  of  unbearable  refinements  and  of  mere  externals  of  observ- 
ance. 

It  was  against  this  perversion  of  the  Sabbath  that  Christ  set 
Himself,  when  He  gave  us  the  New  Testament  interpretation  of 
the  principle  of  Sabbath  observance,  which  must  ever  be  our  guide 
in  determining  human  conduct.  "The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man 
and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath:  so  that  the  Son  of  man  is  Lord  even 
of  the  Sabbath."— Mark  2:27,  28;   R.  V. 

Two  truths  are  imbedded  in  this  statement: 

First,  the  Sabbath  is  a  humane  institution;  it  is  for  the  benefit 
of  man. 

Second,  Christ  is  Lord  of  the  day;  to  Him,  on  that  day,  allegiance 
is  especially  due. 

Then,  if  we  study  the  conduct  of  Christ  and  His  disciples  on 
the  Sabbath  day — how,  on  that  day,  they  plucked  the  ears  of  corn 
because  they  were  hungry;  how  the  impotent  man  at  the  Pool  of 
Bethesda  was  healed;  how,  on  that  day,  other  miracles  were  per- 
formed, we  learn  that  the  law  in  His  mind  had  its  qualifications, 
and  that  the  mere  ordinance  must  sometimes  give  way  to  the  law 
of  necessity  or  mercy.  The  day,  in  Christ's  interpretation  of  it, 
was  clearly  meant  for  man's  highest  good,  physical,  intellectual, 
spiritual,  moral,  and  may  be,  and  must  be,  so  used. 

Nevertheless,  let  us  not  forget  what  is  so  often  not  emphasized 
in  quoting  the  above  passage  of  Scripture,  that  Christ  is  Lord  also 
of  the  Sabbath — that  it  is  His  day,  that  He  claimed  ownership  and 
lordship  of  the  day,  that  to  Him,  on  that  day  more  perhaps  than 
on  any  other  day,  we  must  surrender  our  time,  our  talents;  that 
He,  on  that  day,  has  a  right  to  our  thoughts,  our  plans,  our  pray- 
ers, our  devotions;  that  He  is  Lord  of  the  day,  and  must  hold  sway 
over  body,  mind,  and  soul. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  Sabbath  in  our  own  day  has  swung 
to  the  other  extreme  of  reckless  liberalism.  Puritan  New  England, 
from  whence  I  come,  is  no  longer  Puritan,  but  Continental.  Every- 
where there  is  great  disregard  of  the  Sabbath.  In  the  cities  there 
are  the  open  theater,  the  vaudeville,  the  moving  picture  show,  and 
the  so-called  sacred  concert.  Everywhere  the  people  are  throng- 
ing;   the   trolleys,   steam  cars,   and   excursion   boats   are  crowded. 


638  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

The  summei'  resorts  are  filled  with  frivolous  and  often  dis- 
orderly people.  The  automobile  speeds  over  all  roads.  By  actual 
count  on  a  certain  Sabbath,  four  hundred  automobiles  passed  by 
a  given  spot  on  the  road  leading  to  New  England's  famous  Cape 
Cod.  And  all  this  is  true  not  only  of  New  England,  but  in  the 
United  States  generally.  The  Continental  Sabbath,  with  its  free- 
dom, its  license,  is  here;  but  those  who  desecrate  the  day  are  not 
all  from  Continental  Europe. 

Two  things,  among  others,  can  be  done  to  reclaim  and  preserve 
the  day. 

1.  There  is  the  power  of  personal  persuasion  and  example.  Let 
every  Christian  be  faithful  to  the  higher  purposes  of  the  day.  The 
observance  of  the  day  will  rise  no  higher  than  the  standard  set 
by  our  leading  Christian  men.  The  employer  must  not  expect  his 
clerk  to  do  otherwise  than  he  does  upon  the  Sabbath  day.  If 
business  men,  manufacturers,  and  contractors  keep  clerks  and  labor- 
ing men  busy  on  the  Sabbath,  they  compel  a  desecration  of  the 
day  and  negative  all  moral  influence  over  them. 

I  shall  never  forget  a  banquet  which  I  attended,  given  by  the 
board  of  trade  in  a  city  where  I  was  once  a  pastor.  Many  business 
men  were  there,  with  invited  guests  from  other  cities.  Seated  at 
the  head  of  the  guests'  table  was  the  most  influential  man  in  the 
city.  He  was  the  senior  member  of  a  large  business  concern,  held 
various  positions  of  trust  and  honor  in  the  city,  and  was  very 
wealthy.  In  a  speech  he  made  that  evening  he  took  occasion  to 
refer  to  the  fact  that  in  all  his  business  career  he  had  not  opened 
any  business  letters  on  Sunday.  I  shall  never  forget  the  influence 
his  testimony  to  this  careful  regard  for  the  Sabbath  had  upon  my- 
self and  others  who  were  present  that  evening. 

Not  a  few  of  our  business  men  may  say  that  it  is  necessary  to 
open  their  mail  on  Sunday,  that  something  important  may  come 
to  hand,  without  the  knowledge  of  which  their  business  would  be 
seriously  affected.  That  no  such  reason  exists  is  well  illustrated 
by  the  prosperity  and  progress  of  this  city  of  Toronto.  If  I  am 
rightly  informed,  the  postofiice  in  this  city  is  closed  on  Sunday. 
No  mails  are  delivered  or  obtainable,  not  even  postage  stamps  are 
sold.  There  is  a  collection  from  the  street  boxes  in  the  afternoon 
at  five  o'clock,  but  that  is  all.  And  yet  Toronto  is  prosperous;  her 
many  industries  are  thriving;  her  banking  institutions  are  on 
almost  every  corner;  great  buildings  are  being  erected.  She  is 
spreading  out  in  various  directions.  Her  population,  now  more  than 
four  hundred  thousand,  it  is  confidently  prophesied  will  in  seven 
years  reach  a  million.  Surely  the  closing  of  the  postal  service  on 
Sunday  in  Toronto  does  not  interfere  with  her  commercial  pros- 
perity. Rather  may  we  not  say  that  the  very  progress  of  this 
beautiful  city  is  due,  in  no  small  degree,  to  her  high  resard  for 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  A.  J.  COULTAS.  639 

the  Sabbath,  day?     And  may  Toronto  never  cease  to  keep  the  day 
in  sacred  observance! 

We  have  much  to  say  in  these  days  about  the  estrangement  of 
the  laboring  classes  from  the  Church.  Does  not  the  question  of 
Sabbath  observance  have  something  to  do  with  this?  It  has  been 
estimated  that  there  are  four  million  laborers  in  America  who  are 
compelled  to  work  every  day  alike,  or  risk  the  losing  of  their  job 
if  they  do  not  comply.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  such  men  lose  regard 
for  the  Church,  since  it  is  the  Christian  capitalist  who,  in  most 
cases,  keeps  these  men  at  work? 

Upon  the  capitalists,  the  leading  manufacturers  and  business 
men  of  our  time,  rests  a  great  responsibility  and  opportunity.  For 
thay,  by  their  personal  example  and  by  their  methods  of  business, 
can  do  more  than  any  other  single  class  of  men  to  rescue  and  pre- 
serve the  Sabbath  day. 

2.  There  is  the  power  of  organized  movements.  So  far  has 
the  Sabbath  gone  from  us  that  organized  effort  to  reclaim  it  is  a 
necessity.  There  are  various  leagues  that  have  been  organized 
for  this  purpose.  They  seek,  by  public  addresses,  by  the  dis- 
tribution of  literature,  by  the  execution  of  law  and  the  securing 
of  new  laws,  to  rescue  the  day. 

In  this  connection  may  I  call  attention  to  an  organization  within 
the  Church  which  has  done  and  can  do  a  great  work  in  redeeming 
the  Sabbath?  I  refer  to  the  Christian  brotherhoods.  One  hundred 
thousand  men  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  are  organized  in  the 
brotherhood  movement.  In  the  Congregational  Church  there  are 
a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand,  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  It  is  estimated  that  in  the  various 
denominations  there  are  one  million  men  organized  into  brother- 
hood chapters.  There  are  many  works  of  a  religious  and  social 
character  which  these  brotherhoods  are  doing,  but  here,  in  reclaim- 
ing the  Christian  Sabbath,  lies  a  field  of  immense  possibilities. 

In  a  certain  Western  city  the  brotherhoods  of  several  Churches 
federated  for  the  purpose  of  investigating  the  conditions  and  worlv- 
ing  hours  of  the  clerks  in  the  grocery  stores.  They  became  con- 
vinced that  it  was  unnecessary  for  the  clerks  to  be  held  so  long 
Saturday  evenings,  and  they  set  about  to  remedy  the  evil.  The 
labor  organizations  of  the  city,  learning  of  the  work  of  the  men 
of  the  Churches  in  the  interests  of  the  laboring  clerks,  were 
inspired  to  join  with  the  brotherhoods  in  their  endeavor,  and 
added  their  efforts  not  only  to  bettering  the  hoiirs  of  the  clerks, 
but  to  the  doing  away  with  Sunday  baseball.  The  combined  move- 
ment was  successful — the  hours  of  the  clerks  were  shortened  and 
Sunday  baseball  was  eliminated. 

What  has  been  done  in  this  instance  has  been  done  in  others, 
and  can  be  done  in  many  more.     Here  is  a  distinct  program  for 


640  METHODIST  BROTHERHOOD. 

the  men  of  the  Church,  and  may  the^  day  hasten  when  men  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  labor  organizations,  seeing  eye  to  eye,  shall 
join  their  forces  for  the  maintenance  of  the  high  ideals  of  a  Chris- 
tian Sabbath,  and,  indeed,  for  the  moral  and  social  betterment 
of  men  on  all  days  of  the  week. 

The  Eev.  James  Chapman,  D.  D.,  of  the  British  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church,  moved,  and  the  Eev.  T.  E.  Fleming,  D.  D., 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  seconded  the  following  reso- 
lution, which  had  previously  been  approved  by  the  Business 
Committee,  and  which  was  now  adopted  by  the  Conference : 

"That  we  believe  the  desecration  of  the  Lord's  Day  is  one  of 
the  greatest  obstacles  to  the  proclamation  of  the  gospel  and  the 
advancement  of  the  Church,  and  the  chief  cause  of  the  neglect  of 
God's  House  and  the  profanation  of  His  Holy  Name. 

"We  therefore  urge  upon  all  our  people  so  to  order  the  course 
of  their  own  lives,  and  so  to  use  all  their  influence,  that  God's 
Holy  Day  may  be  preserved  for  His  proper  worship  and  service. 

"And  we  appeal  to  the  governments  of  the  Christian  states  to 
maintain  the  sanctity  and  authority  of  the  Lord's  Day,  which  is 
essential  to  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  nations." 


EVENING  SEKVICE. 

The  presiding  officer  was  Bishop  Collins  Denny,  D.  D.,  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

Tlie  Eev.  Dr.  W.  L.  Armstrong,  the  pastor  of  the  Metro- 
politan Church,  offered  the  invocation  and  announced  Hymn 
111— 

"Joy  to  the  world!      The  Lord  is  come." 

Prayer  was  offered  by  the  Eev.  I.  P.  Martin,  D.  D.,  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South;  and  Hymn  62  was  sung — 

"I  '11  praise  my  Maker  while  I  've  breath." 

The  address  of  the  evening  was  by  Sir  Egbert  W.  Perks, 
Bart.,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church;  subject, 
"Methodist  Brotherhood :" 

My  dear  brethren,  I  am  not  a  preacher,  not  even  a  lay-preacher; 
but,  at  the  same  time,  I  will  try  to  take  a  passage  to-night  and  have 
some  points  upon  it  for  your  consideration.     The  passage  is,  "Do 


ADDRESS  BY  SIR  ROBERT  W.  PERKS.  641 

good  unto  all  men  as  ye  have  opportunity,  but  especially  to  them 
■which  are  of  the  household  of  faith."  I  suppose  I  am  correct  in 
saying  that  in  that  word  "men"  the  apostle  meant  to  include 
women.  So  to-night  when  I  speak  of  Methodist  brotherhood  I 
want  to  include  the  larger  Methodist  sisterhood.  For  who  can 
read  the  life  of  Mr.  Wesley  and  the  early  Methodist  preachers, 
who  can  study  the  triumphant  course  of  the  Methodist  missions 
in  all  lands  and  times,  without  knowing  what  Methodism  owes  to 
the  courageous  women  of  Methodism?  I  am  reminded  to-night 
that  I  am  not  speaking  alone  to  a  Canadian  congregation,  but  what 
I  have  to  say  must  -be  spoken  to  the  Ecumenical  Congress  now 
gathered  in  this  city,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  assemblies  that 
Methodism  has  ever  witnessed.  Have  you  come  into  this  Church 
within  the  last  few  days?  You  could  have  shaken  hands  with  men 
from  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  the  United  States  and  Canada, 
Australia,  New  Zealand,  South  Africa,  China,  Japan,  and  India — 
all  Methodists,  all  preaching  the  one  Methodist  gospel  in  various 
languages,  in  various  forms,  to  vastly  different  audiences,  but  all 
aiming  at  one  object,  the  salvation  of  men  by  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  congress  is  a  Methodist  congress.  It 
is  to  some  extent  a  Methodist  family  party,  speaking  sometimes  in 
strange  shibboleths,  all  familiar  with  the  same  hymns,  all  proud  of 
the  Church's  history,  all,  in  spite  of  tones  of  self-humiliation  and 
occasional  dreary  pessimism,  with  their  faces  to  the  rising  sun; 
all  full  of  hope  and  courage.  And  why?  Because  we  all  know  that 
the  gospel  which  we  teach  and  preach  has  never  failed,  and  that 
in  the  militant  and  aggressive  work  of  the  Methodist  Church  we 
are  all  trying  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  the  unconquerable 
Christ.  We  are  sometimes  cautioned  to  speak  with  bated  breath 
of  the  past  work  and  the  present  affairs  of  Methodism.  Doubtless 
there  is  to-day  a  somewhat  painful  tendency  to  speak  of  every 
movement  in  tones  of  exaggeration.  May  I  just  in  a  sentence 
indicate  the  vast  affairs  which  Methodism  has  at  this  moment  upon 
its  heart  for  the  saving  of  the  world  and  for  the  regeneration  of 
society?  We  were  told  the  other  day  by  our  statisticians  that  there 
are  thirty  million  Methodist  adherents  to-day  in  all  lands.  Whether 
that  statement  is  accurate  or  not,  I  do  not  know.  But  there  is  very 
certainly  a  band  of  advocates  who,  if  impressed  with  the  grandeur 
of  their  message,  could  turn  the  world  upside  down.  What  would 
a  political  organization  give  for  the  millions  who  are  active  workers 
of  Methodism?  One  million  teachers  and  officers  in  our  Sunday 
schools!  One  hundred  thousand  lay-preachers  voluntarily  going 
forth,  especially  in  the  Old  Country,  to  preach  Sunday  by  Sunday, 
the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ!  Upwards  of  one  hundred 
thousand  places  of  worship;  some  of  them  like  this,  magnificent, 
ornate,  with  beautiful  music,  and  some  simple,  on  the  country 
41 


642  METHODIST  BROTHERHOOD. 

roadside,  with  nothing  but  the  four  plain  walls  and  the  slated  roof 
and  the  hot  furnace  in  the  center,  but,  thank  God,  the  very  entrance 
to  the  gate  of  heaven! 

Now,  my  brethren,  to-night  I  have  to  ask  you  to  consider  whether 
our  Church  has  done  all  that  it  should  do  or  could  do  to  unite  these 
great  material  forces,  these  battalions  strong  in  culture,  in  per- 
sonal influence — has  Methodism  done  all  that  it  should  do  or  could 
do  to  unite  these  vast  battalions  for  the  mutual  help  of  the  people 
called  Methodists?  The  other  day  we  passed  a  resolution  in  the 
Congress  fraught  with  great  significance.  I  venture  to  doubt 
whether  since  the  days  of  John  Wesley  Methodism  has  ever  passed 
such  a  momentous  resolution  as  that  which  we  passed  on  Wednes- 
day last.  And  in  days  to  come,  when  the  Methodism  of  Canada 
will  be  more  potent  than  it  is  to-day,  when  your  million  will  per- 
haps have  swollen  into  many  millions,  and  when  the  Methodist 
Church  will  be  planted  in  many  of  those  great  cities  which  will 
spring  up  in  the  great  Northwest,  you  will  be  able  to  look  back, 
I  think,  upon  the  step  which  we  took  at  this  Toronto  Ecumenical 
Congress.  Because  we  passed  a  resolution  which  will  not  be 
allowed  to  be  a  dead  letter  like  so  many  resolutions.  We  passed 
a  resolution  constituting  an  "International  Methodist  Commission," 
consisting  of  representatives  of  the  Eastern  and  Western  Churches. 
The  duties  of  that  committee  will  be  to  form  a  sort  of  keystone  of 
the  arch  of  Methodism.  Hitherto  our  Churches  have  had  no  mutual 
communication  in  different  lands  of  a  formal  nature.  We  have 
picked  up  what  information  we  could  from  the  religious  press  or 
from  correspondents  or  from  formal  resolutions.  But  now  we  have 
a  sort  of  standing  Methodist  council  of  war — an  agency  which  I 
trust  will  be  a  medium  for  concerted  Methodist  action  by  the 
united  Methodist  Churches  throughout  the  whole  world  for  repress- 
ing wrong,  for  advancing  right,  for  protecting  the  oppressed,  and 
for  hastening,  as  far  as  such  an  agency  can  do  it,  the  coming  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Christ.  Our  Methodist  brotherhood  is  an  attempt 
to  use  the  federated  forces  of  the  Methodist  Church,  as  I  said  a 
moment  ago,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Methodist  people. 

I  think  that,  if  I  had  time  this  evening,  I  should  have  no  diffi- 
culty in  showing,  for  those  who  are  fond  of  precedent  and  who  will 
never  take  a  step  in  life  unless  they  have  a  precedent  for  doing  so, 
from  the  journals  of  Wesley  and  from  the  more  important  action 
of  the  early  leaders  of  the  Christian  Church,  that  we  are  in  the 
true  Christian  succession,  and  Methodist  succession,  in  the  sugges- 
tions now  being  made.  Perhaps  you  say  to  me,  "We  are  a  practical 
people.  Methodism  has  been  called  'applied  Christianity,'  and 
'Christianity  in  earnest.'  Don't  deal  in  these  generalities.  Give 
us  something  that  is  concrete.  How  do  you  mean  to  link  Methodism 
together  for  the  mutual  benefit  of  our  people  far  and  near?"     In 


ADDRESS  BY  SIR  ROBERT  W.  PERKS.  643 

the  first  place,  I  would  say  that  we  want  in  every  city  and  town 
in  the  wide  world  a  voluntary  committee  of  Methodist  laymen  and 
women,  who  will  be  prepared  to  welcome  to  that  town  and  city 
or  hamlet  any  Methodist  youth  or  girl  or  family  entering  that 
place.  And  we  want  it  possible  to  have  a  register  of  such  people, 
so  that  our  Church  may  know  to  whom  to  send  her  people  when 
they  go  into  such  a  center.  You  say,  "But  all  this  is  already  pro- 
vided for."  Theoretically,  yes;  practically,  no.  We  have  the  old- 
fashioned  "note  of  removal"  in  the  Old  Country;  but  it  is  seldom 
used.  I  dare  say  that  there  are  thousands  of  families  in  this 
Dominion  of  Canada  who  have  got  Methodist  "notes  of  removal" 
stowed  away  in  some  corner  of  the  trunk.  We  want,  I  say,  in 
every  city  of  importance  and  in  every  hamlet  and  town  in  the 
world,  a  committee  of  Methodists  who  are  prepared  to  hold  out  a 
helping  hand  to  the  Methodist  who  comes  a  stranger,  friendless, 
into  such  a  city. 

In  the  next  place,  we  want,  as  a  united  Church,  to  do  something 
on  Christian  lines  with  reference  to  emigration.  I  do  n't  know 
whether  many  in  this  church  to-night,  especially  our  delegates, 
have  been  down  into  the  steerage  of  an  emigrant  ship  crossing 
the  Atlantic.  If  so,  you  wall  have  seen  the  conflict  on  many  faces 
between  hope  and  despair,  the  bewilderment  of  those  people  as 
you  talk  to  them  concerning  the  future,  their  hopeless  ignorance 
of  what  they  are  going  to  do  and  how  they  are  going  to  establish 
themselves  in  their  new  land.  They  have  taken  no  pains  to  dis- 
cover whether  they  are  going  to  the  right  centre,  whether  the  trade 
they  know  is  practiced  in  the  towns  whither  they  are  going.  They 
have  been  assisted  emigrants  in  the  old  land.  They  are  going  as 
far  as  their  money  will  take  them.  Surely,  we  ought  not  to  allow 
any  Methodist — I  am  speaking  now  to  my  fellow-Methodists  in 
Great  Britain — we  ought  not  to  allow  any  Methodist  emigrant, 
whether  he  is  a  Wesleyan  or  a  Primitive  or  a  Free  Methodist,  to 
leave  our  country,  without  seeing  that  the  utmost  possible  has  been 
done  to  take  him  cheaply  to  his  destination,  to  locate  him  in  a 
place  where  his  particular  qualification  may  best  be  used,  to  see 
that  he  has  Methodist  friends  all  along  the  route  of  his  journey, 
that,  if  he  is  going  to  cross  your  great  continent,  he  is  suitably 
lodged  in  homes  where  he  will  not  be  exposed  to  vicious  surround- 
ings, where  many  a  Methodist  boy  and  girl  has  been  stranded  for 
life.  I  say  that  we,  as  Methodists  in  the  Old  Country,  ought  to 
see,  and  can  see  if  we  would  only  pursue  it,  a  common-sense  system 
such  as  our  friends  surely  can  easily  devise,  which  shall  be  a 
benefit  to  the  emigrant  and  a  benefit  to  those  of  other  lands,  and 
a  benefit,  above  all,  to  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ.  We  want  organ- 
ized immigration. 

May  I  say  in  passing,  it  is  a  mystery  to  many  of  us  that  the 


644  METHODIST  BROTHERHOOD. 

governments  of  these  other  countries  have  not  handled  this  problem 
themselves,  and  the  municipalities.  You  have  only  to  look  at  the 
names  of  some  towns  and  cities  in  this  dominion  to  see  reproduced 
there  the  names  of  towns  in  the  Old  Country.  It  suggests  to  one's 
mind  how  important,  how  peculiarly  advantageous,  it  would  be  to 
many  of  our  great  municipalities,  if  they,  instead  of  establishing 
farm  colonies  in  our  own  country  in  some  untillable  and  unprofit- 
able marsh,  would  only  direct  their  municipal  and  other  agencies 
to  work  out  the  same  problem  in  some  part  of  the  king's 
dominion,  where  the  same  money  would  produce  enormously  dif- 
ferent results.  You  will  pardon  me  perhaps  on  a  Sunday  night 
dealing  with  these  business  aspects  of  the  Church  of  God.  You 
may  say,  we  are  told  very  little  in  the  New  Testament  about  the 
business  arrangements  of  the  early  Church.  That  is  quite  true. 
They  must  have  had  their  campaign  at  first  of  some  sort.  We 
are  told  very  little  about  that.  We  are  not  even  told  what  the 
apostles  personally  looked  like.  There  were  no  interviewers,  so 
far  as  I  can  learn,  in  those  days.  Certainly  there  were  no  photog- 
raphers. They  had  to  get  along  as  best  they  could;  and  we  know 
very  little  about  any  business  arrangements  of  the  early  Christian 
Church.  I  wish  we  knew  a  great  deal  more.  But,  at  the  same 
time,  the  success  which  followed  the  work  must  have  involved 
careful,  business,  methodical  arrangements  by  men  who  were  up- 
to-date,  who  knew  the  country,  and  were  business  men.  I  feel, 
therefore,  a  little  comfort  when  I  have  to  speak  to-night  upon  a 
subject  which  perhaps  some  of  my  brethren  in  this  congregation 
will  consider  almost  too  secular  for  a  Sunday  night  in  this  great 
church. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  "welcome  committee"  in  every  city  of  the 
world,  for  the  Methodist  entering  such  places.  I  have  spoken  of 
organized  Church  immigration,  under  the  aid  and  assistance  of 
our  Church.  May  I  say  in  passing  that  the  Church  of  England 
has  already  got  an  organization  of  this  sort?  But  there  is  this 
singular  condition — their  aid  is  only  given  to  emigrants  who  either 
are  or  are  prepared  to  become  members  of  the  Anglican  Church. 
Nobody  else  can  apply  for  assisted  emigration  in  connection  with 
the  organization  of  the  Church  of  England  in  our  country.  The 
Roman  Catholics  have  that  active  committee,  ever  watchful  over 
the  souls  and  the  bodies  and  even  the  purses  of  their  people.  They 
have  got  an  active  organization.  Then,  why  not  the  Methodists? 
Mr.  Wesley  said  that  we  must  not  let  the  devil  have  the  best 
tunes.  And  he  put  some  of  his  best  hj-mns  to  popular  tunes.  We 
do  not  do  so  to-day.  What  the  effect  would  be  I  do  not  know.  We 
could  hardly  excel  for  beauty  the  solo  that  was  sung  to-night. 

The  third  sphere  of  work  is  employment.  I  have  talked  to 
many  laymen  attending  this  congress  during  the  past  week,  men 


ADDRESS  BY  SIR  ROBERT  W.  PERKS.  645 

who  are  masters  of  great  industries,  who  employ  in  many  cities 
of  the  world  hundreds  and  thousands  of  people.  And  I  have  not 
spoken  to  one  who  has  not  said  to  me:  "I  could  always  find  places 
in  my  works,  or  my  factory,  or  store,  or  shop,  for  efficient  and 
trustworthy  Methodist  employees."  If  this  is  the  case,  why  should 
not  we  try  to  put  the  Methodists  who  want  employment  into  direct 
communication  with  the  employer  who  is  prepared  to  give  him 
employment?  You  saj'  perhaps,  "O,  but  that  is  an  interference  with 
the  organized  institutions  which  are  controlling  the  labor  market." 
If  we  were  to  trouble  ourselves  about  every  objection  which  can 
be  started  against  any  project  in  life,  we  never  should  take  any 
step  forward  for  fear  of  failure.  May  I  point  out  that  there  has 
never  been  a  movement  in  Methodism  during  the  last  century  which 
has  not  been  branded  with  failure  at  the  outset,  even  before  it  was 
launched,  even  by  powerful  leaders  in  the  Methodist  Churches? 
When  I  suggested  some  years  ago  to  the  Conference  in  Great 
Britain  that  we  should  start  a  fund  for  raising  one  million  sterling 
from  the  rank  and  file  of  the  people,  I  was  listened  to  with  incred- 
ulous silence.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  alarming  than  the 
chilly  silence  with  which  the  Conference  of  our  country  received 
that  suggestion  of  mine.  For  one  hour  and  a  half  I  spoke,  and  not 
one  single  cheer  of  "Hear!  Hear!"  or  "Amen,"  and  still  less  a  "hal- 
lelujah."    So  we  must  not  be  afraid  of  critics. 

I  have  spoken  of  a  register.  I  have  spoken  of  immigration. 
I  have  spoken  of  organized  efforts  to  secure  employment.  And 
the  Methodists  are  able  to  give  that  employment.  There  is  not  a 
great  city  in  the  world,  there  is  no  great  corporation  or  institution 
in  the  world,  where  you  will  not  find  godly,  tender-hearted  Meth- 
odists in  control  and  in  positions  of  influence.  They  are  willing 
to  throw  out  the  hand  to  struggling  young  Methodists.  Why  should 
not  we  help  them  to  grasp  it?  Thei-e  is  one  other  feature,  and  I 
must  pass  it  over  quickly,  because  with  some  of  my  friends  and 
even  in  my  own  mind  it  is  a  debatable  point.  Mr.  Wesley  started, 
but  had  to  abandon  it  later,  a  loan  society.  He  made  only  small 
loans.  He  never  loaned  more  than  five  pounds.  But  he  states  in 
one  of  his  journals  that  he  never  lost  a  single  penny  of  what  he 
loaned.  We  shall  not,  perhaps,  at  this  moment  couple  with  this 
project  a  scheme  for  loaning  money.  But  we  shall  give  such  aid 
where  it  is  required;  and  it  has  been  required  in  many,  many 
cases  which  we  have  assisted  since  this  project  was  first  suggested; 
and  that  has  been  found  of  wonderful  assistance. 

Now,  two  strange  objections  have  been  made  to  this  scheme 
of  a  Methodist  brotherhood,  "hands  across  the  sea,"  the  clasping 
of  the  hands  all  around  the  world  by  the  Methodist  people.  First 
of  all,  a  man  comes  forward  and  says,  "You  are  interfering  with 
the  functions  of  the  state.    This  business  that  you  have  stated  must 


64  G  METHODIST  BROTHERHOOD. 

be  attended  to  by  the  community  collectively,  and  not  by  the  Church 
individually,  still  less  by  the  Church  collectively."  In  answer  to 
this  I  have  to  point  out  to  you  students  of  Methodist  history — (you 
remember  the  Canadian  preacher  who  made  the  very  able  address 
saying  that  the  time  might  come  when  you  would  have  to  brush 
aside  the  past  history  of  Methodism.  I  am  not  going  to  argue  that 
to  you  now.)  But  I  want  to  point  this  out  to  you,  that  the 
Church  has  been  the  pioneer  and  not  the  humble  servant  of  the 
state  in  measures  of  great  social  reform.  You  have  only  to  read 
the  history  of  our  country  to  find  when  it  was  one  of  the  fun- 
damental principles  even  of  great  republics  that  the  people  must 
not  know  anything,  that  ignorance  was  bliss. 

Our  Methodist  Church  has  always  repudiated  that  devilish  doc- 
trine. When  the  titled  classes  and  the  aristocracy  of  our  coimtry 
kept  the  people  down,  the  Miethodist  preacher  came  along  and 
said,  "These  men  must  be  taught  to  read  and  write,  and  think  and 
act."  Long  before  the  state  stepped  in,  the  Methodist  Church 
came  along  and  advocated  education  for  the  people.  Who  was 
it  that  flung  its  forces  into  the  scale  against  slavery  first?  It  was 
the  Christian  Churches.  And  the  late  factory  laws  in  our  country? 
V/as  it  the  manufacturers  who  were  the  first  in  the  field  for  the 
reform  of  the  factory  laws?  It  was  not.  When  I  was  a  boy  I  saw 
an  old  woman  in  Lancashire  who  told  me  that  when  she  was 
young,  women  were  chained  to  machines  in  the  factories  and  to 
the  trollies  in  the  pit,  turned  into  beasts  of  burden.  Who  was  it 
that  had  to  protest?  It  was  the  Christian  Church.  So  I  might 
refer  to  many  reforms — the  great  temperance  reform.  Who  have 
been  the  leaders,  and  who  are  the  leaders  in  that  to-day?  Who  are 
in  the  very  forefront  in  that  great  reform?  It  is  the  men  of  the 
Church.  Is  it  not  better  that  the  Christian  Church  should  encour- 
age our  people  to  undertake  this  work  individually  and  give  benefit 
and  sympathy  and  love,  rather  than  that  it  should  be  left  entirely 
to  the  state?  The  time  may  come,  and  perhaps  is  coming,  when  In 
all  countries  we  shall  hear  a  lot  about  compulsory  state  philan- 
thropy and  a  lot  about  interference  of  the  state  in  the  matters  of 
the  people.  At  all  events,  whatever  the  upshot  may  be  concerning 
the  action  of  the  state  in  our  lives  and  in  social  reforms,  I  wish 
to  point  out  that  the  state  has  always  had  to  follow  in  the  wake  of 
the  Church  in  many  of  these  great  movements. 

But  another  man  comes  along — I  saw  one  writing  in  a  power- 
ful newspaper  the  other  day — who  says,  "Pay  no  attention  to  this. 
It  is  a  retrograde  step.  It  is  a  narrow  movement.  It  does  not  cor- 
respond to  that  feeling  of  universal  charity  which  looks  to  the 
spirit  of  a  united  Christian  Church."  Now  I  wonder  what  was  to 
be  said  to  that.  It  made  very  little  impression  on  my  mind,  because 
it  is  a  very  useful  thing  in  life  not  to  stop  doing  something  that 


ADDRESS  BY  SIR  ROBERT  W.  PERKS.  647 

you  can  do  because  you  are  anxious  to  do  something  which  you 
know  you  can  not  do.  And  Methodism  is  a  practical  Church.  We 
are  not  tlieorists;  we  are  not  idealists;  we  are  not  dreamers;  we 
do  not  aim  at  the  stars  when  we  ought  simply  to  aim  at  a  lamp-post, 
or  something  nearer,  at  all  events.  I  thought  to  myself,  "I  will  say 
what  John  Wesley  said  on  this  point."  And  I  am  bound  to  say 
that  I  do  not  agree  with  John  Wesley,  because  John  Wesley  is  far 
more  advanced  on  this  subject  than  probably  I  should  be.  If  he 
were  alive  today  probably  he  would  agree  with  us.  But  Mr.  John 
Wesley  was  faced  with  this  question  himself.  He  had  people  in 
his  Church  starving,  out  of  work,  and  he  says,  "I  reminded  the 
assistant  that  some  of  our  brothers  and  sisters  were  destitute  of 
needful  food,  were  destitute  of  clothing,  were  out  of  employment." 
What  did  he  do?  He  formed  at  once  co-operative  societies  for 
working  under  his  own  direction.  He  bought,  and  had  articles  man- 
ufactured, and  devoted  the  surplus  money  to  some  other  charity. 
That  is  what  he  did.  It  was  a  step  in  practical  reform.  But  he  had 
to  make  rules  for  his  society.  And  that  is  a  very  different  thing 
from  making  rules  for  yourself.  You  have  a  sort  of  latitude  in 
making  rules  for  yourself.  Charles  Wesley  was  always  a  sort 
of  drag  on  John.  But  they  both  signed  the  "rules  of  society."  And 
he  says  that  they  must  do  good,  "especially  to  them  that  are  of 
the  household  of  faith  or  groaning  so  to  be,  employing  them  prefer- 
ably to  others,  buying  one  of  another,  helping  each  other  in  busi- 
ness." I  am  not  going  to  suggest  to-night  that  we  go  so  far  as 
that.  But  I  quote  John  Wesley  as  my  authority,  in  reply  to  the 
man  who  tells  us  that  when  we  are  trying  to  utilize  the  forces  of 
Methodism  throughout  the  world  to  help  one  another  we  are  doing 
■something  sectarian  and  something  which  ought  not  to  be  approved. 
There  are  always  objectors  to  every  movement;  and  I  do  ask 
our  critics,  as  I  asked  the  critics  of  the  "Twentieth  Century  Fund," 
to  stand  aside  and  not  stop  those  of  us  who  were  willing  to  carry 
it  through,  to  see  that  by  this  great  agency  we  can  do  a  great  deal 
to  advance  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  I  have  only  one  or  two  more 
remarks  to  make  before  I  sit  down.  We  are,  as  we  have  been 
reminded  during  this  Congress,  living  in  a  new  age;  and  we  have 
to  deal  with  new  problems.  There  is  the  industrial  discontent  in 
every  land.  You  have  the  rapid  mobilization  of  labor;  you  have  the 
equally  rapid  centralization  of  wealth  and  capital;  you  have  the 
rebellion  against  authority  and  even  against  law.  How  are  we  to 
meet  these  ominous  signs?  We  are  to  meet  them  in  the  same 
way  that  our  fathers  met  them  in  the  days  of  Wesley.  We  are  not 
to  fear  them.  We,  as  a  Christian  Church,  must  face  them  and 
weigh  them  and  see  what  they  really  mean.  Then,  with  the  Bible 
in  our  hands,  with  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  upon  our  lips,  we 
shall  be  able  to  change  the  face  of  society — not  by  new  social  laws. 


648  METHODIST  BROTHERHOOD. 

but  by  the  change  which  is  effected  in  tlie  heart  of  the  individual 
when  he  first  grasps  that  great  truth  that  he  is  a  son  of  God  and 
that  he  is  saved  by  the  redeeming  blood  of  Jesus  Christ.  Change 
the  unit  of  society,  and  you  change  the  state.  Alter  the  habits 
of  the  man  in  the  village,  and  he  soon  produces  his  impression  upon 
society  and  the  neighborhood  and  the  town.  We  have  but  one 
course  to  take  in  facing  these  great  and  perplexing  problems.  We 
have  to  follow  in  the  same  old,  well-tried  paths  of  our  fathers  in 
the  days  of  Wesley.  In  those  days  England  and  other  countries 
were  as  disturbed  as  to-daj'.  They  were  ignorant;  but  to-day  they 
are  informed,  and  that  is  a  grand  asset  in  the  cause  of  Christian- 
ity. We  do  not  want  to  deal  with  uninformed  and  uninstructed 
people,  but  with  thoughtful  people  who  can  accept  the  truth  as 
it  is  in  Jesus  on  the  basis  not  of  mere  authority,  but  of  reason. 
And,  my  dear  friends,  let  us  never  forget  that  it  is  by  the  com- 
manding power  of  Jesus  that  we  can  hope  to  regenerate  the  world. 
And,  as  we  think  to-night  of  the  Methodist  brotherhood,  let  us 
never  forget  that  great  brotherhood  of  the  skies,  that  countless 
company  of  the  saints  of  God,  who  are  watching  us  and  in  alliance 
with  us,  but  above  all,  our  Elder  Brother. 

The  congregation,  led  hy  tlie  choir,  sang  Hymn  347 — 

"Salvation!     O,  the  joyful  sound." 

after  which  the  service  closed  with  the  pronouncing  of  the 
benediction. 


THIRTEENTH    DAY. 

Monday,    October    16th. 


Topic:     THE  TRAINIXG  OF  THE  MINISTRY. 


FIEST  SESSION, 


THE  presiding  officer  was  the  Eev.  E.  Humphries,  Ph.  D., 
of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church  of  the  United  States. 
In  the  absence  of  the  Pev.  S.  Ogata,  D.  D.,  the  Eev.  F.  D. 
BovARD,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  conducted 
the  devotional  services. 

Hymn  No.  682  was  sung — 

"How  beauteous  are  their  feet." 

The  Scriptures  read  were  2  Cor.  4  i  1-7 ;  2  Tim.  1 :  6-14. 
Dr.  BovARD  offered  prayer. 

The  Eev.  John  G.  Tasker,  D.  D.,  of  the  British  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church,  read  an  essay  on  "The  Improvement  of  our 

Theological  Colleges :" 

The  subject  assigned  to  me  under  the  general  heading  of  "The 
Training  of  the  Ministry"  is  "The  Improvement  of  Our  Theological 
Colleges."  After  making  many  inquiries  from  those  who  know  the 
conditions  which  obtain  in  the  United  States,  in  Canada  and  else- 
where, as  well  as  in  the  various  Methodist  Churches  at  home,  I 
am  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  the  problem  before  us  is  exceed- 
ingly complex,  owing  to  the  great  differences  in  their  constitution 
and  methods  of  working.  I  can  not  hope  to  say  much  that  will  be 
capable  of  universal  application.  Therefore,  all  that  I  shall  attempt 
is  to  present  to  the  Conference  some  general  considerations  and 
suggestions  based  upon  my  own  experience  and  observation.  It 
would  have  been  easily  possible  to  use  the  time  allotted  to  me  in 
a  wearisome  and  probably  ineffective'  comparison  of  different  meth- 
ods. These  differences  will,  doubtless,  be  brought  to  light  during 
the  discussion  this  morning. 

Ten  years  ago,  in  an  appreciative  article  on  the  Third  Ecu- 
menical Methodist  Conference,  the  Spectator  said,  "The  Wesley- 
ans  are  and  always  have  been  among  the  greatest  and  best  of 
educators  and,  what  is  more,  of  educators  of  the  spirit."     This  is 

649 


650  THEOLOGICAL  COLLEGES. 

a  generous  estimate,  but  it  is  the  judgment  of  an  unbiased  observer 
from  without.  Our  people  eagerly  avail  themselves  of  the  stepping- 
stones  to  knowledge  which,  in  our  days,  make  higher  education  no 
longer  the  privilege  of  the  few.  Hence,  in  general  culture,  the 
minister  must,  at  least,  command  the  respect  of  his  congregation, 
and  the  training  of  the  ministry  must,  above  all  things,  be  the  edu- 
cation of  the  spirit. 

The  mind  of  a  minister  may  be  well  furnished  with  classical  and 
critical  knowledge,  with  linguistic  and  literary  lore,  and  still  he 
may  not  be  thoroughly  furnished  unto  every  good  word  and  work. 
He  may  be  "deep  versed  in  books,  but  shallow  in  himself."  All 
this  may  be  taken  for  granted,  and  yet  there  are  no  signs  that 
saintly  pastors  and  ardent  evangelists  will  become  less  numerous 
as  the  number  of  scholars  in  the  ministry  increases.  I  know  that 
John  Wesley  said,  "My  preachers  are  not  learned  men";  but  he 
also  said,  "They  are  masters  of  what  they  teach." 

The  problem  of  the  training  of  ministers,  therefore,  resolves 
itself  into  the  question,  What  are  they  to  teach?  Apart  from  the 
innumerable  things  which  it  is  an  advantage  for  them  to  know, 
what  is  it  essential  that  they  should  be  competent  and  apt  to 
teach?  The  answer  to  this  comprehensive  question  may  be  deduced 
from  the  words  of  the  great  commission.  The  ministers  of  Christ 
must  have  a  gospel  to  proclaim,  they  must  be  able  so  to  preach 
that  gospel  as  to  make  disciples  of  men  of  all  nations,  and  they 
must  also  be  competent  to  teach  men  everywhere  what  is  implied 
in  obedience  to  the  Savior's  commands. 

At  the  Edinburgh  Conference,  Dr.  Douglas  MacKenzie  sum- 
marized the  knowledge  which  a  missionary  requires  under  two 
heads — the  knowledge  of  Christianity,  and  the  knowledge  of  the 
country  to  which  he  brings  Christianity.  All  ministers  are  mission- 
aries, though  some  work  at  home  and  some  in  foreign  lands.  At 
any  rate,  every  minister  requires  not  only  the  knowledge  of  Chris- 
tianity, but  also  the  knowledge  of  the  environment — mental,  moral, 
and  spiritual — of  those  to  whom  he  would  fain  commend  Christ. 

The  knowledge  of  Christianity — how  much  is  involved  therein! 
A  moment's  meditation  on  that  theme  is  sufficient  to  remind  us 
how  manifold  are  the  subjects  which  ought  to  be  included  in  the 
curriculum  of  a  college  devoted  to  the  teaching  of  theology.  But 
in  most,  if  not  in  all  our  colleges,  tuition  must  also  be  given  in  sub- 
jects which  more  properly  belong  to  the  high  school  or  secondary 
college.  Is  there  not  room  for  improvement  here?  Ought  there 
not  to  be  improvement  in  this  respect  in  the  near  future?  If  our 
Conferences  will  make  it  possible  for  the  tutors  in  our  colleges  to 
eliminate  some,  if  not  all,  secular  subjects  from  the  time-table,  they 
will  rejoice  to  concentrate  upon  theology  in  its  manifold  branches. 
A  few  years  ago,  Dr  W.  P.  Paterson,  in  his  inaugural  address  as 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  JOHN  G.  TASKER.  661 

professor  of  divinity  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  referred  to  the 
indefinite  expansion  of  the  territories  which  the  theologian  Is 
expected  to  survey.  The  truth  of  his  strilving  statement  can  not 
be  challenged:  "for  its  adequate  treatment  systematic  theology 
requires  not  a  chair,  but  a  department."  But  if  this  be  true,  what 
follows?  I  leave  you  to  estimate  how  many  chairs,  or  rather  how 
many  departments  are  required  for  the  adequate  treatment  of  the- 
ology— apologetic,  biblical,  historical,  as  well  as  systematic.  I  know 
that  this  suggestion  can  not  be  carried  out  without  an  increase  of 
income.  But  our  Churches  need  to  realize  that  it  is  false  economy 
to  spend  tens  of  thousands  upon  the  erection  of  churches  and  mis- 
sion halls  and  only  thousands  upon  the  equipment  of  colleges  for  the 
training  of  men,  upon  whose  effective  ministry  it  depends,  under 
God,  whether  or  not  these  costly  buildings  shall  answer  the  end 
for  which  they  were  built.  There  are,  I  rejoice  to  say,  some  wel- 
come signs  that  our  far-seeing  laymen  are  taking  this  subject  into 
their  serious  consideration. 

It  is  my  duty,  however,  to  add  that  the  improvement  for  which 
I  look  in  the  near  future  will  be  an  extension,  along  the  same  lines 
of  evolution,  of  the  improvement  effected  during  the  last  thirty 
years.  Further  progress  has  been  retarded  only  by  unwillingness 
to  insist  on  the  attainment  of  a  higher  standard  of  educational  fit- 
ness by  candidates  for  the  ministry.  My  contemporaries  know  that, 
in  their  student  days,  the  teaching  staff  of  a  residential  college  of 
seventy  men  consisted  of  a  tutor  in  theology,  a  tutor  in  classics,  and 
two  assistant  tutors.  Of  necessity,  the  connotation  of  the  term 
"theology"  was  narrowed,  and  it  would  be  hard  to  say  what  sub- 
jects  did  not  attempt  to  shelter  under  the  classical  umbrella.  The 
appointment  of  a  tutor  in  biblical  languages  and  literature  at  each 
of  our  colleges  marked  a  distinct  stage  in  the  evolution,  followed,  as 
was  inevitable,  by  subdivision,  that  is  to  say,  by  the  assigning  of  the 
Old  Testament  to  one  tutor  and  the  New  Testament  to  another. 
When  these  tutors  can  confine  their  energies  to  these  subjects,  and 
are  no  longer  responsible  for  classics  or  for  philosophy,  as  the 
case  may  be,  further  progress  will  be  made,  for  which  previous 
improvements  have  prepared  the  way. 

Looking  beyond  Methodism  for  a  moment,  we  discern  a  more 
general  agreement  in  regard  to  the  necessity  of  what  may  be  called 
the  professional  training  of  ministers.  Doctor  Arnold  of  Rugby 
held  that  a  minister  must  be  an  educated  man,  a  gentleman,  and  a 
Christian,  but  that  special  training  was  neither  necessary  nor  desir- 
able. There  Is  a  reaction  against  this  view,  even  in  the  Anglican 
Church,  where  it  has  been  most  influential.  This  change  in  senti- 
ment was  vigorously  expressed  a  few  weeks  ago  by  the  Bishop 
of  London.  "I  believe,"  he  said,  "that  every  one  of  us  would  have 
been  better,  whatever  our  university  education  may  have  been,  for 


653  THEOLOGICAL  COLLEGES. 

the  control  and  training  and  proving  of  a  theological  college  after- 
wards." Writing  from  a  similar  point  of  view.  Dr.  Paul  Drews  of 
Halle  has  recently  published  a  pamphlet  dealing  with  some  prob- 
lems of  practical  theology.  He  pleads  for  compulsory  post-graduate 
courses  in  theological  colleges  (Predigerseminare).  The  trend  of 
these  arguments  is  in  favor  of  residential  colleges,  with  their  oppor- 
tunities for  pastoral  oversight,  brotherly  fellowship,  the  discipline 
of  character,  in  a  word,  the  education  of  the  spirit.  I  should  cer- 
tainly regard  it  as  an  improvement  if  nonresidential  theological 
colleges  were  made  residential.  The  widening  of  interest  which 
Doctor  Arnold  was  anxious  to  secure  can  often  be  supplied  by  prox- 
imity to  a  university.  Then  there  is  opportunity  for  attendance 
upon  suitable  courses  of  lectures,  and  fraternization  with  non-the- 
ological students. 

A  further  question  remains.  If  the  teaching  in  our  colleges  were 
restricted  to  subjects  properly  included  under  theology,  should  the 
curriculum  be  still  further  limited?  For  example,  should  students 
be  exempted  from  Greek,  in  order  that  they  may  have  more  time 
for  theology?  Bishop  Westcott's  reply  to  that  suggestion  has 
always  seemed  to  me  most  cogent,  "Is  not  theology  Greek?  What 
else  is  it?"  Doctor  Westcott's  contention  is  that  the  New  Tes- 
tament could  not  have  been  written  in  Latin,  and  to  establish  that 
contention  he  contrasts  the  Latin  rendering  with  the  Greek  original 
of  "The  Word  was  made  flesh."  It  is  not  needful  to  make  the  whole 
of  Christianity  to  depend  on  the  Greek  Aorist  and  the  preposition 
ill,  in  order  to  maintain  that  the  possibility  of  acquiring  a  working 
knowledge  of  the  Greek  Testament  should  be  afforded  to  every 
student  for  the  Christian  ministrj^  "From  whence  proceed  so  many 
dissensions  in  religious  matters,  but  from  ignorance  of  grammar?" 
It  is'  nearly  four  hundred  years  since  Scaliger  asked  that  question, 
but  it  is  not  irrelevant  to-day.  On  similar  grounds  a  plea  for  the 
training  of  ministers  in  philosophy  may  be  based.  It  is  an  axiom 
that  the  chief  problems  in  theology  emerge  first  in  philosophy,  and 
it  is  a  fact  that,  notwithstanding  some  unwise  modern  disparage- 
ments of  theology,  there  is  always  widespread  and  intense  interest 
in  ascertaining  the  bearing  upon  Christian  theology  of  the  most 
recent  results  of  scientific  research,  historical  criticism,  and  philo- 
sophic speculation. 

While  we  aim  at  the  improvement  of  our  colleges  by  lessening 
the  number  of  subjects  taught,  we  must  not  carry  too  far  the  process 
of  simplifying.  Theology  has  for  its  theme  "the  many-hued  wis- 
dom of  God."  The  unity  cf  the  manifold  is  not  to  be  demonstrated 
by  omitting  all  the  elements  of  the  manifold  save  one.  Nor  should 
we  try  to  simplify  by  acting  as  though 

"New  lights  indeed  on  the  earth  may  shine, 
But  nothing  new  upon  things  divine." 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  JOHN  G.  TASKER.  653 

Florentius  the  Mystic  is  not  to  be  imitated  when,  in  his  anxiety 
to  live  the  simple  life  and  not  to  conform  to  new  fashions,  he  asked 
his  tailor  to  make  him  an  old  coat.  If  the  training  of  the  minister 
includes,  as  surely  as  it  should  include,  knowledge  of  his  environ- 
ment, as  well  as  knowledge  of  his  message,  the  subject  of  his  dis- 
course will  be  everlasting  truth,  but  the  language  in  which  his 
thoughts  are  clothed  will  be  adapted  to  the  modern  mind.  In  this 
connection  I  would  emphasize  the  importance  of  requiring  students 
frequently  to  write  essays  or  sermons,  in  order  that  the  art  of 
expression  may  be  learned. 

There  is  danger,  I  know,  in  insisting  upon  knowledge  of  environ- 
ment. The  danger  arises  from  the  urgency  of  demands  for  the 
inclusion  of  new  subjects,  when  the  curriculum  is  already  over- 
crowded. Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  in  one  of  his  stories,  represents 
a  missionary  as  losing  prestige  with  the  natives  on  account  of  a 
ti-ick  played  upon  him.  "I  wish  I  had  learned  legerdemain  instead 
of  Hebrew,"  he  exclaimed  in  impatience.  The  moral  of  the  story 
is,  I  think,  that  the  strictly  utilitarian  test  is  not  always  decisive. 
A  minister  may  be  quite  competent  to  preach  the  gospel  and  to 
teach  Christianity,  though  he  may  not  be  as  familiar  as  some  of  his 
hearers  with  many  branches  of  knowledge.  In  a  volume  published 
in  New  York  and  known  to  many  present,  there  is  a  story  of  a 
farmer  who  refused  to  hear  a  minister  preach  because  he  mistook 
rye  for  wheat.  The  lesson  of  the  story  is,  in  my  judgment,  not 
that  the  rural  minister  should  be  qualified  to  lead  his  people  in 
agriculture,  as  well  as  in  spiritual  matters,  but  rather  that  he 
should  learn  in  college  never  to  pose  as  a  walking  encyclopedia, 
always  to  be  "teachably  intelligent,"  and  not  to  exercise  himself 
in  things  too  wonderful  for  him.  On  the  other  hand,  the  necessity 
for  the  interpretation  of  the  commands  of  Christ  to  the  present  age 
justifies  the  study,  in  our  colleges,  of  social  facts  and  problems  in 
the  light  of  biblical  and  ethical  principles,  excluding,  of  course, 
all  party  politics. 

In  what  has  been  said,  the  needs  of  the  average  student  have 
been  mainly  regarded.  For  missionary  students  the  Edinburgh  Con- 
ference made  many  wise  suggestions.  Their  adoption  should  not 
be  delayed  and  would  be  facilitated  by  the  carrying  out  of  the 
improvements  already  mentioned.  For  missionary  students  and 
for  other  selected  students  a  longer  course  of  training  than  three 
years  is  most  desirable.  Another  improvement  is  foreshadowed  by 
the  generous  promise  of  IMr.  Gutteridge,  a  Wesleyan  layman,  to 
give  five  thousand  pounds  towards  the  establishment  of  a  hostel 
at  a  university  town.  Residence  need  not,  I  think,  be  limited  to  stu- 
dents who  can  take  a  post-graduate  course.  Men  of  proved  ability 
might  be  sent  to  read  for  a  degree  in  the  university  atmosphere 
and,  of  course,  to  attend  lectures.     If  this  proposal  receives  the 


654         Theological  colleges. 

support  of  all  bur  Churches,  Methodist  students  generally  might 
share  its  advantages.  This  would  be  practicable  and  wise  co-opera- 
tion. The  suggestion  made  in  this  Conference  of  a  federation  of 
all  Methodist  colleges  needs  further  elaboration  before  any  judg- 
ment can  be  formed  as  to  its  practicability.  Very  large  residential 
colleges  are,  I  am  fully  convinced,  a  mistake.  Any  proposal  for 
amalgamation  must  show  that  greater  efficiency  and  economy  will 
be  secured  without  introducing  complexities  into  the  administra- 
tion. 

To  the  Methodist  Churches  our  ascended  Lord  still  gives,  in 
His  royal  bounty,  men  whom  he  calls  to  be  evangelists,  pastors, 
and  teachers.  Our  gratitude  for  His  gift  must  be  proved  by  the 
use  we  make  of  it.  The  immediate  aim  of  our  colleges  is  the  per- 
fecting of  ministerial  training,  but  their  ultimate  aim  is  the  "build- 
ing up  of  the  body  of  Christ";  they  attain  that  end  in  proportion 
as  our  people,  and  not  merely  our  students,  are  "no  longer  children, 
tossed  to  and  fro  and  carried  about  with  every  wind  of  doctrine  . 
.  .  .  but  speaking  truth  in  love,  grow  up  in  all  things  into  Him, 
which  is  the  head,  even  Christ." 

Following  Dr.  Task:er''s  essay  came  two  invited  addresses. 
The  first  was  by  the  Eev.  Feaxklin  Hamilton,  D.D.,  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  on  the  subject,  "Broader  Prepara- 
tion for  Admission  to  the  Ministry :" 

Christianity  is  an  apocalypse,  "a  light  for  the  unveiling  of  the 
nations."  The  great  fact  in  the  life  of  a  preacher  is  his  vision — 
he  must  be  a  prophet.  All  else  is  secondary.  The  true  preacher 
must  have  what  the  poet  of  the  "Fairy  Queen"  calls  the  supreme, 
culminating  virtue — the  virtue  of  magnificence. 

Magnificence  is  a  world-word  in  the  scope  of  its  vision, 
ministry  and  power.  In  his  vision,  therefore,  the  minister  must 
see  large.  Seeing  the  end  from  the  beginning,  noting  the  sublime 
where  others  see  the  commonplace,  he  must  apprehend  the  mag- 
nificence of  life  as  promised  by  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  this  world. 
Whatever  there  is  of  attainment  or  achievement  he  must  regard 
as  only  the  glory  of  the  imperfect,  in  an  imperfect  world.  What 
this  generation  needs  is  not  something  new  in  religion,  but  a  new 
enthusiasm  for  the  old  faith;  not  a  creed,  but  a  new  heart;  not  a 
new  destructive  modernism,  but  a  new  constructive  puritanism; 
not  a  sophistical  dividing  of  truth,  but  a  right  vision  of  the  Lord 
of  Truth;  not  a  more  pretentious  brotherhood,  but  a  humbler  walk 
with  God;  not  an  artificial  communism,  but  an  uselfish  Godlikeness. 
Unless  these  blind  gropings  and  frenzied  combinations  of  the 
toilers  are  centered  and  controlled  by  a  new  sight  of  the  Savior, 
they  will  pull  down  the  pillars  of  society  and  government. 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  FRANKLIN  HAMILTON.  655 

To  induce  secularized,  money-mad  men  in  the  street  to  accept 
this  ideal  the  herald  of  the  gospel  must  be  a  cosmic  man,  panoplied 
imperially.  No  mere  vocational  book-training  will  suffice.  It  will 
not  be  enough  to  have  "a  soul  replete  with  good  literature,"  or 
for  the  fisher  of  men  to  "bait  his  hook  with  his  heart."  He  may 
have  "intellectual  sincerity,  serenity  of  mind,  and  loftiness  of  pur- 
pose." He  may  "see  straight  and  think  clearly."  He  may  be 
"endued  with  a  sense  of  proportion  and  have  a  luminous  philosophy 
of  life."  His  breadth  may  be  accompanied  by  depth  and  passion. 
His  mind  may  be  educated  to  think  habitually  by  "the  system  of 
co-ordination  and  unity,"  the  system  by  which  the  Almighty  thinks 
the  universe  into  being  and  operation.  Yet,  beyond  all  this,  he  must 
have  the  royal  'bounty.  He  must  see  large.  He  must  hear  "the 
hum  of  mystic  working."  He  must  have  fed  upon  Dante's  bread  of 
the  Angels.  The  sweetness  and  simplicity  of  the  great  vision  must 
have  given  him  celestial  leaven  and  the  wooing  note.  The  vision  of 
humanity  bought  back  from  failure,  regaining  its  lost  radiance, 
caught  up  to  glory  through  the  Son  of  Man,  Incarnation  of  Deity, 
must  have  enchanted  his  soul,  so  that  mystic,  unseen,  immortal 
forces  shall  have  made  him  a  seer  of  the  spirit,  a  poet  of  the  cross, 
a  troubadour  of  God. 

This  will  be  the  normal  process,  if,  like  the  Umbrian  saint,  in 
his  innermost  consciousness  the  God-speaker  shall  have  become 
irradiated  with  his  vision.  Nature  is  a  sacrament.  Behind  birds, 
flowers,  and  clouds,  is  the  spiritual  shining.  The  child  of  the 
spirit  recognizes  humanism,  secularism,  and  materialism  as  pagan 
drifts  back  to  the  old  swine  husks.  Over  against  the  time  tendency 
gleams,  like  a  rainbow  around  the  throne,  the  eternal  ideal. 

The  prophet  of  the  magnificence  of  life,  then,  will  gauge  aright 
science,  dogma,  and  criticism.  Truth  never  violates  herself.  No 
discovery,  no  new  theory,  can  supplant  the  cross.  In  its  higher 
essence,  "Religion  never  can  suffer  from  any  new  philosophy."  The 
loftiest  dream  of  humanity  never  has  been  a  dream  of  knowledge, 
but  always  of  manhood  and  womanhood.  The  lordliest  hunger  of 
the  human  heart  never  has  been  a  love  of  pleasure  or  a  lust  of 
money  and  of  power,  but  always  a  yearning  for  compassion. 
Anchored  to  this  bedrock  of  soul-yearning,  the  preacher  will  not 
heed  the  din  which  is  drowning  voices  that  preach  old  beliefs.  He 
will  give  to  a  heartbroken',  dying  world  the  cup  of  consolation.  His 
heart  will  widen  to  his  vision.  Choosing  life  for  his  portion,  he 
will  make  people  his  passion.  He  will  shore  back  the  contracting 
walls  of  society.  He  will  play  the  man  to  win  a  world-empire  for 
the  King. 

An  evangelist,  he  will  put  back  the  halo  on  sin-sick  souls.  A 
shepherd  of  tender  youth,  he  will  show  for  what  cause  that  great 
Shepherd  of  the  sheep  chose  unsoiled  childhood  for  His  peculiar  fold. 


656  THEOLOGICAL  COLLEGES. 

Has  the  priest,  for  centuries,  made  the  fine  arts  an  ecclesiastical 
demesne?  Then  this  herald  of  divineness  in  common  things  shall 
claim  for  the  Carpenter  the  industries,  the  mechanical  arts  and  the 
abysmal  toil  of  the  great  underworld.  Business  and  the  home  are 
high  callings  of  God.  Captains  of  industry  shall  be  mighty  men  for 
the  Son  of  David. 

Have  music  and  the  literary  graces  been  orthodox  angels  of 
■worship?  Then  this  prophet  of  the  magnificence  of  life  shall  catch 
and  set  to  harmony  "the  tune  that  is  haunting  millions  of  human 
ears  and  hearts." 

The  Shephei'd's  song  most  sweetly  echoes  in  new  philanthropies 
and  in  efforts  to  improve  the  material  condition  of  the  people.  A 
better  social  order  will  open  unending  avenues  of  promise  to  "the 
tired,  the  throttled,  the  dwarfed,  the  enchained."  With  such  mel- 
ody, not  with  horses  and  chariots,  the  Prince  is  marching  to  the 
conquest  of  the  world. 

But  the  transfiguration-illumination  and  celestial  stimulation  can 
come  only  through  identity  ivith  the  Christ,  the  Dynamic  of  Light 
and  Life.  This  alone  will  pour  into  dull,  cold  hearts  a  fiery  quick- 
ening and  splendor.  This  alone  will  make  the  laborer  one  with 
the  Master  in  a  quenchless  passion  for  souls.  This  alone  will  suf- 
fuse our  vision  with  eternal  consequences  for  righteousness.  This 
alone  will  fuse  all  our  learning  into  a  heavenly  enchantment. 

Let  the  son  of  the  gospel  "commandeer"  law  and  government 
in  the  fight  on  greed,  corruption,  crime,  and  war.  Let  him  think 
and  plan  in  terms  of  continents  and  worlds.  With  every  com- 
rade of  the  cross  let  him  strike  hands  for  a  holy  catholic  army, 
whose  soldiers  shall  be  all  the  saints.  With  apostolic  zeal  and 
authority  let  him  marshal  a  real  and  stable  brotherhood  of  labor. 
Let  him  make  the  family  the  home  of  sanctity,  society,  without  a 
saloon,  sober  and  industrious,  the  church  an  ark  of  safety,  civil- 
ization Christian. 

Still,  there  must  remain  this  higher  reach  of  the  spirit,  where 
alone,  through  identity  with  the  Christ,  the  prophet  for  this 
modern  world  can  ride  forth  as  a  knight  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  a 
companion  of  the  eternal,  bearing  that  love-power  which  robs  the 
world's  heart  of  every  incantation  against  the  Kingdom,  every 
divination  against  Jesus. 

Like  the  mystics  whose  work  w^as  followed  by  the  Reformation, 
he,  in  a  peculiar  sense  of  perfect  union  with  the  Lord  of  Glory, 
must  put  his  hands  between  the  King's  hands  and  with  Him  must 
drink  the  Cup  of  Fire,  the  Chalice  of  the  Spirit  of  Life.  Then, 
indeed,  will  the  feet  of  the  messenger  be  beautiful  upon  the  moun- 
tains, beautiful  with  the  quick  coming  of  that  day  when  his  Lord 
shall  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul  and  shall  be  satisfied.  Humanity 
Shall  be  lifted  to  the  starry  paths  of  the  King. 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  WILFRID  J.  MOULTON.  G57 

The  second  invited  address  was  by  the  Rev.  Wilfrid  J, 
MouLTON^  M.  A.,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church; 
subject,  "The  Ministerial  Supply:" 

In  discussing  the  question  of  the  ministerial  supply  it  is  natural 
to  begin  by  referring  to  the  well-known  fact  that  some  of  the  prin- 
cipal Protestant  Churches  are  faced  by  a  most  serious  position, 
because  the  number  of  their  ministers  is  insufficient  for  their 
present  needs.  In  the  report  on  "The  Supply  and  Training  of  Can- 
didates for  Holy  Orders,"  presented  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury in  June,  1908,  it  is  estimated  that  within  the  twenty-two  years 
ending  1907  there  was  a  deficit  of  more  than  five  thousand  in  the 
number  of  ordinations  required  to  enable  the  Church  of  England 
to  maintain  its  own  standard  in  its  provision  for  the  people  of 
Great  Britain.  Whilst  the  number  ordained  since  the  issue  of 
that  report  shows  a  considerable  increase,  it  is  far  from  meet- 
ing the  demand.  In  the  Presbyterian  Churches  of  Scotland,  both 
Established  and  Free,  the  position  is  similar.  The  number  of 
students  in  training  in  the  theological  halls  is  not  sufficient  to 
fill  the  vacancies  that  must  normally  be  created  within  the  next 
few  years.  In  each  case  it  must  be  noted  that  the  deficiency  has 
been  caused  not  so  much  by  increase  in  the  work  undertaken,  as 
by  actual  decreases  in  the  number  of  those  who  offer  themselves 
for  the  work  of  the  ministry. 

When  we  turn  to  the  Methodist  Churches  of  the  Eastern  sec- 
tion we  find  a  situation  which,  at  first  sight,  is  much  more  favor- 
able. Whilst  there  has  been  some  slight  shrinkage  in  the  number 
of  candidates,  it  hardly  calls  as  yet  for  s.erious  note.  In  Wesleyan 
Methodism  not  more  than  sixty  per  cent  of  the  candidates  who 
offer  themselves  can  be  received.  But  there  are  immediate  explana- 
tions of  this  difference  which  must  be  clearly  recognized.  Not 
only  is  the  standard  of  preliminary  education  required  before 
admission  to  the  Methodist  colleges  lower  than  in  the  other  cases, 
as  compared  with  the  Scotch  Churches  very  much  lower;  but,  also, 
British  Methodism  has  always  counted  it  part  of  the  duty  of  the 
Church  to  see  that  no  man  is  excluded  from  the  ministry  solely 
on  the  ground  of  poverty.  All  who  give  clear  signs  of  a  divine 
call  to  the  ministry  are  treated  as  the  sons  of  the  Church,  and,  if 
needs  be,  are  maintained  throughout  their  period  of  training.  It  is 
significant  that  in  the  Church  of  England,  wherever  such  provision 
has  been  made,  the  number  of  candidates  has  largely  exceeded  the 
number  of  those  who  could  be  received.  It  seems  evident  that 
any  Church  which  is  prepared  to  meet  the  heavy  financial  obliga- 
tions involved  in  the  training  of  its  own  ministers,  and  is  not  too 
exacting  in  its  preliminary  demands,  may  still  have  a  sufficient  sup- 
ply of  candidates  for  its  present  activities. 
42 


658  THEOLOGICAL  COLLEGES. 

But,  when  we  have  established  that  fact,  a  far  more  serious 
question  emerges.  We  have  to  inquire  whether  the  quality  of  these 
candidates  is  such  as  we  have  a  right  to  expect;  whether  we  may 
say  with  good  hope  that  the  ministry  of  the  future  is  likely  to  be 
equal  to  the  demands  of  the  age.  It  is  absolutely  essential  that  none 
whom  God  himself  has  summoned  should  be  shut  out.  We  believe 
that  still,  as  in  the  days  of  old,  God  calls  men  from  the  plough  and 
from  the  sheepfold,  from  the  humblest  walks  of  life,  to  be  His 
prophets  to  the  peoples.  But  it  is  equally  essential  that  the 
Churches  should  not,  in  despair  of  finding  others,  admit  to  the 
ministry  those  who  are  not  competent  for  the  work.  Rather  we 
must  set  ourselves  to  ask  what  are  the  tendencies,  whether  in  our 
own  Church  life  or  in  the  spirit  of  the  age,  which  keep  back  from 
the  ministry  some  who  in  an  earlier  generation  would  have  found 
their  life-work  there. 

2.  Two  answers  to  this  question  immediately  suggest  them- 
selves. In  the  first  place,  the  growth  of  our  modern  civilization, 
with  the  opening  up  of  many  parts  of  the  world  which  not  long 
ago  were  closed,  offers  new  careers  to  young  men  of  ability  and 
energy,  which  prove  a  strong  counter-attraction.  It  would  be  unfair 
to  say  that  such  ambitions  are  necessarily  material.  There  are 
many  young  men  of  genuinely  Christian  character,  with  broad 
humanitarian  sympathies,  to  whom  the  life  of  a  minister  appears 
to  be  limited  in  its  opportunities,  and  wanting  in  romance.  In  the 
second  place,  the  theological  unrest  of  the  present  day,  with  the 
general  criticism  of  all  creeds  and  confessions  of  faith,  leads  some 
to  hesitate  before  subscribing  definitely  to  the  doctrinal  standards 
of  their  respective  Churches.  It  is  probably  true  that  the  Metho- 
dist Churches  have  felt  these  influences  less  than  some  others, 
because  the  classes  to  whom  such  considerations  most  powerfully 
appeal  have  not  yet  been  largely  represented  in  our  own  ministry. 
In  British  Methodism  the  great  bulk  of  candidates  has  come  from 
the  ranks  of  the  people,  and  from  the  elementary  schools.  We 
thank  God  for  the  gift  of  many  men  of  real  distinction,  who,  by 
sheer  force  of  character,  have  overcome  all  early  disadvantages 
and  risen  to  the  highest  positions  amongst  us.  But,  in  looking  to 
the  future,  it  is  plain  that  if  the  world-wide  responsibilities  of 
M>ethodism  are  to  be  fulfilled  our  ministry  must  be  increasingly 
recruited  from  the  very  choicest  of  our  youth,  bringing  to  the 
service  of  the  Church  not  only  warm-hearted  zeal  and  devoted 
piety  and  the  power  of  effective  speech,  but  also  trained  and  dis- 
ciplined minds,  and  mental  powers  able  to  grapple  with  the  com- 
plex problems  of  our  intellectual  and  social  life.  We  are  still  far 
from  realizing  such  an  ideal. 

3.  There  are  three  lines  along  which  the  solvents  of  these 
difficulties  must  be  sought. 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  WILFRID  J.  MOULTON.  659 

(a)  In  spite  of  all  that  has  been  already  done,  our  Churches 
must  face  a  vastly  increased  expenditure  for  the  training  of  their 
ministers.  The  noble  buildings  now  rising  in  this  city  in  connection 
with  Victoria  College  fill  the  mind  of  an  English  Methodist  with 
envy  and  bear  striking  testimony  to  the  foresight  and  generosity 
of  the  donors.  But  greater  sacrifices  still  will  have  to  be  made 
before  we  can  secure  for  all  who  are  divinely  called  to  the  ministry 
an  education  adequate  both  in  breadth  and  depth  to  the  needs  of 
to-day.  The  urgent  call  from  the  West  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada 
for  leaders  and  teachers  to  pldnt  the  Church  of  Christ  in  the  new 
communities  that  are  rising  there,  is  an  impressive  proof  of  the 
reality  of  this  demand:  We  want  more  men  and  we  must  be  ready 
to  equip  them. 

(b)  The  problems  of  faith  concern  the  whole  Church.  As  we 
increasingly  master,  in  the  name  of  Christ,  the  new  knowledge  of 
the  age,  and  recover  the  glad  and  fearless  assurance  that  His  gospel 
is  the  answer  to  all  the  world's  needs,  so  will  the  spirit  of  doubt 
and  hesitation  pass  away,  and  the  old  Methodist  note,  "O,  let  me 
commend  my  Savior  to  you,"  be  heard  on  every  side.  Perhaps  it 
is  here  more  than  anywhere  else  that  the  answer  to  all  the  ques- 
tions as  to  the  ministerial  supply  is  to  be  found.  An  aggressive, 
victorious  Church,  claiming  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  for  its  Lord, 
moving  onward  as  the  army  of  the  living  God,  will  constantly  pro- 
duce men  of  grace  and  power  to  take  the  work  of  ministers.  But 
it  will  always  be  true  that  the  tone  and  spirit  of  our  candidates 
will  not  be  much  higher  than  that  of  the  churches  in  which  they 
grow  up. 

(c)  We  need  to  recover  the  old  sense  of  the  grandeur  of  the 
calling  of  a  Christian  minister.  We  make  no  sacerdotal  claims. 
But  we  need  the  spirit  of  wonder  and  of  awe  that  possessed  St. 
Paul  as  he  thought  of  his  vocation  and  was  overpowered  by  its 
dignity,  "Unto  me,  who  am  less  than  the  least  of  all  saints,  was 
this  grace  given,  to  preach  unto  the  Gentiles  the  unsearchable 
riches  of  Christ." 

In  a  very  noble  passage  Phillips  Brooks  says,  "The  time  must 
come  again,  as  it  has  come  in  other  days,  when  our  young  men  shall 
feel  the  vitality  of  the  Christian  ministry,  and  seek  it  with  the^ 
heroic  consecration  of  their  lives.  If  they  could  only  know  that  it 
is  of  all  lives  richest  in  experience,  that  in  it  the  passion  to  live 
finds  fullest  satisfaction!  What  is  it  to  live?  ...  Is  it  to 
touch  the  eternal  forces  which  are  behind  everything  with  one 
hand,  and  to  lay  the  other  on  the  quivering  needles  and  the  beating 
hammers  of  this  common  life?  Is  it  to  deal  with  God  and  to  deal 
with  man?  If  this  is  life,  then  there  is  no  man  that  lives  more 
than  the  minister."  The  generous  youth  whose  cry  is,  "Let  me 
live  while  I  live,"  must  some  day  feel  the  vitality  of  great  service 


660  BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS. 

of  God  and  man,  and  press  in  through  the  sacred  doors,  saying, 
"Let  me,  too,  be  a  minister."  It  is  our  taslt  to  malie  that  ideal 
our  own  and  then  to  present  it  to  our  young  men. 

4,  Lastly,  a  word  must  be  added  as  to  one  of  the  most  hopeful 
and  impressive  movements  of  the  day,  the  World  Student  Chris- 
tian Federation.  It  is  a  fact  of  supreme  importance  that  in  almost 
every  college  and  university  in  the  world  men  are  banding  them- 
selves together  in  the  service  of  Christ  and  humanity,  seeking  to 
understand  the  full  meaning  of  the  gospel,  and  to  prepare  for  and 
hasten  its  final  victory.  Here  is,  one  grand  fulfillment  of  the 
ancient  promise,  "Your  sons  and  your  daughters  shall  prophesy; 
your  young  men  shall  see  visions."  From  the  ranks  of  this  move- 
ment, which  it  behooves  us  in  every  way  to  strengthen  and  sup- 
port, we  may  expect,  under  God,  an  ever-increasing  supply  of 
prophets  and  teachers  in  the  Church  of  Christ 

The  Rev.  Simpsoist  Johnson,  of  the  Business  Commit- 
tee, said:  "The  Business  Committee  met  on  these  premises 
Saturday.  Dr.  Napiitali  Luccock  presided,  and  there  were 
twelve  members  of  the  Committee  present.  A  resolution  bear- 
ing on  the  discussion  of  the  Lord's  day  was  approved,  and  was 
presented  to  the  Conference  meeting  on  fSunday  afternoon,  and 
was  passed." 

They  had  from  the  "Committee  on  Divorce,  Temperance, 
and  Other  Matters,"  several  recommendations.  Tlie  first  has 
reference  to  the  suppression  of  the  opium  evil.  The  following 
resolutions  were  sent  to  the  Business  Committee  and  were  ap- 
proved by  them : 

I.     SUPPRESSION   OF   THE   OPIUM   TRAFFIC. 

I.  Resolved,  That  we  petition  the  "International  Conference  for 
the  Suppression  of  the  Opium  Evil,"  called  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States  to  meet  at  The  Hague,  December  11,  1911,  to  enact 
an  international  prohibition  of  opium,  to  take  effect  all  over  the 
world  at  the  earliest  possible  date — within  two  years  at  most. 
*  II.  Resolved,  That  we  join  in  a  call  for  a  Day  of  Universal 
Prayer  coincident  with  the  opening  of  this  momentous  Conference. 

III.  Resolved,  That  certified  copies  of  this  action  be  forwarded 
at  once  to  President  William  H.  Taft,  also  to  the  Society  for  the 
Suppression  of  the  Opium  Traflic,  181  Queen  Victoria  Street,  Lon- 
don, and  to  the  International  Reform  Bureau's  Oriental  Secretary, 
the  Rev.  B.  W.  Thwing,  Tientsin,  China,  and  to  the  press. 

IV.  Resolved,  That  Bishop  Earl  Cranston,  of  Washington,  D.  C, 
and  Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson,  of  Baltimore,  Md.,  be  appointed  a  com- 


REPORT  OF  BUSINESS  COMMITTEE.  661 

mission  to  call  upon  President  William  H.  Taft,  and  confer  with  him 
regarding  the  matters  discussed  in  these  resolutions,  and  to  further 
express  to  him  the  favorable  sentiment  of  this  Conference  toward 
the  movement  for  the  complete  suppression  of  the  opium  trade. 

The  Conference  unanimously  adopted  tlie  above  resolutions. 

2.     SHIPMENT   OP  LIQUORS. 

Inasmuch  as  the  present  construction  of  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Law  of  the  United  States  permits  the  shipment  of  liquors 
from  one  State  into  the  prohibition  territory  of  another  State,  in 
defiance  of  the  laws  of  the  State  to  which  they  are  consigned, 
thereby  bringing  the  national  government  into  complicity  with  the 
liquor  traffic,  and  resulting  in  the  nullification  of  the  law  of  the 
State  by  the  Federal  authority: 

Therefore,  we  earnestly  petition  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  to  take  such  steps  as  may  be  necessary  to  give  relief  to  the 
more  than  forty-four  millions  of  people  now  living  in  prohibition 
territory  in  that  country. 

The  Conference  unanimously  adopted  this  resolution. 

3.     DIVORCE. 

From  the  beginning  Methodism  has  held  marriage  to  be  a  divine 
institution,  sacred  and  inviolable,  indispensable  to  social  order  and 
to  the  security  and  well-being  of  both  Church  and  State.  At  this 
time,  with  more  emphasis  than  ever  in  the  past,  we  must  bear 
witness  to  this  our  abiding  faith  in  this  most  sacred  institution. 

Because  of  our  unchanging  attitude  on  this  subject  we  desire 
to  express  our  earnest  disapproval  of  all  hasty  and  ill-considered 
marriages;  and  of  the  rude  and  in  some  instances  and  in  some 
localities  almost  barbarous  customs  which  have  come  to  attend  wed- 
dings, or  the  home-coming  of  the  newly-wedded  pair,  the  whole  tend- 
ency of  which  is  to  degrade  and  dishonor  the  wedding  ceremony  and 
the  marriage  relation.  And,  further,  we  put  on  record  our  most  em- 
phatic protest  against  the  crime  of  easy  and  unjustifiable  divorce 
which  has  come  to  be  so  alarmingly  prevalent  in  some  countries, 
making  the  marriage  bond  an  easy  contract,  to  be  broken  at  the  be- 
hest of  the  lust  or  convenience  of  either  of  the  parties.  Unless 
something  shall  be  done  to  check  this  mad  tendency,  we  fear  the 
foundation  of  this  primal  and  indispensable  institution  will  be  under- 
mined. We  commend  the  stand  taken  on  this  subject  by  all  the 
branches  of  Methodism  represented  in  this  Ecumenical  Conference, 
and  we  bear  glad  testimony  to  the  fidelity  of  the  Methodist  ministers 
in  refusing  to  become  partners  in  the  divorce  evil  by  performing 
marriage  ceremonies  for  improperly  divorced  people.     We  sincerely 


662  BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS. 

hope  that  in  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  Methodism  in  all  lands  will 
stand  on  the  impregnable  foundation  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and 
declare,  "Those  whom  God  has  joined  together  let  no  man  put 
asunder." 

The  Conference  "unanimously  adopted  this  resolution. 

4.     NE   TEMERE  DECREE. 

This  Conference  assembled  at  Toronto,  and  representing  the 
interests  of  world-wide  Methodism,  enters  its  emphatic  protest 
against  the  Ne  Temere  Decree  recently  issued  by  the  Church  of 
Rome.  While  holding  that  the  fullest  liberty  should  be  accorded  to 
men  of  all  creeds,  the  Conference  repudiates  the  idea  that  any 
Church  decree  should  have  the  power  to  override  civil  law,  and 
especially  on  such  a  subject  as  that  of  marriage,  on  which  the  wel- 
fare of  any  community  depends. 

The  Conference  is  further  of  opinion  that  the  promulgation  of 
the  Ne  Temere  Decree  is  an  outrage  upon  the  elementary  rights 
of  citizenship,  and  therefore  calls  upon  the  members  of  the  various 
Methodist  Churches  represented  in  this  Ecumenical  Conference  to 
take  every  step  to  prevent  both  the  proclamation  and  acceptance 
of  this  Decree  in  the  countries  from  whence  they  come. 

The  Conference  is  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  a  marriage  cere- 
mony performed  by  any  person  authorized  to  do  so  by  the  State 
should  be  valid,  irrespective  of  the  religious  affinities  of  the  parties 
concerned. 

On  motion  of  Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton^  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  seconded  by  the  Eev.  Geo.  E.  Wedgwood, 
of,  the  Irish  Methodist  Conference,  this  resolution  was  adopted 
by  a  rising  vote. 

5.     THE  CONFERENCE  MESSAGE. 

"The  Business  Committee  recommends  that  this  message  be 
read  in  all  our  Methodist  Churches  throughout  the  world  on  the 
first  Sunday  in  February,  1912." 

The  resolution  fixing  the  date  for  the  reading  of  the  Message 
was  discussed  at  some  length,  the  question  being  raised  whether 
the  date  was  likely  to  be  in  all  cases  a  convenient  one.  Some 
modifications  were  suggested^  such  as  that  the  Sunday  nearest 
Februaiy  4th  might  be- used.  Finally  the  resolution  was  adopted 
without  change",  with  the  hope  that  the  date  given  would  be 
adopted  as  far  as  possible. 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  063 

The  following  v.'ere  aj^pointed  a  committee  to  make  the 
arratigements  for  Ecumenical  Sunday  throughout  the  Eastern 
section : 

Rev.  Simpson  Johnson, 

Rev.  Enoch  Salt, 

Rev.  James  Chapman,  D.  D., 

Rev.  W.  Mincher, 

Rev.  Henry  Smith, 
with  Rev.  Andrew  Crombie  as  Convener. 

The  motion  that  the  message  ])e  read  on  the  first  Sunday  in 
Fehruary  was  put,  and  it  prevailed. 

Hymn  685  was  announced  and  sung — 

"Jesus,   the   word   of  mercy   give. 
And  let  it  swiftly  run." 

The  Pkesident:  ''The  discussion  on  the  topic  of  the 
day  will  proceed." 

The  Rev.  James  Lewis,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church : 

Matthew  Arnold  once  stated  that  there  was  a  literature  of  light 
and  a  literature  of  power.  I  think  that  distinction  is  a  very  good 
one  to  be  drawn  in  relation  to  the  Christian  ministry.  The  balance 
of  light  and  of  power  must  be  kept  if  the  Chui'ch  is  to  be  effective, 
and  especially  in  this  age.  My  own  feeling  is  that  at  this  present 
moment  as  far  as  British  Wesleyan  Methodism  is  concerned,  the 
balance  of  light  is  ahead  of  the  balance  of  power.  We  must  have  in 
our  ministry,  however  we  get- them,  men  characterized  by  that  faith 
that  is  named,  especially  in  the  Pauline  epistles,  as  "power."  And 
wherever  there  are  men  that  distinguish  themselves  in  our  Churches 
as  men  in  close  touch  with  God  and  laying  hold  of  Him,  and  who 
concurrently  have  that  strange  ability  to  lay  hold  of  men  and  to 
bring  them  in  penitence  to  Christ,  those  men  must  be  chosen 
first  of  all,  and  last  of  all,  and  midmost,  for  the  ministry  of  the 
Church.  They  may  be  young,  they  may  be  older,  married  men  with 
children;  but  where  those  men  are  detected,  those  men  must  be 
chosen  for  the  work  of  the  Christian  ministry.  I  am  delighted 
to  see  the  way  in  which  here  you  are  spending  large  sums  of 
money  upon  your  institutions  of  Christian  learning.  I  am  pro- 
foundly sorry  that  among  ourselves  for  years  past,  while  we  have 
spent  enormous  sums  of  money  upon  the  building  of  magnificent 
churches  and  great  mission  halls,  we  have  allowed  our  theological 
schools  to  remain  crippled  to  such  an  extent  that — I  am  ashamed 
to  say  it,  but  it  is  too  true — if  you  went,  as  I  went  not  so  long  ago, 
into  one  of  our  institutions,  you  would  find  the  condition  of  that 
institution  (and  indeed  the  spoond  one  is  not  very  unlike)  such 
that  the  workhouses  of  England  are  better  equipped  than  some 
of  the  colleges  of  British  Wesleyan  Methodism  ior  the  housing  of 


6()4:  THEOLOGICAL  COLLEGES. 

students.  Let  me  say  a  word  in  relation  to  our  theory.  We  be- 
lieve that  the  ministers  should  be  the  sons  of  the  Church,  and 
that  the  Church  should  take  upon  itself  the  expense  of  their  train- 
ing. Men  receive  their  call  to  the  ministry  at  various  stages  in 
their  life.  The  young  man  has  spent,  or  his  father  has  spent, 
both  of  them  combined  may  have  spent,  practically  all  they  have 
upon  fitting  the  young  man  for  a  business  career.  He  has  not 
been  able  to  save  money.  The  great  call  of  Christ  comes  to  him 
and  he  offers  himself  to  you,  and  you  ought  not  absolutely  and 
utterly  to  impoverish  him.  You  ought  to  train  him.  And  if  he 
be  such  a  man  as  I  have  indicated,  a  man  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  of  power,  the  couple  of  hundred  pounds  that  will  be  spent  in 
training  him  during  the  years  he  is  in  the  institution  is  a  mere 
bagatelle. 

The  Rev.  M.  S.  Terry,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church : 

We  may  remember  two  great  miracles  of  our  Lord  Jesus  in 
the  catching  of  fish.  At  the  first  miraculous  draught  He  said  to 
His  disciples,  "I  will  make  you  fishers  of  men."  The  next  miracle 
of  that  sort  was  after  the  resurrection  when  He  gave  special  direc- 
tions to  Peter,  Simon,  son  of  Jonas,  and  said,  "Feed  my  lambs;" 
"feed  my  sheep;"  "tend  my  flock."  Methodism  has  been  wonder- 
fully successful  in  the  work  of  catching  men,  winning  souls  to 
Christ.  The  world  knows  that  we  know  how  to  win  souls  to  the 
Lord  Jesus.  But  we  can  not  say  that  we  have  been  equally  wise 
and  skillful  in  keeping  what  we  have  caught.  Our  failure  is  in  the 
training  and  building  up  in  the  faith  and  fellowship  of  Jesus 
Christ  those  who  are  won  to  Christ  by  our  ministry.  The  Churches 
all  through  the  United  States  of  America,  outside  of  Methodism, 
are  full  of  Methodist  converts  who  found  the  Lord  Jesus  at  Meth- 
odist altars. 

I  would  like  now  to  affirm  one  fundamental  proposition  in  all 
this  discussion.  It  is  a  kind  of  theological  proposition,  but  I  rise 
to  affirm  that  the  greatest  thing  in  the  universe  of  God  is  per- 
sonality. You  travel  the  scale  of  being;  and  when  you  have  reached 
the  uttermost  summit,  you  come  to  Him  who  said,  in  answer  to 
a  question  as  to  His  name,  "I  am  that  I  am."  Personality!  What 
is  personality?  Why,  if  we  may  accept  the  statements  of  wise  men, 
it  is  a  self-conscious  unity  of  thinking  and  feeling  and  acting  in 
the  individual  soul.  There  is  the  intelligence,  the  emotional  nature, 
and  the  power  of  volition.  These  must  all  be  trained.  O,  the  mo- 
mentous responsibility  of  training  a  person  of  that  kind!  O,  the 
peril  of  bringing  such  a  personality  into  existence.  We  read  that 
God  at  the  beginning  made  a  good  many  things  before  He  came 
to  man.  He  made  tribes  of  fishes  of  the  sea,  of  the  fowls  of  the 
air,  and  the  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills.  But  when  He  came  to  bring 
a  personality  into  being  like  man.  He  said,  "Let  us  make  man 
in  our  image,  after  our  likeness."  And  male  and  female  created 
He  them.  And  I  submit  it  was  a  hazard  to  bring  such  a  being 
into  existence.  But  God  said,  "I  shall  never  be  satisfied  with  my 
creation  until  I  bring  into  existence  a  being  great  enough  and 
mighty  enough  to  shake  his  fist  in  the  face  of  the  Almighty  and 
say,  'I  will  not  do  it.'  "  When  you  have  a  being  of  such  power 
as  that — and  it  is  resident  in  personality — you  have  the  greatest 
kind  of  a  being  in  the  universe;  and  we  can  not  escape  that  peril. 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  6G5 

Yes,  I  can  imagine  the  Almighty  Wise  Being  saying,  "I  would 
rather  have  a  universe  of  such  beings,  though  forever  making  my 
universe  exposed  to  infinite  peril — I  would  rather  have  a  universe 
of  such  beings  and  take  the  risks,  though  that  universe  be  in  one 
spot  forever  black  with  hell,  rather  than  have  no  such  lofty  per- 
sonalities in  being  at  all."  Hence  the  responsibility  of  the  work 
of  the  teacher  and  of  the  trainers,  whether  in  the  home,  the  pri- 
mary school,  or  the  school  for  adults,  and  especially  in  the  train- 
ing schools  that  are  to  fit  men  for  the  ministry  of  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

The  Rev.  Charles  B.  Mitchell^  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church: 

Two  things  I  want  to  say  about  this  matter.  The  first  is  touch- 
ing the  supply  of  the  ministry.  The  other  day  in  one  of  my  families 
in  which  there  are  three  boys,  at  the  dinner  table  this  conversation 
took  place.  The  oldest  boy  said  to  the  j'oungest  boy,  about  eight 
years  of  age,  a  bright  little  fellow,  a  fine  Christian  boy  who  never 
misses  the  Sunday  school  and  is  always  in  the  pew  with  his  parents 
at  church — "John  Henry,  I  am  going  to  be  a  doctor.  George  here 
is  going  to  be  a  lawyer;  we  ought  to  have  a  preacher  in  this  family, 
and  you  will  have  to  be  a  preacher."  The  little  boy  said,  "I  'm  not 
going  to  ber  a  preacher.  I  do  n't  want  to  be  a  preacher."  The 
whole  family  rather  caught  the  spirit  of  it,  saw  the  fun  in  ft,  and 
the  older  boy  appealed  to  the  father  and  said,  "Do  n't  j'ou  think 
John  Henry  ought  to  be  a  preacher?"  "Yes,  I  think  we  will  have 
to  make  a  preacher  out  of  him."  The  mother  said  the  same  thing. 
The  little  fellow  said,  "I  '11  be  darned  if  I  '11  be  a  preacher."  Now 
I  ask  you,  brethren — in  a  home  like  that,  a  Christian  home,  where 
the  whole  family  life  is  supposedly  Christian,  what  chances  are 
there  for  a  boy  in  that  home  to  grow  up  into  the  Christian  min- 
istry, where  it  is  considered  a  sort  of  disgrace  to  be  a  preacher? 
There  is  the  secret  of  the  trouble. 

When  I  was  a  boy,  in  our  parsonage  home,  the  talk  about  our 
table  was,  "0,  if  God  will  only  honor  us  so  that  one  of  the  boys 
may  become  a  minister  like  his  father."  I  wonder  how  much 
that  is  heard  in  the  homes  to-daj'.  Mothers  in  the  old  day  dedi- 
cated their  unborn  sons  to  the  Christian  ministry,  and  prayed  that 
God  would  honor  them  by  calling  one  of  their  number  to  the 
sacred  desk.  It  is  not  so  now,  so  far  as  I  am  able  to  judge,  in 
our  part  of  the  country.  It  has  come  to  be  in  America  the  case 
that  to-day  we  look  for  our  recruits  to  the  Methodist  parsonage. 
And  the  second  and  third  generation  of  preachers'  sons  are  now 
occupying  the  leading  pulpits  of  our  American  Methodism. 

Another  thing  I  want  to  say  is  this:  What  is  needed,  in  my 
judgment,  to-day  in  the  ministry  in  the  pulpit  is  a  profound  con- 
viction that  the  word  of  God  is  absolutely  the  divine  truth,  and 
that  they  be  so  convinced  of  that  fact  that  when  they  look  men 
in  the  face  to  preach  it,  men  are  convinced  that  they  believe  what 
they  say.  The  other  day  I  was  called  into  the  office  of  a  man 
whose  only  boy  had  had  the  whole  top  of  his  head  blown  off  by 
the  accidental  discharge  of  a  shot-gun.  I  went  to  see  the  poor 
fellow,  who  was  not  a  Christian,  to  try  to  comfort  him.  He  took 
me  into  the  little  office  with  one  window  and  two  chains.  He  was 
shrewd  enough  to  put  the  chair  he  was  to  occupy  with  his  back 
toward  the  window,  and  had  me  sit  in  the  light,  with  my  face 


666  THEOLOGICAL  COLLEGES. 

flooded  with  light.  "Mitchell,"  said  he,  "what  have  you  got  to  say?" 
I  tried  to  speak  some  words  of  hope,  and  tell  him  how  I  believe  in 
the  word  of  God,  and  that  while  he  might  not  bring  his  boy  back, 
he  could  go  where  the  boy  was.  He  clinched  my  knee  as  in  a  vise 
and  said,  "None  of  j'our  cant.  Mitchell,  on  your  honor  as  a  man 
and  a  Mason,  do  you  believe  that?"  I  said,  "Yes,  Tom,  I  do  be- 
lieve it.  If  I  did  n't  I  would  quit  preaching  to-day.  I  would  risk 
my  soul  on  it.  It  is  true."  He  dropped  his  face  on  his  hands 
and  wept  like  a  baby  and  said,  "Pray  that  I  may  believe  it  too." 

The  Eev.  W.  Eedpern,  of  the  United  Methodist  Church: 

Dr.  Tasker  in  his  valuable  paper  made  a  not  wholly  sympa- 
thetic reference  to  the  question  of  federation.  I  desire  to  recall 
that  point  so  that  it  may  not  be  altogether  overlooked  in  the 
subsequent  discussion.  The  times  are  hardly  ripe  in  England  for 
organic  union,  but  federation  has  already  begun.  And  I  think  that 
it  ought  to  be  started  in  our  colleges,  with  reference  to  the  train- 
ing of  our  ministers.  All  the  candidates  for  our  colleges  come 
practically  from  the  same  status  of  people.  They  are  made  up 
of  the  same  material.  They  come  together  with  the  indestructible 
sense  of  Methodist  kinship.  They  love  the  Methodist  faith;  they 
are  engaged  in  the  same  work;  they  have  the  same  high  aims.  And 
it  would  be  immensely  to  their  advantage,  I  think,'  if  in  some 
way  they  could  be  brought  closer  together.  So  far  as  I  have  been 
able  to  consider  the  subject,  there  is  everything  to  gain  and 
nothing  to  lose  by  some  scheme  of  federation  in  our  college  train- 
ing. I  will  give  a  concrete  illustration.  In  Manchester  we  have 
three  Methodist  colleges,  in  which  there  are  probably  150  students. 
In  those  colleges  we  have  professors  who  have  the  national  ear, 
who  are  eminent  in  scholarship,  criticism,  and  theology  among 
all  our  non-conformist  Churches.  Would  it  not  be  possible  for 
those  150  students,  under  those  distinguished  professors,  to  be 
brought  together,  to  be  sub'ject  to  the  same  examination  board,  to 
be  examined  in  the  same  questions?  I  can  understand  how  such 
a  scheme,  if  it  were  carried  out,  would  give  to  the  students  deep 
mutual  respect.  It  would  help  them  to  feel  that  they  had  a  com- 
mon inheritance  in  Methodism.  It  would  also  establish  a  bond  of 
friendship  between  those  students  that  would  obtain  through  life. 
I  have  been  told  that  for  some  years  in  Canada  there  has  been 
some  such  system,  not  exactly  the  same  system,  but  some  similar 
system,  obtaining  between  the  Methodist  and  the  Presbyterian 
students.  And  that  fact  has  helped  very  largely  toward  the  hasten- 
ing of  the  present  scheme  for  union.  I  simply  put  that  point  so 
that  it  may  be  discussed  afterwards. 

Now  another  point.  What  is  the  central  weakness  in  our  non- 
conformist colleges?  Is  it  the  caliber  of  our  students?  No.  Is  it 
the  quality  of  our  professors?  No.  Does  it  lie  in  our  curriculum? 
I  think  that  as  to  theology,  our  non-conformist  colleges  are  ahead 
of  the  Anglican  colleges.  It  lies  in  this,  that  too  often  our  college 
life,  however  you  may  account  for  it,  does  not  tend  toward  the 
devotional  quickening  of  our  students.  I  hold  that  in  this  respect 
we  have  something  to  learn  from  the  Jesuit  schools  of  learning. 
They  have  discovered  the  secret,  somehow,  of  training  their  pupils 
in  spiritual  life,  and  their  college  training  becomes  an  immense 
spiritual  incentive  to  them. 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  66^ 

The  Eev.  G.  Armitage,  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church : 

I  have  come  to  the  front  to  voice  the  gratitude  which  all  Primi- 
tive Methodists  feel  to  Mr.  William  B.  Hartley  for  the  immense 
advantages  he  has  given  to  our  ministerial  education,  in  our  Church 
and  as  Primitive  Methodists.  We  possess  a  denominational  college 
which  may  rank  among  the  best  and  largest  in  the  United  King- 
dom. We  have  now  some  seventy-five  students  in  residence,  and 
we  are  now  able  to  give  these  men  a  training  which  comprehends 
three  to  five  years  in  duration.  The  college  is  affiliated  with 
Victoria  University,  and  is  able  not  only  to  give  to  men  a  train- 
ing in  arts,  but  also  to  send  them  forward  for  a  divinity  degree. 
I  am  sure  you  will  all  rejoice  at  the  great  advance  that  has  been 
made  educationally  in  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church.  I  should 
think  one  might  say  that  Sir  William  Hartley,  by  his  immense  gifts 
to  that  institution,  has  placed  our  denominational  training  twenty 
years  ahead  of  what  otherwise  it  could  possibly  be.  It  would  be  a 
splendid  thing  if  some  of  our  Methodist  laymen  would  devote  their 
money  in  a  similar  direction.  Because,  when  we  are  touching  the 
educational  springs,  we  are  going  to  the  very  heart  of  the  future 
and  of  the  possibilities  in  our  Church.  As  Primitive  Methodists, 
we  are  profoundly  convinced  that  what  we  need  to-day  is  a  cul- 
tured evangelism.  We  want  men  of  light  and  of  power.  I  think 
we  are  slowly  learning  that  there  needs  to  be  no  divorce  between 
light  and  power  from  the  ministerial  side.  There  is  a  great  re- 
sponsibility upon  the  circuits  for  the  men  who  come  into  our 
ministry.  Sometimes  there  is  a  charge  against  our  colleges  that 
they  do  not  turn  out  men  of  spiritual  power.  The  responsibility 
lies  in  the  selections  made  by  the  circuits  themselves.  If  the  circuits 
will  see  that  the  men  whom  they  nominate  as  candidates  for  the 
ministry  are  men  first  of  all  with  preaching  power  and  with  spirit- 
ual passion  and  with  mental  grip,  there  is  no  doubt  that  a  college 
training  will  make  them  better  men  and  better  qualified  for  their 
work.  If  you  send  in  men  who  have  entered  the  ministry  simply 
as  a  mere  profession,  you  can  only  expect  that  there  will  come 
out  from  the  college  men  who  are  half-hearted  in  the  work  and 
have  a  very  linjited  conception  of  the  possibilities  of  that  work. 
Give  us  men  from  the  circuit  who  really  understand  the  great 
passion  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  then  the  churches  will  be  rejoiced 
in  the  product  that  comes  through  the  colleges. 

Bishop  W.  A.  Candler,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church,  South: 

It  seems  to  me  the  most  important  matter  in  this  discussion 
is  our  ministerial  supply.  It  has  occurred  to  me  that  we  might 
learn  something  as  to  its  smallness,  where  it  is  small,  by  referring 
to  the  reign  of  King  Solomon.  It  was  a  reign  extremely  scarce  in 
prophets.  David  had  his  Nathan.  Even  Ahab  had  his  Elijah.  Solo- 
mon seems  to  have  had  nothing  but  a  little  company  of  priests 
burning  the  fat  and  the  two  kidneys  with  infinite  precision.  But 
he  had  a  great  deal  of  wealth — gold  and  silver,  like  stones  in  the 
streets,  horses  as  abundant  as  automobiles  now,  when  it  has  come 
to  pass  that  the  whole  population  is  divided  into  the  quick  and 
the  dead,  and  all  who  are  not  quick  are  dead.  But  the  prophetic 
voices  of  the  kingdom  had  largely  ceased.    Along  with  the  wealth 


668  '  THEOLOGICAL  COLLEGES. 

there  had  come  to  be  a  spirit  of  very  great  tolerance.  Solomon 
grew  in  that,  himself.  On  his  first  marriage  to  a  heathen  woman, 
he  built  her  a  palace  outside  the  city.  But  by  and  by  he  built 
a  row  of  palaces.    He  was  very  tolerant. 

You  get  an  indefinite  gospel  with  more  qualifications  than  sub- 
stance, and  a  real  man  does  not  care  to  go  forth  to  preach  it. 
It  may  be  that  we  are  developing  a  sort  of  system  of  scribism,  that 
is  everlastingly  concerning  itself  with  little  minute  matters  of 
secondary  importance  and  losing  the  grip  on  the  essential  things. 
I  am  inclined  to  think  that  in  Paul's  time  there  was  a  division 
existing  with  regard  to  the  gospel  which  he  felt  was  the  power 
of  God  unto  salvation.  And  now  you  find  a  good  many  men  quali- 
fying and  limiting  in  various  directions  until  it  does  not  grip 
old  men  or  young  men.  They  become  largely  the  announcers  of 
the  numbers  on  the  musical  program  on  Sundays.  That  will  not 
call  men  or  hold  them.  In  Protestant  worship  the  central  thing 
is  the  proclamation  of  a  definite  body  of  truth.  When  we  get  the 
idea  that  everything  may-  be  true,  we  bring  forward  by  implication 
that  everything  may  be  fals.e  For  my  own  part,  I  will  not  under- 
take the  burdens  and  responsibilities  of  the  ministry,  if  I  have  to 
go  forth  with  a  gospel  that  is  uncertain  as  to  what  it  means,  or 
whether  men  need  it  or  not.  The  world  needs  it,  and  it  is  abso- 
lutely indispensable  to  this  world;  and  that  being  true,  God  lays 
His  hand  on  men  who  must  go  and  tell  it.  Two  things  have  come 
out  of  revivals,  hymns  and  preaching.  And  when  you  do  not  have 
those  great  movements  of  grace  that  lift  men  up  to  heights  where 
they  will  rejoice  in  God  and  feel  confident  by  reason  of  their  rela- 
tion to  Him,  you  do  not  have  preachers.  The  man  must,  like  the 
prophet,  see  Jehovah  in  His  temple,  high  and  lifted  up,  before 
he  answers,  "Here  am  I;  send  me." 

The  Eev.  W.  W.  Holdsworth^  of  the  British  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church: 

I  wish  to  make  two  points.  The  first  is  one  that  has  already 
been  made,  to  which  I  think  additional  emphasis  may  well  be 
given.  That  is,  the  responsibility  of  the  Church  at  large  in  the 
training  of  its  ministry.  The  Church  is  naturally  and  reasonably 
critical  of  the  men  that  we  turn  out.  But  the  Church  is  not  so 
concerned  with  reference  to  the  men  that  it  turns  into  our  colleges. 
There  was  a  time  when  the  question  was  anxiously  asked  con- 
cerning every  candidate,  "Has  he  gifts?  Has  he  grace?  Has  he 
fruit?"  I  wonder  whether  those  questions  are  asked  as  carefully 
now.  We  upon  whom  the  heavy  responsibility  of  training  has  been 
placed  sometimes  look  and  wonder  what  the  answer  to  that  ques- 
tion must  have  been  in  the  case  of  this  or  that  candidate. 

Then  there  is  another  qualification,  upon  v/hicli  emphasis  was 
laid  in  the  Conference  in  Edinburgh — the  faculty  of  Ijecoming — 
the  capacity  of  a  man  to  receive  that  which  the  colleges  are  in- 
tended to  impart.  Has  he  got  that?  Or  are  you  sending  men  who 
are  set  and  fixed  and  unable  to  receive  what  we  are  anxious  to 
give?  It  is  a  question  of  personality.  I  use  the  phrase  which 
Dr.  Tasker  emphasized — it  is  the  education  of  spirit.  The  per- 
sonality is  not  created  in  the  all  too  brief  college  course  allowed 
to-day.  The  education  of  the  spirit  begins  when  the  man  is  in 
the  home  and  in  the  circuit.  That  should  be  the  first  care  of 
the  Church.     If  you  send  us  men  who  are  Ignorant  and  conceited 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  669 

and  set,  fixed  in  their  ideas,  who  have  not  entered  into  close  and 
intimate  fellowship  with  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  then  you  must  not 
be  surprised  if  within  a  very  few  months  they  are  settling  all  the 
problems  of  labor  in  the  pulpit,  or  posing  as  exponents  of  the 
higher  criticism. 

The  next  point  I  want  to  make  is  that  there  is  no  necessary 
divorce  between  learning  and  spirituality.  The  pity  is  that  such 
a  claim  should  ever  be  made  in  a  Conference  of  this  sort.  Yet 
some  speak  as  if  it  were  so.  There  are  men  who  speak  as  if  the 
most  elementary  education  is  all  that  is  required  for  the  equip- 
ment of  the  ministry.  Others  speak  as  though  the  college  were  a 
place  in  which  a  man  is  certain  to  lose  his  spirituality,  or  at 
any  rate  his  evangelistic  fervor.  I  think  that  such  men  would  be 
ashamed  forever  if  they  could  be  present  in  the  class  room  where 
men  are  assembled  for  Biblical  study.  1  think  they  would  be  still 
more  ashamed  if  they  could  be  present  at  our  society  class  meetings 
held  within  the  college  walls.  What  would  they  find?  They  would 
find  that  through  all  the  study  of  the  text  there  breaks  the  pres- 
ence of  Jesus  which  humbles  men,  and  that  most  of  them  realize 
the  power  of  God  even  in  their  work.  And  they  would  find  in  the 
society  class  meetings  that  the  men  whom  you  would  call  the 
most  advanced  in  scholarship  are  the  men  of  richest  and  deepest 
spiritual  experience.  When  I  have  said  that,  you  will  not  be  sur- 
prised to  hear  that  our  best  scholars  will  be  found  in  the  mission 
halls  to-day,  and  that  in  the  colleges  those  who  are  most  advanced 
will  be  found  in  the  slums  of  the  city. 

The  Eev.  N.  Burwash,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Church  of 
Canada : 

In  the  providence  of  God,  I  have  been  'engaged  in  this  work 
of  preparing  young  men  for  the  ministry  for  forty-five  years.  In 
that  time  some  thousand  or  more  of  young  men  have  passed  through 
my  hands.  I  have  seen  the  times  when  the  supply  of  candidates 
was  abundant,  and  again  the  time  when  the  supply  of  candidates 
was  short  of  the  i-equirements.  I  have  found  that  there  is  a  law 
that  governs  that.  If  the  spirituality  of  the  Church  and  the  pros- 
perity of  the  Church  decline,  the  supply  goes  down.  If  the  world 
is  prospering  and  there  are  great  abundance  of  calls  and  pressure 
for  young  men  out  into  the  fields  of  commerce  and  industry  and 
wealth-making,  they  will  be  drawn  in  that  direction.  On  the  other 
hand,  when  the  hand  of  God  is  upon  the  nation  and  things  are 
not  so  prosperous  from  the  secular  point  of  view,  men  turn  their 
thoughts  inward,  and  a  greater  number  give  themselves  to  this 
work  of  the  Christian  ministry. 

But  there  are  two  or  three  things  that  I  think  we  ought  to 
attend  to  as  Churches  in  order  to  remedy  this  matter.  First  of 
all,  of  course,  is  the  maintenance  of  a  high  spiritual  tone  in  our 
entire  Church,  and  in  our  homes.  The  best  men  I  have  seen 
coming  into  the  ministry  are  the  men  who  come  from  the  homes 
of  consecrated  parents,  out  of  a  deep,  earnest  spiritual  life  at  home. 
They  are  the  men  who  stand  well,  who  are  not  easily  turned  aside 
in  one  way  or  another.  We  need  to  maintain  the  spiritual  stand- 
ard of  our  colleges.  Deep,  earnest,  consecrated  spiritual  life  there 
is  one  of  the  most  necessary  things.  I  have  seen  very  few  men 
turned  away  from  the  ministry — I  can  not  remember  more  than 
one  or  two   all   together — by   reason   of   doubt  as   to   the   truth   of 


670  THEOLOGICAL  COLLEGES. 

the  gospel  or  of  the  great  things  which  they  are  called  upon  to 
preach.  Two  or  three  times  I  have  had  men  come  to  me  and 
open  their  hearts  freely  and  tell  of  their  doubt  and  difficulty  and 
hesitation  in  that  respect.  But  the  gospel  and  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity are  of  such  a  character  that  it  is  not  at  all  difficult  to 
dispel  those  doubts  and  make  them  feel  that  the  religion  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  the  greatest  and  profoundest  of  all  truths, 
and  that  they  are  standing  on  the  highest  platform  intellectually 
when  they  are  called  to  expound  the  gospel.  I  do  not  think  we 
need  to  be  very  much  afraid  on  that  point.  John  Wesley,  in  his 
first  conference,  laid  that  down,  and  said,  "If  our  religion  is  true, 
it  will  take  care  of  itself;  and  if  it  is  not  true,  the  sooner  we 
know  it  the  better."  He  was  not  afraid  of  any  intellectual  difficulty. 
But  another  point:  we  want  to  keep  our  strong,  spiritual,  ear- 
nest, deeply  religious,  theological  school  right  in  touch  with  the 
great  centers  of  religious  thought  in  our  nation.  In  that  respect 
I  have  found  a  very  great  advantage.  I  have  seen  young  men 
come  to  the  university  to  prepare  themselves  for  law  and  other 
secular  professions,  and  when  they  came  into  touch  with  the  young 
men  preparing  for  the  ministry,  and  felt  the  influence  of  their 
spirit,  they  turned  around  and  gave  themselves  to  the  Christian 
ministry.  If  we  keep  a  strong  center  of  spiritual  power  right  in 
the  heart  of  the  university  and  keep  hold  of  Methodist  students 
in  the  university,  we  shall  have  little  difficulty.  We  have  here 
out  of  some  three  thousand  students,  perhaps  thirteen  hundred 
or  fourteen  hundred  Methodist  students,  and  out  of  this  number 
perhaps  two  hundred  who  are  preparing  for  the  ministry. 

The  Eev.  Thomas  Nicholson,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church: 

I  wish,  brethren,  to  follow  the  eloquent  words  of  Chancellor 
Hamilton,  in  which  he  set  forth  the  greatness  of  the  Christian 
ministry,  by  calling  your  attention  to  three  or  four  facts  which 
seem  to  me  to  be  of  tremendous  significance.  In  making  the  rounds 
of  the  Conferences  in  the  Church  which  I  have  the  honor  to  repre- 
sent, I  became  very  much  concerned  about  what  I  saw  as  to  the 
educational  qualifications  of  the  men  being  received  into  our  Con- 
ferences. It  led  me  to  make  a  careful  investigation  of  the  minis- 
terial supply  of  the  Church  to  which  I  belong,  for  the  last  two 
years.  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  the  other  branches  of  Meth- 
odism are  not  very  materially  different  from  ours  in  that  regard, 
particularly  those  in  the  United  States.  I  found  that  in  the  last 
two  years  we  had  received  31%  of  the  men  whom  we  received, 
as  men  who  had  less  than  a  high  school  education.  I  made  an 
investigation  and  discovered  that  our  Presbyterian  brethren,  out 
of  thirteen  hundred  and  sixty-eight  men  whom  they  had  received, 
received  96%  who  were  college  graduates.  Then  I  found  an- 
other thing.  I  discovered  that  of  the  men  whom  we  had  received, 
the  69%  who  had  been  to  college  or  seminaries,  we  got  92%  of 
that  total  out  of  our  own  Methodist  colleges.  Then  I  discovered 
that  our  Presbyterian  brethren  received  95%  of  their  men  out  of 
their  own  colleges.  This  is  the  thing  to  which  I  want  to  call 
your  attention. 

If  we  believe  in  training,  if  we  believe  that  education  helps  a 
man  to  think  straight,  to  go  to  the  bottom  of  a  subject,  to  have 
the    scientific   spirit,    to    have    the    power   of    clear,    logical,    right 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  671 

thinking,  and  of  sober  statement  on  every  great  question;  if  we 
believe  that  education  is  good  for  any  man,  do  we  not  believe  it  is 
good  for  the  minister  who  has  to  grapple  with  men? 

I  want  to  put  another  thing  along  side  that.  I  had  the  honor 
of  attending  a  great  banquet  given  at  the  dedication  of  a  building 
of  the  Union  Theological  Seminary.  There  sat  on  that  platform 
some  of  the  leading  financiers  of  our  nation,  whose  names  are 
the  supreme  names  in  our  country  in  capital  and  industry.  There 
were  the  presidents  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  educational 
institutions.  This  was  the  thought  running  through  the  whole 
thing — interest  in  advocating  that  we  should  bring  our  ministry 
to  a  higher  degree  of  efficiency.  They  said  that  they  had  seven 
different  denominations  represented  in  Union  Theological  Seminary. 
I  am  here  to  say  that  you  and  I  have  fallen  on  a  time  when  we 
shall  not  win  because  we  have  the  shibboleth  of  Methodism  or 
because  we  are  loyal  Baptists  or  what-not,  but  because  we  have 
the  truth  and  are  able  to  defend  it. 

And  our  missionary  boards  are  alive  to  this  question.  You 
know  how  careful  they  are  in  sifting  their  men  as  to  educational 
qualifications.  I  made  a  similar  investigation,  to  find  that  every 
great  missionary  leader  of  the  last  century,  with  two  possible 
exceptions,  was  a  college  graduate,  and  some  of  them  the  most 
severely  trained  men  of  their  century.  Where  are  we  getting 
greater  conquests  to-day  than  on  the  mission  field?  I  have  no 
plea  for  the  cheap  academician  who  comes  out  to  talk  in  words  of 
learned  length  and  thundering  sound,  and  to  talk  higher  criticism. 
But  if  you  are  going  to  win  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States 
and  the  isles  of  the  sea,  you  must  have  men  trained  in  the  ripest 
university  routine,  men  who  can  think  and  defend  what  they  stand 
for  in  any  court  of  public  opinion,  and  who  have  the  baptism  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  such  as  came  at  the  day  of  Pentecost. 

Mr.    Chester   D.    Massey,   of   the    Methodist    Church    of 

Canada : 

What  little  I  have  to  say  applies  more  particularly  to  the  lay- 
men. The  greatest  calling  ever  conferred  upon  men  is  the  Chris- 
tian ministry;  and  relatively,  compared  with  other  callings  and 
professions,  it  is  the  most  poorly  paid.  I  claim,  Mr.  President,  as 
I  see  it,  the  greatest  need  in  Methodism,  and  I  think  this  applies 
to  all  countries,  the  greatest  need  is  the  better  equipment  and  en- 
dowment of  our  theological  institutions.  What  would  you  think  of 
the  manufacturer  who  would  put  up  a  factory  and  not  spend 
capital  enough  to  put  in  good  machinery  and  turn  out  the  best 
product?  What  is  the  use  of  building  churches  and  establishing 
missions  if  you  don't  keep  up-to-date  men  to  work  in  them?  There- 
fore, let  us  equip  and  thoroughly  endow  our  theological  institutions 
that  we  may  turn  out  fully  qualified  men  to  do  the  work.  There 
are  two  things  in  Methodism  that  I  have  no  fear  about — we  will 
never  give  too  much  money  to  our  theological  institutions;  and  we 
do  not  need  to  be  afraid  of  paying  our  ministers  too  large  salaries. 

Dr.  Arthur  Vinter,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church : 

A  remark  was  made  about  our  theological  colleges  at  the  be- 
ginning of  this  discussion  which  I  do  not  think  it  is  fair  should 


673  THEOLOGICAL  COLLEGES. 

pass  without  some  comment.  I  have  been  upon  the  committees 
of  our  theological  institutions  in  England  for  more  than  twenty 
years,  and  now  am  a  member  of  the  finance  committee  which 
governs  all  four  of  these  institutions.  And  I  say  unhesitatingly 
that  they  are  not  workhouses  or  anything  approaching  that  I 
admit  that  they  are  getting  somewhat  behind  the  times;  but  as 
far  as  they  go  they  are  very  good  institutions.  And  they  are  well 
manned.  The  problem  of  theological  institutions  with  us  is  an 
exceedingly  difScult  one.  We  have  four  colleges  which  are  nomi- 
nally one  institution.  It  reminds  me  of  the  problem  which  used 
to  be  proposed  to  me  in  mathematics  in  Cambridge — "If  an  irre- 
sistible force  acts  upon  an  immovable  object  for  an  infinite  amount 
of  time,  what  will  be  the  result?"  That  is  the  kind  of  problem 
we  have  been  attacking  with  our  colleges  yonder.  I  am  in  great 
sympathy  with  our  professors,  and  I  believe  that  they  are  doing 
the  very  best  they  can  under  the  present  conditions.  But  the  con- 
ditions, and  I  believe  most  of  them  will  agree  with  me,  are  wrong. 
There  are  two  fundamental  things  that  we  can  not  get  rid  of. 
The  first  is  that  we  all  believe  in  association,  in  residential  col- 
leges that  are  training  for  the  ministry.  The  interaction  of  mind 
upon  mind,  and  of  character  upon  character,  and  the  social  side, 
are  of  very  great  importance  in  developing  the  finest  characters 
of  men  for  the  ministry.  Therefore,  we  must  bring  them  together 
in  colleges.  There  is  another  thing  that  we  can  not  get  over,  and 
I  do  not  wish  to.  That  is,  that  we  m.ust  take  any  man  who  shows 
that  he  is  called  of  God  for  the  ministry.  That  is  another  fixed 
point.^  We  divide  our  two  hundred  men  among  four  colleges,  and, 
therefore,  have  four  parallel  colleges.  The  work  is  very  wasteful 
and  not  nearly  as  efficient  as  if  they  were  all  massed  together.  I 
am  coming  strongly  to  the  conviction  tliat  the  only  way  to  deal 
with  the  colleges  is  to  scrap  the  colleges  and  build  a  great  Meth- 
odist Theological  University  somewhere  in  the  center  of  England. 
I  should  like  to  see  that  done  in  the  course  of  the  next  ten  years. 
As  the  previous  speaker  has  said,  we  shall  need  the  money  to 
do  it  with;  and  if  the  laymen  can  wake  up  to  the  needs  of  these 
institutions  and  do  something  of  that  kind,  we  may  move  in  that 
direction. 

I  will  not  touch  upon  the  diflBculties  created  by  such  amalgama- 
tion. If  such  a  university  were  established,  perhaps  Canada  would 
like  to  have  a  hostel  there,  to  send  some  of  its  students  to  be 
trained  in  that  old  Protestant  country,  with  its  literature,  history, 
tradition,  archaeology,  and  great  sites  of  ancient  learning.  We  can 
find  the  professors.  We  never  passed  so  many  men  through  our 
great  universities,  coming  into  our  ministry,  as  to-day.  And  if 
we  had  a  great  theological  university  we  should  have  more  of 
them.  Mr.  Lewis  could  tell  you  of  many,  many,  men  who  come  to 
Cambridge  and  take  the  highest  degrees  in  philosophy,  history,  and 
science,  and  ultimately  find  their  way  into  the  ministry. 

The   Eev.    Thos.    Mitchell,   of  the    Primitive   Methodist 

Church : 

I  have  been  reminded  this  morning  of  a  distinguished  theo- 
logical professor  in  our  Church.  He  was  Sunday  school  secretary, 
and  then  he  would  say  that  the  great  work  of  the  Church  was 
with  the  children.  At  one  time  he  was  a  theological  professor, 
and  he  used  then  to  say  that  it  does  not  matter  what  chapels  you 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  673 

build,  however  beautiful  and  inviting,  unless  you  have  trained  men 
in  the  ministry.  In  his  later  years,  he  was  secretary  of  the  ex- 
amining board  that  had  to  do  with  the  selection  of  men,  and  then 
he  said  that  it  does  not  matter  what  training  you  give  them  unless 
you  have  right  men  to  start  with.  I  have  a  good  deal  of  sympathy 
with  his  positions.  I  would  like  to  emphasize  the  necessity  that 
our  theological  colleges  should  maintain  a  high  spirituality.  I 
have  been  asked  whether  the  students  of  our  colleges  leave  the 
college  with  the  same  fervor  with  which  they  entered.  Their 
spiritual  life  ought  to  be  intensified  during  their  college  course. 
I  would  aslc  our  theological  tutors  to  have  that  in  mind.  For, 
depend  upon  it,  it  vitally  affects  the  future  of  the  ministry  of  our 
Church.  I  yield  to  no  one  in  my  desire  that  our  ministry  shall 
have  the  best  possible  theological  training;  but  I  would  like  it 
to  be  a  training  of  the  whole  man.  I  have  the  idea  that  if  every 
student  for  the  ministry  should  have  three  j'ears  in  business  it 
would  be  a  help  to  him.  My  theological  tutor  impressed  upon  all 
the  men  brought  under  his  influence  the  necessity  of  absolute 
spirituality  as  the  prime  necessity  for  the  preacher  of  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ. 

I  desire  nothing  better  than  that  the  students  of  our  theological 
colleges  have  that  ever  before  their  minds.  Reference  has  been 
made  by  Mr.  Redferx  to  some  college  system.  I  venture  to  suggest 
that.  I  do  not  know  whether  that  is  practicable  or  not.  I  have 
thought  it  might  furnish  a  beginning  for  a  common  Methodism. 
I  would  like  some  practical  result  to  come  out  of  this  Conference. 
I  have  been  asked.  What  is  the  outcome?  Are  you  here  simply  to 
talk,  or  will  there  be  some  practical  results?  Whether  it  can  be  by 
common  philanthropy,  or  by  a  common  theological  system,  or  in 
some  other  way  by  which  we  might  federate  our  forces  more  than 
heretofore,  I  do  earnestly  desire  that  some  practical  result  may  be 
achieved. 

Bisliop  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South: 

I  am  quite  sure  that  all  the  other  needs  of  the  Methodist 
Churches  are  wrapped  up  in  the  need  of  a  better  ministry.  I  do 
not  mean  to  reflect  upon  the  ministry  as  it  exists  at  the  present 
time.  But  no  man  could  sustain  the  relation  to  the  churches 
which  .1  sustain,  without  knowing  that  there  are  a  very  large  num- 
ber of  our  ministers  who  are  simply  carried  by  the  system.  We 
have  scores  and  hundreds  of  ministers  who,  if  they  were  outside 
the  Methodist  system  and  had  to  look  out  for  themselves,  would 
be  without  churches  half  the  time.     We  need  a  better  ministry. 

That  means,  first  of  all,  a  more  profoundly  spiritual  ministry. 
In  the  second  place,  it  means  also  a  more  thoroughly  trained 
ministry.  Nothing  could  be  more  foolish  than  the  notion  that 
there  is  any  contradiction  betwepn  culture  and  piety.  My  own 
observation  has  been  that  the  cultivated  man  adjusts  himself  to 
the  uncultivated  masses  better  than  any  other  man  can  do.  Some- 
thing has  been  said  about  the  Churches  supplying  the  money  to 
educate  our  ministry.  Where  that  is  necessary,  let  it  be  done; 
but  I  am  loath  to  believe  that  God  has  quit  calling  men  into  the 
ministry  who  can  educate  themselves.  Not  all  our  ministers  come 
from  the  ranks  of  the  lowly  people.  "Not  many  mighty,  not  many 
noble  are  called,"  but  when  one  mighty  or  noble  is  called,  we  ought 
43 


674  BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS. 

to  thank  God  for  it.  When  the  great  work  of  Christianizing  the 
African  population  of  the  Southern  States  began,  wlio  was  found 
as  the  leader  for  it,  except  William  Capers  of  South  Carolina? — a 
man  whose  own  social  position  was  so  secure  that  nobody  could 
call  him  in  question,  that  greatest  of  Methodist  bishops,  on  whose 
tombstone  in  the  cemetery  at  Columbia,  South  Carolina,  is  this 
inscription,  "William  Capers,  Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  Founder  of  Missions  to  the  Slaves." 

Mr.  President,  we  have  overlooked  one  thing  in  this  discussion. 
Nothing  has  been  said  with  utter  definiteness  about  the  call  to 
the  ministry.  "The  harvest  truly  is  great  and  the  laborers  are 
few.  Pray  ye,  therefore,  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  that  He  will  send 
forth  laborers  into  His  harvest."  It  is  still  His  prerogative  to  call 
His  laborers.  He  exercises  it  always  in  response  to  the  prayers 
of  the  Church.  "Pray  ye,  therefore,  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  that 
He  will  send  forth  laborers  into  His  harvest."  Nearly  all  our 
preachers,  as  has  been  said,  come  from  three  sources  in  our 
Church — the  parsonage,  the  small  country  church,  and  the  Chris- 
tian colleges.  In  some  of  our  colleges  we  still  have  so  good  an 
atmosphere  that  many  young  men  who  go  there  to  follow  secular 
callings  come  out  consecrated  to  the  Christian  ministry.  I  trust 
that  we  shall  have  more  prayer  upon  this  subject  in  all  our 
churches,  in  all  our  families;  and  that  we  shall  have  more  fam- 
ilies the  atmosphere  of  which  is  suitable  for  the  production  of  a 
Christian  minister. 

Secretary  James  Chapman:  "There  is  a  resolution  calling 
on  those  in  authority  to  enforce  tlie  law  against  mob  violence. 
Also  a  resolution  on  the  Church  and  the  Evangelization  of  the 
World.  As  those  resolutions  are  signed  each  by  two  delegates, 
they  will  be  referred  to  the  Business  Committee.'^ 

Secretary  Chap]man  made  announcements,  and  the  session 
closed  with  the  benediction  pronounced  by  the  presiding  officer. 


SECOXD  SESSION 
Topic:  EELIGIOUS  LITERATUEE. 

The  Eev.  E.  J.  Brailsford^  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church,  presided  in  the  afternoon. 

The  devotional  exercises  were  conducted  by  the  Eev.  Geokge 
Jackson,  B.  A.,  of  the  same  Church,  who  read  Joshua  8 :  30-35, 
and  offered  prayer. 

The  hymn  was  'No.  TOO — 

"The  heavens  declare  Thy  glory,  Lord." 

The  Conference  adopted  the  daily  record  for  Saturday  and 
Sunday  as  printed  and  distributed. 


ESSAY  OF  BISHOP  L.  J.  COPPIN.  G75 

Secretary  James  Chap:max  stated  that  a  notice  of  motion 
referring  to  co-operation  between  the  Methodist  Churches  had 
been  received.     This  was  referred  to  the  Business  Committee. 

The  Rev.  Simpsox  Johnson  presented  the  statistics  of 
Methodism  for  the  Eastern  Section, 

On  motion  of  Secretary  Chapman,  it  was  voted  that  tliese 
be  received  by  the  Conference  and  ordered  printed  in  the  vol- 
ume to  be  published  containing  the  proceedings  of  the  Con- 
ference. 

Secretary  Chapman  said:  "Only  those  who  have  looked 
carefully  into  the  matter  can  have  any  idea  how  carefully  these 
statistics  have  been  compiled,  and  how  useful  they  will  be.  I 
am  rather  sorry  that  the  custom  of  the  Conference  prevents  a 
special  vote  of  thanks  being  given  to  the  Rev.  Simpson  John- 
son and  those  who  have  assisted  him  in  the  preparation  of 
these  most  accurate  and  full  statistics.'^ 

The  President:  "While  the  rule  may  prevent  a  formal 
vote  of  thanks,  I  am  sure  that  we  all  appreciate  the  work  of 
the  Rev.  Simpson  Johnson  and  those  who  have  assisted  him 
in  compiling  these  most  valuable  statistics." 

Bishop  L.  J.  CoppiN,  D.  D.,  of  the  African  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  read  the  essay  of  the  afternoon,  on  "The  Place 
of  the  Religious  Press  in  Modern  Life :" 

One  of  the  greatest  blessings  of  our  modern  times  is  free 
speech,  and  the  liberty  of  the  press.  Star  Chamber  regulations, 
which  deny  to  man  such  liberty,  suppress  the  individual  spirit  and 
deprive  society  of  that  peculiar  inspiration  which  comes  through 
human  speech.  In  imparting  knowledge,  spreading  truth,  and 
inspiring  mankind  to  action,  nothing  can  take  the  place  of  the 
"voice  crying  in  the  wilderness."  It  may  be  oral  or  written,  or 
it  may  be,  perchance,  wireless  telegraphy,  but  it  is  man  speaking 
to  man — it  is  the  divine  method  of  making  thought  a  universal 
possession. 

In  every  age  of  the  world,  at  every  stage  of  human  progress, 
there  have  been  men  and  women  who,  with  clearer  vision  and 
broader  horizon  than  the  masses,  not  only  discovered  new  truths 
in  science  and  religion,  but,  having  a  deeper  insight  into  many 
things  which  make  for  the  highest  good  of  mankind,  came  forth 
with  a  message.  When  the  message  was  revolutionary  in  its  pur- 
pose, the  bearer  did  not  always  get  a  patient  hearing,  for  usually 


676  RELIGIOUS  LITERATURE. 

men  do  not  like  to  be  disturbed  in  their  settled  convictions  and 
habits,  and  they  look  with  the  eye  of  suspicion  upon  innovations 
which  attack  long-standing  traditions. 

Socrates  had  a  moral  and  spiritual  vision  which  induced  him 
to  denounce  the  materialism  of  his  day.  But  his  course  did  not  find 
favor  with  the  prevailing  spirit  of  the  age,  and  so  the  destruction 
of  the  philosopher  was  decreed.  Galileo  was  summoned  by  the 
Inquisition  and  given  a  chance  to  celebrate  his  seventieth  anni- 
versary upon  bended  knees,  denouncing  the  truths  which  had  re- 
quired a  lifetime  to  discover.  Thomas  Cranmer  was  finally  brought 
to  the  stake,  to  pay  the  price  of  being  a  religious  reformer  in 'a 
spiritually  benighted  age.  William  Lloyd  Garrison  barely  escaped 
death  at  the  hands  of  a  mob  from  Beacon  Hill,  Boston,  for  permit- 
ting a  free  discussion  of  the  doctrine  of  abolition  through  the 
columns  of  his  paper.  The  Liberator. 

Volumes  could  be  written  upon  how,  in  the  past  ages,  men  of 
liberal  views  were  obliged  to  keep  their  thoughts  within  their  own 
bosoms,  or  else  face  death  or  imprisonment.  But  truth  and  right- 
eousness have  the  happy  faculty  of  surviving  decrees  and  forms 
of  persecution  that  would  destroy  all  other  germs  of  life.  And 
yet,  on  account  of  persecution,  truth  has  often  been  crushed  to 
earth,  and  forced  to  wait  long  and  weary  years  for  a  hearing,  and 
for  complete  vindication.  Let  us  rejoice  that  the  darkness  passes, 
and  the  light  dawns;  and  that  God  is  speaking  to  every  land,  and 
is  spreading  the  light  of  truth  by  divers  instrumentalities,  among 
which  the  religious  press  is  a  potent  factor. 

Let  us  also  rejoice  that  in  the  greater  portion  of  the  civilized 
world  the  truth  is  welcomed;  at  least  to  the  extent  that  those  who 
have  the  courage  to  declare  it  need  not  fear  any  greater  evil  than 
the  tongue  of  criticism.  The  menace  of  imprisonment,  and  even 
death,  for  taking  a  bold  stand  for  one's  opinions  is  largely  a  relic 
of  the  past. 

But  there  are  other  forces  with  which  to  reckon  in  educating 
the  world  up  to  the  highest  principles  of  religious  thought  and 
life.  If,  in  the  brighter  sunshine  of  modern  life,  the  baser  forms  of 
human  oppression  have  been  vanquished,  there  are  still  forctes 
operating  against  truth  and  righteousness.  Forces  more  subtle, 
and  because  of  their  subtility,  all  the  more  difficult  to  deal  with. 
An  inordinate  desire  for  worldly  gain-^one  of  the  growing  evils  of 
our  times;  the  temptation  to  court  popular  applause — a  very  human 
tendency;  a  desire  to  find  the  crown  other  than  by  way  of  the 
cross — an  inheritance  of  human  nature;  an  unwillingness  to  follow 
the  example  of  the  meek  and  lowly  Christ  and  espouse  the  cause 
of  humanity  at  the  hazard  of  ease  and  self-gratification,  are  some  of 
the  menacing  considerations  which  strangle  the  truth  and  permit 
error  to  sit  enthroned.     These  the  religious  press  must  have  the 


ESSAY  OF  BISHOP  L.  J.  COPPIN.  G77 

wisdom  to  discover,  and  the  courage  to  attack  in  the  name  of 
religion  and  in  the  interest  of  humanity. 

Religion,  in  its  broader  sense,  embraces  the  different  forms  of 
ethnic  faith  and  formula,  as  well  as  Christianity;  nor  would  I  dis- 
parage aught  that  is  good  in  any  religion;  but  to  a  Christian  body 
like  this,  the  religious  press  might  readily  be  taken  to  mean  the 
press  which  stands  for  Christianity  and  for  the  teachings  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Founder  of  our  holy  religion. 

View,  then,  in  this  light,  what  a  field  of  operation,  what  an 
opportunity  for  good;  and,  withal,  what  a  responsibility  is  placed 
upon  the  press,  surnamed  religious!  It  has  a  responsibility  second 
only  to  that  of  the  pulpit.    Indeed,  it  may  be  called  pulpit  extension. 

Multitudes  who  perhaps  never  attend  a  religious  service,  may 
be  reached  by  the  press.  The  modern  method  of  collecting  and 
dispatching  news  places  all  the  civilized  world  in  direct  communi- 
cation. 

Wendell  Phillips  was  once  addressing  a  Boston  audience  upon 
the  subject  of  abolition.  Many  in  the  audience,  being  stung  by  his 
awful  arraignment,  determined  that  he  should  not  be  heard,  and  so 
set  up  a  cry  to  drown  his  voice.  But  he,  nothing  daunted,  stepped 
to  the  footlights,  and  addressing  himself  to  the  reporters,  said, 
"Let  them  roar;  I  am  speaking  to  thousands  of  people." 

The  press  is  one  of  the  busiest  and  most  wide-awake  institu- 
tions of  modern  times.  Distance  is  annihilated;  time  is  scarcely 
cons-dered;  and  with  each  opening  day  comes  the  news  of  the 
world  to  the  individual  household. 

But,  while  this  is  true  of  the  press  in  general,  the  religious 
press  has  a  mission  all  its  own.  Its  chief  business  is  not  simply 
to  gather  and  dispense  news.  Much  of  the  daily  news  that  is 
gathered  and  sent  forth  to  the  world  through  various  periodicals 
is  like  an  infectious  poison  in  the  atmosphere  that  is  only  harmful 
to  those  who  breathe  it. 

There  should  be  some  journals  that  are  lifted  so  pre-eminently 
above  the  harmful  class,  that  the  homes  which  they  enter  and 
the  lives  which  they  influence  shall  be  strengthened,  inspired  and 
elevated  by  them,  instead  of  being  harmed  by  their  visits. 

We  are  not  necessarily  wicked  because  we  sin,  nor  bent  upon 
evil  because  we  fail  to  do  good.  The  highest  and  best  qualities 
of  soul  may  be  dormant  for  a  time,  needing  only  the  awakening 
touch  of  a  word  or  suggestion.  We  have  a  right  to  expect  that 
the  religious  journal,  above  all  others,  will  be  this  messenger  of 
grace,  freighted  with  that  which  is  loftiest  in  thought  and  purpose, 
and  bearing  in  its  columns  a  record  of  the  best  achievements  of 
those  whose  lives  and  work  stamp  them  as  benefactors  of  mankind. 

The  religious  press,  so  far  as  it  is  denominational,  may  regard 
it  as  a  duty  to  advocate,  and  if  need  be,  defend  the  doctrines  of 


678  RELIGIOUS  LITERATURE. 

its  peculiar  sect.  This  need  not  mean  a  return  to  those  polemical 
controversies  of  the  past,  which  savor  more  of  protecting  the  shell 
than  the  kernel.  But  any  man  who  has  a  hope  should  be  able  to 
give  a  reason  for  it.  I  would  not  consider  it  a  sign  of  healthy 
growth  in  religion  if  a  man  were  willing  to  swap  his  opinions  upon 
the  most  vital  religious  subject  for  the  sake  of  conformity  to  a 
popular  sentiment.  It  is  true  that  religion  is  broad  enough  to 
afford  standing-room  for  all  sects  and  denominations,  but  every 
man  of  mature  religious  convictions  should  represent  more  than 
a  reed  shaken  by  the  wind. 

But  there  is  a  much  broader  field  for  the  religious  press  than 
that  which  has  to  do  with  defending  formulated  doctrines.  A 
definite  and  honest  statement  of  belief  is  about  as  far  as  it  is 
generally  necessary  or  profitable  to  go  in  religious  discussion, 
and  there  are  fundamental  and  vital  truths  upon  which  all  who  hold 
to  any  religion  worthy  the  name  may  agree.  In  this  broader  field 
of  thought,  where  opinions  are  not  so  much  the  result  of  either  the 
human  or  divine  nature  in  man  as  they  are  the  product  of  social  and 
economic  conditions,  is  where  the  religious  press  may  find  its  true 
place  and  be  of  the  greatest  service  to  the  world. 

This  broader  sphere,  where  all  the  live  questions  of  the  day  are 
discussed — questions  that  are  for  the  weal  or  woe  of  society,  and, 
therefore,  have  a  moral  and  religious  side  when  reduced  to  their 
last  analysis;  questions  of  government  in  its  various  forms,  of 
capital  and  labor;  of  sociology,  and  the  right  of  the  ballot;  upon 
prison  reforms  and  reformatories  for  youthful  offenders;  of  tem- 
perance and  child  labor;  of  trusts  and  tiie  cost  of  living;  of  peonage 
and  involuntary  servitude;  popular  education,  school  curriculums, 
and  the  length  of  school  terms  in  the  rural  districts;  the  various 
forms  of  so-called  race  problems;  and  the  place  of  the  Golden  Rule 
in  modern  life — it  is  the  press,  more  than  any  other  human  agency, 
that  has  the  power  to  create  sentiment  upon  all  these  subjects,  and 
to  educate  men  to  hold  just  and  enlightened  views  upon  them. 

It  is  amazing,  when  we  consider  the  extent  to  which  the  opinions 
of  men  are  formed  or  modified  by  the  press.  I  think  it  can  be 
safely  said  that  the  tendency  of  the  age  is  toward  toleration  and 
charity  upon  matters  purely  religious;  each  sect  conceding  to  the 
other  the  right  to  its  own  opinions  upon  matters  of  faith  and 
creed.  This  affords  an  opportunity  for  all  to  come  together,  and 
stand  together  upon  subjects  of  a  more  general  nature,  both  as 
they  relate  to  individuals  and  to  society. 

Alas  for  the  religious  press,  when  the  secular  press  has  to  take 
the  lead  in  those  important  questions  which  have  so  much  to  do 
with  the  very  existence  and  well-being  of  society;  or,  to  put  it  in 
the  words  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  which  have  to  do 
with  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 


ESSAY  OF  BISHOP  L.  J.  COPPIN.  679 

it  too  often  happens  that  those  who  should  be  heard  upon  the 
burning  questions  of  the  day  are  either  silent,  or  their  utterances, 
being  neither  hot  nor  cold,  are  worse  than  silence.  The  editors 
of  religious  journals  are  generally  ministers,  and  as  such  are,  in 
a  twofold  sense,  watchmen  in  the  tower.  The  Bible  has  much  to 
say  about  the  watchman  and  his  duty  to  give  the  timely  word,  and 
that  with  no  uncertain  sound.  It  also  speaks  of  those  who  were  not 
faithful  in  the  ages  past.  Isaiah  says,  "His  watchmen  are  blind, 
tney  are  all  ignorant,  they  are  all  dumb  dogs,  they  can  not  bark; 
sleeping,  Ijung  down,  loving  to  slumber." 

If  the  old  prophet  lived  now,  he  might  still  see  the  need  of  arous- 
ing the  religious  conscience  of  the  watchmen  upon  the  walls,  who, 
too  often,  are  found  slumbering  when  their  services  are  most 
needed.  Of  course,  this  spirit  of  lethargy  and  cowardice  can  not 
be  charged  up  against  all  the  fraternity  having  charge  of  our 
religious  journals.  There  are  brave  and  fearless  exceptions,  even  in 
purely  secular  journalism. 

The  Independent,  a  weekly  magazine,  published  at  the  metropo- 
lis of  the  American  nation,  founded  in  1848,  perhaps  not  claiming 
to  be  a  religious  publication,  takes  and  maintains  the  highest 
ground  upon  all  questions  affecting  the  rights  of  mankind,  without 
regard  to  race,  variety,  or  creed. 

If  it  is  not  a  religious  journal,  it  is  certainly  an  example  for 
many  bearing  that  distinction.  That  which  has  given  the  Independ- 
ent a  national  and  international  reputation  and  a  permanent  place 
in  thousands  of  homes  is  not  its  politics,  nor  its  religious  opinions, 
but  its  unswerving  devotion  to  the  cause  of  humanity,  and  its  fear- 
less and  impartial  advocacy  of  the  civil,  political,  and  religious 
rights  of  all  men. 

This  exalted  type  of  journalism  means  much  more  for  humanity 
than  volumes  written  upon  religious  creeds,  or  of  the  most  learned 
dissertations  upon  abstract  theories  of  religion.  For,  after  all,  how 
is  the  world  benefited  by  religion,  except  to  the  extent  that  it  is  a 
force,   leading   the   world   God-ward. 

Some  one  has  said,  "Religion  is  the  link  which  unites  man  to 
God."  In  the  light  of  this  definition,  it  would  be  difficult  to  con- 
ceive of  a  religion  that  leaves  out  either  God  or  man.  To  love 
God  with  all  thy  heart  and  one's  neighbor  as  himself,  is  our  Lord's 
brief  summary  of  the  law  and  the  prophets. 

In  our  modern  life,  those  who  presume  to  be  the  mouthpiece  of 
the  people,  directing  thought  and  molding  opinion  are  required  by 
the  very  r.ature  of  their  position,  to  be  persons  of  great  learning. 
Tney  sometimes  go  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  gathering  material  for 
the  multitudes  who  wait  for  their  words.  But  it  is  well  to  remem- 
ber that  they  should  also  be  persons  of  great  courage  and  moral 
strength;  and  it  might  not  be  out  of  place  if  they  should  make  an 


680  RELIGIOUS  LITERATURE. 

occasional  pilgrimage  to  the  throne  of  heavenly  grace,  and  there 
obtain  mercy  for  past  derelictions  and  find  grace  to  help  them  to 
more  faithfully  perform  their  duties  in  the  future. 

It  is  the  prominent  place  of  the  press  in  human  affairs,  and  its 
power  for  good  or  evil,  that  makes  it  so  important  that  it  should 
be  guided  only  by  just  and  impartial  motives;  and  it  is  the  rela- 
tion of  the  religious  press  to  the  divinely  established  institution 
of  mankind,  the  Church,  that  pledges  it  by  sacred  honor  to  a  faith- 
ful discharge  of  duty,  measured  by  the  Voice  from  Sinai,  and  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

The  Ptev.  E.  G.  B.  Mann,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  presented  the  first  invited  address,  on  "The 
Church  Paper  in  Every  Methodist  Home :" 

There  are  only  two  things  to  be'  properly  brought  into  a  ten- 
minute  discussion  of  this  subject.  One  is,  the  desirability  of  having 
a  Church  paper  in  every  Methodist  home;  the  other,  how  to  accom- 
plish the  end  desired.  I  shall  divide  my  time  between  these  two 
points. 

It  is  desirable  to  have  a  Church  paper  in  every  Christian  home 
for  the  spiritual  and  intellectual  benefit  of  the  members  of  the 
family.  Next  to  the  reading  of  the  Bible  and  other  distinctively 
religious  books,  comes  the  use  of  the  Church  paper  in  the  upbuild- 
ing of  the  personal  spiritual  life.  Perhaps  the  Church  paper  is 
next  to  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  that  regard.  There  is  a  freshness 
and  variety  of  religious  instruction  and  influence  in  the  Church 
paper  that  Is  not  even  to  be  found  in  a  purely  devotional  booK. 
If  one  will  read  carefully  every  week  the  sound  editorials  of  a 
standard  religious  newspaper  and  the  variety  of  doctrinal,  ethical, 
and  practical  instruction  to  be  found  therein,  and  the  record  of 
the  spiritual  ongoing  of  the  living  Church  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
he  will  keep  his  own  faith  alive  and  will  be  led  to  do  something  for 
the  Master. 

The  Church  people  often  perish  for  lack  of  knowledge.  Many 
become  entangled  in  local  petty  troubles,  and  are  engaged  with 
purely  provincial  things,  because  they  do  not  keep  in  touch  with 
the  whole  Christian  Church,  especially  with  the  whole  branch  that 
they  are  connected  with;  and  they  can  not  keep  in  touch  unless 
they  take  the  Church  paper. 

A  Church  paper  in  the  hand  of  the  church  member  is  a  con- 
stant guide  into  "the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life."  It  is  a  safe- 
guard against  eiTor  and  superstition.  Our  members  w^ould  not  grow 
lax  in  service  and  be  led  away  by  "erroneous  and  strange  doc- 
trines" if  they  were  well  supplied  with  sound  Christian  literature. 
The  weekly  report  of  the  ingathering  of  souls,  the  story  of  wonder- 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV  E.  G.  B.  MANN.  681 

ful  missionary  movements,  the  testimonies  of  living  saints,  the 
obituaries  of  those  who  have  gone  on  in  triumph  to  heaven,  as 
given  in  the  Church  paper,  will  keep  the  individual  member  alive 
in  his  interest  and  encouraged  in  his  Christian  life.  The  Church 
paper  should  be  in  every  Methodist  home,  then,  for  the  benefit  of 
the  home  itself. 

It  should  also  be  in  every  home  in  order  that  the  general  Church 
may  be  able  to  present  its  message  and  make  its  call  on  behalf 
of  the  great  enterprises  it  is  seeking  to  promote. 

The  membership  of  the  Church  is  not  merely  a  ''field  to  work  in, 
tut  a  field  to  work  with."  How  can  the  Church  present  its  calls 
to  the  people  without  a  dependable  means  of  communication?  The 
Church  paper  is  intended  to  be  the  great  artery  through  which  the 
throbbing  life  of  the  Church  may  flow  to  all  the  separate  parts  of 
the  body.  How  can  communication  b&  made  to  the  members  of 
the  general  Church  if  there  is  no  connection?  The  main  function 
of  the  pulpit  is  to  comfort  the  saints,  and  preach  the  message  of 
salvation  to  sinners,  so  that  there  is  not  time  nor  opportunity  for 
the  pastor  to  tell  the  congregation  what  the  Church  at  large  is 
doing  or  is  planning  to  do,  so  there  must  be  the  Church  paper. 

If  our  leaders  knew  just  how  few  among  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
church  membership  ever  hear  of  their  plans  for  education,  mis- 
sions, and  evangelization,  they  would  not  wonder  that  the  response 
is  so  meager.  In  the  sections  of  Methodism  where  there  is  one 
paper  to  every  three  families  connected  with  the  Church,  it  is  bet- 
ter than  the  average.  In  some  parts  of  the  United  States,  and  not 
merely  in  the  mountainous  and  desolate  places,  but  in  parts  where 
the  people  are  materially  prosperous,  there  is  only  one  Church 
paper  to  every  seven  church  families.  I  do  not  know  so  well  about 
other  countries.  To  thus  have  only  one  paper  to  every  thirty-five 
church  members,  or,  at  best,  one  to  every  fifteen,  makes  it  hard 
to  keep  the  enterprises  and  efforts  of  the  Church  before  the  indi- 
vidual members. 

The  great  boards.  Conference  presidents,  bishops,  secretaries, 
and  all  Church  leaders  are  crowding  their  matters  for  publication 
constantly,  and  often  urgently,  upon  the  editors  of  the  Church 
periodicals,  but  they  do  not  always  consider  how  few  of  the  church 
members  they  are  reaching.  It  would  seem  like  folly  on  the  part 
of  the  war  generals  of  any  country  to  be  trying  to  issue  their  com- 
mands or  make  their  reports,  if  thirty-four  out  of  thirty-five  of  all 
the  telegraph  wires  Avere  down,  and  thirty-four  out  of  thirty-five 
of  their  reports  were  never  delivered  at  headquarters.  It  seems 
equally  foolish  for  the  generals  of  our  great  world-wide  Methodism 
to  be  carrying  on  the  battle  for  God  against  the  forces  of  evil,  with 
no  means  of  communication  between  them  and  multiplied  thousands 
of  members  in  the  ranks. 


682  RELIGIOUS  LITERATURE. 

War  generals  of  the  world  would  have  the  wires  put  up  and 
more  messengers  employed,  till  their  plans  and  commands  could  be 
carried  to  every  soldier  in  the  army.  Should  our  leaders  in  the 
Church  do  less?  But  we  are  told  that  "the  children  of  this  world 
are  wiser  in  their  generation  than  the  children  of  light."  That 
Scripture  is  surely  true. 

The  great  mail-order  houses  are  now  publishing  their  own 
papers,  and  scattering  them  everywhere  like  autumn  leaves,  to 
bring  before  prospective  purchasers  the  special  inducements  they 
have  to  offer  for  their  trade. 

It  is  the  lamest  policy  imaginable  for  the  Church  to  be  trying 
to  educate  and  evangelize  the  v/hole  world,  without  keeping  in 
touch  with  and  enlisting  the  great  numbers  of  its  own  members.  It 
may  not  be  generally  known  that  our  members  of  the  large  city 
churches  are  not  always  furnished  with  the  Church  paper.  It  is 
partly  because  they  have  so  many  secular  periodicals  at  hand,  and 
also  because  so  many  pastors  are  issuing  weakly  bulletins  and  little 
local  thumb-papers.  We  talk  in  some  parts  of  the  world  about 
Methodism  being  connectional  and  methodical,  but  my  observation 
leads  me  to  say  that  many  Methodist  churches  are  purely  local  in 
their  thoughts  and  feelings,  and  not  only  have  no  connectionalism 
in  them,  but  very  little  interest  often  in  other  Methodist  enterprises 
in  the  same  city.  Pastors  and  official  boards  are  standing  very 
much  in  their  own  light  when  they  allow  a  local  church  to  expend 
its  means  and  energies  upon  itself,  and  confine  it  to  light  local  liter- 
ature, instead  of  filling  its  hands  with  the  representative  periodicals 
of  the  whole  Church. 

The  other  point  I  wanted  to  raise  in  this  discussion  is,  how  to 
get  the  Church  paper  into  every  home.  Shall  it  be  left  to  the 
editorial  or  business  management  of  the  paper  itself,  or  shall  it 
be  a  matter  to  be  definitely  determined  by  the  leaders  of  the  whole 
Church? 

We  have  the  first-named  method  in  operation  now.  What  are 
tne  results? 

The  main  result  is  that  the  Church  paper,  which  should  be  the 
great  artery  of  the  Church's  life,  is  about  the  weakest  and  worst- 
treated  thing  in  the  Church.  It  is  left  pretty  much  as  a  separate 
and  independent  agency,  to  fight  its  own  battles,  and  take  its  own 
chances.  Instead  of  its  being  independent,  aggressive,  and  fearless, 
it  is  often  embarrassed  and  intimidated  by  its  poverty  and  weak- 
ness. It  is  sometimes  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  selling  patent 
medicines,  new  town  lots,  and  stocks  in  doubtful  mining  schemes, 
for  a  living.  Editors  and  proprietors  of  Church  papers  are  expected 
to  foster  the  ambitions  of  individuals,  praise  worthless  pulpit  efforts, 
record  the  deaths  of  many  Church  members  who  never  did  anything 
notable  for  the  cause  except  to  die  and  leave  it,  publish  poetry  and 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  H.  B.  WORKMAN.  683 

other  contributions  equally  as  worthless,  and  board  themselves.  As 
Jesus  told  the  people  of  Jerusalem  concerning  their  prophets,  we 
kill  our  editors,  and  then  build  monuments  to  them. 

If  the  circulation  of  the  Church  paper  is  left  alone  to  those 
who  edit  it  or  manage  it,  they  will  continue  to  be  suspicioned  of 
trying  to  increase  the  circulation  for  personal  gain,  and  will  be 
driven,  as  in  the  past,  to  resort  to  methods  that  will  be  more  or 
less  demoralizing  to  the  religious  life  of  the  Church,  and  embarrass- 
ing to  themselves.  If  we  ever  get  a  Church  paper  into  every  reli- 
gious home,  it  will  be  by  much  the  same  method  as  preaching  the 
gospel  itself,  by  sending  it,  without  waiting  for  it  to  be  sent  for. 
Why  could  not  the  Church  paper  be  included  in  the  budget  of  annual 
expenses  in  every  church,  as  much  so  as  fuel  and  light?  Is  it  less 
important  to  have  this  means  of  communication  in  the  hands  of 
every  member,  than  to  have  a  hymn  book  in  his  hand,  or  an 
envelope  through  which  he  may  make  his  contribution?  To  connect 
a  person  or  family  with  the  church,  without  a  way  to  inform  and 
appeal  to  that  person  or  home,  is  as  bad  as  to  put  the  navy  at  sea 
without  means  of  wireless  communication,  or  the  army  in  the  field 
without  the  postal  and  telegraphic  service. 

If  the  soldiers  and  sailors  did  not  care  for  hearing  from  head- 
quarters, certainly  those  at  headquarters  would  want  to  communi- 
cate with  them.  I  know  of  some  denominations  already  which  have 
begun  a  campaign  to  put  a  denominational  paper  in  every  church 
home.  I  know  of  some  local  churches  now  that  are  putting  a  Church 
paper  into  every  family,  either  by  solicitation  and  supplemental 
free  gift,  or  else  by  general  assessment. 

The  proper  method  can  soon  be  arrived  at  when  the  Church 
leadership  determines  that  the  thing  shall  be  accomplished. 

Those  who  want  a  closer  Methodist  fellowship,  a  more  extended 
evangelism,  a  wide-awake  and  intelligent  membership,  yea,  who 
desire  that  our  great  branch  of  Christ's  Church  shall  do  its  full 
share  towards  the  conversion  of  the  world,  should  unite  to  put  a 
Church  paper  in  every  Methodist  home. 

The  sn])ject  of  the  second  invited  address  was  "Tlie  Future 
of  Methodist  Literature."  The  author  of  the  paper  was  the  Eev. 
H.  B.  WoRKMAX,  D.  Lit.,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church.  In  his  absence,  the  paper  was  read  by  the  Rev. 
Thomas  E.  Westerdale,  of  the  same  Church: 

I  do  not  propose,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  deal  with  the  future  of 
Methodist  literature  from  the  business  standpoint,  though  upon 
this  matter  much  might  be  said  by  others  more  capable  than  myself. 
Suffice  the  passing  word  that  in  the  Methodist  public  our  publishing 
houses  have  one  of  the  largest,  finest  constituencies  in  existence. 


684  '  RELIGIOUS  LITERATURE. 

A  great  London  publisher,  whose  name  is  well  known  on  three  con- 
tinents, said  to  me  recently  that  he  was  never  better  pleased  than 
when  he  got  hold  of  good  copy  that  would  appeal  to  Methodists; 
they  were,  he  added,  a  public  not  difficult  to  reach  by  advertise- 
ment, and  who  bought  largely  books  of  a  special  class.  The  pub- 
lisher in  question  was  thinking  almost  exclusively  of  England.  What 
a  field  we  have  if  we  add  world-wide  Methodism!  What  a  market 
our  books  should  command,  especially  if  we  can  bring  about,  as  I 
think  we  ought,  a  greater  degree  of  union  and  interchange  between 
the  Methodist  publishing  houses  of  England,  America,  Canada,  and 
Australia!  Something  has  been  done  already;  but  more  may  yet 
be  accomplished.  When  that  day  comes,  possibly  the  Methodist 
author  will  see  in  his  little  work  a  potentiality  of  growing  rich 
beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice,  beggaring  even  Mrs,  Thrale's  vats 
and  tubs.    But  of  this  last  I  will  give  no  guarantees. 

I  take  it  that  our  subject  is  the  nature  of  "the  special  class"  to 
which  the  London  publisher  referred:  the  future  of  Methodist 
literature  as  such.  For  my  part  I  am  not  careful  to  lay  too  great 
stress  upon  the  word  Methodist,  so  far  as  our  publishing  houses 
are  concerned.  Things  are  very  different,  it  is  true,  from  the  days 
of  John  Wesley.  Not  the  least  of  the  services  that  Wesley  ren- 
dered to  the  England  of  his  day  was  his  bringing  out  in  cheap 
abbreviated  form  some  of  the  best  literature  of  every  age,  that 
would  otherwise  have  been  altogether  inaccessible  to  the  people. 
Things  are  very  different,  also,  from  the  days  when  the  traveling 
preachers  went  about  the  country,  their  saddlebags  well  filled  with 
books — they  themselves  the  itinerant  libraries  and  booksellers,  as 
well  as  preachers  of  wide  country  districts,  in  America  of  districts 
almost  desert,  that  otherwise  would  rarely  have  seen  a  new  pub- 
lication. Now  a  number  of  good  firms  vie  with  each  other  in  pro- 
ducing the  best  literature  at  the  cheapest  rates,  while  there  are 
booksellers'  shops,  of  a  sort,  everywhere.  Nevertheless,  we  have 
still  our  part  to  play  in  the  popularizing  of  honest  literature,  and 
in  thus  counteracting  the  pernicious,  low  tastes  of  the  age.  Espe- 
cially in  the  matter  of  healthy  books  for  boys — I  am  not  sure  that 
in  this  direction  we  have  done  sufficient.  A  schoolmaster  recently 
showed  me  a  whole  cupboard  full  of  thoroughly  bad  books  that  he 
had  at  various  times  confiscated  from  his  lads.  Ministers  could 
help  more  than  they  do  in  checking  this  flood  of  the  corrupt,  if 
they  would  sometimes  go  out  of  their  way  to  recommend  to  parents 
and  to  boys  themselves  good,  manly  boys'  books.  Many  of  our 
people  are  glad  also  to  receive  a  word  of  advice  as  to  good  novels. 
By  this  means  the  wise  pastor  can  oftentimes  save  a  home  from  the 
canker  that  corrupts,  sometimes  unconsciously  introduced.  But, 
tempting  as  this  theme  is,  I  must  not  stray  off  into  literature  in 
general,  but  keep  strictly  to  my  text — the  future  of  Methodist  liter- 
ature. 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  H.  B.  WORKMAN.  G85 

And  yet  one  word  must  be  said  as  to  our  neglect  of  taking  a 
proper  place  in  the  daily  press.  I  know  that  not  even  the  wildest 
idealist  vould  class  the  press  as  literature,  but  yet,  as  Lord  Hals- 
bury  would  say,  it  is  "a  sort  of  literature,"  with  a  tremendous 
power.  When  we  contrast  the  influence  which  Roman  Catholicism 
has  secured  by  seeing  that  its  sons  hold  positions  of  responsibility 
in  editorial  offices  with  the  influence  of  Methodism — meager  in  the 
extreme  compared  with  what  it  ought  to  be — we  see  at  once  one 
source  of  power  that  we  have  not  yet  appreciated  at  its.  proper 
worth. 

Methodist  literature,  first  and  foremost,  must  be  true  to  the 
special  distinctive  characteristic  of  Methodism.  It  must  proclaim, 
with  no  uncertain  sound,  the  great  doctrine  of  religion  as  a  per- 
sonal consciousness,  the  validity  of  which  is  beyond  question. 
For  this  purpose  we  need  to  emphasize  religious  biography.  Do 
not  mistake  me.  There  is  religious  biography  and  religious  biogra- 
phy. For  much  of  the  long,  goody-goody,  anaemic,  so-called  biogra- 
phies and  auto-biographies  which  issued  from  our  presses  in  the 
past,  and  which  have  now  obtained  their  fit  portion  in  the  limbo 
of  lost  books,  I  have  no  defense.  They  may  have  done  some  service 
in  the  past:  but  there  is  now  no  place  for  them.  What  I  mean  is 
biography  of  the  best  sort.  I  am  convinced  that  there  is  need  for 
us  to  strike  in  our  literature  the  personal  note,  and  that  there  are 
ways  in  which  this  can  be  done  which  will  attract  thoughtful  read- 
ers, and  at  the  same  time  proclaim  our  great  message.  Through- 
out the  ages  of  Church  history  the  personal  note  of  conscious  sal- 
vation, expressed  in  literary  form,  has  ever  been  one  of  the  greatest 
instruments  in  winning  men  to  the  truth.  I  need  only  mention  as 
illustrations  the  marvelous  influence  of  the  life  of  Saint  Martin  by 
Sulpicius  Severus,  the  Confessions  of  Saint  Augustine,  and  Bun- 
yan's  Grace  Abounding — a  few  outstanding  illustrations  out  of  a 
great  host  of  similar  works.  These  are  days  in  which  the  personal 
note  is  less  vocal,  as  we  note,  alas!  in  the  decay  of  the  class  meet- 
ing. But  for  this  very  cause  it  behooves  us  to  see  to  it  that,  in  our 
literature,  the  personal  note  is  not  wanting,  and  that  this  is  pre- 
sented in  a  literary  form  so  attractive  that  it  will  reach  the  great 
outer  world. 

The  personal  note  need  not  be  confined  to  biography.  I  have 
often  wondered  how  it  is  that  novelists  have  done  so  little  justice 
to  Methodism.  Even  Methodists,  when  they  take  to  novel-writing, 
seem  always  to  make  their  hero  a  curate,  a  Congregational  deacon, 
or  a  Friend.  For  the  other  Churches  there  are  novels  which  bring 
before  us  most  vividly  the  real  heart  of  their  life  and  system — from 
the  Romanist  and  Anglican  down  to  the  narrow  forms  of  Independ- 
ency sketched  for  us  by  such  a  writer  as  Mark  Rutherford.  But 
where,  except  possibly  in  Adam  Bede,  are  we  to  look  for  any  novel 


686  *        RELIGIOUS  LITERATURE, 

that  brings  before  the  great  outside  v/orld,  or  for  that  matter  before 
ourselves,  the  life  and  meaning  of  Methodism?  I  think  that  the 
probable  reason  is  to  be  found  in  the  peculiar  phraseology  df  Metho- 
dism— local  preachers,  leaders,  quarterly  meetings,  circuits,  and  the 
rest — which  need  so  much  explanation  in  foot  notes  or  text  as  to 
destroy  all  powers  of  literary  effect.  Deacons  and  curates  we  all 
know — and  the  novelist  loves  to  paint  them  in  various  colors — but 
what  is  the  artist  to  make  of  a  departmental  man,  of  a  super- 
numerary, of  a  superintendent,  or  even  of  a  circuit  steward,  much 
less  of  the  distress  of  soul  which  comes  from  a  defective  collection 
for  the  "Worn  Out  Ministers'  Fund?  Hence  we  have  allowed  one  of 
the  most  powerful  instruments  of  modern  times — the  novel — to  go 
bj^  default,  so  far  as  Methodism  is  concerned.  Of  scarcely  any 
other  great  fact  in  human  life  except  Methodism  could  it  be  said 
that,  if  all  novels  were  blotted  out  to-morrow,  the  loss  in  appreci- 
ation and  sympathy  would  be  nil.  This. again  is  one  of  the  matters 
which  we  must  rectify. 

Again,  I  do  not  know  that  we  have  done  all  that  we  ought  to 
have  done  toward  the  religious  education  of  tlie  people.  We  have 
sadly  too  much  neglected  our  proper  duty  in  the  preparation  of 
scholarly  handbooks — such,  for  instance,  as  the  Guild  Series  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland — nor  have  we  always  been  sufficiently  alert  in 
the  production  of  up-to-date  apologetics,  tracts  for  the  times,  and  so 
forth.  In  this  matter,  as  in  some  others,  we  have  been  hampered, 
I  think,  by  certain  theological  fetters  incident  to  the  official  charac- 
ter of  our  publishing  houses.  It  is  of  no  use  to  attempt  to  write 
apologetics  of  value  to-day  if  you  are  going  to  judge  anything  by 
whether  or  not  the  publication  squares  in  all  its  details  with 
eighteenth  century  theology.  Our  publishing  houses  too  often  adopt 
the  ostrich  attitude  of  burying  the  head  in  the  sands  of  the  past. 
The  official  connection  of  our  publishing  houses  with  our  Church  may 
prove  a  great  bane  if  it  means  the  strangling  of  all  literature  that 
is  not  officially  orthodox.  Within  due  limits,  the  need  of  which  I 
recognize  as  clearly  as  any  one,  we  plead  for  greater  elasticity  of 
creed  and  outlook,  as  a  sine  qua  non,  if  Methodist  authors,  in  their 
works  of  apologetics,  biblical  criticism,  or  history,  are  to  publish 
the  same  under  Methodist  auspices,  and  yet  meet  adequately  the 
needs  of  a  restless  and  skeptical  age. 

Of  the  future  of  Methodist  literature  from  the  standpoint  of 
scholarship,  much  might  be  said.  Methodist  scholars  to-day  of  the 
first  rank  are  a  growing  number,  and  in  the  near  future  their  name 
will  be  legion.  The  researches  of  such  men  should  go  forth  to 
the  world  under  Methodist  auspices — instead  of,  as  now,  from 
nearly  every  publisher  except  the  Methodist.  The  reason  for  the 
present  position  is  not  far  to  seek:  it  is  entirely  a  matter  of  finance 
and   constituency.     The   question   of   finance   could   be   solved   to- 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  687 

morrrow  by  that  more  definite  co-operation  of  the  various  publish- 
ing houses  to  which  I  have  already  referred.  Few  authors,  however 
learned  and  eminent— the  two  things  are  by  no  means  the  same — 
but  would  be  glad  of  the  chance  offered  to  them  of  simultaneous 
publication  in  two  continents.  By  this  means  also  many  a  work 
at  present,  of  necessity  uprofitable,  could  be  made  a  success.  But 
the  supreme  need  in  this  direction  is  after  all  the  cultivation  by 
us  as  a  Church  of  a  greater  sense  of  the  value  of  learning.  There 
is  such  a  danger  as  the  materialization  of  the  spiritual.  Feverish 
energy  in  the  building  up  of  fabrics  of  bricks  and  mortar  will  not 
make  up  for  the  absence  of  mental  and  spiritual  culture,  or  atone 
for  the  lack  of  the  proper  appreciation  of  scholarship.  This  ought 
we  to  have  done  and  not  left  the  other  undone.  In  the  future  we 
must  preserve  the  proper  balance  between  the  active  and  contempla- 
tive spiritual  life,  and  in  the  preservation  of  this  balance  Methodist 
literature  and  scholarship  will  have  its  opportunity  and  reward. 

Hj'mn  925  was  sung — ; 

"Father  Supreme,  by  whom  we  live." 

after  wliicli  the  general  discussion  on  the  topic  of  the  afternoon 
proceeded. 

The  Rev.  George  Elliott^  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church : 

I  think  it  is  fortunate  this  afternoon  that  in  the  presidency 
of  the  hour  we  have  one  whose  delicate  sense  of  culture  has  in- 
terpreted for  so  many  of  us  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  sacred  writ- 
ings, and  of  those  literary  forms  which  to  our  common  thought 
are  outside  the  ordinary  range  of  religious  literatui-e.  And  in  that 
use  of  the  great  body  of  learning  and  thought  and  of  the  literature 
of  power  that  lies  outside  the  realm  commonly  considered  sacred 
literature,  it  seems  to  me  there  is  much  to  be  done  by  the  Chris- 
tian ministry  and  by  our  religious  press.  It  has  been  said  over  and 
over  again  in  this  discussion,  and  in  our  discussion  during  the 
Conference,  that  the  prophet  is  the  true  analogue  of  the  Christian 
preacher.  Is  he  not  rather  the  true  forerunner  of  Christian  litera- 
ture? For  it  is  with  the  prophets  of  the  eighth  century  before  our 
Lord,  the  literary  prophecy,  that  that  great  succession  begins  by 
which  their  message  has  been  brought  down  to  our  time.  It  is 
worth  remembering  that  what  we  call  literary  prophecy  was  in- 
spired almost  immediately  by  the  contact  of  Israel  with  the  great 
world  powers,  by  the  fact  that  at  that  moment  this  chosen  people 
began  to  get  a  world  vision.  What  religious  literature,  and  es- 
pecially the  religious  press  should  give  us  to-day,  is  something  of 
the  same  message  and  the  same  note.  For  we  have  learned  at 
last  that  the  prophets,  those  stern  monitors  of  kings  and  of  the 
people,  were  not  primarily  makers  of  scrapbooks  of  prophecy, 
picked  up  from  anywhere  in  tradition;  but  they  spoke  to  men  of 
their  own  time  the  message  born  out  of  their  own  seething  life. 
The  religious  press  is  able  to  speak  to  our  day  in  much  the  same 


688  RELIGIOUS  LITERATURE. 

way.  The  pulpit,  perhaps,  because  of  its  being  confined  to  funda- 
mental questions  so  largely,  can  not  speak  so  well  of  the  larger 
social  message  and  the  larger  applications  of  Christian  thought 
to  every  interest  of  human  life.  We  know,  it  is  a  common-place 
of  our  knowledge,  that  before  there  were  any  books  of  the  New 
Testament  there  was  a  gospel  preached.  The  New  Testament  is 
a  late  product  of  the  apostolic  age.  So  we  have  there  another 
example  of  how  the  message  orally  proclaimed  becomes  at  last  a 
permanent  treasure  and  an  everlasting  source  of  inspiration  to 
the  Church  in  all  times.  I  do  not  care  long  to  delay  this  discus- 
sion; but  it  seems  to  me  that  the  religious  press  can  and  must 
get  the  prophetic  note,  and  must  learn  to  speak  first-hand  from 
God — not  simply  of  the  times,  but  of  the  eternities;  to  speak  not 
simply  the  ordinary  things  which  we  expect  from  the  press,  the 
record  and  chronicle  of  everlasting  local  gossip,  but  that  scripture 
which  is  forever  revealing  itself  in  our  daily  life.  It  may  be  that 
in  the  past  printing  has  served  the  devil.  But  I  trust  that  in 
the  future  printing  will  be  redeemed.  It  may  be  that  the  eternal 
womanly  will  help  in  the  redemption. 

Tlie  Eev.  Thomas  Eippon,  of  the  British  "Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church: 

This  is  the  first  time  I  have  been  able  to  catch  the  speaker's 
eye.  I  should  have  been  sorry  to  leave  this  great  Dominion  with- 
out saying  one  word.  If  I  might  go  back,  I  wish  to  take  up  a 
former  question,  and  say  with  all  the  earnestness  of  which  I  am 
capable  as  a  Wesleyan  Methodist  preacher,  that  my  vote  shall 
always  be  given  in  favor  of  the  completest  Methodist  Union  that 
could  be  suggested.  Secondly,  that  I  should  be  sorry  to  leave  the 
city  of  Toronto,  as  the  descendant  of  John  Davidson,  one  of  the 
first  Methodist  preachers  that  came  to  this  Dominion  and  planted 
the  Primitive  Methodist  flag,  and  editor  of  one  of  its  journals, 
who  was  a  member  of  your  university  senate,  without  contributing 
anything  to  the  Conference. 

Now  to  the  immediate  subject.  For  thirty  years  I  have  written 
and  spoken  in  favor,  and  have  almost  been  a  fanatic  on  the  subject, 
of  spreading  Methodist  literature,  and  have  had  a  place  in  our 
Methodist  Book  Concern  at  City  Road,  London.  I  am  a  successor 
of  John  Wesley  in  this.  For  I  call  attention  to  what  he  held  as 
paramount,  the  supplying  of  healthy  literature  as  a  duty  of  the 
Church.  He  saw  it  in  his  day.  "My  only  principle,"  he  said,  "in 
writing  is  to  do  good."  In  answer  to  the  question:  "What  is  the 
business  of  the  assistants?"  he  wrote,  "To  take  care  that  every 
society  be  duly  supplied  with  good  books."  In  a  letter  to  one  of 
his  helpers,  urging  him  to  spread  our  scriptural  practical  tracts, 
he  said,  "Preach  on  the  subject  at  each  place,  and  after  preaching 
encourage  the  congregation  to  buy  and  read."  He  asked,  "What 
can  be  done  to  revive  the  work  of  God  where  it  has  decayed?"  And 
he  answered,  "Be  more  active  in  the  disbursing  of  the  books  and 
in  begging  money  of  the  rich  to  buy  books  for  the  poor."  I  never 
was  strong  on  things  of  my  own.  I  generally  quote  things.  And 
I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  quote  John  Wesley  on  this  question.  He 
was  among  the  first  to  establish  loan  libraries  and  to  write  for  the 
myriad.  But  I  add  with  shame  that  the  average  Methodist  minis- 
ter, and  I  am  speaking  for  the  average  Methodist  minister  in  Eng- 
land, is  not  keeping  up  the  succession  of  John  Wesley  in  this  pax*- 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  689 

ticular.  I  was  almost  going  to  say  that  the  indifference  of  the 
Wesleyan  ministry  to  the  spread  of  our  literature  is  almost  amount- 
ing to  a  crass  indifference.  I  hold  that  the  publishing  house  as 
a  wing  of  the  Methodist  Church  is  an  absolute  necessity  for  the 
defense  and  exposition  of  the  truth,  for  purposes  of  instruction  and 
confirmation;  and  as  a  department  our  publishing  house  has 
rendered  signal  service.  I  was  talking  recently  with  Mr.  Bramwell 
Booth  of  the  Salvation  Army;  and  he  said,  in  speaking  of  entirely 
another  matter,  "I  wish  I.  had  your  people  to  get  at."  I  might 
quote  that  in  this  connection,  because  Methodism  has  a  constituency, 
and  it  has  the  means  for  reaching  and  influencing  readers  such  as 
perhaps  no  other  Church  possesses.  There  are  in  this  Conference 
this  afternoon  those  familiar  with  the  name  of  Mr.  Alfred  Bruce 
of  Manchester,  the  head  of  one  of  our  greatest  commercial  houses, 
of  a  concern  that  employs  some  ten  thousand  hands.  He  said  to 
me,  in  talking  upon  this  matter,  for  he  takes  great  interest  in  this 
department  of  our  work,  "As  a  pure  business  matter  j^ou  have  in 
your  Church  one  of  the  finest  business  agencies  in  the  world."  The 
book-room  sales  might  be  multiplied  ten-fold  if  our  interest  were 
awakened.  Primarily,  I  hold,  this  is  a  minister's  matter;  and  we 
must  lead  in  this  particular.  There  are  two  suggestions  that  I 
want  to  offer  this  afternoon.  The  first  is  this,  that  a  Methodist 
literature  committee  should  be  appointed  in  each  circuit.  The 
second  is,  that  we  should  seek,  more  than  we  do,  to  bring  laymen 
into  co-operation  with  our  ministers  in  this  particular  enterprise. 
[The  speaker  being  notified  that  his  time  had  expired,  said:] 
I  am  very  sorry,  because  I  was  going  to  speak  a  little  more,  and 
it  was  this:  As  we  can  not  in  connection  with  the  Book  Concern 
in  the  Old  Country,  make  it  entirely  a  layman's  business  in  co- 
operation with  ministers,  at  least  we  should  have  an  advisory  com- 
mittee of  laymen  to  be  associated  with  ministers. 

The  Eev.  H.  C.  Stuntz,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church : 

Among  those  who  know  me  best  I  am  considered,  as  the  last 
speaker  said  he  was,  almost  a  crank  of  the  subject  on  the  distribu- 
tion of  literature.  Let  me  take  a  leaf  from  my  pastoral  diarj'. 
I  v/as  sent  to  a  church  in  a  town  of  two  thousand  people  in  the 
West  I  found  seventeen  paid  subscribers  to  the  Northwestern 
Christian  Advocate,  in  the  church — seventeen  subscribers  out  of 
four  hundred  and  fifty-eight  members.  But  I  sent  to  the  publishers 
and  asked  them  to  give  me  the  right  to  send  one  hundred  news- 
papers free  for  three  weeks  to  four  hundred  families.  I  let  them 
have  the  papers  three  weeks,  and  then  let  them  starve  two  weeks, 
and  then  drove  around  getting  subscribers,  and  secured  sixty-seven 
subscribers.  I  did  the  same  thing  in  that  church  a  second  and  a 
third  year,  until  that  town  of  two  thousand  people  was  second  on 
the  books  of  the  Northwestern  Christian  Advocate  in  all  their  con- 
stituency in  that  district  including  Chicago.  I  would  rather  have 
the  paper  than  an  assistant  pastor,  who  would  be  in  my  way.  But 
a  pastor's  assistant,  the  silent  unanswerable  assistant  who  works 
at  night  and  in  the  morning  and  in  the  hours  of  leisure,  is  the 
religious  journal.  I  want  to  agree  utterly  and  absolutely  with  that 
blessed  brother  who  sat  down  with  those  radical  statements.  We 
have  laymen  on  our  board.  If  you  have  not,  hurry  up  and  get  them. 
I  agree  with  that  brother  who  says  that  it  is  primarily  the  minis- 

44 


690  RELIGIOUS  LITERATURE. 

ter's  job.  It  is  not  enough  for  him  to  stand  up  and  say,  "Brethren, 
the  time  is  come  for  you  to  renew  your  subscriptions  to  the 
official  paper,  and  brother  Richard  Rowe  will  be  glad  to  receive 
your  subscriptions  at  the  close  of  the  service,  or  at  his  office.  No. 
17  Sleepy  Street."  That  will  never  get  you  anywhere.  The  pastor 
who  does  his  duty  in  this  matter  is  the  one  who  has  enthusiasm; 
and  he  will  see  advance  in  the  missionary  cause  and  will  further 
the  prayer  meeting  so  that  he  will  not  have  to  say  "Brothers,  let 
us  improve  the  time,"  because  the  people  will  be  on  fire  with  en- 
thusiasm from  reading  about  the  things  that  are  doing  in  all  the 
fields.  We  can  set  our  churches  ablaze  if  we  give  them  the  re- 
ligious newspaper  in  every  home. 

The  Eev.  AYm.  Wakinshaw,  of  the  British  "Weslej^an  Meth- 
odist Church: 

I  have  the  honor  of  being  interested  in  the  world  of  literature 
as  a  humble  journalist  and  as  one  of  the  conductors  of  a  Methodist 
paper.  We  are  here  as  practical  men,  to  see  what  can  be  done  to 
enrich  our  papers  and  greatly  increase  their  circulation.  One  of 
the  first  things  necessary  is  that  we  should  rally  our  constituency 
to  our  support.  Our  papers  are  far  too  often  depreciated  in  Meth- 
odist homes,  whereas  it  is  our  business,  and  especially  that  of 
ministers,  to  spread  our  connectional  journals  and  do  our  utmost 
to  propagate  the  literature  emanating  from  our  respective  book- 
rooms.  We  can  not  over-estimate  the  power  of  literature  either  for 
good  or  for  evil.  If  we  as  Christians  do  not  get  wholesome  litera- 
ture into  the  hands  of  our  people,  and  especially  into  the  hands  of 
our  young  people,  they  will  feed  on  garbage.  The  enemy  is  wide 
awake.  You  have  only  to  go  into  our  great  cities  and  you  discover 
that  where  we  are  circulating  one  of  our  journals  or  magazines 
by  the  hundreds  the  enemy  is  scattering  his  products  by  the 
thousands.  There  are  enormous  undeveloped  possibilities  in  all 
our  Methodist  Churches.  I  say  without  the  slightest  fear  of  con- 
tradiction that  the  most  splendid  magazine,  the  most  splendid 
periodical  dealing  with  foreign  missions,  comes  fi'om  our  own 
foreign  mission  house.  It  did  not  exist  ten  years  ago;  but  by 
dint  of  skill  and  energy  and  brains  and  perseverance,  it  not  only 
is  a  wonderfully  brilliant  journal,  but  it  also  has  an  enormous  cir- 
culation. That  is  an  objcct-lession  that  indicates  beyond  a  perad- 
venture  that  if  editors  and  publishers  do  their  utmost  the  Meth- 
odist people  will  respond.  Unfortunately,  in  too  many  cases  our 
people  stray  off  into  very  doubtful  branches  of  literature.  There 
is  a  very  sensational  so-called  religious  journal  that  in  England 
circulates  by  hundreds  of  thousands;  and  multitudes  of  Methodists 
feed  on  that  confectionery.  What  we  want  to  do  is  to  divert  them 
from  this  more  or  less  unwholesome  periodical  literature,  and  pre- 
vail upon  them  to  read  our  own  excellent  books  and  magazines. 

The    Eev.    Andrew    Crombie^    of    the    United    Methodist 

Church : 

When  I  tell  you  that  I  have  been  the  publishing  house  steward 
of  my  denomination  for  twenty-nine  years,  you  can  not  but  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  I  take  a  deep  interest  in  this  question.  I 
have  just  been  to  visit  the  publishing  house  of  the  Canadian  Church 
on  Richmond  Street  and  when  I  saw  what  they  are  accomplishing 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  691 

I  felt  that  we  in  England  are  a  long  way  behind  what  we  ought 
to  be.  I  was  the  chief  instrument  in  initiating  a  movement  to 
start  a  newspaper  in  connection  with  the  United  Methodist  Free 
Churches,  and  I  had  to  be  editor,  manager,  and  publisher  for 
twenty-two  years.  And  I  am  pleased  to  say  that  since  the  United 
Methodist  Church  was  formed-  an  editor  has  been  appointed  for 
that  work,  and  the  circulation  has  greatly  increased,  though  it  is 
not  what  it  ought  to  be.  The  circulation  of  religious  literature  in 
England  is  far  from  satisfactory.  I  am  old  enough  to  remember 
the  starting  of  Good  Words,  under  the  editorship  of  Dr.  Norman 
McLeod,  and  of  The  Sunday  Magazine,  under  the  editorship  of  Dr. 
Guthrie.  These  have  both  been  discontinued.  The  Sunday  Strand, 
a  more  recent  monthly,  has  also  been  discontinued,  and  many  other 
excellent  magazines. 

If  I  turn  to  Methodist  magazines  I  fear  there  is  not  a  very 
good  story  to  tell.  I  think  the  time  has  come  when  a  great,  and 
perhaps  a  joint  effort,  should  be  made  to  increase  the  circulation 
of  our  leading  Methodist  monthly  magazines.  I  believe  that  in 
England  we  have  about  a  million  Methodists.  How  many  of  the 
sixpenny  and  fourpenny  magazines  are  circulated  by  the  Wesleyan, 
the  Primitive,  and  the  United  Methodist  Churches?  I  dare  not 
venture  to  tell  you  the  exact  figures,  but  our  friends  are  very 
well  aware  how  small  are  the  circulations.  It  is  with  great  diffi- 
culty they  are  carried  on  without  a  loss.  It  is  time  to  wake  up 
and  try  to  extend  the  circulation  of  Methodist  magazines  in  Eng- 
land. 

I  am  an  ardent  friend  of  Methodist  union  and  long  before  it 
came  officially  before  our  Churches  I  was  advocating  it  in  the 
columns  of  the  newspaper  to  which  I  have  referred.  I  think  I 
have  reason  to  say  that  the  discussions  in  the  Free  Metliodist  were 
a  considerable  factor  in  bringing  Methodist  union  about.  Just  at 
this  moment  union  is  not  a  burning  question  with  us.  At  the 
present  time  the  United  Methodist  Church  is  too  busy  consolidating 
its  various  institutions  and  funds  to  give  attention  to  the  details 
of  another  union;  but  we  are  in  perfect  sympathy  with  the  desire 
for  the  unification  of  Methodism  in  England. 

I  think  that  the  immediate  thing  to  aim  at  is  federation.  For 
many  years  I  have  been  the  treasurer  for  the  United  Methodists 
of  the  National  Children's  Home  and  Orphanage  founded  by  Dr. 
Stephenson.  In  this  work  we  co-operate  with  our  Wesleyan  friends 
and  raise  a  considerable  amount  every  year.  I  had  the  pleasure 
and  honor,  in  association  with  the  Rev.  Williams  Butcher,  of 
initiating  a  movement  for  the  publication  of  a  new  Sunday  school 
hymnal.  After  various  interviews  a  scheme  was  arranged  which 
finally  received  the  sanction  of  our  Conferences.  The  book  is  now 
published,  and  is  considered  to  be  one  of  the  finest  collection  of 
hymns  for  young  people.  It  is  at  the  present  moment  being  sold 
by  hundreds  of  thousands.  Why  can  not  we  unite  in  a  similar  way 
in  the  training  of  our  ministers  and  in  missionary  operations  both 
at  home  and  abroad? 

The  Rev.  Gross  Alexander,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South: 

There  is  one  thing  that  is  absolutely  certain.  People  will  read. 
There  is  another  thing  that  is  absolutely  certain,  and  that  is  that 
people  are  reading.     There  was  never  such  a  reading  age  as  this. 


60^  RELIGIOUS  LITERATURE. 

The  public  school  is  making  it  possible  for  the  children,  before 
they  have  reached  their  teens,  to  be  readers,  and  have  cultivated 
in  them  a  taste  for  reading.  They  are  readers.  I  have  a  daughter 
■who  at  one  time  was  sixteen  years  old.  At  that  age  she  had  read 
more  books  of  current  literature  than  her  father  had;  and  when 
I  wanted  to  know  about  a  popular  book  I  asked  her,  and  she 
could  tell  me.  It  is  perfectly  amazing.  We  do  not  comprehend 
the  significance  of  the  fact  which  I  am  trying  to  state  to  you. 
It  is  a  fact  of  solemn  import.  It  is  a  fact  of  appalling  import.  But 
you  say  I  am  exaggerating.  Have  you  read  some  of  the  novels 
most  popular  in  this  day?  I  confess  I  have  read  one  of  the  sort 
that  I  have  in  mind.  I  was  in  the  hall  of  a  large  girls'  school  in 
Nashville,  Tenn.,  and  happened  to  see  a  book  lying  on  the  floor. 
I  picked  it  up.  It  bore  the  title  of  one  of  the  most  sensational 
and  doubtful  books  of  this  day.  I  had  heard  of  it.  I  had  heard 
women  talking  about  it  with  a  whisper,  with  signnificant  glances 
and  smiles — church  women!  I  thought  that  for  one  time  I  would 
be  excused  for  looking  into  such  a  book  as  that.  I  did  it,  but  with 
trembling.  I  took  it  into  my  room  and  locked  the  door.  I  read 
enough  pages  of  that  book  to  see  what  it  was.  It  was  perfectly 
awful.  Yet  there  it  was  in  that  girls'  school.  I  took  it  down  to 
the  principal  of  the  school,  who  is  a  lady.  I  explained  the  situa- 
tion. I  said,  "Here  is  this  book.  It  is  notorious,  it  is  famous, 
it  is  infamous.  Here  it  is  in  the  school.  I  am  going  to  turn  it  over 
to  you,  and  you  can  do  what  you  will  with  it."  She  said,  "Again 
and  again  I  have  picked  up  a  book  and  found  it  was  a  book  not  fit 
to  read,  and  have  put  it  away.  Again  and  again  I  have  done  that." 
She  said  that  the  books  she  had  taken  from  the  rooms  of  the  girls 
in  that  college  were  as  bad  as  the  one  I  had  referred  to.  Some  of 
you  have  read  an  article  in  the  Review  of  which  I  have  the  honor 
to  be  the  editor  by  one  of  the  noblest,  purest  women  on  earth,  a 
handmaiden  of  God,  the  author  of  several  books.  Miss  Mary  Helm. 
She  wrote  an  article  for  my  Review  on  "The  Society  Novel."  It 
was  a  revelation.  She  had  discovered  some  of  those  books  in 
the  hands  of  her  nieces  and  had  got  them  and  read  them  to 
find  what  they  were.  It  was  a  positive  revelation  of  what  our 
girls  are  reading.  I  need  not  dwell  longer  on  that.  The  point  is 
this — they  are  going  to  read  and  we  have  got  to  put  something 
into  their  hands  that  will  take  the  place  of  this  rotten  stuff  that 
is  flooding  the  whole  land.  A  prominent  layman  in  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  said  to  me,  "A  young  man,  a  friend  of 
my  daughter,  gave  her  a  book  for  a  present.  It  was  laid  on  the 
table  in  the  parlor.  I  happened  to  look  into  it.  I  read  on  and 
on  and  on.  I  tell  you  .  .  . " — I  can  not  tell  you  what  he  said  to 
me.  If  he  had  known  that  that  young  man  had  given  that  book  to 
his  daughter  knowing  what  it  was,  he  would  have  been  tempted  to 
do  little  less  than  kill  him.  But  I  suppose  that  the  young  man 
did  not  know  what  it  was,  but  was  simply  giving  his  friend,  the 
girl,  a  book  that  was  in  the  bookstores.  They  are  sometimes  in 
the  public  libraries.  Sometimes  they  creep  into  the  book  stores 
of  Methodist  publishing  houses.  The  one  of  which  I  spoke  a  while 
ago  has  had  a  circulation  of  one  and  a  quarter  millions  in  Europe, 
and  is  selling  largely  in  this  country. 

The  Eev.  Geo.  J.  Bond^  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada : 

I  speak  with  some  little  knowledge  of  this  subject  of  connec- 
tional  periodicals  and  Methodist  literature,  as  you  will  know  when 
I  say  that  for  over  eleven  years  I  was  a  connectional  editor  of 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  693 

the  Canadian  Methodist  Church.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  though  I 
am  not  an  old  man,  I  am  the  oldest  surviving  editor  in  Canadian 
Methodism.  I  want  to  say  that  the  Methodist  minister  who  does 
not  believe  in  printer's  ink  is  not  in  the  apostolic  succession.  I 
want  to  say  that  the  question  as  to  the  circulation  of  our  Church 
literature  is  not  a  question  so  much  of  interesting  our  people  as 
of  interesting  our  ministers;  that  if  you  have  loyal  and  faithful 
agents  in  the  circuits — and  we  should  have,  for  every  Methodist 
minister  ought  to  be  a  faithful  and  active  agent — you  would  have 
no  difficulty  in  interesting  our  people  in  the  literature  of  our  con- 
nection, 

I  know  from  the  experience  of  the  office  when  I  was  editor 
that  we  always  knew  when  certain  men  were  changed,  that  the 
circuits  to  which  they  went  would  show  an  increase  of  circula- 
tion; that  we  always  knew  when  certain  other  men  were  changed 
that  the  circulation  in  the  circuits  to  which  they  went  would  drop. 

In  the  matter  of  getting  purely  IMethodist  news  into  what  are 
called  the  secular  newspapers,  I  want  to  say  that  there  is  not 
a  body  of  men  in  the  world  who  are  more  eager  to  get  genuine 
news  than  newspaper  reportei-s  are,  and  there  is  no  difficulty  in  the 
world  in  getting  the  news  of  the  denomination  into  the  papers  of 
the  cities  and  towns.  It  seems  to  me  that  if  the  ministers  would 
take  the  trouble  to  give  the  news  to  the  reporters,  the  newspapers 
all  over  the  country  would  be  willing  and  glad  to  print  the  same. 
Nobody  knew  that  better  than  Hugh  Price  Hughes.  Nobody  loved 
the  reporter  better  than  he,  and  nobody  got  better  justice  from 
the  reporter  than  that  same  man. 

Then  another  thing:  I  do  sympathize  with  what  was  said  in 
the  splendid  paper  by  Dr.  Workman,  that  somehow  Methodism 
has  not  had  its  right  showing  in  the  great  literature  of  the  world, 
and  that  somehow  the  Methodist  parson  and  the  whole  Methodist 
economy  have  failed  of  that  consideration  by  the  world  which 
would  have  been  theirs  if  only  the  heroic  history  of  our  Church, 
as  it  was  in  the  past,  and  as  it  is  to-day,  were  well  known  (and  we 
are  making  Methodist  history  every  day).  If  it  were  translated 
into  the  common  speech  which  comes  out  in  the  novel,  clear,  sharp, 
graphic,  and  well-written,  and  circulated  by  thousands,  it  would 
win  a  wide  reception.  If  only  the  great  literary  genius  who  por- 
trayed Dinah  Morris  had  retained  her  early  faith,  how  gloriously 
the  spirit  and  practice  of  Methodism  had  been  told  to  the  world! 
I  felt  keenly  with  Dr.  Alexander  the  impressions  made  upon  him 
by  the  awful  books  poured  out  in  these  days  by  the  tens  of  thou- 
sands from  the  press.  [Voices:  "Millions"].  And  sometimes  they 
come  to  us  very  specious  in  guise,  and  bearing  too  often  the  im- 
print of  respectable  and  even  religious  publishing  houses  which 
should  not  have  touched  them  with  a  tongs,  and  which  would  far 
better  have  their  names  off  them. 

Secretary  James  Chapman:  "I  would  like  to  ask  that  the 
remaining  sessions  of  the  Conference  should  be  especially  Avell 
attended.  At  the  session  to-morrow  resolutions  will  be  pro- 
posed which  I  am  sure  every  delegate  will  wish  to  support.'* 

On  motion  of  Secretary  Chapman,  the  Conference  voted  to 
adjourn ;  and  tlie  session  closed  at  4.30,  Avith  the  benediction 
pronounced  by  the  presiding  officer. 


694  CHURCH  SCHOOLS  AND  EDUCATION. 

THIED  SESSION. 

Topic:  CUUECH  SCHOOLS  AND  EELIGIOUS  EDU- 
CATION. 

Dr.  Carroll,  the  Secretary,  presided  at  the  opening  of  the 
evening  session.  The  Eev.  Dr.  John  Galbraith,  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  conducted  the  devotional  service.  The 
3J:0th  hymn  was  sung — 

"Happy  the  man  who  finds  the  grace," 

tlie  third  chajjter  of  the  Eirst  Book  of  Samuel  was  read,  and 
Dr.  Galbraith  offered  prayer. 

Later,  in  the  absence  of  Bishop  J.  L.  Nuelsen,  D.  D.,  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Bishop  Thomas  B.  Neely, 
D.  D.,  of  the  same  Church,  was  called  to  the  chair.  The 
essay  of  the  evening  was  now  read  by  the  Eev.  Thomas  Nichol- 
son^ D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Subject,  "Prob- 
lems of  Church  Schools:" 

Among  the  mxanifold  problems  of  the  Church  college  we  shall 
discuss  three — the  problem  of  existence;  the  problem  of  efficiency; 
the  problem  of  development. 

I.  The  great  questions  which  center  around  the  mysteries  of 
human  life  are,  "Whence?  Why?  Whither?  Is  life  worth  living? 
If  so,  what  makes  it  worth  while?"  The  questions  are  all  pertinent 
to  the  Church  college. 

Every  so-called  Christian  nation  faces  the  problems  of  how  it 
shall  keep  its  national  educational  system  free  and  yet  broadly 
Christian.  There  is  an  inevitable  trend  toward  the  complete  separa- 
tion of  Church  and  State.  Multiplying  denominations  demand  equal 
rights.  That  solidarity  of  Protestantism,  whose  cohesive  power  is 
simply  the  universal  Christian  fundamentals,  can  only  come  with 
the  Spirit-guided  evolution  of  the  centuries.  Meantime,  State  foun- 
dations can  not  recognize  ecclesiastical  claims.  The  ever-growing 
spirit  of  democracy  and  the  Increasingly  polyglot  civilization  in 
every  land  make  our  educational  problems  more  and  more  similar. 
Most  nations  make  some  provision  for  religious  instruction  in  their 
State  systems;  but  in  the  United  States,  where  there  is  most  com- 
plete separation  of  Church  and  State,  there  is  practically  no  official 
provision  in  the  grammar  and  high  schools  and  in  the  State  univer- 
sities for  religious  instruction  or  for  the  inculcation  of  the  religious 
spirit.     The  Christian  Associations,  and  other  organizations,  are  a 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  THOMAS  NICHOLSON.  695 

great  force.  Scores  of  teachers  and  university  presidents  are 
devout  men.  They  exert  a  great  personal  religious  influence.  They 
often  encourage  voluntary  religious  organizations  among  students. 
They  often  go  to  the  limit  of  law  and  custom  in  emphasizing  Chris- 
tian principles;  but  the  continuance  of  such  men  and  what  they 
stand  for  is  always  precarious.  Moreover,  these  would  grow  less 
if  Church  colleges  were  abandoned. 

Shall  we,  then,  remand  religious  training  and  Inspiration  to  the 
home  and  to  the  Church  services?  No!  Because  religion  is  a  vital 
spirit  tvhich  hreatlies  through  life  and  should  touch  all  the  man  is 
and  all  the  man  does.  Education  is  the  chief  formative  force  in  a 
man's  development.  There  is  no  distinctively  English  biology,  and 
no  distinctively  German  mathematics,  and  yet,  there  is  a  very  dis- 
tinct English  or  German  spirit  in  the  schools  of  those  countries. 
So  Christianity  produces  an  unique  and  worthy  type  of  education. 
To  omit  religion  from  the  training  of  youth  is  to  omit  the  positive 
pole  from  the  electric  current.  It  is  to  insert  the  germ  which  will 
result  in  the  lingering  death  of  the  Church  itself,  and  which  will, 
I  believe,  lead  to  national  deterioration.  It  is  to  me  a  fact  of  great 
significance  that  discussions  involving  the  very  existence  of  the 
Church  college  have  arisen  just  when  men  are  utterly  intolerant 
of  cant,  hypocrisy,  religiosity,  and  "Churchianity."  It  all  means  a 
new  emphasis  on  spirit  and  life.  If  we  could  wipe  the  slate  clean 
and  begin  the  solution  of  our  problems  anew,  as  I  see  it,  the  Church 
college  would,  of  necessity,  be  a  recognized  part  of  the  modern  pub- 
lic educational  system.  It  ought  never  to  be  under  State  control. 
It  viust  not  receive  State  aid,  though  it  relieves  the  State  of  a 
great  financial  burden.  Men  do  not,  and  never  will,  paj^  taxes 
through  the  State  for  what  the  Church  colleges  do.  Citizens,  irre- 
spective of  creed,  may  well  contribute  to  their  support.  In  the 
United  States,  if  all  the  denominational  colleges  should  close  up 
to-morrow,  and  if  the  State  were  compelled  to  open  additional  insti- 
tutions to  accommodate  its  thousands  of  students,  there  would  be 
a  stir  among  the  tax-payers.  ^ 

Church  colleges  must  exist  side  by  side  with  the  State  insti- 
tutions, acting  and  reacting.  They  must  insist  that  knowledge  is 
better  than  ignorance,  that  secular  culture  disseminates  an  enlight- 
enment abundantly  justifying  the  expenditures  which  secure  it.  In 
my  judgment,  the  State  should  have  a  legal  oversight  of  Church 
schools  sufficient  to  assure  a  proper  standardization  of  curriculum, 
equipment,  endowment,  and  conditions  of  conferring  degrees. 
The  free  State  might  have  an  important  relation  to  them  in  thus 
guaranteeing  their  efficiency. 

On  the  other  hand,  they  must  have  an  important  State  function 
in  training  a  good  percentage  of  the  population  to  distinctively 
Christian  citizenship,  in  supplementing  the  work  of  State  institu- 


696  CHURCH  SCHOOLS  AND  EDUCATION. 

tions  by  fostering  in  them  voluntary  religious  organizations;  In 
furnishing  trained  Christian  men  as  leaders,  and  in  creating  a  pub- 
lic sentiment  which  will  tend  to  make  and  keep  the  government 
and  ideals  of  the  State  institutions  thoroughly  Christian.  When- 
ever such  organizations  aim  at  ecclesiastical  control,  or  at  offensive 
sectarian  propagandism  in  these  State  schools,  the  nation  will  prop- 
erly say,  "Thus  far  and  no  farther."  We  adhere  loyally  to  the 
Protestant  principle  of  liberty  of  conscience  in  I'eligion. 

The  more  I  study  this  problem,  the  more  I  believe  that  instead 
of  an  unfortunate  situation,  scarcely  tolerable,  we  really  have,  under 
divine  providence,  the  elements  of  the  greatest  possible  national  sys- 
tem of  education — in  part.  State;  in  part,  voluntary.  Approximately 
one  half  under  direct  control  of  the  State,  free  itself  and  guarantee- 
ing the  freedom  of  all  the  rest;  the  other  half  fostered  by  the 
Church,  compelled  by  its  competitions  to  have  openness  of  spirit, 
efficiency,  and  definite  moral  and  religious  influence.  Thus  we 
secure  a  system  of  checks  and  balances  which  prevents  demorali- 
zation or  secularization  on  the  one  side,  equally,  with  religious 
fanaticism,  sectarian  bigotry,  educational  inefficiency,  or  ecclesias- 
tical misappropriation  on  the  other.  Emphasis  is  placed  on  the 
vital  in  piety.  The  Church  college  must  stress  the  moral  and  reli- 
gious factors  which  call  it  into  existence.  It  must  prove  that  they 
are  indispensable,  and  that  intertwined  with  the  other  factors  they 
produce  a  superior  product. 

II.    This  naturally  brings  us  to  the  problem  of  efficiency. 

Business  concerns  are  adopting  principles  of  scientific  manage- 
ment. They  study  a  man  to  see  Just  how  long  he  should  rest  when 
carrying  steel  rails  in  order  that  he  may  yield  the  largest  possible 
result.  Why  should  not  the  whole  machinery  of  a  college  be 
studied  and  restudied  with  a  view  to  the  most  constantly  progressive 
educational  efficiency? 

The  college  must  have  a  first-class  modern  plant,  ample  endow- 
ment and  equipment,  and  a  high-grade  faculty.  The  name  of  the 
College  of  Rhode  Island  was  changed  to  Brown  University  by  the 
gift  of  $5,000  from  Mr.  Nicholas  Brown.  In  1800  Princeton's  funds 
were  less  than  $25,000.  In  1830  Yale's  entire  available  fund  was  less 
than  $18,000.  At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  pro- 
ductive funds  of  all  the  colleges  and  universities  in  the  United 
States  were  less  than  half  a  million.  Now  we  have  at  least  ten  uni- 
versities whose  property  and  endowment  is  from  twenty-five  to  fifty 
million  dollars  each.  We  have  a  large  group  of  colleges  whose 
stated  income  is  from  fifty  to  three  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year 
and  whose  property  and  endowment  run,  in  some  cases,  as  high  as 
from  three  to  five  millions  each,  and  so  it  must  be. 

"The  teacher  is  the  school,"  say  the  Germans.  Right!  But 
the  skilled  workman  demands  the  best  tools.    When  Paderewski  and 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  THOMAS  NICHOLSON.  697 

Hoffman  play  the  piano  for  fabulous  sums,  they  do  not  depend  on 
the  best  instruments  the  ordinary  community  affords.  They  carry 
with  them  instruments  of  the  higest  grade,  made  by  masters  of 
their  craft  High-grade  tools  for  high-grade  workmen.  The  man 
who  works  beneath  his  ideals  soon  degenerates.  Great  teachers 
will  not,  and  can  not,  get  along  with  inferior  equipment.  The  days 
of  the  omnibus  professor  are  ended.  Lifelong  education,  critical 
knowledge  of  a  specific  subject,  power  of  original  research,  power 
of  expression,  scientific  accuracy,  spiritual  insight,  personality  anfl 
moral  fiber  are  the  demands.  Men  who  acquire  these  must  forego 
many  of  the  prizes  of  business  and  professional  life,  and  they  have 
a  right  to  demand  adequate  compensation  and  retiring  allowances. 
Such  teachers  have  supreme  opportunities  for  molding  world  civil- 
izations. Every  great  missionary  leader  of  the  last  century,  with 
only  one  or  two  exceptions,  was  college  trained.  China  aslvs  for 
a  million  teachers;  Japan  has  more  school  scholars  than  all  the 
South  American  republics,  and  she  is  ready  to  adopt  much  of  our 
method  and  to  employ  many  of  our  men;  the  whole  school  system 
of  the  Philippines  waits  on  us.  What  would  be  the  result  if  we 
could  thrust  in  at  these  open  doors  an  army  of  such  trained,  devoted, 
and  broadly  Christian  teachers!  The  Church  has  a  superb  oppor- 
tunity. Opportunity  begets  responsibility.  Commonplace  education 
will  give  commonplace  civilization;  purely  secular,  non-religious 
education  will  give  a  civilization  characterized  by  an  agnostic  indif- 
ference more  serious  than  any  philosophical  agnosticism  ever  pro- 
posed by  Mr.  Spencer  or  any  materialism  ever  defended  by  Mr. 
Haeckel.  Hundreds  of  noble  men  and  millions  of  money  are  the 
rational  demands  of  the  hour  for  our  colleges. 

In  certain  sections  of  the  United  States  we  have  too  many 
colleges.  Occasionally  the  Christian  sense  of  duty  which  originally 
led  the  denomination  to  found  colleges,  because  it  saw  the  need  and 
the  dearth  of  higher  education,  has  given  place  to  denominational 
pride,  none  the  less  wicked  because  more  or  less  unconscious.  It 
siubbornly  persists  in  trying  to  cover  the  whole  field  and  in  keeping 
alive  certain  weak  and  unnecessary  colleges  by  appeals  to  narrow 
prejudice  and  by  methods  unworthy  of  the  Christ.  It  forgets  that 
denominations  are  means  to  an  end,  not  ends  in  themselves.  God  is 
a  jealous  God.  His  fiat  is  against  any  form  of  idolatry.  We  must 
not  appropriate  to  a  sect  what  was  meant  for  all  mankind.  There 
is  urgent  need  of  a  federation  of  the  denominations  for  this  work. 
Waste  and  duplication  must  be  eliminated.  The  number  of  colleges 
must  correspond  to  the  actual  need.  Unchristian  rivalries  must 
disappear.  Each  denomination  must  do  its  proportionate  share  of 
the  work,  in  accordance  with  some  uniform  standards  of  endowment, 
equipment,  and  efficiency.  In  some  instances  where  we  have  con- 
gestion, there  can  be  differentiation  and  specialization;  In  others, 


698  CHURCH  SCHOOLS  AND  EDUCATION. 

co-operation  and  interchange  of  professors,  and,  hence,  the  salvage 
of  most  of  the  valuable  foundations.  Prophets  sometimes  become 
Pharisees  because  their  anxiety  about  the  vitality"  of  the  message 
gives  place  to  thoughts  of  their  own  advantage.  Not  selfish  pride 
in  an  institution,  not  the  advancement  of  an  ecclesiastical  organi- 
zation, but  the  coming  of  the  larger  kingdom  of  our  Christ  is  what 
we  are  set  for.  "Forward,  forward,  into  light"  must  be  the  watch- 
word. 

.  III.  Hence  we  face  the  problem  of  development,  and  develop- 
ment involves  the  ever-present  paradoxes  of  liberty  and  control. 
The  problems  of  the  Church  college  to-day  are  quite  different  from 
the  problems  of  the  Church  college  In  former  generations.  It  must 
be  vitally  Christian,  but  not  sectarian.  It  must  have  a  genuine 
loyalty  to  the  denomination  which  fosters  it  and  yet  be  the  leader 
of  the  Church  into  a  broader  intelligence.  It  must  walk  in  that 
larger  light  which  constantlj^  breaks  out  of  the  word  of  God.  Protes- 
tantism requires  it  to  be  as  true  to  unfolding  truth  as  the  needle  to 
the  pole.  It  must  teach  those  ever-developing  interpretations  of 
life  and  truth  which  match  the  scientific  advancement  of  the  age. 
These  beget  unrest  and  suspicion,  whenever  old  fiction  must  be 
replaced  by  new  fact. 

The  colleges  must  divine  the  never-ceasing  progress  wrought 
by  the  Spirit  of  God  in  human  thinking,  and  this  inevitably  begets 
less  of  denominationalism  and  more  of  Christian  unity.  What  are 
we  to  do?  There  can  be  no  higher  excellence  without  liberty,  for 
liberty  is  the  supreme  recognition  of  the  fact  that  man  is  in  the 
image  of  God  and,  accordingly,  capable  of  finding  the  light  and 
choosing  me  right.  Adherence  to  the  principle  is  always  fraught 
with  some  loss,  and  the  State  and  the  Church  have  alike  been  timid 
in  trusting  it;  but  God,  Himself,  accepted  all  the  risks  of  the  wreck- 
age of  sin  that  man  might  be  free,  and  Jesus  taught  us  that  losing 
faith  in  humanity  is  next  door  to  losing  faith  in  God  Himself. 
Liberty  we  must  have,  but  it  should  be  liberty,  not  license.  It 
should  make  for  that  Christian  unity  for  which  the  Master  poured 
out  His  soul  in  intercessory  prayer.  Our  denominational  loyalty 
must  await  in  confidence  the  changes  which  freedom  works  and 
must  promote  that  solidarity  of  Protestantism  the  lack* of  which  is 
its  greatest  defect.  Such  a  spirit  much  characterize  every  institu- 
tion which  is  to  live  in  the  Protestant  world. 

What  is  the  work  of  a  college?  In  our  lack  of  keen  discrimina- 
tion we  have  all  too  often  allowed  the  university  method  and  the 
university  function  to  be  transferred  to  the  college,  to  the  injury 
of  both  and  to  the  infinite  detriment  of  the  students.  The  college 
should  be  chiefly  an  introduction  to  life's  problems,  a  place  for 
the  discovery  of  a  man's  bent  and  the  hiding  of  his  power.  It 
should  give  the  student  an  accurate  body  of  knowledge,  to  be  sure; 
but  its  chief  function  is  to  give  him  the  key  of  knowledge;  to  beget 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  THOMAS  NICHOLSON.  690 

openness  of  mind,  to  develop  methods  of  work,  inquiry,  investiga- 
tion; to  beget  mental  agility,  right  mental  attitudes,  power  of  con- 
centration, skill,  self-discipline,  self-mastery. 

At  the  college  gate  the  youth  lets  go  his  mother's  apron  strings. 
As  he  comes  to  the  consciousness  of  himself  he  revolts  against 
authoritj'.  The  character  and  ideals  of  the  teacher  and  the  spirit 
of  the  school  to  which  he  goes  are  everything.  He  must  be  taught 
the  supreme  responsibility  of  making  right  choices.  It  is  not  enough 
to  get  knowledge,  to  abstain  from  cigarettes,  liquor,  or  uncleanness, 
important  as  these  are.  Right  aims,  right  ambitions,  right  direction 
of  acquired  power  are  of  prime  importance.  There  are  prejudices 
of  interest  as  immoral  as  drunkenness  and  more  dangerous  than  the 
evils  of  ignorance.  The  prejudices  of  ignorance  are  blindly  adopted; 
but  the  prejudices  of  interest  are  willfully  preferred.  The  prejudices 
of  ignorance  may  be  removed  by  merely  intellectual  processes,  but 
the  prejudices  of  interest  have  their  root  in  selfishness.  They  have 
no  regard  for  truth  or  righteousness.  They  lead  men  to  care  only 
for  their  own  fortunes.  They  stifle  conscience;  they  pervert  the  true 
uses  of  life.  They  befoul  the  streams,  that  men  may  not  see  clearly. 
Astute  and  well-trained  rascals,  who  furnish  the  brains  and  skill  for 
corrupt  undertakings,  and  strongly-intrenched  institutions,  which 
perceive  that  they  must  reform  or  die,  have,  through  the  ages, 
been  the  greatest  foes  to  the  progress  of  truth.  And,  tell  it  not 
in  Gath,  publish  it  not  in  Ashkelon,  this  has  been  true  of  ecclesi- 
astical as  of  civil  or  private  institutions. 

Now  the  college,  whether  Methodist,  Presbyterian,  or  Congre- 
gational, must  first,  last,  and  altogether  say  to  each  man,  "To  thine 
own  self  and  to  thy  God  be  true.  Then  if  thou  fallest,  thoii  fallest 
a  blessed  martyr."  The  whole  question,  therefore,  of  the  govern- 
ment and  development  of  our  colleges  turns  on  the  problem  of  the 
men  who  run  them.  The  radical  fighter,  the  narrow  bigot,  the 
militant  propagandist,  is  out  of  place  in  a  college  faculty  or  on  a 
college  board  of  trustees,  whether  he  advocates  materialism,  agnos- 
ticism, some  theory  of  political  economy,  or  second  blessing  holi- 
ness. I  do  not  mean  that  he  should  not  have  pronounced  personal 
convictions.  No  man  is  great  enough  to  be  a  guide  of  youth  who 
has  not  well  thought  out  convictions  by  which  he  sacredly  lives  and 
which  he  has  the  courage  to  state  on  all  proper  occasions.  But 
he  must  not  have  reached  that  crystallization  of  mind  in  which 
there  are  for  him  no  open  questions,  or  in  which  he  claims  the 
right  to  play  the  Pope  or  ply  the  Inquisition.  He  must  be  able, 
accurately,  judicially,  and  sympathetically,  to  weigh  all  sides  and 
theories  of  a  question,  whether  it  be  a  question  of  biblical  criti- 
ciFm,  a  theory  of  philosophy,  or  a  matter  of  scientific  form,  and  he 
must  treat  Spencer,  Locke,  Hume,  Strauss,  or  Haeckel,  as  fairly  as 
he  treats  Plato,  Descartes,  or  Wesley.     Only  in  this  way  can  we 


700  CHURCH  SCHOOLS  AND  EDUCATION. 

be  true  Protestants.  I  would  we  might  transfer  emphasis  from 
technical  law,  theoretical  methods  of  government,  quibbles  about 
theology  to  the  question  of  men.  Given  as  governing  boards  men 
emancipated  from  the  prejudices  of  interest,  incapable  of  using  an 
institution  for  their  own  private  interest  or  preferment,  consecrated 
to  God  as  the  God  of  truth;  and,  given  these  governing  boards, 
choosing  as  teachers  noble  men  of  proved  and  accurate  scholarship, 
reverent,  and  incapable  of  an  ethical  twist  to  secure  their  own 
advantage,  and  our  colleges  will  be  reservoirs  of  power.  But  men 
who  trample  on  every  ethical  and  religious  sanction  to  get  money, 
place,  or  power,  whether  in  Church  or  in  State,  can  not  be  proper 
sponsors  for  our  free  institutions,  and  must  not  control  our  colleges. 
Here  is  the  key  to  the  ultimate  unification  of  Church  and  State  edu- 
cation; but  the  Church  can  not  abandon  its  distinctive  work  in  edu- 
cation until  the  State  is  as  free,  as  faithful,  and  as  fair  in  teaching 
religion  and  morals  as  in  teaching  mathematics  or  physics.  Each 
denomination  which  does  its  duty  will  get  its  share  of  children  loyal 
to  the  mother  which  bore  them  into  the  larger  life.  "Alma  Mater" 
is  a  significant  term. 

If  schools  put  in  their  chairs  or  make  of  their  students  narrow 
traditionalists,  bigots,  hare-brained  fanatics,  weak  and  nerveless  men 
who  expect  to  be  protected  by  ecclesiastical  or  religious  sanctions 
from  the  searching  tests  of  truth  and  efficiency  which  come  to 
other  men,  they  will  commit  suicide.  On  the  other  hand,  if  we  in- 
trust our  youth  to  intellectual  giants,  destitute  of  spiritual  insight, 
religious  conviction,  or  moral  fiber,  to  men  who  have  become  enam- 
ored of  some  novel,  perhaps  untried  or  unproven,  theories,  who 
exhibit  these  theories  on  every  occasion  as  a  child  exhibits  a  new 
toy,  it  is  little  short  of  criminal.  Our  Church  colleges  must  be 
neither  ecclesiastical  machines  with  index  expurgatorius  gearings, 
nor  bodies  left  to  the  control  of  purely  self-perpetuating  boards  of 
trustees,  which  may  become  arrant  oligarchies.  They  should  have 
a  system  of  control,  democratic,  popular,  and  responsible,  but  the 
nerve  which  connects  them  with  their  proper  branch  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  must  never  be  severed. 

I  know  of  no  single  subject  just  now  demanding  larger  powers 
of  constructive  statesmanship  than  these  problems  of  the  control 
and  direction  of  the  Church  college;  and,  I  repeat,  the  key  to  the 
solution  is  to  put  the  emphasis  on  the  men  and  not  on  the  exter- 
nalities; on  the  spirit,  and  not  on  the  ecclesiastical  control;  on 
the  products,  gauged  by  scientific  investigation,  and  not  on  the 
few  American  beauty  roses  obtained  at  the  expense  of  clipping 
out  all  the  other  buds.  There  are  certain  plants  which  thrive  only 
in  cold  climates.  They  wither  and  die  before  the  heat  of  a  summer 
sun.  So  there  are  doubts  and  errors  which  thrive  in  a  cold,  cynical, 
purely  critical,  intellectual  atmosphere,  which  disappear  of  them- 


ESSAY  OF  THE  REV.  THOMAS  NICHOLSON.  701 

selves  when  the  spiritual  temperature  rises.  There  are  Pharasaic 
religious  habits  which  grow  up  in  an  atmosphere  of  ecclesiastical 
quibbling,  or  exclusive  traditionalism,  which  flee  away  before  the 
coming  of  the  true  Christ  as  the  darkness  flees  when  the  morning 
sun  arises. 

The  friends  of  our  colleges  must  give  not  only  purse  but  person, 
not  only  puff  but  power.  The  men  who  properly  support  will  control. 
A  college  thus  manned  and  controlled  will  produce  men,  rejoicing 
as  the  strong  man  to  run  a  race.  Men  thus  matured  may  safely  be 
turned  over  to  the  university  and  our  universities  must  not  be  mere 
aggregations  of  teaching  colleges,  but  genuine  post-graduate  labora- 
tories for  research,  places  for  independent  investigation  by  matured 
minds.    There  the  Germans  have  the  true  idea. 

Behold  the  service  of  such  men  to  the  world!  Aristotle,  fixing 
the  rules  of  logic  so  accurately  that  they  have  needed  little  or  no 
revision  since;  Vesalius  overthrowing  the  principle  of  authority  in 
science;  Galileo  and  Copernicus  giving  us  a  new  conception  of  the 
universe  and  its  center;  Lavoisier  laying  the  foundations  of  modern 
chemistry  and  Liebig  applying  them  to  practical  problems;  Pasteur 
and  Koch  revealing  the  germ  theory  of  disease;  Darwin  unfolding 
the  principle  of  evolution;  Luther  asserting  the  principle  of  indi- 
vidual freedom  in  religious  thought  and  interpretation,  which  re- 
sulted in  a  new  Church,  in  the  modern  public  school  systems,  and  in 
not  less  than  twenty-five  great  universities;  Wesley,  reasserting  the 
thought  of  love  as  the  basis  of  true  religion  until  he  wrought  a 
work  in  England  greater  than  that  of  her  great  Commoner  himself. 
These  all  wrought  by  faith  in  the  God  of  truth  and  through  love  of 
humanity.  Their  emancipation  from  the  utility  idea  enabled  them 
to  company  with  those  eternal  truths  which  shine  out  on  the  sum- 
mits of  the  inner  life.  They  live  because  they  died  to  self  and  selfish 
purposes. 

The  colleges  must  do  all  this;  but  they  must  also  send  an 
ever-increasing  number  of  disciplined  men  and  women  as  intelligent 
and  eflicient  workers  into  the  common  walks  of  life  to  stand  for 
honesty  and  integrity  in  private  business,  for  the  merit  system  in 
public  life,  for  the  inalienable  rights  of  the  poor  whenever  they  are 
trampled  upon  by  the  rich  and  powerful,  for  the  scholarly  spirit 
everywhere;  men  and  women  who  teach  all  the  world  both  by  pre- 
cept and  example  that  man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone  but  by 
every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God.  Such  men 
will  lift  all  wealth,  all  commerce,  all  religion,  all  government,  and 
all  power  up  into  the  realms  where  justice,  truth,  righteousness, 
beauty,  and  love  dwell  with  God. 

We  have  great  problems.  There  are  many  counter-currents. 
There  is  much  unrest.  In  California  I  saw  a  tree  shedding  its  bark. 
It  looked  like  the  ugliness  of  destruction;   but  when  I  returned  a 


702  CHURCH  SCHOOLS  AND  EDUCATION. 

month  later  the  ugliness  had  given  place  to  the  presence  of  a  new, 
clean,  beautiful  bark,  which  encompassed  the  larger  tree.  So  the  dis- 
cussion, the  unrest,  the  very  peril  of  our  denominational  colleges 
is  to  be  replaced  by  a  new  and  larger  life  in  which  we  shall 

"Ring  out  false  pride  in  place  and  blood. 
The  civic  slander  and  the  spite; 
Ring  in  the  love  of  truth  and  right. 
Ring  in  the  common  love  of  good. 

"Ring  out  old  shapes  of  foul  disease. 
Ring  out  the  narrowing  lust  of  gold. 
Ring  out  the  thousand  wars  of  old. 
Ring  in  the  thousand  years  of  peace. 

"Ring  in  the  valiant  man  and  free. 

The  larger  heart,  the  kindlier  hand. 
Ring  out  the  darkness  of  the  land. 
Ring  in  the  Christ  that  is  to  be." 

The  first  invited  address,  "Religious  Education  in  the 
School,"  was  delivered  by  Arthur  Yinter^  LL,  D.,  of  the  Wes- 
leyan  Methodist  Church : 

For  more  than  thirty-five  years  I  have  heard  the  hum  of  boys' 
voices  at  work  and  at  play,  morning,  afternoon,  and  evening.  I 
want  to  give  you  my  experience  of  the  evolution  of  a  schoolboy's 
religion.  It  is  important  to  remember  that  the  religious  sense  must 
be  developed.  It  can  not  be  imparted.  It  grows  from  what  has 
been  already  planted  in  the  consciousness  of  the  individual.  It 
acts  like  a  musical  instrument  which  responds  to  a  note  sounded 
outside.  It  is  therefore  necessary  to  cultivate  the  religious  sense 
from  the  moral  sense.  In  other  words,  the  appreciation  of  the  fun- 
damental moral  principles  must  be  enlarged  until  the  nature  unfolds 
itself  to  the  light  of  heaven  and  to  the  "glory  of  God  in  the  face  of 
Jesus  Christ." 

The  two  fundamental  principles  are  honesty  and  truth.  Honesty 
in  dealing  with  material  things  is  taught  by  the  mother  from  earliest 
infancy,  and  later,  truth  in  words  is  insisted  upon.  As  a  boy  grows 
older,  any  divergence  from  these  two  principles  awakens  in  the  con- 
science a  sense  of  wrong.  Yet  it  is  necessary  to  follow  up  these  les- 
sons of  childhood  through  early  boyhood,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
lead  boys  to  see  that  there  is  a  higher  sanction  for  conduct  than  the 
mere  will  or  command  of  the  parent  or  master. 

If  these  two  habits  have  been  formed,  it  is  but  a  short  step  to 
get  boys  to  realize  that  dishonesty  in  work  is  a  form  of  stealing,  and 


ADDRESS  BY  DR.  ARTHUR  VINTER.  703 

that  an  action  may  be  as  untrue  as  any  form  of  words.  It  is  essen- 
tial to  aim  at  cultivating  openness  and  frankness  in  tbese  two  points 
and  so  lead  the  boys  step  by  step  to  be  followers  of  Him  who  said 
He  was  the  "Truth"  and  of  whom  It  was  said  "neither  was  any  guile 
found  in  His  mouth." 

How  is  this  end  to  be  secured?  Certainly  not  by  assuming  that 
all  boys  need  teaching,  but  partly  by  individual  reproof  and  most  of 
all  by  the  atmosphere  of  the  school  under  the  influence  and  "lead" 
of  the  older  boys.  If  there  is  no  strong  "lead"  in  these  matters  of 
truth  and  honesty,  then  the  task  of  developing  the  religious  sense  in 
the  school  is  impossible.  The  mental  attitude  towards  honesty  and 
truth  must  become  as  natural  as  the  bodily  attitude  towards  the  law 
of  gravitation. 

Imparting  religious  knowledge  goes  hand  in  hand  with  the  forma- 
tion of  habits  of  honesty  and  truth.  It  is  a  matter  of  common  ex- 
perience, that  it  not  unfrequently  happens  that  a  large  amount  of 
religious  knowledge  co-exists  with  dullness  of  the  religious  sense. 
Here  is  the  point  at  which  it  seems  to  me  all  systems  of  moral 
instruction  in  schools  break  down.  Knowledge  is  necessary  to  con- 
viction but  does  not  give  it.  A  moral  philosopher  may  be  an  immoral 
man.  Unless  religious  knowledge  leads  to  religious  conviction  the 
teaching  is  vain.  Conviction  is  wrought  within  a  boy  by  an  appeal 
to  his  understanding. 

(A  former  governor  of  the  school  over  which  I  preside  caught 
some  boys  that  had  stolen  apples  from  the  orchard.  They  were 
called  into  his  study  and  after  depositing  in  a  basket  the  contents 
of  their  poclvets,  he  made  the  boys  kneel  down  whilst  he  prayed 
with  them.  Whilst  he  prayed  the  pockets  were  filled  again.  Now, 
it  is  not  the  humor  of  this  episode  that  I  want  to  allude  to,  but  to 
the  fact  that  prayer  at  that  moment  was  worse  than  useless, 
because  there  was  no  chord  in  the  boys'  natures  that  responded 
to  the  music  of  the  governor's  prayer.) 

It  is  necessary  to  teach  the  facts  about  religion,  but  this  is  not 
religious  instruction.  If  the  teacher  has  knowledge  but  not  faith, 
he  can  not  give  religious  instruction.  It  is  scarcely  possible  to  give 
true  religious  instruction  in  the  ordinary  routine  of  class  teaching. 
Some  boys  might  receive  it  gladly,  whilst  for  others  the  time  might 
be  inopportune  and  the  responsive  condition  absent.  True  religious 
instruction  can  only  be  given  to  those  who  are  willing  to  receive  it, 
and  must  therefore  be  given  in  voluntary  classes.  In  the  formation 
of  such  it  can  not  be  too  strongly  emphasized  that  there  is  a 
development  limit  that  must  be  noticed — the  age  at  which  a  boy's 
self-consciousness  begins  to  assert  itself.  Up  to  this  age  (say  on  an 
average  about  fourteen)  boys  are  open  and  frank  and  will  ask  a 
multitude  of  questions  which  will  indicate  the  struggle  of  the  mind 
for  clearer  knowledge  of  divine  and  spiritual  truth.     These  ques- 


704  CHURCH  SCHOOLS  AND  EDUCATION. 

tions  to  a  boy  who  has  passed  into  the  self-conscious  stage  will 
seem  silly,  and  will  provoke  a  smile  or  even  laughter. 

If  the  boys  above  and  below  the  self-conscious  age  can  be  met 
separately  for  voluntary  religious  instruction  there  is  afforded  an 
opportunity  of  grappling  with  the  difficulties  incident  to  their  con- 
dition, and  giving  the  instruction  which  will  help  each  individual. 

At  these  meetings  great  stress  should  be  laid  upon  the  impor- 
tance of  prayer.  The  first  movements  of  the  soul  towards  God  are 
expressed  in  prayer.  The  habit  of  formal  prayer  is  or  should  be 
taught  in  the  home,  and  will  make  a  starting  point  whence  the 
fuller  ideas  involved  in  this  exercise  are  realized,  and  its  necessity 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  Christian  life  taught. 

The  active  religious  life  begins  with  meetings  for  prayer.  They 
are  arranged  and  conducted  by  the  older  boys  and  may  be  attended 
by  boys  of  all  ages.  There  should  be  no  restraint  so  long  as  genu- 
ineness and  order  can  be  secured.  They  should  include  much  sing- 
ing.   The  prayers  should  be  spontaneous. 

Spoken  prayer  is  the  audible  expression  of  religious  conviction. 
There  is  a  different  music  in  it  from  the  response  to  a  religious 
question.  It  is  a  "confession  with  the  mouth"  which  is  a  condition 
of  salvation. 

Out  of  these  voluntary  meetings  and  organized  prayer  meet- 
ings there  spring  numerous  opportunities  for  securing  co-operation 
in  Christian  service.  The  details  of  the  work  of  a  Christian  Union 
Committee,  of  a  White  Cross  Committee,  and  a  Missionary  Commit- 
tee may  be  distributed  among  a  number  of  boys  of  different  types 
of  character.  It  must  not  be  supposed  that  all  these  workers  ar& 
converted  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word,  or  that  they  have 
attained  to  the  full  knowledge  of  "salvation  through  faith  in  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  but  I  think  it  safe  to  say  that  they  are  in 
most  cases  in  "the  way  of  salvation."  The  zeal  with  which  they 
perform  their  services  springs  from  a  conviction  which  has  not 
expressed  itself  in  words — but  which  is  a  very  real  one — that 
Christ  demands  active  service  from  all   His  followers. 

Is  there  any  place  for  emotion  in  religion  amongst  boys?  I 
believe  there  is,  but  great  care  is  needed.  It  is  possible  to  create 
excitement.  I  have  seen  several  revivals  in  the  course  of  my  ex- 
perience. They  have  often  been  attended  with  intense  fervor  and 
the  ultimate  results  have  been  marked.  Many  at  such  times  who 
have  been  thinking  much  of  religious  obligation  and  "turning  it 
over  in  their  own  minds,"  have  been  led  to  "make  up  their  minds," 
they  have  come  to  a  point  of  religious  decision  from  which  they 
have  not  looked  back. 

The  fruitage  stage  of  the  evolution  is  reached  when,  after 
due  instruction  in  the  voluntary  classes,  a  boy  makes  a  personal 
request  to  be  allowed  to  participate  in  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  W.  FLINT.  705 

Supper.  This  gives  the  master  an  opportune  moment  to  come  to 
close  personal  relationship  with  the  boy  on  the  things  which  are 
between  himself  and  his  Savior. 

But  it  frequently  happens  that  the  harvest  is  not  reaped  whilst 
at  school.  The  boys  go  home  to  join  the  fellowship  and  service 
of  the  local  church  and  continue  to  grow  up  into  Him,  the  Living 
Head  in  all  things.  This,  in  barest  outline,  is  the  plan  which  I 
have  found  in  multitudes  of  cases  to  yield  gracious  results. 

I  have  no  experience  of  religious  work  amongst  boys  in  day 
schools,  but  I  have  an  impression  that  a  devout  and  earnest  master 
could  accomplish  much  by  working  on  such  lines  as  I  have  indi- 
cated— by  commencing  with  a  few  older  boys,  who  he  might  have 
reason  to  believe  would  welcome  any  religious  help.  Their  ear- 
nestness, devotion  and  enthusiasm  would  soon  draw  others  into  the 
fellowship. 

The  second  invited  address,  "Eeligious  Education  in  Pub- 
lic Schools  in  South  Africa/'  was  by  the  Eev.  W.  Plint,  D.  D., 
of  the  South  African  Methodist  Church : 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  address  to  describe  at  length  in 
technical  detail  the  methods  adopted  in  South  Africa  to  pi-ovide 
for  religious  education  in  the  public  schools.  That  information  can 
be  readily  obtained  in  the  official  publications  of  the  several  de- 
partments of  education,  and  is  not  of  immediate  Interest  to  a 
Conference  of  this  nature.  What  is  of  importance  and  may  be 
usefully  considered  here  is  the  question  of  religious  education  as 
an  Integral  part  of  national  life.  When  that  subject  is  considered, 
the  lessons  learned  in  one  part  of  the  world  may  possibly  be  of 
service  to  those  who  are  aiming  at  similar  objects  elsewhere,  and 
especially  to  the  nations  which  are  in  the  making,  of  which  the 
British  Empire  is  so  largely  composed.  The  aim  of  this  address, 
therefore,  will  be  to  set  forth  two  or  three  of  those  lessons,  and 
show  their  bearing  upon  the  solution  of  a  problem  which  is  of 
growing  importance. 

The  question  of  religious  education  in  South  Africa  was  not 
thrust  into  the  foreground  of  public  thought  until  recent  years,  and 
there  are  reasons  for  that.  The  South  African  colonies  and  States 
were  made  up,  like  other  parts  of  the  Empire  and  the  United  States, 
of  peoples  whose  traditions  and  ideals  were  essentially  Christian. 

The  men  of  Holland,  the  first  colonizers,  carried  with  them 
to  the  new  settlement  the  essence  of  Reformation  truth  and  made 
that  the  rule  of  their  faith  and  practice,  in  accordance  with  the 
formulas  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church.  The  accessions  made 
to  their  numbers  by  the  Huguenot  refugees,  after  the  great  mas- 
sacre,  intensified   the  spiritual   tone   of  Church  life,   but   did   not 

4d 


706  CHURCH  SCHOOLS  AND  EDUCATION. 

change  its  form.  The  next  great  influx  of  population,  which  was 
that  of  the  1S20  settlers,  was  English  and  Christian  and  to  a  large 
extent  Methodist;  and  from  that  time  up  to  the  discovery  of  the 
diamond  fields  in  the  early  seventies  South  African  immigrants 
reflected  the  tone  and  temper  of  their  European  ancestrj'  in  matters 
social  and  religious. 

The  atmosphere  of  the  country  was  religious,  and  no  special 
endeavor  had  to  he  made  to  give  expression  to  the  religious  senti- 
ment of  the  people  in  matters  educational,  for  it  was  taken  for 
granted  that  religion  would  express  itself  there  and  elsewhere,  and 
it  did.  And  all  through  private  and  Church  schools,  and  among 
them  some  of  our  own,  have  given  religious  instruction  of  a  high 
order. 

But  with  the  discovery  of  diamonds,  followed  within  a  very  few 
years  by  the  Transvaal  gold  fields,  a  new  era  set  in.  Gradually  at 
first,  and  more  rapidly  afterwards,  there  came  into  the  country  a 
new  population  often  alien  in  tradition  and  spirit,  and  it  was  soon 
found  that  these  classes  were  pouring  into  the  country  much  more 
rapidly  than  they  could  be  absorbed  into  the  body  politic.  That 
is  one  of  the  great  dangers  to  rapidly  developing  colonies  and 
communities,  and  one  to  which  the  leaders  in  the  great  moral  move- 
ments of  this  great  Canada  may  wisely  give  heed. 

In  the  course  of  a  generation  or  two  these  new  peoples,  if  they 
come  too  quickly  to  be  assimilated  to  the  national  ideal,  may 
modify  or  entirely  change  the  temper  of  the  nation  even  while 
the  bulk  of  the  population  remains  Christian.  That  is  precisely 
what  has  happened  in  South  Africa  during  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century,  and  its  influence  has  made  itself  felt  in  the  educational 
world.  And  this  is  the  method  in  which  it  works:  In  the  sacred 
name  of  liberty  concessions  have  to  be  made,  or  are  made,  to 
minorities,  concessions  which  affect  the  relation  of  the  people  as 
a  whole,  to  the  Scriptures,  to  sacred  institutions  such  as  the  Sab- 
bath, even  to  public  morality;  and  the  religious  life  of  the  people 
suffers. 

This  question  of  the  tyranny  of  minorities  in  democracies  is  one 
which  is  becoming  of  growing  importance  in  many  of  our  modei-n 
communities.  It  has  never  yet  been  adequately  discussed  by  philos- 
ophers, by  political  economists,  by  social  reformers,  or  by  reli- 
gionists. But  that  form  of  tyranny  is  with  us  to-day  in  municipal, 
in  national,  and  in  imperial  life,  and  the  people  and  great  insti- 
tutions and  moral  ideals  and  practices  are  suffering  because  of  its 
presence.  Illustrations  of  how  it  works  out  need  not  be  given,  for 
they  will  readily  occur  to  every  mind. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  because  of  the  fancied  necessity 
of  conceding  to  the  demands  of  minorities  there  are  majorities  in 
almost  every  community  who  have  had  to  forego  rights  social  and 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  W.  FLINT.  707 

moral,  rights  which  would  have  been  of  untold  advantage  to  them- 
selves, their  children,  and  the  nation  at  large. 

There  is  no  sphere  where  this  is  more  apparent  than  in  that  of 
moral  and  religious  education.  In  many  a  town  and  village,  and 
sometimes  in  a  whole  State,  the  great  majority  of  the  people  are 
being  deprived  of  their  right  to  have  their  children  placed  under 
religious  instruction  because  the  claims  of  a  minority  have  become 
predominant  in  that  community. 

Freedom  of  conscience  there  must  be,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
majority  to  see  that  the  necessary  safeguards  for  the  exercise  of 
that  are  provided;  but  it  is  not  the  duty  of  the  majority  to  cast 
its  most  sacred  heritages  and  its  highest  responsibilities  into  the 
dust  for  selfish,  careless,  or  untaught  minorities  to  trample  beneath 
their  feet.  That  is  a  sacrifice  which  the  majority  has  no  right  to 
make,  which  it  makes  at  its  peril,  and  which,  when  it  is  made,  robs 
posterity  of  what  was  designed  to  be  one  of  its  most  precious  pos- 
sessions. 

It  is  one  of  the  unavoidable  disabilities  of  minority  life  in 
every  department  of  nature  that  it  must  frequently  bear  the  incon- 
venience of  having  to  live  alongside  the  majority,  and  we  can  not 
hope  entirely  to  escape  from  the  working  of  that  principle  in  the 
realm  of  social  affairs. 

The  tyranny  of  the  minority  often  tends,  however,  in  the  matter 
of  religious  education  to  work  all  the  more  powerfully  because  the 
majority  does  not  realize  either  the  perils  which  beset  it  or  the 
power  which  it  possesses. 

The  Church  of  Christ  needs  to-day,  especially  in  some  countries, 
to  look  seriously  at  the  question  of  the  relation  of  vast  masses  of 
the  people  to  religious  knowledge;  such  knowledge  as  is  afforded  by 
Biblical  insti'uction,  and  which  knowledge  was  almost  common 
property  a  generation  since.  Investigations  recently  made  in  South 
Africa,  and  it  is  probably  equally  true  elsewhere,  revealed  the  fact 
that  numbers  of  young  people  are  growing  up  v/ith  scarcely  any 
knowledge  of  the  Bible,  that  the  commonplaces  of  Biblical  truth 
are  unknown  to  them,  and  that  even  the  classic  stories  and  para- 
bles of  the  Old  Book  are  unfamiliar  ground.  What  is  the  result? 
That  there  is  no  fulcrum  for  the  moral  lever  to  rest  upon  when  it 
is  sought  to  lead  them  on  to  higher  things,  or  even  when  an  appeal 
has  to  be  made  upon  some  pressing  question  of  personal  or  public 
morals.  How  disastrously  that  is  likely  to  affect  the  future  it  is 
impossible  to  forecast.  Such  a  condition  is  the  stony  ground  with 
even  its  "not  much  earth"  swept  away  so  that  the  good  seed  does 
not  find  even  a  temporaiy  rooting-place. 

This  result  of  the  neglect  of  religious  education  is  doubtless 
accountable  for  not  a  little  of  the  indifference  to  religion  which  is 
so  marked  a  characteristic  of  these  times.     Yet  it  is  undoubtedly 


708  CHURCH  SCHOOLS  AND  EDUCATION. 

true  that  the  Church  of  Christ  can  do  a  great  deal  to  remedy  this 
condition  of  affairs  if  it  only  realizes  and  judiciously  and  unitedly 
uses  its  power.  How  this  can  be  done  has  been  recently  learned 
in  South  Africa. 

The  lack  of  definite  religious  instruction  in  the  public  schools 
has  been  exercising  the  minds  of  many  people  for  some  time,  and 
last  year  the  Synods  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  and  English  Churches 
were  meeting  in  Cape  Town  at  the  same  time.  In  the  course  of 
the  exchange  of  fraternal  greetings  this  question  of  religious  edu- 
cation forced  itself  to  the  front  with  the  ultimate  result  that  a 
joint  committee  was  formed  to  consider  the  matter. 

That  committee  had  not  proceeded  very  far  before  it  found  that 
its  members  were  in  much  closer  agreement  with  each  other  than 
they  had  supposed,  but  that  in  order  to  obtain  a  practical  result 
others  must  be  called  in  to  share  in  the  deliberations. 

In  due  course  the  Presbyterian,  Wesleyan,  Congregational,  Bap- 
tist, and  Lutheran  Churches  appointed  representatives,  and  again 
it  was  found  that  on  all  the  great  essentials  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion the  agreement  between  them  was  much  more  complete  than 
even  the  most  sanguine  had  supposed. 

After  discussion  of  many  aspects  of  the  question  it  was  resolved 
to  prepare  a  scheme  of  religious  instruction  for  the  schools  con- 
sisting of  Scripture  lessons  for  all  the  grades,  and  a  simple  cate- 
chism to  accompany  those  lessons  throughout  the  school  course. 
Both  committees  found  their  work  much  easier  than  had  been  an- 
ticipated, and  an  admirable  catechism  based  upon  the  Heidelberg 
catechism  which  is  in  general  use  in  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church 
has  been  prepared  and  printed.  The  scheme  has  met  with  the  ap- 
proval of  the  Superintendent-General  of  Education  at  the  Cape,  and 
subsequent  meetings  with  representative  teachers  have  developed 
a  spirit  of  hearty  co-operation  between  them  and  the  committee, 
so  that  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  religious  education  will  once 
more  and  speedily  find  the  place  which  it  is  felt  it  ought  to  occupy 
in  the  public  schools  of  the  Union. 

The  result  has  only  been  brought  about  by  the  members  of  that 
great  committee  being  brought  to  see  that  true  Christianity  is  the 
greatest  common  measure  of  the  arithmetic  of  religion,  and  that 
Methodist  and  Presbyterian,  Baptist  and  Episcopalian,  Congrega- 
tionalist,  Dutch  Reformed,  and  Lutheran  will  all  go  into  it.  This 
is  the  great  lesson  which  has  to  be  learned  if  in  the  public  schools 
of  the  world  religious  education  is  to  have  its  rightful  place. 

In  many  countries  the  Churches  are  rapidly  being  placed  in  a 
position  in  which  they  have  no  option  in  this  matter.  They  must 
face  the  responsibility  of  dealing  with  questions  of  this  nature,  or 
accept  the  risk  of  being  branded  v/ith  the  name  of  traitors  by  gen- 
erations yet  to  come  who  yearn  for  what  has  been  irretrievably  lost. 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  W.  J.  YOUNG,  709 

We  who  name  the  name  of  Christ  have  no  right  to  deprive  the 
youth  of  this  or  any  other  genei-ation  of  their  lawful  share  in  the 
history,  literature,  and  moral  and  spiritual  truths  contained  in  The 
Book  of  books.  And  if  we  desire  to  give  that  book  to  the  youth  of 
any  part  of  the  English-speaking  world,  at  least,  we  can  do  it;  we 
can  do  it  if  we  will,  and  do  it  without  injustice  to  any  member  of 
the  differing  or  opposing  minority,  for  the  English-speaking  world, 
spite  its  shortcomings  and  its  sins,  is  still  essentially  Christian 
in  its  ideal  and  intent,  and  religious  education  in  its  public  schools 
will  do  not  a  little  to  keep  it  so. 

The  third  invited  address,  "Church  Control  of  Church 
Schools,"  was  presented  hy  the  Eev.  W.  J.  Young,  D.  D.,  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South : 

My  thoughts  on  the  subject  assigned  me  may  be  presented  as 
the  answers  to  four  questions. 

1.  Should  the  Church  control  its  own  schools?  I  answer  un- 
hesitatingly. Yes,  and  for  several  reasons. 

(a.)  Surely  we  have  a  right  to  control  our  own.  Whatever 
advantage  may  be  in  them,  we  have  a  right  to  use  for  the  building 
up  of  that  part  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  committed  to  our  care,  not 
for  selfish  ends,  not  in  the  spirit  of  sectarianism  and  bigotry,  but 
for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  good  of  the  race.  This  we  may  do 
without  any  sort  of  apology.  Secularism  is  claiming  the  privilege 
of  using  the  progress  of  scholarship  and  education:  why  should 
not  we? 

(b.)  Many,  perhaps  most,  of  our  Church  schools  were  placed  in 
our  keeping  by  our  fathers  who  founded  them  in  the  face  of  world- 
liness,  unbelief,  and  secularism  for  the  safeguarding  of  the  youth 
of  the  Church.  The  trust  thus  committed  to  us  is  very  sacred.  We 
should  be  true  to  their  aim,  and  especially  since  the  arguments 
for  maintaining  that  aim  are  as  strong  as  in  the  days  of  those  de- 
voted servants  of  God. 

(c.)  However  they  may  have  come  into  our  possession,  we  are 
responsible  for  them  as  for  any  other  talent  or  treasure.  To  sur- 
render this  duty  would  be  both  cowardly  and  unfair;  cowardly,  be- 
cause the  surrender  would  come  on  account  of  certain  great  diffi- 
culties in  the  way;  and  unfair,  inasmuch  as,  over  against  other 
good  schools,  they  are  patronized  by  our  people,  on  the  supposition 
that  they  are  managed  according  to  the  principles  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Jesus,  as  interpreted  and  presented  by  the  Methodist  Church. 
If  we  do  not  mean  to  control  them,  then  honesty  would  seem  to 
require  that  we  say  as  much,  so  that  our  people  may  be  governed 
accordingly. 

(d.)  The  need  for  the  Christian  use  or  teaching  of  subjects  other- 


710  CHURCH  SCHOOLS  AND  EDUCATION. 

wise  secular  is  greater  than  ever  before.  It  is  sometimes  aslced, 
"What  is  the  difference  between  Christian  Latin  and  mathematics, 
and  secular  Latin  and  mathematics?"  None  in  the  things  them- 
selves, but  a  vast  difference  in  them  as  they  are  put  to  use.  The 
bricks  of  a  church  and  of  a  dance-hall  may  be  alike  before  they 
are  built  into  these  structures,  but  when  built  in  they  are  radically 
different.  We  need  to  use  all  our  resources  in  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
the  Church  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  must  remember  that  as 
yet  Christianity  comes  to  us  in  some  devotional  form,  some  doc- 
trinal expression,  with  increasing  emphasis  on  those  essentials  in 
which  most  of  the  children  of  God  are  one. 

(e.)  The  Church  must,  with  its  scholars,  set  an  example  in 
education  or  training  to  the  scholars  not  ecclesiastical  and  es- 
pecially to  those  wholly  secular.  It  has  done  this  in  the  past,  and 
in  some  places  has  in  effect  compelled  the  recognition  of  the  claims 
of  Jesus  Christ  and  of  the  word  of  God.  Its  work  in  this  respect 
is  not  yet  done. 

(f.)  Thei-e  are  conditions  to-day  which  make  very  desirable  a 
closer  touch  between  the  school  and  the  Church.  The  Church  needs 
the  school  to  keep  it  from  becoming  too  other-worldly,  narrow,  sec- 
tarian, non-progressive,  unsympathetic  with  the  unfolding  thought. 
The  school  needs  the  Church  to  keep  it  from  losing  the  vision  of 
the  spiritual,  to  save  it  from  the  self-righteousness  and  pride  of 
mere  scholarship,  and  to  hold  it  true  to  the  one  final  task  of  us 
all,  to  build  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  the  earth. 

2.  The  second  question  is  this.  What  sort  of  control  is  de- 
manded? The  control  should  be  such  as  to  make  the  schools,  both 
In  a  general  and  in  a  more  positive  and  specific  sense.  Christian. 
This  will  make  them,  but  in  no  narrow  or  sectarian  way,  Meth- 
odistic,  because,  through  Methodist  doctrine  and  discipline,  Meth- 
odists can  best  make  the  world  Christian. 

The  trustees  should  be  responsible  to  some  governing  body  of 
the  Church,  and  as  truly  as  other  stewards,  for  such  after  all  they 
are,  be  men  of  godly  life  and  sincere  faith,  chosen  not  merely  for 
their  social,  political,  or  financial  prominence,  nor  even  because 
they  are  distinguished  alumni  of  the  institutions.  They  should 
not  easily  be  led  astray  by  the  glamour  of  mere  numbers  or  the 
pomp  of  some  outward  equipment,  and  should  be  lovers  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  His  Church,  and  should  put  these  always 
first. 

The  professors  should  possess  profound  scholarship  and  marked 
pedagogic  ability.  It  is  indeed  more  than  unfortunate  for  the 
teacher,  though  pious,  to  be  mediocre  of  mind  and  lacking  in  genius. 
To  the  strong,  thoughtful  student  he  will  not  commend  the  religion 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but,  on  the  contrary,  will  lead  him  to 
the  opinion,  all   too  common,  that  the  gospel   is  good  enough  for 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  W.  J.  YOUNG.  711 

children  and  other  undeveloped  minds,  but  was  never  meant  for 
the  intellectually  robust.  The  faculties,  however,  should  not  be 
selected  solely  on  the  ground  of  ability.  They,  too,  must  love  the 
Master,  and  believe  in  Him  and  His  Church.  Surely  they  should 
not  be  men  whose  intellectual  power  and  attractiveness  make  it 
the  easier  for  them,  whether  intentionally  or  not,  to  rob  the  youth 
of  their  mother's  God,  and  to  create  a  disgust  for  that  Church 
which  planted  the  vine  and  fig  tree  under  which  they  rest. 

There  should  be  that  liberality  of  thought  to  which  Methodism 
from  the  first  has  been  constantly  and  consistently  devoted — such 
liberality  as  is  not  out  of  harmony  with  truth  in  the  thought  and 
purity  in  the  life.  The  school,  like  the  Church,  should  be  adjust- 
able and  adjusted  to  the  progress  and  unfolding  of  the  world,  ready 
to  meet  all  the  growing  demands  made  by  the  processes  of  the 
divine  evolution.  But  never  should  the  Church  allow  the  school, 
any  more  than  it  should  permit  itself,  to  make  hurtful  compro- 
mises of  any  sort  in  order  to  gain  popular  favor,  to  add  to  its 
endowments  and  other  resources,  or  to  hold  fellowship  with  those 
who  love  not  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

As  I  have  already  said,  the  control  should  be  more  specifically 
Christian.  The  Bible  should  be  a  text-book  in  the  schools,  and  here, 
under  the  direction  of  reverent  scholars,  the  youth  should  face  the 
problems  of  criticism  and  begin  the  mastery  of  them,  learning,  if 
no  more,  at  least  this  much,  that  before  these  issues  fear  is  foolish. 
The  teachers  should  by  their  personal  touch  with  the  pupils  train 
them  for  Christ  and  His  cause.  The  very  best  preachers  should 
be  sent  to  proclaim  the  gospel  message  to  the  college  people.  There 
should  be  days  of  decision  for  the  Master's  service,  as  there  are 
examination  days  for  the  exhibition  of  the  oratorical  and  intellect- 
ual gifts  of  the  students.  There  is  no  more  reason  for  being  too 
busy  for  these  things  in  the  schools  than  for  the  neglect  of  them 
in  the  rush  of  business  or  professional  life,  and  if  they  shall  be 
neglected  in  the  one  plate  they  will  almost  certainly  receive  scant 
attention  in  the  other. 

3.  What  should  be  the  end  or  purpose  of  the  control?  Three- 
fold. 

(a.)  To  create  loyalty  to  the  truth — all  the  truth,  a  loyalty 
which  does  not,  with  certain  forms  of  scholarship,  neglect  the  truth 
as  it  is  in  Jesus,  nor,  with  certain  kinds  of  religion  and  theology, 
the  glory  revealed  in  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  Our  Church 
schools  should  train  a  body  of  men  and  women  who  have  learned 
that  the  so-called  discord  in  the  truth  is  only  "harmony  not  under- 
stood," and  for  whom  even  the  social  and  economic  voices  are  lost 
in  the  song  of  redeeming  grace.  Surely  here,  if  anywhere,  these 
great  problems  should  be  worked  out  to  a  finish. 

(b.)    There  should  also  be  created  a  loyalty  to  the  moral  law 


712  CHtmCH  SCHOOLS  AND  EDUCATION. 

with  its  new  emphasis  and  its  new  interpretation  in  the  teaching 
of  Jesus,  so  that  we  may  send  forth  to  the  battle  for  righteousness 
in  all  affairs  commercial,  social,  and  political  those  who  not  only 
believe  in  the  Kingdom  of  God,  but  believe  also  that  they  are  called 
upon  to  be  leaders  in  the  making  of  it  effective  even  to-day. 

(c.)  The  Church  must  through  its  schools  aim  at  the  mainte- 
nance of  loyalty  to  the  Christian  manhood.  "We  are  learning, 
though  slowly,  what  the  apostle  meant  by  saying  that  all  things 
are  ours.  All,  except  evil,  may  and  must  be  built  into  the  perfect 
man  in  Christ  Jesus.  The  mission  of  the  gospel  is,  with  all  the  re- 
sources at  its  command,  to  make  men,  to  restore  fallen  and  im- 
perfect humanity  to  the  divine  sonship.  The  college,  as  a  means 
of  grace  of  the  Church,  is  here  to  save  men — save  in  no  narrow 
sense,  but  in  a  way  that  will  deliver  from  all  bondage  soul  and 
body,  intellect,  affections,  and  will. 

We  shall  not  be  disturbed  if  in  the  processes  of  salvation,  the 
young  men  and  women  shall  become  believers  in  the  teachings  of 
the  Methodist  fathers  and  shall  come  into  the  enjoyment  of  their 
religious  experience.  To  make  them  Methodists  should  not  be  our 
supreme  end.  Indeed,  this  would  be  narrow  and  would  cause  us 
to  miss  that  higher  and  all-important  end  of  making  them  Chris- 
tians. But  we  should  not  be  weak  enough  nor  foolish  enough  to 
apologize  for  the  way  in  which  so  many  have  gone  to  their  high 
reward,  having  served  their  day  and  generation  well,  nor  seek  to 
avoid  a  possibility  which,  strange  to  say,  to  so  many  who  have 
forgotten  the  rock  whence  they  were  hewn  seems  so  great  a  catas- 
trophe. It  is  impossible  for  a  sincere  Methodist  to  be  a  bigot,  but 
it  is  entirely  possible  for  him,  on  the  other  hand,  in  his  zeal  for 
liberality  and  generosity,  to  cease  contending  earnestly  or  even 
feebly  for  the  faith  once  for  all  delivered  to  the  saints. 

4.  What  obligations  to  the  schools  rest  upon  the  Church,  grow- 
ing out  of  its  control  of  them? 

It  must  make  them  the  best  possible  schools,  as  well  equipped, 
as  well  supported,  and  with  standards  as  high  as  other  schools, 
secular  or  non-ecclesiastical.  It  must,  if  possible,  do  even  better 
than  the  schools  not  under  its  charge.  To  do  all  this  will  require 
much  larger  sums  of  money  than  our  people  have  hitherto  been 
willing  to  give,  but,  if  we  expect  our  schools  as  they  ought,  to  turn 
away  from  alluring  financial  offers  of  boards  which  are  opposed 
to  Church  control,  we  must  be  willing  to  supply  them  with  the 
needful  resources.  The  Church  is  able  to  do  all  this.  It  is  no 
longer  poor.  When  fully  consecrated  to  the  Master  it  can  do  all 
it  needs  to  do. 

The  members  of  our  Churches  must  send  their  children  to  our 
own  schools,  not  yielding  too  readily,  as  is  altogether  too  common, 
to  their  whims  and  desires. 


BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS.  713 

The  Church  must  not  interfere  too  much  in  those  details  of 
school  work  which  require  expert  knowledge.  Having  employed 
men  competent  to  discharge  these  duties,  it  should  give  them  the 
largest  possible  liberty  consonant  with  the  higher  welfare  of  the 
schools. 

The  Church  must  not  be  afraid  that  its  faith  may  suffer  from  the 
most  thoroughgoing  research  and  investigation  on  the  part  of  de- 
vout Christian  scholars.  It  must  learn  that  from  all  sources  come 
the  many  parts  of  the  truth  that  Jesus  is  the  keynote  of  these 
many  fragments,  Himself  the  truth.  Out  of  our  Southern  planta- 
tion melodies  Dvorak  made  the  symphony  of  the  New  World.  So 
Jesus  out  of  the  fragments  of  what  are  after  all  life's  commonplace 
experiences  and  knowledge  may  make,  nay  does  make,  the  music 
of  the  skies. 

Secretary  Carroll  rej^orted  for  the  Business  Committee, 
in  the  absence  of  its  Chairman,  the  following  items,  which  this 
Committee  had  approved,  for  adoption  by  the  Conference: 

1.  "This  Ecumenical  Conference,  recognizing  that  God's  pres- 
ence has  been  made  manifest  during  all  its  sessions,  resolves  to 
spend  the  last  half  hour  of  its  proceedings  in  thanksgiving  and 
prayer  and  consecration." 

This  was  agreed  to.  *  * 

2.  Resolution  regarding  the  Church  and  the  Evangelization  of 
the  World.  We  hail  with  joy  and  thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God 
the  open  doors  of  practically  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  to  the 
messenger  of  Him  who  said,  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach 
the  gospel  to  every  creature." 

We  are  profoundly  grateful  for  the  Church's  world-vision  and 
awakening  to  a  consciousness  and  recognition  of  her  duty  as  to 
the  world's  evangelization,  and  for  the  most  remarkable  and  en- 
couraging success  that  has  attended  her  ministry  in  nearly  all 
parts  of  the  world  during  the  last  decade. 

However,  she  should  not  be  content  "with  encouraging  reports 
and  hopeful  prospects,"  but  should  with  grateful  heart  and  in  the 
fear  of  God  take  the  measure  of  the  stupendous  task  involved  in 
the  campaign  upon  which  she  has  entered. 

The  magnitude  of  this  undertaking,  with  its  attendant  difficulties, 
opportunities,  and  obligation,  is  only  beginning  to  be  understood 
and  realized. 

The  whole  heathen  world  seems  to  be  awaking  and  is  astir 
under  the  influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  yet  there  are,  in 
round  numbers,  one  thousand  million  souls  unevangelized. 

With  a  yet  deeper  sense  of  her  responsibility,  and  in  the  most 


714  CHURCH  SCHOOLS  AND  EDUCATION. 

intelligent  and  Christ-like  way,  determined  the  Church  should  go 
about  this  greatest  of  world  problems  at  the  vei'y  beginning  of  this 
new  decade. 

We,  therefore,  most  heartily  recommend  to  all  the  Churches 
represented  in  this  Ecumenical  Conference  that  from  the  pulpit 
and  in  every  department  of  Church  activity  the  evangelization  of 
the  world  be  made  a  matter  of  special  prayer,  study,  and  discussion, 
to  the  end  that  by  renewed  faith  and  zeal  a  whole-hearted  conse- 
cration of  men  and  means,  and  a  passion  for  souls  born  of  love,  the 
gospel  may  be  preached  to  every  creature,  and  at  the  earliest  possi- 
ble date  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  may  become  the  Kingdom  of 
our  Lord  and  His  Christ. 

Secretary  Carroll:  "This  is  approved  and  recommended 
for  adojDtion.    I  move  that  it  be  adopted." 

This  motion  prevailed,  and  the  resolution  was  adopted. 

3.  Methodist  Historical  Union.  Pursuant  to  a  call  signed  by 
several  delegates,  and  an  announcement  from  the  Conference  plat- 
form, a  meeting  of  those  interested  in  the  formation  of  a  General 
Methodist  Historical  Society,  co-extensive  with  Ecumenical  Meth- 
odism, was  held  in  the  lecture-room  of  the  Conference  church  on 
Saturday,  October  14,  1911.  Bishop  Hendrix  was  appointed  chair- 
man, and  the  Rev.  J.  Alfred  Sharp,  Secretary,  Statements  were 
made  concerning  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Historical  Society  in  Eng- 
land, and  various  societies  in  the  United  States  and  Canada. 

It  was  unanimously  resolved  to  constitute  the  "Methodist  His- 
torical Union,"  composed  of  an  Eastern  and  a  Western  section,  in- 
cluding as  far  as  practicable  all  existing  and  future  historical  so- 
cieties and  institutions  with  the  object  of  gathering  information 
respecting  existing  collections  of  Methodist  documents,  manuscripts, 
etc.,  promoting  their  preservation,  aiding  in  exchanges  of  the  same, 
and  the  like. 

The  following  appointments  were  made:  Eastern  Section: 
Headquarters,  London.  President,  the  Rev.  Frederick  L.  Wiseman, 
of  Birmingham;  Secretary  and  Treasurer,  the  Rev.  J.  Alfred  Sharp, 
of  London;  Executive  Committee,  the  officers  and  the  Rev.  T.  E. 
Brigden;  Advisory  Committee,  the  Executive  and  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Simon,  of  Manchester,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  J.  W.  Crake,  of  Gloucester. 

Western  Section:  Headquarters,  New  York;  President,  Bishop 
Hendrix,  Kansas  City,  Mo.;  Secretary  and  Treasurer,  Dr.  H.  K. 
Carroll,  New  York;  Executive  Committee,  the  officers  and  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Goucher,  Baltimore,  and  Justice  J.  J.  MacLaren,  Toronto ;  Ad- 
visory Committee,  the  Executive  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Buttz,  Madison, 
N.  J.;  the  Rev.  Dr.  C.  M.  Stuart,  Chicago;  Bishop  W.  A.  Candler, 
Atlanta;  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  George  Whittaker,  of  Boston.  The  re- 
spective Executive  Committees  to  have  power  to  add  to  their  Ad- 


BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS.  715 

visory  Committees  and  fill  vacancies.  The  Business  Committee  is 
requested  to  obtain  the  approval  of  the  Conference  to  the  above. 
The  Business  Committee  recommends  the  adoption  of  this. 

On  motion  of  Dr.  Carroll^  the  above  was  adopted. 

A  Delegate:  "Are  not  all  tlie  members  of  the  Eastern 
Committee  connected  with  one  branch  of  the  Methodist  Church  ? 
And  are  there  not  brethren  in  other  Methodist  Churches  in 
great  Britain  who  have  special  qualifications  for  serving  in  this 
capacity?     I  think  I  could  name  one  or  two." 

A  Delegate:  "I  would  like  to  endorse  that.  It  seems  to 
me  that  this  is  emphatically  one  of  the  places  where  we  should 
see  that  in  the  Old  Country  we  all  have  a  common  interest  in 
the  history  of  the  great  movement  with  which  we  all  arc  con- 
nected." 

Justice  J.  J.  MacLaren:  "I  think  T  may  say  that,  as 
appears  in  the  early  part  of  this  paper,  the  meeting  was  held 
after  a  public  announcement  from  the  platform.  The  meeting 
was  not  made  aware  •  of  the  existence  of  any  such  society  in 
England,  except  the  one  named.  There  were  no  representatives 
of  the  other  Churches  there  to  advise.  Provision  was  made  that 
the  Executive  Committee  might  add  additional  members.  It 
was  thought  that  they  might  better  do  that  after  consultation 
than  those  present  at  the  meeting  could  do  it  without  being 
advised  by  the  respective  Churches.  Provision  is  made  for  such 
extension,  upon  which  all  seemed  to  agree." 

A  Delegate:  "May  I  make  a  suggestion  of  a  name,  which 
I  think  would  be  received  with  universal  welcome,  my  friend, 
the  Kev.  George  Eayrs,  of  the  United  Methodist  Church,  who 
most  certainly  ought  to  be  a  member  of  that  Committee?" 

This  was  accepted  by  the  Business  Committee, 

A  Delegate:  "The  same  remark  might  be  made  witli 
reference  to  the  Western  Division.  There  are  some  scholars 
and  some  men  of  learning  of  other  branches  of  the  Methodist 
Church,  who  with  some  consideration  would  probably  find  a 
place  on  this  Committee." 

The  President:    "Some  names  will  be  added." 

A  Delegate  :  "I  beg  to  move  that  the  llev.  II.  B.  Kendall 
be  added." 

This  was  agreed  to. 


716  CHURCH  SCHOOLS  AND  EDUCATION. 

A  Delegate:  "I  hope  that  by  this  Conference  members  of 
other  branches  will  be  added  to  that  Committee.  Greater  sanc- 
tion will  be  given  to  their  appointment  if  the  appointment  be 
made  at  this  Conference.  The  reason  why  so  far  the  member- 
ship has  been  restricted  to  the  Old  Conference,  is  that  it  has 
been  exclusively  carried  on  within  the  limits  of  the  other  Church. 
There  has  been  no  inclination  to  set  others  aside;  and  I  hope 
that  in  the  catholic  spirit  that  has  been  breathed  throughout 
this  Conference,  the  desired  additions  will  be  made." 

Secretary  Carroll  :     "I  think  that  all  this  can  be  covered 
by  giving  these  representatives  power  to  add  members  of  other- 
Churches." 

A  Delegate:  "I  suggest  that  the  matter  be  referred  back. 
It  is  extremely  difficult  here  to  add  names  of  other  Churches." 

Secretary  Carroll:  "It  is  hardly  likely  that  the  Business 
Committee  can  be  got  together  again  for  that  purpose.  I 
think  that  the  amendment  I  have  proposed  will  overcome  the 
difficulty  and  allow  representatives  of  other  branches  of  Meth- 
odism not  included  in  this  list  to  be  added." 

The  President:  "It  is  moved  to  amend,  giving  this  au- 
thority.   Are  you  ready?" 

A  Delegate:  "I  rise  to  suggest  that  that  report  lie  over 
until  to-morrow  morning  so  that  what  we  do  shall  be  done  by 
all  of  us.  It  will  not  prejudice  the  report,  but  will  give  men 
opportunity  to  think  about  their  representative  men  and  report 
to  us  to-morrow  morning." 

Secretary  Carroll:  "To-morrow  morning's  session  will  be 
crowded  full  of  very  important  business.  I  would  very  much 
rather  it  should  be  acted  upon  at  this  session.  It  seems  to  me 
that  if  this  amendment  is  adopted,  you  have  all  that  you  need 
in  the  way  of  elasticity." 

A  Delegate:  "I  move  that  the  name  of  the  Rev.  W. 
Eedfern  be  added  to  that  Committee." 

The  Committee  accepted  this  name. 

Dr.  Carroll's  motion  was  now  put,  and  prevailed. 

A  Delegate:  "I  move  the  addition  of  another  name,  the 
Eev.  Thomas  Mitchell." 

This  name  was  also  accepted. 


BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS.  717 

The  President:  "As  many  as  will  adopt  the  report  as 
amended  raise  the  hand.     Contrary.     Agreed  to." 

A  Delegate:  "In  Canada  we  have  been  working  at  a 
historical  society  for  many  years.  We  have  perhaps  the  largest 
and  most  important  collection  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  We 
are  completely  ignored  in  this  matter.'' 

On  motion  of  the  Hon,  J.  J.  Maclaren,  the  name  of  Chan- 
cellor BuRWASH  was  added  for  the  Western  Section. 

Secretary  Carroll  continued  the  report  from  the  Business 
Committee : 

That  this  Ecumenical  Conference  warmly  commends  to  the  vari- 
ous Conferences  represented  here  the  consideration  of  some  form 
of  federated  action  on  matters  of  common  interest,  as,  for  example, 
temperance  work,  work  among  young  people,  a  common  college 
system,  and  such  forms  of  social  and  philanthropic  service  as  may 
be  open  to  them,  and  trusts  that  by  some  such  means  the  resources 
of  Methodism  may  be  utilized  to  the  utmost  and  its  great  mission 
among  men  more  fully  realized. 

The  Business  Committee  recommended  that  this  resolution 
be  referred  to  the  Eastern  and  Western  Sections  of  the  Com- 
mission. 

This  was  agreed  to. 

Secretary  Carroll  stated  that  the  following  resolution  was 
reported  to  the  Conference  from  tlie  Business  Committee : 

Methodism  everywhere  stands  for  law  and  order,  and  against 
all  forms  of  lawlessness  and  disorder,  wherever  they  may  occur, 
and  whether  directed  against  foreigners  or  any  class  or  classes  of 
any  community.  We  earnestly  call  upon  those  in  civil  authority 
energetically  to  enforce  the  law  against  mob  violence. 

Bishop  Collins  Denny,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South: 

I  think  there  ought  to  be  added  to  that  resolution  some  refer- 
ence as  to  condemnation  by  United  Methodism  of  some  features, 
or  acts,  that  cause  mob  violence.  I,  therefore,  move  as  an  amend- 
ment, which  of  course  I  shall  have  to  state  extempore,  that  "this 
Ecumenical  Conference  believes  that  every  woman  has  the  right 
to  an  unterrified  existence;  and  while  condemning  all  breaches  of 
law,  it  most  emphatically  also  condemns  anything  that  invades  the 
sanctity  of  the  home  and  interferes  with  the  right  of  women  to 
live  without  fear."      I  make  that  motion. 


718  CHURCH  SCHOOLS  AND  EDUCATION. 

The  motion  being  seconded.  Bishop  Denny  proceeded: 

I  would  like  to  say  a  word  as  a  reason  for  offering  the  amend- 
ment. In  many  sections  of  the  communities  in  which  I  work  I 
have  taken  particular  pains,  on  every  occasion  when  any  mob  vio- 
lence has  occurred,  to  give  expression  to  the  views  of  the  best  people 
in  the  section  from  which  I  come.  Once,  in  a  city  in  which  I  was 
preaching,  there  was  a  case  of  mob  violence.  Occupying  the  lead- 
ing pulpit  in  that  city,  I  did  not  hesitate  to  say  what  I  knew  to 
be  true  both  from  the  point  of  view  of  law  and  also  from  the  point 
of  view  of  morals,  that  anybody  who  had  any  part  whatever  in 
mobbing  that  man  was  guilty  of  murder.  It  was  willful,  deliberate, 
premeditated,  and  malicious  homicide.  Now,  while  I  said  that, 
where  some  of  these  examples  of  mob  violence  have  occurred,  I 
have  also,  my  brethren,  had  this  very  sad  experience.  I  have  a 
wife  and  four  daughters.  There  was  nothing  in  my  family  that 
brought  upon  me  so  much  anxiety  as  the  fact  that  any  one  of 
those  was  out  of  the  house  after  dark  unattended.  For  we  are 
to  speak  of  these  outbreakings  which  occur  not  simply  in  one 
section  of  the  country  or  one  section  of  the  world.  Stir  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  blood  in  any  place  in  the  world,  and  you  find  a  savage.  The 
veneer  of  civilization  is  very  thin  upon  it  We  have  found  it  so 
wherever  they  have  gone.  It  has  been  the  case  not  simply  in  this 
country.  It  was  the  case  during  the  Indian  mutiny.  It  was  the 
case  among  the  English-speaking  soldiers  who  made  that  march 
to  Pekin.  We  need  to  keep  down  any  of  the  rising  savagery  which 
we  get  by  the  mighty  power  of  heredity.  But  at  the  same  time, 
while  we  are  disposed,  and  propose,  to  see  that  there  shall  go 
forth  an  expression  in  favor  of  the  execution  of  law  in  all  sections 
of  the  world,  we  want  also  to  put  our  disapprobation  most  em- 
phatically upon  those  acts  which  terrify  the  women  of  the  country 
from  which  I  come  and  which  make  it  impossible  for  many  of  them 
to  go  out  from  their  homes  without  some  male  attendant.  Just 
as  sure  as  we  fail  to  put  our  seal  of  condemnation  upon  the  act 
which  so  often  leads  to  this  violence,  it  will  be  regarded  as  a 
partisan  action  by  this  Conference.  While  I  heartily  favor  the 
resolution  that  comes  from  the  Business  Committee,  I  also  ask  this 
Conference  that  they  add  their  condemnation,  and  express  their 
disapprobation  of  that  which  leads  so  often  to  the  scenes  of  vio- 
lence that  disgrace  any  people  that  claim  to  be  civilized  and  Chris- 
tian. 

The  Eev.  I.  S.  Person,  D.D.,  of  the  Colored  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church: 

I  want  to  concur  with  the  bishop.  Every  negro  Methodist 
preacher  in  the  Southland  condemns  mob  violence,  and  he  condemns 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  719 

most  heartily  those  things  which  lead  up  to  it.  But  I  wish  the  Con- 
ference to  condemn  at  this  meeting  many  ways  by  which  men 
are  being  mobbed.  It  is  not  the  destroying  of  the  sacredness  of 
the  home  all  the  time.  Sometimes  it  is  the  case,  and  men  will  verify 
it  here,  that  men  will  fall  out  over  little  petty  differences,  and  after 
a  while  reckless  ones  will  get  some  whisky  in  them  and  go  after 
a  man  who  had  never  done  harm  to  a  single  woman.  This  is  a 
curse  to  us.  We  want  you  to  put  your  condemnation  upon  it.  We 
are  against  the  wronging  of  the  home  in  public  or  in  private;  and 
we  want  every  Methodist  in  the  world  to  know  just  where  we  stand. 
We  are  sorry  to  see  our  men  murdered.  We  are  sorry  to  see  them 
led  to  the  stake  and  burned.  We  are  sorry  to  see  them  put  to 
death  in  any  way.  But  for  God's  sake  let  the  Methodist  Church 
stand  up  for  their  life  until  you  prove  them  guilty.     [Applause.] 

The  President:  "The  question  before  you  is  the  amend- 
ment offered  by  Bishop  Denny." 

This  was  agreed  to. 

The  President:  "Tlie  question  is  on  the  report  as  thus 
amended." 

The  amended  report  was  adopted. 

The  regular  disc-ussion  on  the  essay  and  invited  addresses 
now  proceeded. 

The  Eev.  J.  W.  Hancher,  S.  T.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church: 

It  would  be  unfair  at  this  late  hour  for  me  to  take  the  whole 
five  minutes,  though  I  have  the  floor.  But,  following  Dr.  Young's 
paper,  I  want  to  emphasize  one  remark.  He  called  attention  to 
the  diflBculty  of  raising  funds  to  carry  forward  the  work  of  our 
Church  educational  institutions.  I  speak  from  more  than  a  score 
of  years'  experience  as  a  Methodist  educator.  I  want  to  empha- 
size to  you,  through  some  statistics  which  a  reader  on  the  plat- 
form said  are  vulgar  in  a  meeting  like  this,  first,  the  feasibility 
of  raising  funds  by  the  dissemination  of  knowledge  and  interest. 
I  want  to  do  it  by  reference  to  an  editorial  in  the  Central  Christian 
Advocate  of  August  2,  in  which  Dr.  Spencer  shows  that  in  the 
United  States  of  America  we  have  gotten  along  so  far  in  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  or  righteousness  and  of  propagation  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  that  we  pay  nearly  as  large  an  amount  total  in 
salaries  to  Presbyterian  pastors  and  Congregational  pastors  and 
Baptist  pastors  as  we  pay  for  chewing  gum — nearly  twenty-five 
millions  of  money  a  year.  He  shows  that  within  the  United  States 
we  have  got  along  in  the  promotion  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  to 
where  we  pay  as  much  for  the  support  of  Catholic,  Protestant, 
and  Jewish  institutions  for  the  uplift  of  men  as  for  chewing  gum! 
He  shows  that  for  every  nine  dollars  spent  for  diamonds  in  the 
United  States  we  pay  one  dollar  for  the  Kingdom  of  God.  If  we 
as  Methodists  the  world  over  would  pay  as  we  ought  to  for  the 
interests  of  the   denomination,  and  especially   for   the   interest   of 


720  CHURCH  SCHOOLS  AND_EDUCATION. 

education,  we  might  double  and  triple  and  quadruple  our  resources 
for  these  things. 

The  Eev.  E.  D,  Cornish^  of  the  United  Methodist  Church : 

I  am  conscious  to-night  that  we  approach  these  questions  from 
different  standpoints.  Your  problems  here  differ  from  those  with 
which  we  are  faced  in  the  old  land.  The  problem  arises  from 
different  conditions  existing  in  the  two  continents.  In  the  old  laud 
we  are  overshadowed  by  an  Established  Church.  It  is  difficult 
for  you  here  to  appreciate  our  position.  In  all  our  villages,  I 
might  say,  we  have  only  one  school,  and  that  school  is  under  the 
authority  of  the  Established  Church.  It  receives  from  the  State 
the  principal  portion  of  its  support;  and  it  is  utilized  to  bolster 
up  the  Established  Church  and  to  foster  the  spirit  of  sacerdotalism. 
And  the  question  with  us  is  how  we  may  free  the  children  of  our 
villages  from  the  tyranny  of  the  priest.  Hence  we  approach  the 
question  of  religious  education  in  our  schools  from  a  different 
standpoint  from  that  from  which  you  approach  it  on  this  side 
of  the  water.  We  have  not  a  national  system  of  education.  We 
are  seeking  to  build  up  such,  but  in  building  up  that  national 
system  of  education  in  the  old  land,  our  difficulty  is,  religious 
education  is  sectarian  education.  And  if  we  are  to  maintain  re- 
ligious education  at  all,  it  must  lose  altogether  its  dogmatic  char- 
acter. It  must  not  be  in  the  interest  of  any  specific  Church,  or  any 
specific  denomination. 

And  that  leads  us  to  another  difficulty.  I  have  been  a  member 
of  one  of  the  principal  school  boards  in  the  kingdom,  and  served 
there  for  a  number  of  years.  In  our  cities,  by  the  operations  of 
law,  our  taxes  are  in  support  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in 
many  places,  though  the  major  part  of  the  educational  staff  of 
those  schools  is  to  a  very  great  extent  voluntary  in  this  respect, 
yet  the  teaching  is  by  members  of  sisterhoods.  Unknowingly, 
the  taxes  go  to  support  conventual  Institutions;  and  in  many  cases, 
because  of  the  absence  of  the  state  school  in  that  particular  dis- 
trict, our  children  are  forced  into  a  school  that  is  altogether  Roman 
Catholic,  saturated  with  the  atmosphere  of  Roman  Catholicism, 
and  they  are  trained  in  the  tenets,  to  a  very  great  extent,  of, the 
Roman  Catholic  Church.  So  that  many  of  us  are  driven  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  only  position  that  we  can  take  up  in  the  old 
country  is  the  absence  of  religious  education  in  any  dogmatic 
sense.  And  some  have  been  driven  to  the  conclusion,  the  absence 
of  religious  education  altogether.  Not  that  we  undervalue  religious 
education.  But  the  whole  safety  of  the  State  lies  in  the  freeing 
of  our  education  from  the  control  of  the  priesthood.  Had  we  been 
under  the  conditions  which  exist  on  this  side  of  the  water,  our 
position  would  be  very,  very  different.  I  am  afraid  that  these 
papers  which  we  have  had  read  to  us  to-day  will  be  quoted  against 
us  if  they  are  telegraphed  to  the  old  country,  and  we  shall  have 
the  voice  of  Methodism  quoted  against  us  in  our  endeavors  to  free 
our  schools  from  the  tyranny  of  the  priest.  We  must  understand 
that  our  problem  is  different,  very  much,  in  that.  Had  we  a 
complete  system  of  State  education,  were  we  free  from  the  over- 
shadowing influence  of  the  Anglican  Church,  we  could  approach 
it  from  your  standpoint;  but  under  present  conditions  we  have 
to  approach  it  from  another. 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  •J'21 

The  Eev.  W.  Hodson  SmitiI;,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church: 

I  want  the  opportunity  to  say  one  word  upon  one  of  the  most 
important  subjects  that  could  be  brought  before  us.  After  some 
years  as  a  member  of  the  educational  authority  in  the  county  of 
Cornwall,  I  am  prepared  to  support  a  part  of  the  speech  to  which 
I  have  had  the  privilege  of  listening,  of  the  previous  speaker. 
As  to  elementary  education,  the  position  of  our  Church  in  England 
is  that  we  should  have  a  board  school,  or  a  council  school  substi- 
tuting the  board  school,  within  the  reach  of  every  child  throughout 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  how- 
ever, there  are  seven  thousand  to  eight  thousand  schools  which 
are  the  only  schools  within  the  reach  of  the  children  who  ought 
to  attend  school.  We  have  what  is  termed  by  some  a  religious 
difficulty;  but  it  is  a  sectarian  difficulty.  The  denominationalists 
have  captured  many  schools.  I  do  not  wish,  however,  to  say  any- 
thing that  would  lead  to  an  underestimate  of  the  excellent  work 
that  has  been  done  in  the  years  gone  by  by  the  denominationalists. 
But  now  the  managers  of  some  denominational  schools  seem  to 
stand  in  the  way  of  the  natural  progress  of  national  education. 
What  do  we  find?  Often  enough,  unsuitable  buildings,  an  inefficient 
staff,  inadequate  equipment.  In  some  cases  not  only  are  the 
buildings  insufficient,  but  they  are  besides  ill  ventilated  and  un- 
sanitary. I  could  speak  of  a  denominational  school  where  within 
a  few  months  there  have  been  three  outbreaks  of  diphtheria.  There 
are  schools  in  Cornwall,  a  few,  in  which  some  educational  authori- 
ties would  hardly  stable  their  horses.  Then,  as  to  teachers.  Surely 
there  is  no  more  important  class  than  the  teachers,  and  none  ought 
to  be  better  trained  for  their  work. 

I  am  glad  to  say  that  in  England  we  are  fast  approaching  the 
time  when  no  one  will  be  allowed  to  teach,  even  as  an  assistant, 
who  has  not  had  proper  training.  Then,  we  have  an  improving 
system  of  secondary  schools.  One  of  the  rules  in  Cornwall  has 
been  to  put  a  secondary  school,  well-equipped  and  properlj^  manned, 
within  the  reach  of  every  child.  Then,  we  have  a  system  of  train- 
ing colleges.  I  was  delighted  to  hear  the  able  paper  of  Dr.  Nichol- 
son, and  agree  with  very  much  that  he  said.  But  we  have  in  con- 
nection with  our  training  colleges  a  very  real  sectarian  difficulty. 
I  could  tell  you  of  a  diocesan  college  supported  by  the  State.  Out 
of  thirty-five  hundred  pounds  expenses,  every  thirty-four  hundred 
pounds  were  contributed  by  the  State.  That  diocesan  college  is 
worked  without  a  penny  from  the  sectarians. 

We  have  training  colleges  for  our  young  people,  but  some  of 
them  are  purely  sectarian.  I  could  speak  of  one  diocesan  college 
where  the  funds  are  provided  by  the  State,  but  every  free  Church 
student  has  to  sign  a  written  declaration  that  she  will  attend 
Anglican  services.  This  is  a  training  college  where  half  the  places 
should  be  open  to  students  without  any  sectarian  prejudice.  Our 
educational  problem  in  the  old  country  is  much  more  complex 
than  that  in  Canada  or  that  in  the  United  States. 

The  Rev.  J.  0.  Willson,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church,  South : 

Yes,  Mr.  Chairman,  our  educational  problems  differ  and  have  to 
be  dealt  with  in  different  manner  on  different  sides  of  the  ocean. 

46 


722  CHURCH  SCHOOLS  AND  EDUCATION. 

We  all  know  that.  The  great  differences  are  with  reference  to  the 
public  schools. 

I  wish  to  say  a  word  with  reference  to  the  schools  of  our 
Church,  secondary  and  college  schools.  As  I  see  it,  the  Church 
of  God  is  simply  obliged  to  teach.  If  the  State  could  or  would 
take  all  this  kind  of  work  away  and  offer  to  do  it  for  us,  we 
would  not  dare  to  accept  the  offer.  The  teaching  of  the  Book 
requires  of  us  that  we  shall  teach  as  well  as  preach  the  gospel. 
Until  there  is  a  kind  of  teaching  that  takes  hold  of  a  man's  faith 
and  cultivates  it,  all  teaching  is  emasculated.  And  the  State 
school  (I  am  no  opponent  of  a  State  school,  but  claim  one  as  my 
Alma  Mater)  can  not  teach  matters  of  faith.  It  is  obliged  to  con- 
fine itself  to  moral  teaching.  It  can  not  teach  truth  definitely 
and  must  confine  itself  to  the  outer  conduct  of  life.  Faith  enters 
into  the  formation  of  character  and  the  Churches  must  engage  in 
teaching  because  they  only  can  cover  the  whole  ground. 

I  hold  that  Church  colleges  are  necessary,  not  only  for  the 
Churches  but  for  the  state.  Down  in  the  commonwealth  from  which 
I  came,  seventy  years  ago  the  chancellor  or  president  of  an  insti- 
tution of  college  grade  was  an  infidel.  Long  years  later  I  found 
in  my  first  charge  a  host  comparatively  of  the  leading  men  of  that 
community  estranged,  not  only  from  the  Church,  but  from  the 
faith  of  the  Living  God.  Some  were  Methodists  and  some  were 
the  sons  of  Methodist  preachers.  There  was  no  protest  against 
an  unbelieving  teacher  in  the  long  ago.  The  other  day  it  became 
necessary  to  change  the  management  of  a  state  school  of  an  in- 
dustrial character,  more  recently  founded.  Several  names  were 
being  proposed,  men  of  eminence  who  had  educational  qualifica- 
tions, and  finally  the  drift  of  the  board  was  toward  electing  a 
certain  man.  A  trustee  on  that  board,  himself  infiuential,  said, 
"What  Church  does  he  belong  to?"  This  politician  was  not  and 
is  not  a  member  of  the  Church,  but  when  the  answer  was  "None," 
he  said,  "Put  him  aside;  we  do  n't  care  to  offer  our  boys  to  a 
man  who  has  not  faith  in  God."  What  made  the  difference  between 
seventy  years  and  ten  years  ago?  It  was  the  infiuence  of  the 
Church  colleges  of  our  State. 

The  schools  of  the  Church  of  God,  whether  Methodist,  Pres- 
byterian, or  Baptist,  or  other,  meet  this  question  alike.  All  mlast 
teach.  And  all  must  have  institutions  for  the  education  of  men 
and  women — of  secondary,  college,  and  university  grade.  I  tell 
you,  brethren,  we  ought  to  send  out  the  very  strongest  delivery 
we  can  in  favor  of  the  schools,  colleges,  and  universities  of  the 
Church. 

The  Eev.  J.  A.  Beat,  D.  D.,  of  the  Colored  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church: 

I  have  charge  of  a  denominational  institution.  I  have  done 
this  denominational  work  for  the  last  eight  or  nine  years.  The 
denominational  schools,  the  religious  schools,  are  simply  the  bul- 
warks, so  far  as  the  negroes  of  the  state  are  concerned,  for  edu- 
cation. The  negro  can  not  do  without  the  denominational  school. 
Preeminently,  the  education  of  the  negro  must  be  ethical.  And 
the  denominational  schools,  the  religious  institutions,  are  the  ones 
that  are  going  to  do  that,  or  it  will  be  sadly  neglected.  We  must 
do  it.  In  our  religious  institutions  we  carry  on  revivals,  good  old- 
fashioned    Methodist   revivals.     Recently,    in   the    institution*  over 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  723 

which  I  preside,  at  the  beginning  of  the  term  we  as  a  faculty 
set  out  to  bring  to  bear  upon  the  new  young  men  and  women  wlio 
came  into  the  institution  a  religious  influence.  We  began  with  the 
week  of  prayer.  When  that  series  of  revival  meetings  had  closed, 
every  student  in  the  school  was  a  professed  follower  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ;  and  it  was  the  most  glorious  year  that  we  have 
experienced  in  the  work.  Two  of  the  young  men  converted  in  that 
revival  have  entered  the  ministry,  and  they  are  a  shining  mark 
among  the  Christian  young  men  of  the  entire  State. 

Another  thing  is  that  the  denominational  schools  among  our  peo- 
ple are  bound  to  keep  the  thought  of  higher  education  flaming,  if  it 
is  kept  aflame  at  all.  We  are  bound  to  have  higher  education,  if 
our  people  are  to  rise  above  ordinary  superstition.  The  negro 
preacher  is  the  natural  leader  of  our  race,  and  he  must  receive  a 
training  that  will  enable  him  to  lead  the  people  aright.  A  very 
learned  preacher,  who  probably  had  attended  some  college  ana 
learned  some  Greek,  said  to  his  congregation,  "I  want  to  show 
you  that  immersion  is  the  true  form  of  baptism.  The  word  bap- 
tize comes  from  the  Greek  word  'baptizo.'  Here  is  the  way  it 
goes.  When  you  put  the  candidate  under  the  water,  he  says  'Bap,' 
and  when  you  raise  him  out  of  the  water  he  says  'tism.'  "  That 
is  the  kind  of  interpretation  of  Scripture  that  we  can  get  until 
we  have  the  best-trained  teachers. 

I  want  to  object  to  one  term  that  has  been  used  here  by  some 
members  of  my  own  race.  They  have  used  the  phrase  "inferior 
race."  Who  authorized  anybody  to  say  that  any  race  is  inferior? 
God  has  made  it  possible  for  all  races  to  develop,  and  develop  into 
the  very  highest  civilization.  I  believe  that  God  is  not  partial. 
Say  "undeveloped  races,"  and  not  "inferior  races."  If  you  put 
before  us  the  thought  that  we  are  inferior,  what  hope  is  there 
that  we  shall  rise  to  a  higher  plane  of  Christian  life  and  civiliza- 
tion? 

On  motion  of  Secretary  Carroll,,  it  was  voted  to  adjourn ; 
and  the  session  closed  with  the  benediction  j)ronounced  b}'' 
Chancellor  Burwash, 


FOURTEENTH  DAY. 

Tuesday,  October  17th. 


Topic:  UNION  AND  FEDEEATION. 

THE  Rev.  H.  T.  Chapman,  of  the  United  Methodist  Church, 
presided.  The  devotional  exercises  were  in  charge  of  tlie 
Eev.  W.  H.  Cory  Harris,  of  the  same  Church.  He  announced 
and  the  Conference  sang  Hymn  712 — 

"Eternal    Father,    Thou   hast   said 
That  Christ  all  glory  shall  obtain." 

Passages  from  the  Eij-st  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  were  read, 
viz.,  12:1-13,  27-31,  and  Mr.  Harris  offered  prayer. 

The  essay  of  the  morning  was  by  the  Rev.  W.  Redfern, 
of  the  United  Metliodist  Church;  subject,  "Union  and  Federa- 
tion— History  and  Forecast:" 

A  discussion  on  Methodist  Union  is,  in  this  Ecumenical  Confer- 
ence, more  than  appropriate:  it  is  inevitable;  for,  coming  together  as 
we  do  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  we  naturally  rise  above  sectional 
or  provincial  distinctions  and  take  an  international  view  of  the  great 
Methodist  family.  The  three  preceding  Conferences  have  undoubt- 
edly been  a  powerful  factor  in  the  awakening  of  the  union  sentiment. 
Alexander  Sutherland,  in  his  admirable  Fernley  lecture  on  "Metho- 
dism in  Canada,"  says:  "The  union  sentiment  which  had  slumbered 
since  1S74  was  further  quickened  by  the  Methodist  Ecumenical  Con- 
ference which  met  in  London  in  1881.  In  that  Conference  universal 
Methodism  was  represented,  and  the  undisturbed  harmony  of  the 
proceedings  proclaimed  the  essential  oneness  of  all  who  bore  the 
Methodist  name." 

A  still  more  decisive  impetus  was  given  to  the  movement  in 
Australasia  by  the  Washington  Conference  in  1891,  and  it  was  then 
that  Chief  Justice  Way  predicted  that  before  many  years  were  over 
a  union  like  the  Canadian  would  be  accomplished  in  his  own  land. 
That  prediction  was  fulfilled  eight  years  later,  and  in  February, 
1900,  the  first  united  Conference  in  Australasia  was  held.  With 
regard  to  the  third  Ecumenical  Conference  in  London  in  1901,  it  was 

724 


ESSAY  BY  THE  REV.  W.  REDFERN.  725 

a  definite  resolution  then  passed  which  provided  the  way  for  the 
opening  of  the  negotiations  which  resulted  in  the  union  of  three 
Methodist  bodies  in  England  in  1907,  the  amalgamated  body  bearing 
the  prophetic  name  of  the  United  Methodist  Church.  So,  then,  these 
decennial  Conferences  and  Methodist  Union  are  inseparably  associ- 
ated. It  may  be  added  that  in  no  city  in  the  world  has  this  ques- 
tion a  greater  historical  interest  than  in  Toronto,  for  it  was  at 
the  Conference  in  this  great  city  in  1883  that  the  vote  was  taken 
which  was  the  determining  fact  in  the  accomplishing  of  the  Cana- 
dian union — that  first  great  event  which  has  so  profoundly  influenced 
Methodism  throughout  the  world.  The  saying  was,  "As  goes  Toronto 
Conference,  so  goes  the  Connection;"  and  the  saying  was  probably 
true. 

Necessarily  there  were  wide  differences  between  the  movement 
in  Canada  and  Australasia  and  that  in  Great  Britain.  In  the  former 
there  are  no  deeply-rooted  prejudices  to  eradicate;  the  spirit  of  free- 
dom is  more  robust  both  in  civic  and  religious  life;  the  stream  of 
immigration  is  increasing  in  volume;  the  needs  of  the  inflowing  mil- 
lions are  more  urgent,  and  the  call  for  a  bold  and  daring  evangelism 
more  commanding.  In  the  mother  country,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the 
vitality  of  prejudice  is  rapidly  dying  out,  the  place  of  custom,  rou- 
tine, and  tradition  is  still  powerfully  entrenched ;  if  freedom  broadens 
down  from  precedent  to  precedent,  it  unfortunately  broadens  down 
rather  slowly;  and  if  its  religious  problems  are  pressing  and  serious, 
they  are,  after  all,  the  problems  of  an  old  community.  Her  mighty 
offspring  have  a  happier  fortune.  Canada  and  Australasia  are  the 
lands  of  the  future.  They  have  the  buoyancy  and  lustiness  of  youth. 
They  have  no  direful  heritage  of  ancient  wrongs.  They  are  not 
tethered  and  impeded  by  any  State  establishment  of  religion.  They 
hear  the  summons  of  an  unknown  yet  inspiring  destiny.  Happy  are 
they  that,  on  entering  upon  their  illimitable  future,  they  can,  in  each 
land,  boast  of  one  undivided  Methodist  Church! 

My  main  reference  must  be  to  the  union  in  England,  consum- 
mated since  the  last  Ecumenical  Conference  in  1901.  By  virtue  of 
a  resolution  then  passed,  and  stimulated  by  an  enthusiasm  then 
quickened,  several  of  the  Methodist  bodies  at  their  next  Conferences 
in  1902  opened  the  gate  for  preliminary  negotiations  with  a  view 
to  union.  A  provisional  committee,  consisting  of  representatives 
from  the  United  Methodist  Free  Churches,  the  Methodist  New  Con- 
nection, and  the  Bible  Christians,  was  convened  for  the  purpose  of 
considering  a  basis  of  agreement.  This  initial  step  having  been 
taken,  a  cordial  invitation  was  sent  to  all  the  other  Methodist  Con- 
ferences, including,  of  course,  the  great  Wesleyan  parent  body;  but 
for  reasons  perfectly  honorable  and  friendly  they  were  unable  to  ac- 
cept it. 

In  the  year  1903  the  basis  of  union,  having  been  sanctioned  by 


726  UNION  AND  FEDERATION. 

the  Conferences  of  the  three  denominations  most  directly  concerned, 
was  referred  to  their  cii'cuit  meetings,  with  the  result  that  93  per 
cent  of  the  persons  present  voted  in  favor  of  them.  At  the  Confer- 
ences of  1904  a  large  committee  consisting  of  about  fifty  members 
was  appointed  with  instructions  to  proceed  with  the  scheme.  In 
1905  the  Conferences  almost  unanimously  adopted  the  proposed  new 
constitution,  then  fully  prepared,  and  resolved  to  submit  it  to  the 
circuits  for  their  approval.  In  1906  it  was  reported  that  of  9,579 
persons  who  had  considered  the  constitution  in  the  circuit  meetings, 
only  285  had  voted  against  it,  with  about  the  same  number  remain- 
ing neutral.  Further  steps  were  then  taken  for  the  carrying  of  a 
bill  through  parliament.  In  September,  1907,  the  uniting  Conference 
was  held  in  "Wesley's  Chapel,  City  Road,  London,  and  the  United 
Methodist  Church  then  became  a  fact.  Condensed  into  the  fewest 
words  possible,  such  is  the  record  of  the  chief  outstanding  events  of 
the  union  negotiations  from  1902  to  1907.  The  proceedings  all 
through  those  five  years  were  of  the  most  extraordinary  interest. 
Hardly  any  resolution,  certainly  none  of  real  moment,  was  carried 
by  a  majority  against  a  minority,  so  perfect  was  the  unanimity. 
From  the  outset  there  v/as  but  little  doubt  as  to  the  issue.  Even 
the  previous  abortive  attempts  in  1890  and  1899  to  attain  union  were 
not  deterrents,  although  they  stood  out  as  a  warning  against  any 
renewal  of  negotiations  which  were  not  likely  to  be  sustained  by 
the  people.  So,  far  from  being  deterrents,  it  was  seen  that  they 
yielded  lessons  of  the  highest  value;  that  they  had  been  an  un- 
conscious preparation — had  been,  as  it  were,  success  in  the  making. 
Surely  the  course  of  true  love  never  ran  more  smoothly  than  in  that 
Union  Committee.  Difficulties  which  in  the  distance  seemed  not 
only  formidable,  but  insurmountable,  practically  vanished,  one  by 
one,  when  they  were  faced;  as  if  miracles  were  being  wrought  be- 
fore our  eyes.  It  was  surprising,  too,  how  marked  were  the  mutual 
affinities  in  the  three  sections,  how  they  resembled  and  corresponded 
to  each  other  not  only  in  their  broad  outline  of  connectional  admin- 
istration, but  in  the  details  of  Church  fellowship.  "God  is  in  this 
movement,"  said  some  one  on  the  committee;  and  he  uttered  the 
mind  of  his  brethren.  All  of  them  were  conscious  of  a  mysterious 
influence.  Some  desired  union  in  the  interests  of  economy  and  effi- 
ciency; others  because  of  the  opportunity  it  would  give  for  a  larger 
evangelistic  and  missionary  policy  at  home  and  abroad;  and  others 
because  of  their  vivid  feeling  of  the  indestructible  kinship  of  all 
Methodists  and  their  desire  to  hasten  the  day  of  the  complete  re- 
union. But  all  of  them  were  conscious  of  something  deeper  still. 
It  was  as  if  they  had  heard  afresh  the  prayer  of  the  Lord,  "That 
they  all  may  be  one."  The  feeling  of  glad  solemnity  deepened  year 
by  year.     The  Conferences  acted  as  under  a  heavenly  compulsion. 


ESSAY  BY  THE  REV.  W.  REDFERN.  727 

and  when  they  finally  decided  on  union  they  did  so  as  if  it  had 
been  already  decided  for  them  from  above. 

When  the  achievement  was  consummated  in  1907  it  was  at  once 
realized  what  an  effective  instrument  the  United  Methodist  Church 
might  become,  and  how  full  it  was  of  promise.  It  had  a  member- 
ship, including  probationers,  of  187,058;  that  was,  158,859  in  the 
home  circuits  and  28,199  on  the  foreign  stations.  It  had  over  324,000 
Sunday  scholars  and  43,000  teachers.  It  had  over  2,500  places  of 
worship  in  England,  covering  like  a  network  nearly  the  whole  of 
the  country.  It  had  a  large  missionary  field  in  the  north,  east,  and 
west  of  China,  in  East  Africa,  West  Africa,  Jamaica,  and  Bocas; 
in  all  of  which  there  were  55  missionaries  and  630  native  preachers, 
with  525  places  of  worship.  It  had  a  constitution  compact  and  cen- 
tralized, yet  elastic  and  liberal;  securing  the  supremacy  of  Con- 
ference, conferring  large  powers  on  the  district  meeting,  giving 
equal  shares  in  the  administration  to  the  ministry  and  the  laity, 
placing  the  supeiuntendent  in  the  chair  in  the  business  meetings,  yet 
conserving  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  people  unimpaired.  Its 
membership  at  the  present  moment,  including  probationers,  is 
189,200.  Only  two  unimportant  churches  have  withdrawn.  Un- 
doubtedly in  these  facts  and  figures  is  represented  a  force  which 
ought  to  tell  unmistakably  on  the  national  life  of  England.  A 
unique  distinction  remains  to  be  mentioned.  Under  the  provisions 
of  the  act  of  parliament  the  United  Methodist  Church  Conference 
has  full  power,  subject,  of  course,  to  a  carefully  prescribed  process — 
and  it  is  the  only  ecclesiastical  court  in  England,  and  probably  in 
Christendom,  which  has  such  power — to  change  and  alter  not  only 
its  methods  of  working,  but  also  the  very  basis  of  its  constitution, 
and  even  its  doctrinal  standards,  in  obedience  to  the  will  of  the 
people  without  having  recourse  to  parliament.  It  may  well  claim 
in  this  matter  to  be  the  freest  Church  in  the  world. 

Organic  union  is  one  thing;  but  actual  fusion  is  another.  Fusion 
can  be  neither  forced  nor  hurried.  How,  then,  is  it  going  on?  At 
least  three  obstacles  have  stood  in  the  way — the  unification  of  the 
funds,  the  sectional  sentiment,  and  the  amalgamation  of  circuits. 
As  to  the  funds,  they  required  to  be  adjusted,  of  course,  not  only 
with  business  accuracy  and  soundness,  but  also  with  a  fine  sense 
of  justice  all  round.  This  part  of  the  work  has  been  accomplished 
with  a  skill  which  has  won  the  unstinted  pi-aise  of  financial  experts; 
and  probably  the  unified  funds  are  in  a  more  satisfactory  state  than 
the  separate  funds  of  the  three  sections  ever  were.  The  sectional 
sentiment  was  more  difficult  to  deal  with.  Sentiment  is  the  product 
of  a  long  history,  finds  a  congenial  soil  in  small  denominations,  is 
sometimes  very  beautiful,  should  be  treated  with  delicacy  and  re- 
spect, is  cherished  by  some  of  the  most  excellent  and  loyal  people. 


728  UNION  AND  FEDERATION. 

and  is  seen  as  much  in  the  remote  village  as  in  its  populous  center. 
It  becomes  mischievous  when  it  ends  in  itself.  The  true  test  of  the 
decline  of  sectional  sentiment  is  the  tone  of  the  Conferences;  and 
judging  from  the  tone  of  the  last  Conference,  we  may  say  that  it 
has  ceased  to  operate  harmfully.  The  sense  of  the  larger  fellowship 
in  that  Conference  was  perfectly  delightful.  One  veteran  declared 
that  it  was  in  every  way  the  best  he  had  attended  for  fifty  years. 
The  amalgamation  of  the  circuits  has  only  just  begun.  It  can  not 
be  hastened  with  any  disregard  to  the  circuit  traditions  or  to  the 
preferences  of  the  people  affected.  Also,  it  will  mean  that  fewer 
ministers  may  be  required.  However,  in  spite  of  many  fears  a  cir- 
cuit has  been  found  for  every  minister;  and  in  that  respect  the 
worst  is  now  over.  A  new  denominational  consciousness  is  emerg- 
ing. The  loyalty  of  the  people  has  surpassed  all  anticipations.  They 
already  feel  that  they  are  in  the  presence  of  a  great  opportunity 
and  are  bent  on  making  the  most  of  it. 

As  to  a  forecast,  it  is  wiser  perhaps  for  us  to  be  reticent.  Among 
the  leaders  of  the  United  Methodist  Church  it  is  generally  agreed 
that  for  the  present  their  policy  must  be  that  of  consolidation;  not 
that  they  are  weary  of  union,  but  because  consolidation  will  best 
pave  the  way  towards  further  union.  "Whether  the  next  great  event 
will  be  a  union  between  the  United  Methodist  and  the  Primitive 
Methodist  Churches,  or  a  larger  union  embracing  all  the  Methodist 
Churches  alike,  can  not  safely  be  conjectured.  But  it  may  confi- 
dently be  predicted  that  if  the  former  take  place  it  will  be  with  a 
view  to  the  latter.  The  perfect  ideal  must  be  attained  sooner  or 
later.  The  history  of  the  disruptions  can  never  be  buried,  nor  ought 
it  to  be  buried,  but  its  lessons  are  being  learned  by  us  all  alike. 
Better  still,  they  are  being  learned  in  the  temper  of  a  noble  Chris- 
tian sorrow  and  a  generous  tolerance.  Freedom  is  gradually  coming 
to  its  own  in  all  the  Churches  of  Methodism,  not  least  in  the  beloved 
old  Mother-Church.  Ancient  animosities  are  forgotten.  The  bond 
of  kinship  binding  all  Methodists  together  is  growing  stronger  and 
stronger.  All  of  us  claim  a  share  in  the  splendid  Methodist  inher- 
itance. There  is  federation  already,  wherever  possible.  The  great 
Methodist  Assembly  held  in  Wesley's  Chapel  two  years  ago  was  one 
sign  of  it,  and  another  is  the  Sunday  School  Hymnal  prepared  by 
the  Wesleyan,  the  United  Methodist,  and  the  Wesleyan  Reform 
Union  Churches.  The  Concerted  Action  Committee  has  been  at  work 
for  nearly  twenty  years — another  outcome  of  the  Washington  Con- 
ference. All  these  are  signs  of  an  increasing  spirit  of  fellowship. 
Perhaps  the  most  eloquent  signs  are  those  which  are  not  organized, 
but  are  spontaneous  and  incidental;  and  these  are  many.  They 
speak  of  genuine  good  feeling.  They  indicate  the  trend  of  the  best 
Methodist  life  and  thought.  That  trend  can  ultimately  have  only 
one  issue  and  goal — the  organic  union  of  all  the  Methodist  Churches 
of  England. 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  ENOCH  SALT.  729 

The  Eev.  Enoch  Salt,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church,  presented  the  first  invited  address,  on  "Co-operation 
in  Missions,  Education,  etc.:" 

This  topic,  though  deferred  to  the  last  day  of  the  Conference, 
was  bound  to  have  a  place  on  its  program.  We  have  prayed  to- 
gether, and  discussed  questions  of  living  and  abiding  interest  with 
general  agreement.  It  remains  to  ask.  Are  we  going  to  work  to- 
gether? and  if  so,  in  what  forms  and  to  what  extent? 

The  remarks  of  the  present  speaker  are  of  necessity  addressed 
specially  to  the  Eastern  Section  of  the  Conference,  but  they  can 
hardly  fail  to  have  some  application  to  the  Western.  Happily  Can- 
ada has  one  Methodism  only;  but  the  States,  like  the  old  country, 
have  many,  and  the  problem  of  co-operation  is  theirs  as  well  as  ours. 

In  a  real  sense  it  is  the  problem  of  the  Churches  at  large.  The 
evangelical  Churches  of  every  name  have  more  similarities  than 
differences,  and  they  are  bound  by  the  spirit  of  their  fruit  and  by 
the  dictates  of  practical  wisdom  to  recognize  their  points  of  contact 
and  to  work  together  as  far  as  they  honestly  and  honorably  can. 

But  they  don't.  They  compete  when  they  ought  to  co-operate; 
they  ignore  when  they  ought  to  recognize.  Take,  in  illustration,  the 
coronation  of  George  V  in  Westminster  Abbey.  The  religious  serv- 
ice from  beginning  to  end  was  conducted  by  the  members  of  one 
Church,  while  the  religious  representatives  of  half  the  nation  and 
more  than  half  the  empire  were  silent  spectators.  Yet  the  Free 
Churches  of  England  are  as  loyal  to  the  throne  and  as  patriotic  in 
their  citizenship  as  the  Church  by  law  established.  Will  there  ever 
be  another  coronation  in  England  in  which  sectarian  exclusiveness 
will  be  emphasized  and  Christian  co-operation  will  be  conspiciious 
by  its  absence? 

But,  to  return  to  our  immediate  topic,  there  ought  to  be  more 
Methodist  co-operation  than  there  is.  We  ought  to  co-operate  for 
mutual  defense  more  than  we  do.  We  must  present  to  organized 
monopoly  and  exclusive  privilege  united  and  invincible  opposition. 
We  must  insist  on  a  fair  field  for  all,  and  no  favoritism  for  any. 
Our  stronger  denominations  must  make  common  cause  with  the 
weaker,  and  city  and  suburban  churches  must  succor  and  support 
village  Methodism. 

We  must  co-operate  for  the  economizing  of  our  resources.  To 
plant  two  or  three  Methodist  churches  where  only  one  is  needed 
and  where  only  one  can  decently  live  is  senseless  waste  and  a  public 
scandal.  It  is  often  difficult  to  retire  from  positions  that  have  been 
long  occupied,  however  unwise  it  may  be  to  continue  in  them,  and 
however  wise  the  policy  of  amalgamation  might  be;  but  it  ought 
not  to  be  difficult  to  avoid  entering  upon  such  positions. 

We  must  respect  each  other's  spheres  of  influence  and,  as  John 


730  UNION  AND  FEDERATION. 

Wesley  advised,  go  to  those  that  need  us  most.  Co-operation  should 
be  applied  in  the  sphere  of  evangelism.  That  does  not  mean  the 
establishment  of  undenominational  missions.  Such  missions  are 
demonstrated  failures.  But  open-air  services  and  evangelistic  mis- 
sions are  frequently  more  successful  in  attracting  public  attention 
and  in  promoting  religious  revivals  when  unitedly  conducted  than 
when  carried  out  by  the  churches  separately.  Moreover,  such 
united  efforts  proclaim  our  unity  and  create  the  impression  that  we 
are  more  anxious  to  save  men  than  to  aggrandize  ourselves. 

Co-operation  might  be  applied  with  great  advantage  in  the  higher 
education  of  the  ministry.  We  have  our  denominational  colleges, 
and  they  have  done  and  are  doing  good  work.  Most  of  them  are 
located  sufficiently  near  to  teaching  universities  to  render  it  possible 
for  the  students  to  attend  some  of  the  lectures.  But  English  Meth- 
odism has  no  post-graduate  college,  nor  has  any  one  of  our  de- 
nominations a  sufficient  number  of  graduate  candidates  for  its  min- 
istry to  fill  such  a  college,  if  it  existed.  Would  it  not  be  a  fitting 
and  worthy  outcome  of  this  Ecumenical  Conference  to  establish  a 
post-graduate  college,  say  at  Cambridge,  for  the  equipment  of  schol- 
ars for  the  service  of  all  our  Churches?  It  would  then  be  possible 
for  young  men  with  special  gifts  and  adequate  education  to  spe- 
cialize in  such  subjects  as  Oriental  Languages,  Comparative  Re- 
ligion, Biblical  Literature  and  Exegesis,  Church  History,  and  Phi- 
losophy. 

Tliere  are  other  aspects  of  Methodist  co-operation,  which  time 
does  not  permit  me  to  discuss.  One  only  will  I  mention — the  cre- 
ation of  an  organ  for  the  expression  of  the  Methodist  conscience  on 
questions  of  national  and  international  dimensions,  and  social  and 
ethical,  rather  than  political  and  partisan,  in  their  character.  That 
such  an  organ  of  expression  is  necessary  few  will  deny;  that  it  is 
within  the  power  of  Ecumenical  Methodism  to  create  it,  few,  if  any, 
will  doubt. 

Mutual  defense,  economical  expenditure  of  resources,  effective 
evangelism,  the  efficient  training  of  the  ministry,  the  concentrated 
expression  of  Methodist  opinion — are  some  of  the  objects  that  might 
be  attained  by  co-operation.  Such  a  program  would  be  a  worthy 
outcome  of  this  great  gathering.  Whether  it  will  be  achieved,  time 
will  show.  Anyhow,  it  is  comforting  to  believe  that  the  divisive 
forces,  which  wrought  such  terrible  havoc  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
have  spent  their  strength  and  that  the  twentieth  century  will  be  a 
century  of  reconciliation  and  reconstruction.  Already  the  best 
minds  in  all  our  Churches  are  discovering  points  of  contact  and 
embracing  opportunities  of  fellowship.  Let  us  hope  that  the  night  of 
distrust  and  disruption  is  already  past;  and  let  us  pray  that  from 
this  Conference  will  fiow  that  unity  of  spirit  out  of  which  union  of 
organization  and  of  effort  will  naturally  and  inevitably  arise. 


ADDRESS  BY  THE  REV.  HOMER  C.  STUNTZ.  731 

The  second  invited  address  was  by  the  Eev.  Homer  C. 
Stuntz,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  His  theme 
was,  "Economy  in  the  Use  of  Forces  and  Means :" 

This  is  a  theme  of  profound  significance.  The  people  called 
Methodists  have  a  mighty  army  in  the  sum  total  of  their  forces,  and 
tens  of  millions  of  money  in  the  means  spent  annually  in  the 
prosecution  of  their  far-extended  campaigns.  But  who  will  dare 
to  say  that  economy  is  shown  in  the  disposition  of  these  forces, 
or  in  the  expenditure  of  these  means?  So  important  is  a  wise  and 
practical  discussion  of  this  topic  that  the  Fourth  Ecumenical  Con- 
ference might  have  well  given  one-half  of  its  entire  session  to  a 
candid  and  fearless  discussion  of  plans  by  which  the  overlapping 
of  fields  of  labor,  the  duplication  of  workers  and  institutions  at 
home  and  abroad,  with  the  truly  appalling  waste  of  the  Lord's 
money,  could  be  stopped. 

The  discussion  of  this  theme  is  overdue.  It  is  late  in  Methodist 
history  for  her  leaders  in  all  lands  to  begin  the  consideration  of 
such  an  allotment  of  the  total  Methodist  forces,  and  such  an  expen- 
diture of  her  means  as  will  most  efficiently  contribute  to  the  con- 
quest of  the  world  for  righteousness.  Now  that  this  world-confer- 
ence has  ventured  to  open  up  the  vexed  question,  we  should  gaze 
at  it  steadily,  and  insist  upon  its  solution  in  the  spirit  of  Christ, 
though  that  solution  should  cause  whole  denominations  to  disappear 
by  absorption  and  union.  We  must  have  greater  economy  in  the 
employment  of  workers  and  the  spending  of  the  King's  treasure. 

See  the  lack  of  economy  in  our  home  fields.  It  is  heartbreaking. 
Twelve  branches  of  Methodists  are  at  work  in  North  America!  That 
is  three  times  the  number  demanded  by  national,  racial,  or  strategic 
reasons.  Many  of  these  Churches  occupy  the  same  areas.  They 
crowd  their  churches  and  pastors  into  the  same  cities  and  villages. 
They  tax  a  poor  constituency  to  erect  two  or  more  houses  of  wor- 
ship and  to  support  several  ministers  where  one  good  church  and 
one  minister  adequately  supported  would  count  far  more  in  the 
moral  and  spiritual  life  of  the  community  than  several  debt- 
burdened  little  chapels  with  a  discouraged  membership,  and  preach- 
ers starved  in  soul  and  body.  It  is  to  no  purpose  that  we  discuss 
the  question  of  the  falling  off  of  the  supply  of  candidates  for  the 
ministry  until  we  have  ceased  putting  two  and  three  ministers 
where  the  dictates  of  sound  reason  only  call  for  one.  If  local  re- 
sources proved  adequate  to  continue  this  policy  of  denominational 
wastefulness,  the  case  would  not  be  so  desperate.  But  this  is  not 
true.  Several  of  these  Methodist  bodies  spend  large  sums  of  home 
missionary  money  annually  to  keep  these  gasping  institutions  from 
dying  out. 

The  Pacific  Christian  Advocate,  in  a  recent  number,  speaks  of 


732  UNION  AND  FEDERATION. 

several  towns  in.  the  Northwest  in  which  two  Methodist  bodies,  rep- 
resented in  this  Conference,  "have  struggling  little  congregations, 
both  using  missionary  money,  where  there  are  not  needed  two  de- 
nominations of  any  sort,  much  less  two  Methodisms."  This  is  not 
a  right  use  of  home  missionary  money.  A  board  soliciting  funds 
for  one  of  the  two  Churches  thus  aided  should  call  itself  "The 
Board  of  Denominational  Perpetuation."  Our  colored  brethren  have 
at  least  five  Methodist  bodies,  and  at  the  outside  two  "are  enough; 
for  each  of  these  separate  denominations  must  have  its  own  heavy 
bills  for  maintenance.  Their  bishops,  secretaries,  editors,  and  pub- 
lishing agents,  together  with  printed  matter,  travel,  and  a  score 
of  other  items  of  expense  must  be  met.  Such  administration  of 
the  Lord's  work  is  not  economical.     It  is  wasteful.     It  is  sinful. 

But  we  must  look  steadily  at  the  whole  task  set  us  by  our  Lord. 
We  must  see  the  whole  task  before  this  question  of  the  comparative 
distribution  of  laborers  and  the  relative  demand  for  expenditure 
can  be  rightly  answered.  Our  whole  task  is  to  preach  the  whole 
gospel  to  the  whole  world.  Christ  said,  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world." 
John  Wesley  rightly  refused  to  see  only  the  British  Isles,  and  stoutly 
claimed  the  world  for  his  parish.  The  maintenance  of  the  local 
church  loses  its  true  significance  unless  it  is  regarded  as  a  means 
to  an  end,  and  not  an  end  in  itself.  Christ  is  at  war.  He  has  as- 
sailed the  whole  line  of  the  enemy  of  all  righteousness.  He  needs 
soldiers.  He  needs  supplies.  The  local  church  is  at  once  the  re- 
cruiting station  and  the  drill-ground  for  troops  to  be  sent  to  this 
world-warfare,  and  the  fountain-head  for  the  stream  of  supplies 
needed  to  carry  on  world-campaigns. 

Looking  steadily  at  the  whole  task  set  us  in  the  Christless  na- 
tions, as  well  as  in  our  orderly  Christian  communities,  our  first  evi- 
dence of  the  lack  of  economy  in  the  use  of  forces  and  means  is  seen 
in  the  startling  lack  of  proportion  in  the  use  of  men  and  money  as 
between  the  various  home  fields  and  those  foreign  mission  areas  in 
which  our  Churches  have  undertaken  to  carry  forward  their  work. 
Claiming  fifteen  millions  in  the  United  States  as  her  utmost  con- 
stituency, the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  maintains  over  seventeen 
thousand  pastors  and  spends  $35,000,000  in  the  support  of  all  forms 
of  home  work.  On  the  foreign  field,  besides  her  truly  vast  under- 
takings in  Mexico,  South  America,  the  Philippine  Islands,  Russia, 
France,  Italy,  and  other  nominal  Christian  lands,  the  same  Church 
is  directly  responsible  for  carrying  the  gospel  to  150,000,000.  For 
all  this  stupendous  program  she  sends  less  than  one  thousand  work- 
ers from  this  country  and  spends  only  $2,000,000. 

This  fairly  illustrates  the  relative  expenditures  of  all  our 
Churches  in  the  maintenance  of  their  work  in  home  and  foreign 
fields.  For  15,000,000  people,  17,000  pastors,  besides  Church  schools, 
colleges,   hospitals,    newspapers    and    presses,    and    an    expense    of 


GENERAL  REMAREB.  733 

$35,000,000;  for  all  Christless  and  belated  Christian  lands  1,000 
workers  and  $2,000,000  expense!  Seventeen  times  the  expense  and 
seventeen  times  the  number  of  workers  to  save  and  elevate  one-tenth 
the  number  of  souls,  and  all  these  at  our  doors!  If  the  Methodist 
Churches  really  mean  to  address  themselves  to  the  whole  wont  of 
world-evangelization,  it  is  late  for  readjustments  to  be  begun. 

The  next  form  in  whi(ih  this  lack  of  economy  manifests  itself  in 
foreign  missionary  enterprises  is  in  the  multiplication  of  foreign 
missionary  organizations.  Fourteen  Methodist  societies  are  engaged 
in  foreign  missionary  work.  Each  of  these  societies  must  have  its 
complement  of  officers  in  order  to  secure  efficiency.  Offices  must 
be  maintained,  and  all  the  fixed  charges  for  administration  must  be 
separately  provided.  But  this  is  only  the  beginning  of  cost.  Sep- 
arate buildings  and  equipment  on  the  foreign  field  are  required. 
Hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  must  go  into  duplicating  schools, 
hospitals,  churches,  and  other  institutions.  These,  again,  must  have 
teachers  and  equipment,  and  so  the  duplication  of  workers  and  waste 
of  money  goes  steadily  on.  We  should  cry  aloud  for  such  union  or 
federation  as  would  check  this  wastefulness  of  effort.  A  good  be- 
ginning has  been  made  in  China,  in  parts  of  Africa,  and  in  the  Phil- 
ippine Islands.  But  denominational  pride  and  unfamiliarity  with 
the  whole  problem  combine  to  delay  a  business-like  administration 
of  the  foreign  work  of  these  fourteen  separate  boards. 

EveiT  one  of  the  ten  years  that  must  elapse  before  the  fifth  Ecu- 
menical Conference  will  be  held  should  bear  witness  to  the  honest 
and  unselfish  efforts  of  the  several  bodies  represented  in  this  woi'ld- 
embracing  Conference  to  bring  about  greater  economj^  in  the  use  of 
forces  and  means.  A  statesman-like  allotment  of  the  forces  and  a 
sagacious  expenditure  of  the  means — even  those  now  available — 
would  be  equivalent  to  adding  fifty  per  cent  to  the  money  spent  and 
the  workers  supported.  Can  we  suppose  that  the  Captain  of  our 
salvation  will  be  pleased  unless  the  decade  records  solid  achieve- 
ment toward  this  end? 

Two  verses  of  Hymn  561  were  sung — 

"Let  Him  to  whom  we  now  belong 
His   sovereign   right  assert" 

The  discussion  on  the  morning's  topic  now  proceeded,  as 
follows : 

The  Rev.  E.  D.  CoRNrsir^  of  the  United  Methodist  Clmrcli  : 

As  the  member  to  whom  was  committed  the  preliminary  work  in 
connection  with  the  bill  for  union,  perhaps  a  few  words  from  me 
may  not  be  out  of  place  here.  First  of  all,  I  want  to  acknowledge 
the  help  that  I  received  at  a  great  crisis  in  the  history  of  that 
union,   from   the   leaders   of   the   Wesleyan    Methodist   Church.      I 


734  UNION  AND  FEDERATION. 

would  mention  a  few  names — the  name  of  its  honored  president, 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Clayton,  the  Rev.  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  Secretary  of  the 
Committee  of  Privileges,  and  Dr.  Pope,  of  whom  I  might  say  that 
he  is  the  lord  chancellor  of  Methodism,  and  the  Rev.  C.  H.  Kelly, 
and  other  leading  names.  At  that  great  crisis  in  the  history  of  the 
movement,  they  came  to  our  help,  not  only  most  readily  but  most 
helpfully. 

The  first  point  I  want  to  emphasize  is  this,  that  the  bill  was 
only  an  enabling  bill.  Notwithstanding  that  that  bill  had  been 
passed  by  the  House  of  Commons,  the  union  need  not  have  been 
effected.  The  bill  did  not  unite  the  Churches.  The  union  of  the 
denominations  was  solely  the  act  of  the  denominations  themselves. 
That  was  a  most  important  principle,  that  we  claim  to  have  en- 
shrined within  the  four  corners  of  that  act.  You  may  ask  why 
the  necessity  of  such  a  bill.  We  all  know  that  each  denomination 
has  what  is  called  a  Deed  Poll,  or  a  foundation  deed,  which  sets 
forth  its  doctrines  and  its  constitution.  Based  upon  that  Deed  Poll 
are  certain  model  deeds  upon  which  its  properties  are  settled.  In- 
asmuch as  that  Deed  Poll  was  a  fixed  instrument,  unless  we  had 
received  power,  these  properties  which  were  held  in  trust  could  not 
have  been  transferred  to  the  new  denomination.  The  bill  simply 
enabled  the  separate  denominations,  upon  their  effecting  union,  to 
transfer  their  properties  to  the  newly-constituted  United  Methodist 
Church.  Now  there  were  certain  principles  that  it  was  very  impor- 
tant to  have  clearly  declared  in  that  bill.  It  was  the  first  bill  of 
such  a  nature  that  had  been  passed  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
There  had  been  a  bill  passed  some  little  time  before,  constituting 
the  union  between  what  was  called  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church 
of  Ireland  and  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  there.  But  that 
bill  constituted  the  new  Church,  and  set  forth  in  a  schedule  of  the 
act  the  whole  of  its  Deed  Poll,  so  that  it  could  not  alter  any  detail 
of  its  Deed  Poll  without  applying  to  Parliament.  But  inasmuch  as 
our  Deed  Poll  secured  the  complete  autonomy  of  the  Church,  it 
was  a  most  important  bill.  And,  as  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Commons  declared,  it  was  a  bill  likely  to  be  a  precedent  for  future 
legislation.  Inasmuch  as  it  was  such  a  legislative  precedent,  it 
was  necessary  clearly  to  declare  in  that  bill  certain  important 
principles  that  might  safeguard  the  interests,  not  only  of  our  own 
denomination,  but  of  all  other  denominations  who  might  proceed 
in  that  direction  in  the  future. 

The  first  principle  was  the  securing  of  complete  autonomy  of 
the  Church.  The  great  struggle  was,  certain  persons  desired  that 
we  should  include  in  the  act  of  Parliament,  set  forth  in  detail,  our 
Deed  Poll.  We  firmly  refused  to  do  that.  We  claimed  that  the 
Church  had  the  right  to  have  complete  autonomy;  that  it  should 
be  able  to  determine  in  the  future,  separate  from  all  acts  of  Par- 
liament— .      [Time  expired.] 

The  Eev.  J.  Scott  Lidgett^  D.  D.,  of  the  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church : 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  shall  not  venture  in  this  last  hour,  and  with 
only  five  minutes  at  my  disposal,  to  discuss  the  problem  of  Meth- 
odist union  as  a  problem,  so  far  as  it  affects  the  Old  Country. 
But  I  rise  to  express  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart  my  deep  and  pro- 
found gratitude  to  and  my  heartiest  and  fullest  agreement  with  every 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  735 

word  that  has  fallen  from  the  lips  of  my  friends,  Redfern,  Salt,  and 
other  speakers  of  this  morning.  Albert  Clayton  and  C.  H.  Kelly 
have  gone  to  their  rest;  but  for  the  others,  I  would  like  to  add 
my  acknowledgement  of  the  very  kind  words  which  Mr.  Cornish, 
has  just  spoken.  But  I  rise,  above  all,  in  the  name  of  a  good 
many  Wesleyan  Methodists  in  this  Conference,  and,  I  think  and 
I  am  sure,  in  the  name  of  multitudes  of  Wesleyan  Methodists  in  the 
home  land,  to  make  a  confession  of  faith  and  to  offer  a  pledge  of 
service.  The  age  in  which  we  live  is  the  age  of  Christian  reunion. 
Our  adequacy  for  the  vast  and  growing  tasks  before  us  will  depend 
entirely  upon  our  making  the  forces  of  agreement  prevail  against 
those  of  isolation  and  separation.  If  that  be  the  case  with  the  prob- 
lem of  Christianity  as  a  whole,  it  behooves  Methodism,  in  all  its 
branches  throughout  the  world,  to  take  the  lead  in  that  great 
movement.  For  Methodism  was  a  union  of  uniting  love;  and  its 
most  fatal  disservice  to  its  own  mission  and  efficacy  in  the  world  has 
been  that  after  giving  that  magnificent  witness,  it  allowed  itself  to" 
be  torn  asunder  by  dissension.  We  owe  it  to  our  mission  in  the 
world  to  bring  those  dissensions  to  an  end.  And  I  desire  to  ac- 
knowledge, on  behalf  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church,  the  far- 
sighted  statesmanship  of  our  friends  who  have  formed  the  union 
of  the  United  Methodist  Churches,  in  this,  that  in  all  the  steps 
they  took,  among  themselves  and  with  us  who  were  outside,  they 
had  regard  to  those  larger  prospects  of  union,  and  sought  to  bring 
us  together.  [Great  applause.]  That  very  act  imposes  a  great 
obligation  upon  us.  While  this  is  not  the  day  to  form  a  hasty 
agreement,  while  these  great  movements  of  revmion  must  be  for- 
warded by  spiritual  forces,  it  is  ours  to  say  that  while  life  and 
strength  and  force  are  given  to  us,  we  will  put  this  great  cause 
of  complete  Methodist  union  in  the  forefront  of  the  policy  to  which 
our  faith  and  efforts  are  consecrated. 

Bishop  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South: 

I  rise  for  the  purpose  of  saying  that  I  agree  with  absolute  thor- 
oughness with  everything  that  has  been  said  on  this  subject. 
Twenty  years  ago,  or  it  may  have  been  ten  years  ago,  I  am  not 
quite  sure  which,  I  laid  down  the  dictum  that  when  two  little 
Methodist  churches  are  built  on  the  opposite  corners  of  the  same 
street  in  the  same  town,  agreeing  in  nothing  except  in  starving 
their  pastors  and  fighting  one  another,  the  devil  does  not  feel  any 
need  to  be  personally  present — his  work  is  done  for  him.  I  thank 
Mr.  Salt  for  a  special  expression  in  his  most  admirable  paper.  He 
said  that  the  different  branches  of  the  Methodist  Church  must 
learn  to  respect  one  another's  sphere  of  influence.  And  I  stand  here 
to-day,  brethren,  to  say  that  until  all  the  Churches  are  ready 
to  do  that,  the  day  of  complete  organic  union  is  delayed.  And 
the  first  step  to  the  union  of  all  Methodisms  will  have  been  taken 
when  the  different  Churches  learn  to  respect  one  another's  rights. 
I  desire  to  say  further  that  no  one  Church  ought  to  ask  for  more 
than  it  is  willing  to  give.  I  desire  to  add  that  no  Church  ought 
to  be  maneuvering  for  position.  Dr.  Stuntz  gave  us  an  illustra- 
tion. He  spoke  of  many  little  towns  in  the  Northwest  in  which 
there  are  two  little  Methodist  churches  supported  by  missionary 
contributions  from  the  two   Boards.     For  every  such  case   in  the 


736  UNION  AND  FEDERATION. 

Northwest  I  will  find  you  one  hundred  cases  along  the  Northern 
border  of  our  Church.  Somebody  is  responsible  for  it.  If  my 
Church  is  responsible  for  it,  I  am  willing  to  repent  and  promise 
.to  do  so  no  more.  But  I  do  not  want  a  monopoly  of  repentance. 
That  is  a  grace  which  everybody  ought  to  have  an  opportunity  to 
exercise.  In  the  city  of  Nashville,  the  most  pronouncedly  Metho- 
dist city  in  all  the  world,  even  more  so  than  this  city  of  Toronto, 
a  sister  Church,  after  spending  fifty  thousand  dollars  in  the  vain 
effort  to  build  up  an  organization,  has  silently  folded  its  tent  and 
silently  gone  away.  Now  I  have  not  a  shadow  of  doubt  that 
my  Church  has  played  the  fool  in  some  instances.  We  are  not 
absolutely  perfect,  even  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 
But  we  have  a  fraternal  spirit  towards  all  the  world,  and  we  do 
desire  to  get  closer  to  all  our  Methodist  brethren.  And  I  pray  God 
from  the  bottom  of  my  heart  for  the  coming  of  that  great  day 
when  all  the  power  of  universal  Methodism  may  be  able  to  be 
delivered  upon  a  common  point  at  a  common  time  for  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  for  the  salvation  of  the  world. 
It  is  because  I  desire  that  consummation  so  devoutly  that  I  plead 
for  large-mindedness,  for  brotherliness,  for  the  avoidance  of  all 
political  tricks  and  manipulation  to  advance  the  interests  of  one 
denomination  at  the  expense  of  anothei",  for  the  large-mindedness 
that  was  in  Jesus  Christ. 

The  Eev.  G.  G.  Findlay,  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church : 

I  desire,  though  it  hardly  seems  necessary,  to  indorse  with  all 
my  heart  the  plea  for  Methodist  union.  I  would  prefer  to  call  it 
Methodist  reunion.  I  am  old  enough  to  remember,  and  it  is  among 
the  darkening  recollections  of  my  childhood,  the  scandals  and  the 
miseries  of  the  times  of  disruption.  They  have  left  a  very  deep 
impression  upon  my  own  heart,  an  impression  of  distress  and 
almost  of  disgust.  I  believe  that  if  Methodism  has  lost  in  England, 
as  we  have  been  confessing,  and  I  suppose  that  it  has  lost  to  a 
very  sad  extent  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  common  people 
of  England,  that  loss  began  there.  And  I  believe  also  that  there 
will  come  back  to  us  a  great  restoration  and  revulsion  of  popular 
influence  and  affection  when  our  quarrels  are  over.  Surely  it  is 
time  to  forget  our  grandfathers'  quarrels  and  seek  the  things  that 
make  for  peace,  and  the  things  by  which  we  may  build  up  each 
other.  Meanwhile,  it  seems  to  me  (I  have  no  right  to  speak  for 
my  Church  or  my  colleagues,  but  it  seems  to  me)  that  the  question 
of  college  federation  is  one  that  ought  to  be  looked  at  and  dealt 
with  in  the  immediate  future.  I  would  not  urge  that  simply  or 
mainly  for  the  ulterior  object  of  general  Church  union,  but  for 
its  own  sake,  and  in  the  actual  situation.  And  if  no  question  of 
union  beyond  that  were  in  view,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  federation 
of  our  theological  colleges  is  a  thing  that  ought  to  be  done,  and 
might  be  done.  The  Churches'  authorities  should  look  out  for  it 
as  soon  as  may  be.  I  agree  with  what  Dr.  Taskek  said  the  other 
day  as  to  the  undesirability  of  enlarging  residential  colleges,  such 
as  we  are  boimd  to  maintain,  beyond  their  present  size,  as  contain- 
ing sixty  or  seventy  students  under  one  roof.  This  difficulty  I  would 
meet  by  adopting  something  like  the  house  system  of  English  public 
schools,  which  would  provide  for  denominational  college  residences, 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  737 

existing  side  by  side,  each,  with  its  own  internal  and  pastoral  direc- 
tion. We  are  duplicating  and  triplicating  our  college  institutions 
to  do  the  same  work.  My  suggestion  is,  that  under  separate  roofs 
and  with  provision  in  that  way  for  what  is  necessary  with  regard 
to  the  distinctive  teaching  and  regimen  of  our  respective  Churches, 
so  long  as  they  continue  separate,  our  teaching,  the  work  of  the 
lecture  rooms,  in  the  main,  might  be  thus  unified,  and  we  should 
secure  thus  a  great  economy  and  salvation  of  our  teaching  force. 
I  regret  that  the  omnibus  principle  is  not  extinct  with  us  on  the 
other  side  of  the  water.  For  twenty  years  I  had  to  teach  every- 
thing, except  theology,  in  the  Bible  and  outside  the  Bible,  to  men 
who  needed  everything.  More  than  half  of  our  English  members 
are  from  the  Wesleyan  Church. 

The    Eev.    Andrew    Crombie^    of   tlie    United    Methodist 
Church : 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  must  thank  Mr.  Redfern  for  his  excellent  paper, 
which  has  been  so  well  received.  Regarding  the  complaint  that 
this  subject  has  come  up  for  discussion  too  late  in  the  Conference, 
I  might  remark  that  it  has  been  introduced  incidentally  from  the 
beginning  even  until  the  present  hour.  Your  attention  has  been 
called  to  the  nature  of  the  act  of  Parliament  that  was  passed,  re- 
sulting in  the  formation  of  the  United  Methodist  Church.  By  that 
act  we  avoided  a  pitfall  into  which  the  Presbyterians  of  Scotland 
fell,  and  I  have  been  deluged  with  applications  for  the  volume  con- 
taining the  act  from  leading  ministers  of  the  Established  and  the 
United  Free  Church  of  Scotland.  They  evidently  wish  to  clearly  un- 
derstand the  nature  of  that  act. 

It  was  my  duty  to  unite  the  three  publishing  houses  of  the  new 
denomination,  and  they  have  been  so  united  as  to  place  them  on 
a  sound  financial  basis.  In  connection  with  our  Church  we  possess 
what  no  other  Methodist  Church  in  England  possesses,  a  printing 
establishment.  By  careful  management  we  have  established  a  very 
successful  business.  Of  course,  it  is  on  a  smaller  scale  than  the 
one  our  friends  have  here,  in  Toronto. 

The  President  :  "We  have  departed  from  the  order  which 
has  obtained  during  the  Conference,  and  have  taken  the  business 
of  the  morning  and  the  debate  together.  There  are  some  items 
of  business  which  must  have  attention.  And  then  I  do  lio])e 
that  if  possible  not  one  member  will  be  absent  from  tlie  last 
half-hour,  which  the  Committee  has  decided  shall  be  devoted  to 
prayer  and  song.  May  I  be  allowed  to  remind  the  brethren, 
some  will  surely  not  forget  it,  but  you  can  not  read  the  morn- 
ing papers  without  feeling  deeply  moved  with  respect  to  China. 
Do  not  forget  China  in  your  prayers.  There  are  men  and 
women  to-day  sailing  with  their  faces  to  that  vast  empire.  Let 
lis  remember  that  groat  field,  and  ask  God  to  interpose  and  to 
bring  that  which  threatens  to  a  very  speedy  end.  "We  can  only 
have  two  more  speeches,  one  by  Bisliop  Phillips." 
47 


738  UNION  AND  FEDERATION. 

Bishop  C.  H.  Phillips,  D.  D.,  of  the  Colored  Methodist 

Episcopal  Church: 

Mr.  President,  and  members  of  the  Conference:  I  have  thought 
that  it  might  be  interesting  to  you,  and  especially  to  the  brethren 
who  come  from  abroad,  to  know  that  there  are  three  great,  strong 
negro  Methodist  Churches  in  this  country,  the  African  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church, 
and  the  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  To  the  latter  I  belong. 
These  Churches  are  now  making  some  effort  toward  a  closer  union. 
We  are  not  ready  yet  for  organic  union;  for  organic  union  at 
this  time  might  mean  more  absorption  that  it  would  mean  union. 
Some  of  us  have  seen  the  letter  Epsilon  entirely  absorbed  by  another 
letter  of  the  alphabet,  and  all  that  there  was  to  show  that  it  had 
ever  existed  was  a  mark  over  the  letter  that  absorbed  it.  Without 
looking  forward  to  organic  union,  we  have  taken  the  preliminary 
steps.  The  bishops  at  the  head  of  these  Churches  do  enjoy,  I  am 
pleased  to  say,  federation  and  co-operation.  In  1908  we  met  as 
a  body  in  the  city  of  Washington.  It  was  the  first  time  that  the 
negro  bishops  of  these  Churches  had  ever  assembled  together  in  an 
organized  capacity.  We  found  ground  upon  which  we  could  stand 
for  the  best  interests  of  our  Churches,  of  our  ministry,  in  the 
territory  over  which  we  preside.  We  had  some  understanding  as 
to  exchange  of  ministers  in  our  pulpits.  We  had  some  understand- 
ing as  to  plans  of  segregating  the  Churches  from  each  other.  These 
are  the  preliminary  steps  which  are  being  taken,  looking  forward 
to  the  time  when  these  Churches  shall  all  be  one. 

One  chief  cause  of  divorce  is  premature  marriage.  And  one 
of  the  chief  causes  of  confusion  might  be  a  premature  action  in 
the  matter  of  organic  union.  So  we  are  passing  now  through  the 
courting  stage.  And  after  we  have  courted  for  a  number  of  years, 
and  have  studied  each  other  as  bishops  of  these  three  great 
Churches,  the  time  will  come  when  we,  as  three  great  Methodist 
bodies,  with  a  membership  of  more  than  one  million,  and  adherents 
more  than  two  millions,  may  be  one  organized  body  for  the  pur- 
pose of  carrying  forward  the  work  of  our  Christ  in  our  territory. 

The  Eev.  W.  B.  Lark,  of  the  United  Methodist  Church: 
"I  think  I  saw  the  President  of  the  Wesle3^an  Conference  indi- 
cate a  desire  to  speak.  If  tliat  be  so,  I  hope  you  will  allow 
him  to  speak." 

The  President  :  "I  am  doing  as  much  as  an  honest  man 
can  do.  Mr.  Mitchell  will  speak.  Then  certainly  we  can  not 
close  a  great  historic  Conference  like  this,  as  the  President  of 
the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  of  England  has  indicated  his 
desire  to  speak,  and  not  give  him  the  opportunity.  After  Mr. 
Mitchell  speaks,  Dr.  Haigh's  speech  will  have  to  close  the 
discussion." 

The  Eev.  Thomas  Mitchell,  of  the  Primitive  Methodist 

Church  was  recognized  by  the  Chair : 

I  think  I  express  the  opinion  of  all  the  representatives  of  my 
own  Church  present  this  morning,  when  I  say  that  we  have  heard 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  739 

with  very  great  interest  and  sympatliy  and  delight  the  speeches 
that  have  been  addressed  to  us  on  this  very  important  subject.  I 
seem  to  have  a  somewhat  historic  interest  in  this  connection. 
Twenty  years  ago  I  had  to  give  an  address  at  the  Ecumenical 
Conference  in  Washington,  on  Christian  Unity.  My  friends  say 
I  am  of  a  practical  turn  of  mind.  I  can  not  help  seeing  what  is 
the  bearing  of  this  topic  on  us  as  Methodists  here  to-day.  That 
led  to  discussion  and  to  some  small  question.  Ten  years  later  in 
London  I  seemed  to  be  forced  to  speak  upon  this  topic,  because 
there  had  been  an  attempt  that  did  not  succeed,  for  a  union  between 
the  Bible  Christians  and  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church.  That 
had  failed.  I  think  there  was  some  sense  of  disappointment.  It 
had  failed  because  our  Church  held  so  tenaciously  to  what  we 
called  the  "two  to  one  principle."  That  is,  in  our  Church  we  have 
two  laymen  to  one  minister  in  the  higher  courts.  I  can  not  philo- 
sophically explain  that.  I  have  heard  it  explained  on  the  principle 
on  which  they  tame  elephants  in  India,  putting  one  wild  one  between 
two  tame  ones!  I  have  heard  a  better  explanation  than  that, 
namely,  that  one  minister  is  equal  to  two  laymen!  That  feature 
of  our  Church  polity  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  preventing  the 
consummation  that  some  of  us  desired.  I  venture  to  say  that  if  a 
larger  proposal  were  before  our  Church  it  would  receive  more 
sympathetic  consideration.  I  am  glad  to  see  from  this  morning's 
conversation  that  the  spirit  of  union  is  among  us,  and  the  desire 
for  union  is  growing.  We  are  one  in  doctrine.  No  one  could  tell 
which  Methodist  Church  any  minister  who  has  preached  in  this 
city  belongs  to.  We  are  largely  one  in  aim,  evangelistic  fervor, 
in  methods.     We  differ  a  little  in  Church  polity. 

I  would  like  to  speak  a  little  about  this  question  of  a  common 
college  system.  In  coming  across  the  Atlantic,  I  had  some  conver- 
sation with  some  brethren  on  this  topic.  We  have  a  college  at 
Manchester,  with  one  hundred  and  five  I'ooms  for  students,  a  bed- 
doom  and  a  study  for  each  man.  We  have  not  more  than  seventy- 
five  students  there.  I  have  had  some  conversation  with  our  United 
Methodist  friends  and  have  wondered  whether  it  would  be  possible 
for  us  to  have  such  a  common  college  system,  so  far  as  the  two 
Churches  were  concerned,  as  would  meet  their  needs  without  their 
having  to  incur  the  enormous  cost  of  building  a  special  structure  for 
themselves.     I  do  think  the  subject  is  worth  special  consideration. 

Bishop  T.  B.  Neely,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church:  "A  question  of  privilege.  Bishop  Carman  rose  to 
speak.  He  is  our  host  on  this  territory.  I  beg  that  he  be  per- 
mitted to  speak  after  Dr.  Haigh."   [Applause.] 

The  Rev.  Henky  Haigh,  D.  D.  :  "1  am  willing  to  give  way 
to  Dr.  Carman".'' 

Voices  :    "No !     No !" 

The  President:  "I  was  about  to  say  that  T)r.  Cariman  is 
the  last  man  to  want  to  do  wliat  my  friend  there  suggests.  I  am 
quite  sure  of  that.  However,  as  Dr.  Carman  is  our  host,  after 
Dr.  Haigii,  the  President  of  the  Wesleyan  Conference  of  Eng- 


740  UNION  AND  FEDERATION. 

land,  has  spoken,  our  honored  and  distinguished  friend.  Dr. 
Carman,  shall  speak.  [Applause.]  But  no  more  privileges 
after  that.^^ 

The  Eev.  Henry  Haigh,  D.  D.,  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church : 

Mr.  President,  if  it  is  a  question  of  time,  I  will  try  to  limit 
myself  to  a  shorter  period  than  five  minutes.  I  would  not  like 
to  have  this  Conference  closed  without  taking  upon  myself  the 
responsibility  of  saying  how  deeply  I  sympathize  with  the  trend 
in  the  conversation  this  morning,  and  with  the  general  desire  and 
purpose  expressed  throughout  this  Conference.  It  was  not  my  priv- 
ilege to  be  in  England  when  the  question  of  union  was  being  most 
seriously  discussed.  I  was  trying  to  help  union  on  the  mission 
field.  But  my  sympathies  are  altogether  with  it.  I  think  I  esti- 
mate some  of  the  difficulties  that  lie  immediately  in  our  way. 
There  are  some  things  which  will  have  to  be  changed  before 
organic  union  can  take  place.  We  shall  have  to  resolve,  I  hope 
this  Conference  is  resolved,  that  politically  there  shall  be  per- 
mitted always  complete  catholicity  in  our  Churches.  I  should 
like  to  lay  the  greatest  possible  emphasis  upon  that.  We  can 
never  come  to  an  agreement  to  unite,  if  that  agreement  is  to  mean 
that  people  holding  certain  political  views  shall  not  find  their 
place  inside  our  Churches.  [Hear,  hear!]  In  regard  to  matters 
of  polity,  I  believe  that  that  may  be  overcome.  We  shall  need 
patience;  but  in  the  meantime  I  think  we  can  get  together  more 
closely  than  we  have  done.  It  is  my  good  fortune  to  live  in  a 
provincial  city  in  England.  I  am  not  absorbed  in  the  great  Lon- 
don. And  I  have  felt,  as  a  provincial  minister,  that  there  is  much 
that  we  can  do  in  our  various  centers  to  promote  the  union  which 
we  hope  by  and  by  will  take  place.  Why,  for  instance,  should  not 
all  ministers  bearing  the  Methodist  name  in  a  given  city  meet 
periodically  to  look  into  one  another's  eyes,  to  talk  over  questions 
in  which  we  are  united,  and  then,  as  we  grow  to  understand  each 
other  and  to  trust  each  other,  to  talk  over  questions  in  which  at 
present  we  differ?  I  believe  that  without  any  sort  of  organization 
whatever,  by  an  arrangement  of  that  sort,  we  could  go  a  long  way 
towards  promoting  the  final  union  to  which  we  look  forward.  That 
may  be  possible  on  this  side  the  water.  I  am  certain  that  it  is  im- 
mediately practicable  on  the  other  side  the  water. 

I  hope  that  some  of  the  waste  which  is  taking  place  in  the  exis- 
tence of  so  many  missionary  organizations  will  by  and  by  be  brought 
to  an  end.  I  agree  with  Dr.  Findlay's  plea  in  regard  to  colleges. 
I  believe  there  is  equal  need  in  regard  to  missionary  societies.  I 
hope  we  shall  get  together  and  consider  this  matter  before  another 
Ecumenical  Conference  shall  assemble.  In  the  meantime,  and  I 
am  surely  speaking  for  a  large  body  in  W^esleyan  Methodism,  I 
think  the  time  is  coming  when  we  shall  have  to  consider  this 
question  more  seriously  than  ever  before.  For  ourselves,  we  are 
gradually  getting  nearer  to  each  other  by  bringing  our  laymen  more 
completely  in  touch  with  the  responsibilities  and  work  of  our  own 
Church.  What  will  happen  with  regard  to  our  own  Conference 
within  the  next  ten  years  I  will  not  venture  to  prophesy.  But 
some  of  us,  speaking  individually,  dream  of  the  time  when  possibly 
the  representative  session  of  our  Wesleyan  Conference  will  be  even 
more  important  than  it  is  to-day. 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  741 

The  President  :  "Personally  it  gives  me  great  pleasure  to 
present  to  you,  to  give  the  concluding  speech  of  a  session  that 
is  certain  to  be  memorable  and  historic.  General  Superintendent 
Carman,'^ 

General  Superintendent  Carman: 

Mr.  Chairman,  my  Brethren  Beloved:  The  opinion  was  expressed 
in  the  essay  that  was  read  that  very  possibly  this  is  a  somewhat 
belated  discussion.  I  think  it  is  so.  I  think  that  we  ought  to 
have  taken  hold  of  a  great  practical  question  of  this  character  at 
the  opening  of  this  Conference.  I  think  we  ought  perhaps 
to  have  had  some  committees  or  committee,  and  some  sweet  and 
holy  consultation.  I  stand  before  you  a  man  in  the  infinite  good- 
ness of  God  somewhat  acquainted  with  the  processes  and  progress 
of  a  Methodist  union.  It  does  not  mean  all  ease  and  all  perfect 
personal  pleasure.  It  does  not  mean,  while  it  means  upholding 
your  institutions  to  the  utmost, — it  does  not  mean  upholding  insti- 
tutions in  any  rival  way  as  regards  other  institutions.  If  we 
have  union,  it  is  very  possible  that  some  men  will  have  the  spirit 
of  resignation,  the  spirit  of  submission.  I  certainly  have  no  cen- 
sure for  our  hard-working  and  talented  and  wise  program  com- 
mittee. But,  as  I  have  looked  upon  the  program  and  its  develop- 
ment, I  have  thought  that  perhaps  we  have  illustrated  a  little 
a  great  mastodon  backed  up  against  the  question  instead  of  coming 
in  with  open  eye  and  open  face.  That  is  how  I  feel  about  the 
matter.  But  how  I  love  my  brethren!  My  Lord  Christ!  and  this 
Methodism!  And  now  I  believe,  my  brethren,  we  must  wisely 
come,  and  I  hope  quickly,  into  the  hope  of  a  holy  unity.  Some  of 
our  institutions  will  be  changed.  It  might  be  that,  according  to 
the  nomenclature  of  men,  a  bishop  or  two  might  lose  his  head,  but 
I  want  to  say  to  you,  before  God  and  the  Church,  a  bishop  I  was — 
and,  I  believe,  as  well  grounded  and  constituted  a  bishop  as  stood 
upon  the  soil — and  I  became  an  officer  of  the  Church  by  the 
forbearance  of  my  brethren.  If  you  want  to  see  love  manifested, 
if  you  want  to  see  the  mighty  spirit  of  Christ  manifest,  and  a 
glorious  evangelism,  this  must  move  on.  And  as  I  have  said,  they 
called  me  "General  Superintendent"  after  the  union.  But  they 
gave  me  thousands  more  people,  thousands  more  families,  thou- 
sands more  brothers  and  sisters,  thousands  more  Church  interests. 
My  brethren  beloved,  I  trust  they  love  me  in  the  name  of  God 
and  of  Christ.  I  love  them,  and  if  I  had  the  whole  thing  to  do  over 
again,  I  would  do  it  faithfully  and  seriously,  humbly,  meekly,  gen- 
erously, earnestly,  for  Methodism  and  for  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
[Applause.] 

The  President:  "TVe  now  have  a  few  items  of  business. 
First,  the  report  of  the  Statistical  Committee  for  the  Western 
Section." 

Secretary  Carroll:     "I  offer  this  statistical  report  for  ac- 
ceptance by  the  Conference,  to  be  printed  in  tlie  appendix." 
It  was  accepted  and  ordered  to  be  so  printed. 
Secretary  Carroll  :    "The  Rev.  James  Lewis  has  submitted 


743  UNION  AND  FEDERATION. 

for  publication  in  the  appendix  of  the  Conference  volume  very 
elaborate  tables  of  missionary  statistics.  It  is  possil)le  from  these 
statistics  to  ascertain  what  Methodist  Churches  are  working  in 
any  particular  country,  and  what  forces  they  have.  A  second 
table  gives  the  income  of  the  missionary  societies  of  Ecumenical 
Methodism.  I  recommend  that  these  tables  be  accepted  for  pub- 
lication in  the  Conference  volume,  and  that  tlie  thanks  of  the 
Conference  be  given  to  Mr.  Lewis." 

This  was  agreed  to. 

Secretary  Carroll:  "I  have  now  to  present  the  record  of 
the  public  services  held  on  the  Lord's  day,  and  of  the  sessions 
of  this  Conference  held  on  yesterday.  It  has  been  printed  and 
distril)uted.     I  move  that  it  be  accepted  as  read,  and  adopted." 

This  motion  prevailed. 

Secretary  Carroll:  "'The  following  have  been  named  by 
Dr.  Williams,  of  Australia,  for  the  distribution  of  the  message 
in  Australia:  The  Eev.  W.  Pearson^  the  Eev.  C.  Adamson, 
the  Eev.  Geo.  Hall,  the  Eev.  S.  Lowrie,  the  Eev.  Thomas 
Bennington,  the  Eev,  S.  B.  Fellows." 

On  motion,  these  were  approved. 

Secretary  James  Chapman  :  ''In  the  daily  record  tlie  name 
of  Mr.  Joseph  Johnson  ought  to  be  added  to  the  Committee 
appointed  to  make  arrangements  for  the  Ecumenical  Sunday 
in  the  Eastern  Section." 

It  was  explained  that  tliis  was  an  omission  which  would  be 
corrected. 

The  President  :  "We  must  all  feel  that  we  are  very  greatly 
indebted  to  the  Toronto  friends  for  the  very  magnificent  enter- 
tainment they  have  given  us.  ["Hear!  hear!"]  There  has 
been  a  wamith  and  a  refinement  in  their  courtesies  that  some 
of  ns  will  never  forget.  And  it  is  suitable  that  we  should  ac- 
knowledge their  great  courtesy  and  generosity  and  hospitality. 
I  will  ask  Dr.  Scott  Lidgett  if  he  will  move  a  resolution  of 
thanks  to  our  Toronto  friends." 

Dr.  Scott  Lidgett:     "Mr.  Chairman,  th6  resolution  which 

has  been  committed  to  me  is  as  follows : 

(1).  That  the  hearty  and  affectionate  thanks  of  this  Confer- 
ence, and  especially  of  the  Eastern  section,  be  and  are  hereby 
expressed  to  the  Methodist  Churches  of  the  Western  section,  and 


BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS.  743 

particularly  to   those   in   Toronto   and   its   neighborhood,   for   their 
generous  hospitality,  fraternal  courtesies  and  attention. 

(2).  That  the  pastor  and  trustees  of  the  Metropolitan  Church 
be  tendered  acknowledgment  of  the  great  obligation  under  which 
the  Conference  has  been  placed  for  the  use  of  the  Church  building 
and  its  accessories,  during  the  present  sitting. 

(3).  That  special  thanks  on  behalf  of  the  Conference  be  ten- 
dered to  the  following  named  brethren,  who  in  their  respective 
offices  have  rendered  diligent,  faithful,  and  untiring  service: 

H.  K.  Carroll,  LL.  D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  Chief 
Secretary. 

Rev.  James  Chapman,  D.  D.  (British  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),   Secretary  for  the  Third  Division; 

Alderman  T.  Snape,  J.  P.  (United  Methodist  Church),  Secre- 
tary for  the  Fourth  Division; 

Bishop  C.  H.  Phillips,  D,  D.  (Colored  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  Secretary  for  the  First  Division; 

Rev.  John  Elsworth  (British  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church), 
who  has  kept  the  Daily  Record; 

Bishop  John  W.  Hamilton,  LL.  D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),   Chairman   of   the   Business   Committee; 

Rev.  Simpson  Johnson  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  Secre- 
tary of  the  Business  Committee; 

Rev.  William  Briggs,  D.  D.    (Methodist  Church  of  Canada) ; 

Mr.  C.  D.  Massey,  of  Toronto   (Methodist  Church  of  Canada); 

Hon.  Justice  Maclaren    (Methodist  Church  of  Canada) ; 

Rev.  J.  J.  Redditt,  Secretary  of  the  Local  Committee  of  Ar- 
rangements; 

Mr.  R.  Burrow,  Lay  Assistant  to  the  Pastor  of  the  Metropol- 
itan Church; 

Mr.  W.  G.  Pritchard,  the  Caretaker  of  the  Church,  and  those 
who  have  served  the  Conference  as  ushers; 

The  Organist,  for  faithful  daily  attendance  and  the  noon 
recitals; 

The  Choir,  and  other  officials  of  the  Church; 

To  those  who  contributed  to  the  Exhibit  of  Methodist  Antiqui- 
ties, and  particularly  to  the  Garrett  Biblical  Institute, 
the  New  England  Historical  Society,  Victoria  Univer- 
sity; to  Bishop  E.  R.  Hendrix  for  the  use  of  his  rare 
collection,  and  to  Hon.  Justice  Maclaren  and  Dr.  H.  K. 
Carroll  for  valuable  loans  for  the  same  use. 

(4).  That  the  thanks  of  the  Conference  be  warmly  expressed  to 
His  Honor  the  Lieutenant-Govekxor,  His  Worship  the  Mayor,  and 
the  City  Council,  for  their  distinguished  courtesy  in  entertaining 
the  Conference;  to  the  Methodist  Social  Union  for  the  magnifi- 
cent banquet  spread  for  the  Conference;  and  to  Victoria  University 
for  honors  conferred  upon  representatives  of  different  Methodist 
Churches  composing  this  Conference. 

(5).  That  the  Conference  feels  deeply  indebted  to  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Toronto  Press,  and  to  the  Telegraph  Press  Asso- 
ciations of  Canada  and  the  United  States,  for  generous  reports 
of  its  daily  proceedings.  Especially  has  the  Christian  Guardian 
(the  official  organ  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada)  brought  the 
Conference  under  obligations  by  issuing  a  daily  edition,  and  our 
cordial  thanks  for  this  service  are  hereby  expressed. 


'i'44  UNION  AND  FEDERATION. 

The  Eev.  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  D.  D.,  proceeded 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I  am  perfectly  sure  that  every  member 
of  this  Conference  feels  the  deepest  sympathy  with  me  in  being 
called  to  do  something  like  justice  to  tlais  vast  and  comprehensive, 
but  in  no  wise  excessive,  resolution.  This  Ecumenical  Conference, 
from  its  first  hour  to  its  last,  has  been  a  magnificent,  and  I  think 
we  might  add  an  unparalleled,  success.  Not  one  incident  has 
taken  place  to  mar  our  proceedings.  We  met  in  brotherhood.  We 
shall  part  with  the  ties  of  brotherhood  strengthened,  deepened, 
made  permanent  and  more  fruitful  throughout  the  world  than  ever 
before.  Now  for  such  a  result  those  who  are  named  in  this  resolu- 
tion have  a  share  of  praise  which  can  hardly  be  exaggerated.  I 
think  this  Conference  will  agree  with  me  that  three  indispensable 
requisites  may  be  named  for  a  successful  Conference.  First,  a 
sympathetic  environment;  secondly,  business  efficiency;  and  in  the 
third  place,  the  marks  of  universal  good  will.  And  I  fancy  that, 
after  all  the  five  heads  of  this  great  resolution  may  be  made  to 
illustrate  the  complete  presence  of  those  three  indispensable  requi- 
sites in  the  welcome  and  in  the  work' of  this  Conference.  In  the 
first  place,  a  sympathetic  environment.  What  could  have  been 
more  exquisite  and  abounding  in  its  hospitality  than  the  friendship 
which  we  have  received  from  our  hosts  of  Toronto?  I  am  sure 
that  Toronto  will  be  carven  upon  the  heart  of  every  delegate,  from 
East  or  West,  from  North  or  South,  who  has  spent  this  last  fort- 
night in  its  delightful  surroundings.  We  shall  carry  away — I  am 
not  speaking  in  the  language  of  flattery — a  deep  and  lasting  ten- 
derness of  feeling  for  all  those,  rich  and  poor,  natives  of  Canada 
or  from  the  homeland,  who  have  given  to  us  what  many  of  us 
feel  has  been  the  most  beautiful  welcome  we  could  possibly  have 
enjoyed.  Everything  in  the  working  of  our  minds,  everything  in 
the  sj-mpathies  of  our  hearts,  has  by  God's  blessing  been  put  into 
the  right  tone  and  inspired  to  right  activity  by  the  environment 
which  our  friends  have  arranged  for  us  out  of  the  fullness  of  their 
affection. 

In  the  next  place,  efficiency.  I  venture  to  say  it  would  be  diflOi- 
cult  to  surpass  the  efficient  service  which  has  been  rendered  by 
these  men  to  whom  we  are  offering  our  especial  thanks.  I  dare 
not  begin.  One  of  the  merits  of  a  speaker  is  that  he  leaves  some- 
thing to  the  imagination  of  the  hearer.  But  in  this  case  I  do  not 
think  our  friends  leave  anything  to  your  imagination.  They  have 
made  their  ability  and  their  devotion  manifest  from  first  to  last 
of  this  Conference,  so  that  there  is  no  place  for  imagination.  But 
the  dullest-witted  man  or  woman,  if  there  be  any  one  in  this  Con- 
ference to  whom  that  description  can  apply,  will  carry  away  a 
vivid  comprehension  of  devoted  service  rendered. 

Now  I  come  to  the  last — universal  good  will.  What  could  sur- 
pass the  manifestation  of  that  good  will  that  we  have  received 
from  all  sections?  Once  more  I  v/ould  utter  the  respectful  and 
loyal  obligation  of  this  Conference  to  the  Governor-General,  whose 
first  act  was  to  make  us  feel  that  he  wished  us  well  and  wished  us 
at  home  in  this  country.  Then  the  Lieutenant-Governor  and  the 
Mayor  and  the  corporation,  the  press  and  all  those  who  represent 
the  manifold  activity  of  a  great  and  growing  city,  all  combine 
in  expressions  of  respect  and  warmth  of  feeling  which  has  shown 
us  that  those  that  direct  the  life  of  this  great  community  had 
a  worthy  sense  of  the  part  which   the  great  Churches  which  we 


BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS.  746 

represent  are  playing  in  the  progress  of  all  those  interests  in 
which  they  are  especially  concerned. 

Now  let  me  say  one  closing  word.  Those  of  us  who  come  from 
the  East  will  go  away  with  two  thoughts  in  our  minds.  First 
of  all,  of  our  brethren  in  Canada.  We  are  going  back  to  our  Old 
Country,  a  country  which,  while  it  has  its  vast  problems  to  solve, 
and  an  old  civilization  behind  it,  is  full  of  all  those  vital  and  virile 
forces  which  are  manifest  in  any  other  land.  But  while  we  have 
a  vital  force  in  us,  and  the  central  fires  still  burning,  fresh  fuel 
will  be  added  to  the  flame  as  we  think  of  the  kindness,  capacity, 
and  devotion  with  which  not  only  the  Methodists  but  the  old  and 
the  new  inhabitants  of  this  great  dominion  are  laying  broad  the 
foundation  of  its  civilization,  making  religion  march  with  its 
onward  progress,  laying  aside  old  estrangements,  seeking  to  organ- 
ize the  forces  of  the  Christian  Church  for  the  Master,  effectively 
conquering  the  civilization  of  the  world. 

And  when  we  turn  to  some  of  those  problems  which  have  been 
discussed  this  morning,  the  broad  statesmanship  of  our  friends 
in  Canada  will  cause  us  to  remember  that  we  have  a  high  standard 
to  live  up  to  if  the  old  country  is  to  be  worthy  of  the  new.  And  then, 
one  thing  more.  We  shall  go  back  with  the  most  affectionate 
friendship  towards  those  of  the  Western  section  who  come  from 
the  Southern  part  of  this  great  continent.  We  have  felt  no  differ- 
ences. The  Star  Spangled  Banner  and  the  Union  Jack  have  been 
floating  together  under  the  banner  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 
And  the  great  catholic  love  of  Methodism  has  shown  that  that  after 
all  is  one  of  those  glorious  influences,  far  more  than  the  mere 
blood  which  is  thicker  than  water,  which  leads  us  to  believe  that 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race  will  be  throughout  the  world  united  in  the 
cause  of  God  and  the  service  of  men,  so  that  all  possible  misunder- 
standing and  all  frictions  and  all  failure  to  co-operate  must  pass 
away.  Brethren  and  sisters,  these  are  some  of  the  permanent 
results  which  the  hospitality  of  this  great  Conference  has  brought 
to  every  member  of  it.  We  thank  you  for  what  you  have  given 
us.  But  our  thanks  to  you  are  but  the  earthward  expression  of 
our  thanks  to  God  for  the  exalted  Christ  from  whom  all  these  gifts 
have  come,  in  whose  service  we  seek  to  use  them,  and  who  has 
demonstrated  once  more  the  fulfillment  of  his  promise  to  be  with 
us  until  the  consummation  of  the  ages,  by  these  abundant  gifts 
of  love  and  fellowship,  of  kindred  mind  and  kindred  heart,  which 
He  has  so  lavishly  poured  upon  us  in  these  days.  To  Him  be  the 
glory;  and  in  His  service  may  all  these  gifts  be  moi-e  and  more 
fruitfully  employed  in  every  corner  of  the  world  during  the  next 
ten  years   that  are  to  come. 

I  have  the  greatest  pleasure  in -moving  the  resolution. 

A  Delegate:  "I  woulrl  like  to  ask  if  the  groat  courtesy 
of  the  Toronto  Street  Eailway  has  been  acknowledged.  I  would 
move  that  that  be  inserted." 

A  Delegate  :  "I  want  to  suggest  that  perhaps  there  is  one 
name  omitted  which  certainly  ought  to  be  there.  I  do  not  think 
that  the  name  of  Mr.  Ciikster  D.  JMassey  was  included  in  this 
resolution;  and  every  one  who  knows  the  forces  connected  with 
this  Conference  in  Toronto  knows  that  he  has  been  substantially 


746  UNION  AND  FEDERATION. 

and  in  a  most  imjDortant  sense  at  the  back  of  everything,  and 
has  largely  made  possible  what  the  Toronto  Methodists  have 
done  among  its." 

The  President  :    "It  will  be  included." 

Secretary  James  Chapman  :  "May  I  say  that  a  special  vote 
of  thanks  of  this  Conference  was  sent  to  the  Toronto  Eailway, 
and  is  already  in  the  records  of  the  Conference." 

A  Delegate:     "I  move  that  it  be  inserted  in  this  record." 

The  President  :  "Those  little  matters  will  all  be  attended 
to.  I  now  have  much  pleasure  in  asking  the  Eev.  Bishop  John 
W.  Hamilton,  D.  D.,  to  second  the  resolution  which  Dr. 
LiDGETT  has  offered." 

Bishop  Hamilton,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church: 

Mr.  Chairman,  Sisters,  and  Brothers:  The  Business  Committee 
has  committed  to  me  again  a  most  difficult  and  delicate  task,  cer- 
tainly so  after  the  well-chosen  and  eloquent  words  of  the  mover  of 
the  motion.  To  second  the  motion  invokes  less  expectation  and 
fewer  words  than  to  move  it.  But  I  would  not  be  loyal  to  the  great 
communion  of  the  Western  Section,  which  I  represent,  and  to  my 
own  sense  of  obligation  and  emotion  if  I  did  not  add  some  words 
to  all  that  has  been  said,  for  gratitude  as  "a  species  of  justice"  we 
"consider  a  debt,  and  our  spirits  wear  a  load  till  we  have  discharged 
the  obligation."  But  debts  are  never  easily  paid,  and  are  all  the 
more  difficult  to  pay  when  there  is  accrued  interest.  No  one  of  us 
can  recall  enough  of  the  many  good  things  which  have  been  be- 
stowed upon  us  here,  to  make  commensurate  return  in  gratitude, 
if  we  had  the  hearts  of  all  of  us  in  each  of  us. 

This  kind  of  debt-paying  is  much  more  than  simply  a  commercial 
transaction.  Thanksgiving  shoiild  be  and  now  is  a  religious  exer- 
cise.    Sincere  gratitude,  like  sincere 

"Prayer  is  the  soul's  sincere  desire. 
Uttered  or  unexpressed; 
The  motion  of  *a  hidden  fire  *- 

That  trembles  in  the  breast." 

Our  gratitude  must  take  on  the  wideness  which  Includes  the 
thanks  not  only  of  the  guests  to  the  hosts,  but  the  guests  to  the 
guests,  and  the  hosts  to  the  guests  and  the  loving  Father  over  all, 
whose  family  we  are  and  who  has  guided  us  into  this  fortunate  fel- 
lowship. To  thank  the  good  Lord  and  all  the  good  sisters  and  broth- 
ers for  all  the  good  things  we  have  enjoyed  in  this  good  and  great 
country  we  should  appoint  a  whole  day  of  thanksgiving  for  the 
service.    When  I  heard  this  list  of  resolutions  read  I  wanted  to  turn 


BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS.  747 

to  the  136th.  Psalm  and  respond  to  each  of  the  resolutions  antipho- 
nally,  as  do  all  the  verses  of  the  Psalm,  and  in  the  language  of  the 
Psalmist  as  given  to  us  by  the  translators  in  the  Revised  Version; 
"for  loving  kindness" — instead  of  mercy — "endureth  forever;"  His 
loving  kindness  and  the  loving  kindness  of  the  people  endureth  for- 
ever. 

We  must  be,  we  will  be  thankful  to  God  forever  for  the  gracious 
benefits  of  this  Ecumenical  Conference.  "What  generous  and  hos- 
pitable welcome  we  have  found!  What  delightful  friendships  we 
have  formed!  What  holy  fellowships  we  have  enjoyed!  What 
wealth  of  instruction  and  inspiration  we  have  received!  What  good 
resolves  for  the  future  we  have  made  for  ourselves  and  for  our 
Methodism! 

We  of  the  Western  Section  who  reside  south  of  Canada  knew 
something  of  her  hospitable  heart.  Our  occasional  visits  had  intro- 
duced us  to  the  warm  welcome  found  here  in  all  seasons  and  all 
weathers.  We  now  know  the  loving  kindness  of  Canada — all  Can- 
ada— endureth  forever.  We  shall  remember  lovingly  all  who  have 
served  us  so  cheerfully,  beginning  with  the  little  colored  page,  too 
small  for  his  badge,  and  who  must  have  lost  his  way  a  day  or  two 
ago,  or  have  been  frightened  away  during  our  lively  shuffle  for  the 
floor,  when  so  many  of  us  were  striving  to  speak.  We  shall  include 
all  others  up  to  the  governor-general,  who,  taking  us  by  surprise, 
announced  his  arrival  in  the  country  by  sending  us  hearty  greetings 
before  we  had  congratulated  him. 

There  is  gratitude  in  all  our  hearts  that  we  are  no  more  stran- 
gers, though  only  sojourners  here.  We  who  have  our  homes  on  this 
continent  were  quite  ready  to  receive  our  sisters  and  brothers  from 
over  the  rest  of  the  earth  as  fellow-citizens  with  the  saints  and  of 
the  household  of  God.  You  were  Methodists  and  kinsmen,  and  that 
was  introduction  enough. 

"To  ask  of  any  guest  his  name. 
Or  whose  he  is,  or  whence  he  came, 
I  hold,  can  never  be  his  part 
Who  owns  a  hospitable  heart." 

But  we  now  know  each  other  better,  and  part  as  sisters  and 
brothers  beloved.  The  "mighty  oceans,"  as  Wordsworth  has  said 
somewhere,  have  been  "our  harmonists;"  so  also  the  lofty  moun- 
tains, great  lakes,  wide  rivers,  babbling  tongues,  deep  and  shallow 
colors,  and  previous  conditions  of  servitude.  After  these  happy 
days,  during  which  we  have  tarried  long  enough  together,  at  least 
for  our  beards  to  be  grown,  we  certainly  can  go  away  without  trust- 
ing to  our  geographical  barriers,  national  differences,  and  race  preju- 
dices for  our  hai-mony.  We  have  heard  all  the  arguments  against 
the  closer  union,  and  answered  all  of  them.  We  must  hereafter  be 
peacemakers  and  genuine  sisters  and  brothers  in  whom  there  is  no 


748  UNION  AND  FEDERATION. 

guile.  Over  all  our  differences  we  shall  be  more  than  conquerors 
through  Him  that  loved  us,  for  I  am  persuaded  that  henceforth 
neither  death  nor  life,  nor  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers, 
nor  things  present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor 
any  other  creature  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of 
God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  our  Lord,  and  therefore  not  one  from 
another. 

I  know  then  I  voice  the  tender  and  affectionate  expression  of  the 
entire  Conference  when  I  second  the  motion  to  adopt  these  resolu- 
tions by  a  unanimous  rising  vote. 

Bishop  A.  AY.  Wilson,  D.  D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church,  South,  heing  called  upon  hy  the  President,  said : 

There  is  little  left  for  me  to  say.  Dr.  Lidgett  about  exhausted 
the  question,  and  Bishop  Hamilton  added  the  fringes.  I  do  not 
know  where  I  am  to  come  in,  but  I  am  grateful  that  I  can  stand 
here  in  support  of  the  series  of  resolutions  that  express,  as  they 
ought,  the  mind  and  sentiment  of  so  great  a  Conference  as  this, 
coming  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  with  our  different  tastes  and 
tendencies  which  have  been  provided  for  individually  and  collec- 
tively. We  have  not  on  any  side  been  excluded  from  the  inner 
circle  of  our  Methodist  fellowship,  and  we  have  not  been  treated 
with  any  sort  of  coldness  or  prejudice  because  of  any  peculiar 
views  that  we  may  have  held.  It  is  a  unity  of  mind  and  heart 
provided  for  in  all  the  arrangements  of  this  Conference,  that  will 
take  no  account  of  any  division  or  separations  among  us.  We  are 
one  in  Christ  Jesus;  and  that  unity  has  been  fully  recognized  by 
the  provision  that  has  been  made  for  our  comfort,  and  for  the 
convenience  and  facility  of  our  work  here.  So  that  I  am  glad  to 
be  the  mouthpiece,  in  some  sort,  of  this  Conference  in  the  expres- 
sion of  our  gratitude  to  our  hosts.  What  would  John  Wesley  have 
said  to  a  thing  like  this!  He  did  not  live  to  see  a  great  Methodism 
covering  the  world,  honored  and  recognized  by  the  governments 
of  earth  as  well  as  by  the  great  social  classes  that  dominate  in  the 
communities  of  earth.  It  would  give  him  another  notion  about 
his  own  work  and  his  own  Methodism,  if  he  could  have  seen  it. 
We  have  broadened  the  vision  and  given  the  world  a  new  sense  of 
religion  and  a  new  idea  of  God's  working  and  of  his  way  of  work- 
ing among  men.  And  we  do  it  all  in  a  very  large  degree  as  ,a 
matter  of  course.  We  expect  everybody  to  receive  us  upon  our  own 
estimate  of  ourselves,  and  we  have  been  glad  to  take  it  upon  that 
basis.  So  we  have  the  freedom  of  this  city,  its  broad  avenues,  its 
shade,  its  sunshine,  and  its  rain — they  have  not  failed  in  anything. 
They  have  given  us  all  sorts  of  weather,  and  they  have  done  every- 
thing they  could  to  make  us  feel  that  we  are  about  the  best  people 
on  the  face  of  the  earth  and  nothing  could  be  much  better.  And, 
as  we  go  from  here,  we  shall  carry  with  us  the  remembrance  of  this 
sweet  fellowship  in  our  effort  to  advance  the  Kingdom  of  God  and 
inject  some  new  ideas  of  Methodist  work  and  unity  into  each 
other's  minds  and  into  the  minds  of  the  people  with  whom  we 
sojourn  here.  We  shall  carry  with  us  memories  that  will  abide 
for  the  years  to  come.  This  is  the  fourth  Ecumenical  Conference 
I  have  attended.  I  can  scarcely  hope  that  I  will  be  permitted  to 
attend   another.     I   am   thankful   that   I   shall   go   away   with   not 


BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS.  749 

a  scar  inflicted;  I  sliall  go  away  witli  notliing  but  the  most  pleasant 
memories,  as  far  as  I  am  personally  concerned  and  my  Church  is 
concerned.  Down  in  our  country  we  pride  ourselves  somewhat 
upon  our  hospitality.  We  never  let  a  visitor  go  away  without  reali- 
zing that  we  have  been  glad  to  welcome  him  and  to  furnish  him 
with  all  requisite  for  his  comfort  and  peace  and  to  making  him  feel 
at  home  and  at  ease.  We  have  had  something  of  that  sort  here. 
And  we  stretch  our  hands  across  the  intervening  territory,  and 
bid  Godspeed  to  our  brethren  who  are  of  one  heart  and  mind 
with  us;  and  we  are  glad  to  know  that  that  same  genuine  spirit  of 
hospitality  still  exists,  which  is  a  Scriptural  virtue — "Be  not  un- 
mindful of  hospitality;  use  hospitality."  I  do  not  know  whether 
they  have  entertained  angels  this  trip,  but  they  will  feel  that  they 
have  been  very  near  it  by  the  time  we  are  done  talking  about  them. 
By-and-by,  when  the  earthly  differences  so  evident  now  are  all 
gone,  when  all  the  divisive  tendency  of  flesh  and  life  shall  be 
gone  forever,  in  the  mansions  above,  we  shall  constitute  one  fam- 
ily. I  thank  God  for  the  prospect — one  family  that  shall  never 
be  divided,  upon  whom  the  sunlight  of  God's  presense  shall  forever 
shine,  and  the  joy  of  our  fellowship  shall  be  forever  unbroken 
by  any  misunderstanding  of  any  sort.  And  we  shall  all  unite  in 
earnest  prayer  for  the  prosperity  of  Canadian  Methodism  and  for 
the  well-being  of  all  these  brethren  who  have  combined  and  con- 
spired to  make  our  visit  as  pleasant  and  profitable  as  possible. 

By  a  rising  vote,  the  Conference  adopted  the  resolution. 

Secretary  Carroll  :  "We  have  come  to  tlie  hist  business  act 
of  this  session,  namely,  the  reading  of  the  records  of  this  ses- 
sion. I  will  call  upon  the  Eev.  Johx  Elswortii,  to  whom  the 
Secretaries  are  much  indebted,  to  read  the  records  of  this  ses- 
sion. He  will  read  almost  entirely  from  print.  It  is  perliaps 
the  first  time  when  the  minutes  of  a  session  like  this  have  been 
read,  before  the  close  of  the  session,  in  printed  form." 

Assistant  Secretary  Elswoeth  read  the  records  of  the  pres- 
ent session ;  and,  on  motion,  they  were  accepted. 

The  Conference  sang — 

"Praise  God   from  whom   all   blessings  flow," 

For  some  twenty  minutes  the  Conference  engaged  in  prayer, 
several  members  participating,  viz. :  The  llev.  "\V.  B.  Lark,  of 
the  United  Methodist  Church;  the  Eev.  A.  Carman,  of  the 
Methodist  Church  of  Canada ;  the  Kev.  John  Hugh  Morgan,  of 
the  "\Vesle3'an  Methodist  Church ;  Mr.  J.  Godfrey,  of  the  United 
Methodist  Church;  the  Rev.  Joskph  Dixnick,  of  the  Primitive 
Methodist  Church;  the  Rev.  Henry  Haigh,  of  the  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church. 


750  UNION  AND   FEDERATION. 

The  President  then  said:  "The  time  has  come  for  us  to 
separate.  Let  us  unite  in  singing  Hymn  Ko.  758.  I  think  that 
none  of  us  will  ever  forget  the  last  twenty  minutes  of  this  great 
Conference." 

The  Conference  sang  all  the  verses  of  Hymn  758— 

"Blessed  be  the  tie  that  binds  ' 

Our  hearts  in  Christian  love." 

The  last  session  of  the  Fourth  Ecumenical  Conference  came 
to  its  close  with  the  pronouncing  of  the  benediction  by  the  Eev. 
H.  T.  Chapman,  the  presiding  officer  of  the  morning  session. 


APPENDIX. 


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701 


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764 


APPENDIX. 


TABLE  III.— INCOMES  OF  MISSIONARY  SOCIETIES  OF 
ECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

COMPILED    FROM  THE   WORLD   MISSIONARY  CONFERENCE   STATISTICAL  ATLAS    1910 


1909 
Membership 

329,904 

3,376,888 


/  Foreign 

1   310,448 

850,000 

7,013 
1,673,892 

31,435 

183,894 

19,164 
578  310 


150,751 
520,868 

Foreign 
143,467 
186,905 
212,168 
1,675 
117,146 


8,715,434 


Canada. 
U:  S.  A. 


Australasia. 
Britain. 


France. 
South  Af  ica. 


Methodist  Church  of  Canada 

Methodist  Church  of  Canada,  Woman's  Soc. .  . 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Woman's  Society 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  From  Church  Ex- 
tension Board  for  Asiatics  and  Indiana. .  .  . 
Methodist  Episcopal  Chu  xh,  from  Church  Ex- 
tension Board,  Woman's  Society 


Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Foreign  Income. . 

Parent  Soc'ety  African  Meth.  Epis.  Church. . . . 
Woman's  Society,  African  Meth.  Epis.  Church. 
American  Auxi  iary  Primitive  Meth.  Church. . . 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South 

M.  E.  Church,  South,  F-r  Work  Among  Jews. . 
Free  Methodist  Church  of  North  America 

Woman's  Society  not  included  in  above. . . 
Methodi  t  Protestant  Church 

Woman's  Society 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Connection  of  America. . . 
African  Methodi  ;t  Episcopal  Zion  Church 

Woman's  Society 

New  York  City  Church  Extension  and  Miss.  Soc. 
Methodist  Missionary  Society  of  Australasia. . . 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Miss.  Soc.,  Home  Income. 

Woman's  Auxiliary 

Foreign  Income 


United  Methodist  Church  Missionary  Society. . 

Primitive  Methodist  Missionary  Society 

French  Protestant  Mission  in  Kabylia 

South  African  Methodist  Missionary  Society. . . 


Total 86,931,537 


$518,102 

97,802 

1,357,336 

639,818 

49  347 


735,917 

35,000 

4,836 

600 

766,716 

1,500 

53,243 

6,300 

23,889 

22,866 

15,000 

18,000 

1,200 

12,912 

125,352 

732,384 

96,000 

945,182 

116,045 

39,537 

2,320 

483,648 


Per  Member 

1 
/ 


$1  87 


2  37 

04 
85 
46 

1  89 

25 

78 
04 

"82 
1  59 

6  59 

62 

18 

1  28 

4  13 


^VPPENDIX.  765 


TABLE  IV.— ORDER  OF  CHURCHES 

As  shown  by  contributions  per  member  per  annum  for  Foreign 
Missionary  Enterprise. 

Per   Member 
,  per  annum 

1.  Foreign  Churches  of  Wesleyan  Methodist  Missionary  Society S6  50 

2.  South  African  Methodist  Missionary  Society 4  13 

3.  Foreign  Churches  of  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 2  37 

4.  Free  Methodist  Church  of  North  America 1  89 

5.  Methodist  Church  of  Canada 1  87 

6.  Wesleyan  Methodists  of  Britain  and  Ireland 1  59 

7.  French  Methodists ". 1  38 

8.  American  Auxiliary  Primitive  Methodists 85 

9.  Methodist  Missionary  Society  of  Australasia 82 

10.  Wesleyan  Methodist  Connection  of  America 78 

11.  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  U.  S.  A 63 

12.  United  Methodist  Church,  Great  Britain 62 

13.  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South 46 

14.  Methodist  Protestant  Church 25 

15.  Primitive  Methodist  Church,  Great  Britain 18 

16.  4  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. . . .  ") 04 

16.      <  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church  J  • 04 

Average  per  Member  per  Annum,  for  World-wide  Methodism  for  Foreign  Missions.        $0  80 


766 


APPENDIX. 


1 

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£111,461 
139,243 
346,547 
310,474 
361,842 
376,923 
377,719 
364,653 
218,143 
252,354 

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S. 

NOTES  OF   DECENNIAL  PROGRESS. 


WESLEYAN  FOREIGN  MISSIONS— 1901-1910 

Europe — The  great  struggle  for  religious  liberty  continues  in  all  the 
four  countries  in  which  we  work.  Rome  is  still  Rome,  and  even  in  these 
days  of  education  and  progress,  maintains  her  arrogant  claim  and  con- 
trives to  keep  millions  of  people  in  ignorance.  But  the  great  enchantress 
is  losing  the  power  she  once  had.  During  the  decade  the  anti-Popish 
forces  have  made  great  progress,  but  unhappily  the  revolt  against  Rome 
is  not  a  movement  Christward;  indeed,  it  is  accompanied  by  so  many 
undesirable  features,  that  it  is  not  a  cause  for  unmixed  rejoicing.  It  is 
"a  blind  turbulent  heaving  towards  freedom,"  and  to  multitudes  freedom 
means  license. 

While  Romanism  and  Atheism,  blind  superstition  and  blatant  unbe- 
lief, capital  and  labor,  oppression  and  revolt,  struggle  together,  the  pure 
gospel  of  Christ  is  winning  its  silent  victories.  There  have_  been  many 
definite  conversions  from  Rome  to  Christ,  and  the  number  includes  not 
a  few  priests,  some  of  whom  held  high  positions  in  the  Romish  Church. 

In  1905  the  Free  Evangelical  Church  of  Italy  entered  upon  union  with 
our  Mission  and  that  of  the  American  Methodists.  By  this  union  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Missionary  Society  took  over  Churches  in  Florence, 
Milan,  Palermo,  and  several  smaller  places. 

In  1900  we  sent  a  Missionary  experimentally  to  Lisbon,  to  take  charge 
of  an  unshepherded  Protestant  cause,  but  in  1907  we  were  compelled 
largely  for  financial  reasons,  to  withdraw,  and  to-day  our  efforts  in  Portu- 
gal are  again  concentrated  in  and  around  Oporto.  Our  work  in  Portugal 
has  been  greatly  helped  by  the  decision  of  the  Court  of  Appeal  (in  1907), 
that  the  sale  of  Holy  Scriptures  is  not  illegal,  and  that  colporteurs  can 
not  be  arrested. 

Last  year  a  Royal  Decree  was  issued  in  Spain  granting  permission  for 
Protestant  places  of  worship  to  be  externally  distinguished  by  religious 
symbols,  inscriptions,  or  other  signs.  Previously  it  was  a  criminal  offense 
to  inscribe  the  words  "Evangelical  Church"  on  the  outside  of  a  chapel. 

Ceylon— An  important  feature  of  our  work  in  Ceylon  was  the  reunion 
of  the  Colombo,  Kandy,  and  Galle  Districts  in  1906.  They  are  now  known 
as  the  South  Ceylon  District. 

In  1909  the  Colonial  Government  made  a  long  expected  change  in  its 
educational  policy.  The  new  law  makes  education  compulsory,  and  is 
accompanied  with  a  "conscience  clause,"  strictly  limiting  religious  in- 
struction to  the  first  hour  of  the  school  day,  and  giving  any  parent  who 
cares  to  claim  it,  the  right  to  withdraw  his  child  from  such  lessons.  This 
seriously  interferes  with  our  extensive  educational  work.  We  have  up- 
wards of  400  schools  in  the  island,  with  31,000  scholars.  It  is  rather 
early  to  form  any  strong  conclusion  as  to  what  steps  we  must  take  to  meet 
the  difficulty.  At  the  recjuest  of  the  General  Comyiittee,  the  Rev.  J. 
Milton  Brown,  the  Secretary  in  charge  of  the  Ceylon  field,  has  visited 
the  island  in  order  to  study  the  situation  on  the  spot.  Mr.  Brown  has 
just  returned,  and  will  report  to  the  Committee  in  due  course.  Our 
Churches  have  made  remarkable  progress  toward  self-support  and  seif- 

767 


768  APPENDIX. 

government.  Twelve  Circuits  are  now  self-supporting,  and  others  are 
progressing  in  that  direction.  A  Ceylon  Missionary  Society  for  the 
evangelization  of  the  unworked  parts  of  the  island  is  also  well  supported. 

In  recent  years  there  has  been  something  in  the  nature  of  a  Buddhist 
revival,  caused  largely  by  the  agitation  of  the  Theosophical  Society. 
They  endeavor  to  give  a  scientific  explanation  of  Buddhism.  They  im- 
itate Christian  phraseology  and  establish  Sunday  schools  and  Young 
Men's  Buddhist  Associations. 

India — The  decade  has  been  one  of  unrest  in  India.  The  more  violent 
forms  of  the  agitation  are  not  widespread.  But  "  Swadeshi "  (Our  Country) 
sentiments  sway  the  hearts  of  multitudes.  In  some  localities  the  national 
movement  developed  along  perfectly  peaceful  lines,  and  some  of  our 
districts  have  scarcely  been  affected  by  it. 

Our  work  has  developed  slowly  but  healthily.  The  most  notable 
increases  have  been  in  the  Hyderabad  District,  where  the  full  member- 
ship has  risen  from  1,736  to  2,909;  Calcutta  District  where  the  full  member- 
ship has  risen  from  716  to  1,303;  and  Burma  District,  where  the  full 
membership  has  risen  from  244  to  488. 

China — The  fact  that  China  changed  more  during  the  past  decade 
than  she  has  done  during  the  previous  2,000  years  is  sufficient  to  show 
the  momentous  character  of  the  present  hour  in  that  empire.  Never 
before  has  the  Christian  opportunity  been  so  great,  and  while  there  is 
still  no  widespread  desire  on  the  part  of  the  masses  to  accept  Christianity, 
there  is  less  prejudice  and  hostility.  The  change  that  has  come  over  the 
people  is  well  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  last  year  (1910)  our  full  member- 
ship increased  by  280,  which  is  almost  exactly  the  total  number  of  full 
members  in  our  China  Districts  at  the  end  of  the  first  twenty-five  years' 
work  (281).  During  the  ten  years  our  total  China  full  membership  has 
increased  from  2,485  to  4,272. 

In  1902  two  men  were  appointed  to  Changsha,  the  capital  of  the  newly 
opened  Hunan  Province.  The  work  grew  rapidly,  and  in  1906  Hunan 
was  separated  from  Wuchang  and  constituted  a  separate  district,  with 
the  Rev.  G.  G.  Warren  as  its  first  Chairman.  This  nine-year-old  dis- 
trict has  now  six  Circuits  in  charge  of  14  missionaries,  21  Churches  and 
two  preaching  places,  two  hospitals,  a  Boys'  Boarding  school,  a  Theo- 
logical Institution,  and  a  full  membership  of  482  and  308  on  trial. 

Our  medical  work  has  also  developed  in  all  three  China  Districts. 
The  old  hospitals  have  been  enlarged  and  new  ones  have  been  opened. 
The  murder  of  Dr.  Roderick  Macdonald  and  the  death  of  Dr.  Sydney 
Rupert  Hodge  were  severe  blows  to  our  Medical  Mission. 

South  Africa — The  lamentable  war  in  South  Africa  left  our  Transvaal 
District  with  a  nominal  full  membership  of  8,794,  but  the  majority  of  these 
were  scattered,  and  not  a  few  were  dead. 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  the  Rev.  Amos  Burnet  went  out  to  take  charge 
of  our  work,  and  under  his  wise  administration  great  progress  has  been 
made.  Churches  have  been  rebuilt  and  new  ones  erected,  the  number 
having  increased  from  132  to  380.  The  full  membership  has  risen  to 
20,302 — an  increase  of  11,508  in  ten  years.  Of  the  full  members  less 
than  3,000  are  Europeans.  Severe  financial  difficulties — the  natural 
result  of  a  long  war  and  a  great  forward  movement — have  been  encoun- 
tered. 

The  Rhodesia  District  (founded  in  1891)  has  more  than  doubled  its 
membership  during  the  period  under  review.  (1901,  342;  1910,  820). 
The  presence  of  white  colonists  and  miners,  often  of  low  moral  tone,  is  a 
great  hindrance  to  Mission  work.  The  natives  so  easily  learn  the  vices 
of  the  white  races. 

West  Africa — The  Gold  Coast  District  has  greatly  increased  its 
membership.  In  1901  there  were  8,053  full  members;  at  the  close  of  1910 
there  are  over  14,000.     The  increase  last  year  alone  was  1,718,  and  the 


APPENDIX.  769 

missionaries  report  1,971  adult  baptisms  during  the  year.  The  work  in 
Ashanti  has  grown  rapidly;  in  1901  there  were  eight  full  members  and  none 
on  trial,  now  there  are  214  full  members  and  3,710  other  baptized  ad- 
herents. 

Lagos  District  has  increased  its  full  membership  from  2,739  to  4,320. 

The  Sierra  Leone  and  Gambia  District  has  not  made  similar  progress, 
the  increase  being  only  forty-eight,  i.  e.,  1901,  7,601;  1910,  7,649. 

The  American  Districts — The  decade  has  been  marked  by  several 
important  events  in  our  Occidental  Districts.  In  1904  the  two  West 
Indian  Confeiences  dissolved  themselves  and  restored  the  five  Districts 
they  represented  to  the  control  of  the  British  Conference.  The  Rev.  J. 
Milton  Brown  visited  the  field  as  the  representative  of  the  Missionary 
Society  in  connection  with  the  transfer  of  the  work. 

The  terrible  earthquake  that  wrecked  Kingston  in  1907  called  forth 
a  great  deal  of  liberality  in  England  and  Jamaica.  Our  Negro  Methodists 
manifested  great  Christian  fortitude  under  the  calamity,  and  the  damage 
our  property  sustained  has  practically  all  been  repaired. 

The  earthquake  resulted  in  a  great  revival.  Within  a  year  1,418  full 
members  were  added  to  the  roll  of  our  Jamaica  Churches,  and  most  of  our 
West  Indian  Districts  were  in.luenced  to  a  lesser  degree. 

Unfortunately  last  year  (1910)  saw  a  serious  decline,  the  full  member- 
ship being  reduced  by  670  on  total  of  all  the  seven  districts. 

Hayti  has  been  terribly  disturbed  by  a  revolution,  and  Spanish  Hon- 
duras also  suffered  from  political  unrest.  Severe  floods  caused  widespread 
disaster  in  Jamaica,  Hayti,  and  Santo  Domingo.  Hurricanes  have  devas- 
tated Jamaica,  the  Turk's  Islands,  and  Key  West,  wrecking  our  property 
and  disorganizing  our  work.  These  disasters  have  caused  serious  com- 
mercial depression.  The  introduction  of  Asiatic  coolies  has  led  to  the 
opening  of  Moslem  Mosques  and  Hindu  temples  in  British  Guiana.  We 
are  doing  some  little  evangelistic  work  among  these  immigrants. 


IRISH  METHODISM 

There  is  not  much  of  exceptional  importance  to  relate  in  regard  to  the 
decade  of  the  history  of  our  Church  in  this  little  island.  1  find  from  the 
statistics  that  they  are  very  similar,  in  many  respects,  to  those  of  1900. 

'J  he  membership  of  our  Church  in  Ireland  is  a  great  surprise  to  many, 
by  reason  of  the  fact  that,  notwithstanding  the  incessant  drain  upon  the 
popi'lation  by  emigration,  we  show  an  increase  in  the  past  ten  years  of 
1,61.!,  although  in  that  time  we  lost  4,929  by  emigration,  almost  500  a  year. 
What  the  present  census  will  disclose  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but  I  hope 
the  result  will  show  that  there  has  been  no  decline  in  our  prosperity,  not- 
withstanding the  exceptionally  difficult  conditions  under  which  we  pros- 
ecut'  our  labors.  Probably  the  most  noteworthy  event,  in  some  respects, 
of  the  past  ten  years  was  the  completion  of  our  Twentieth  Century  Fund, 
by  which  the  sum  of  over  £53,000  was  raised  for  purposes  of  consolidation 
and  extension.  A  portion  of  this  was  also  allocated  for  Foreign  Missions. 
It  is  only  fair  to  say  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  in  the  history  of  the 
vari(  us  Twentieth  Century  Funds,  a  counterpart  for  this  liberality,  when 
our  numbers  and  social  status  are  taken  into  consideration.  The  fund 
was  hiefly  used  in  the  promotion  of  our  Home  Mission  work,  and  in  the 
building  of  new  churches,  halls,  and  schools.  In  the  city  of  Belfast 
alone-,  a  grant  of  almost  the  entire  fund  was  expended.  This  city,  by  reason 
of  its  great  growth  and  general  progress,  furnishes  us  with  our  greatest 
opportunity  for  aggressive  effort.  All  parts  of  Ireland,  however,  have 
felt  tne  impetus  of  this,  to  us,  great  financial  movement. 

Mention  should  also  be  made  of  the  fact  that  we  have  taken  over  the 
Churches  of  the  Methodist  New  Connection,  a  few  years  ago,  and  those 
d9 


770  APPENDIX. 

of  the  English  Primitive  Methodists  quite  recently.  We  now  stand  in  the 
happy  position  of  having  only  one  form  of  Methodism  in  Ireland. 

As  to  the  future — it  is  difacult  to  forecast,  and  never  more  difficult 
than  to-day,  when  we  are  in  the  midst  of  great  political  upheaval.  During 
the  past  decade  open-air  work  has  been  carried  on  with  great  zeal  and  suc- 
cess in  many  of  the  Fairs  and  Markets,  not  only  in  the  North,  where 
Protestants  are  in  the  great  majority,  but  in  the  South  and 'West,  by  our 
missioners  and  ministers.  The  attention  shown  by  the  people,  generally 
speaking,  has  been  encouraging.  There  have  been,  however,  occasions 
when  our  workers  have  suffered  very  severe  treatment  at  the  hands  of  the 
mob,  but  on  the  whole  they  have  prosecuted  their  labours  without  any 
very  great  let  or  hindrance. 

In  the  cities  of  Dublin,  Belfast,  and  Londonderry  very  valuable  work 
is  being  done  by  our  Central  Missions,  the  influence  of  which  is  felt,  and 
heartily  acknowledged,  by  other  Christian  communities. 

Another  matter  which  ought  to  be  stated  is  the  new  condition  in  which 
our  Church  stands  to  the  Wesleyan  Missionary'  Society,  by  which,  in  a 
few  years,  we  shall  have  taken  over  all  the  responsibility  for  the  Mission 
Stations  in  Ireland,  without  any  grant  from  the  parent  Society,  and  in 
addition  to  this,  maintaining  our  yearly  contributions  to  the  support 
of  the  Society's  work  in  foreign  lands.  To  carry  out  this  scheme  has  meant 
great  self-sacrifice  on  the  part  of  our  people,  but  they  have  faced  it  in  a 
splendid  spirit,  by  reason  of  their  long  cherished  and  devoted  interest 
in  the  cause  of  Foreign  Missions.  Our  Church  in  Ireland  stands  in  the 
old  paths,  and  her  ministers  and  people  were  never  more  zealous  and  de- 
yoted  to  the  cause  of  religious  and  social  reform  than  they  are  to-day. 

At  the  first  Ecumenical  Conference  held  in  Canada  fitting  reference 
will  no  doubt  be  made  to  Paul  and  Barbara  Heck,  and  other  Irish  Pala- 
tines, who  introduced  Methodism  into  Canada  in  1774,  and  who  were 
followed  in  1783  by  Major  George  Neill,  an  Irishman,  and  later,  by  his 
fellow-countryman,  James  McCarty.  Since  that  time  the  Irish  race  has 
been  strongly  represented  in  the  Dominion,  and  there  are  found  in  Canada 
to-day  more  ministers  of  Irish  extraction  than  there  are  in  the  homeland. 

This  brief  sketch  of  the  progress  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Ireland 
can  scarcely  be  more  fittingly  summed  up  than  in  the  words  of  that  dis- 
tinguished Irish  Methodist  minister  and  foreign  missionary,  the  saintly 
William  Arthur,  who,  in  speaking,  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  his  native 
land  (at  the  Ecumenical  Conference  held  in  Washington  in  1891),  said, 
"It  is  a  lovely  vine  of  slender  stem,  struggling  in  unfriendly  soil,  yet  a 
fruitful  vine,  whose  branches  run  over  the  wall."  Thank  God  these  words 
are  as  strikingly  true  to-day  as  they  were  on  the  day  they  were  uttered. 

Statistics 

The  number  of  ministers  in  the  active  work  is  reduced  by  four  and 
supernumeraries  by  five. 

Our  local  preachers  show  an  increase  of  one  hundred,  and  in  many 
places  they  are  rendering  most  estimable  service. 

The  total  number  of  adherents  for  the  last  two  decades  show  an  in- 
crease of  slightly  over  thirteen  per  cent  and  twelve  per  cent  respectively, 
ours  being  the  only  Church  in  this  country  which  reported  any  increase 
during  these  periods. 

The  number  of  schools  is  383. 

The  number  of  teachers  is  2,582 — decrease  of  223. 

Scholars,  25,834 — an  increase  of  368. 

Christian  Endeavor  Societies,  99 — a  decrease  of  14. 

Christian  Endeavor  Society  members,  3,950 — a  decrease  of  548. 

The  number  of  Churches  is  386. 

Schools  and  Halls,  163 — an  increase  of  16. 


APPENDIX.  771 

Ministers*  Residences,  159 — increase  of  3. 
Sittings  in  Churches,  90,839 — increase  of  7,930. 

Estimated  value  of  property  is  £672,769,  and  I  think  this  is  under, 
rather  than  over,  the  value,  and  shows  a  very  large  percentage  of  increase 
in  the  ten  years. 

These  results  and  figures  may  seem  small  to  the  larger  Churches,  but 
they  are  of  great  significance  to  a  small  Church,  contending  with  insuper- 
able difficulties.  (The  late)  J.  D.  Lamont. 


PRIMITIVE  METHODISM,  1901-1910 

Membership — The  membership  return  made  to  the  Conference  of 
1910  was  211,691,  showing  an  increase  in  the  ten  years  of  12,817,  exclusive 
of  6,396  members  incorporated  in  the  union  of  Australasian  Methodism 
in  the  year  1902.  Small  decreases  were  reported  in  the  years  1909  and 
1910.  It  is  difficult  to  account  for  this  decline.  The  emigration  of  large 
numbers  of  members  and  officials  to  Canada  and  other  countries,  the  dis- 
inclination of  people  to  recognize  the  obligations  of  Church  membership, 
are  among  the  main  causes.  There  does  not  seem  to  be  any  diminution 
of  zeal,  only  the  zeal  is  largely  expended  in  social  work,  and  we  are  power- 
less to  penetrate  the  indifference  to  organized  religion  that  characterizes 
the  great  masses  of  the  people. 

Chapel  Property  (Home) — In  1901  there  were  4,304  Chapels,  the 
estimated  value  of  which  was  £3,872,737 ;  in  1910  there  were  4,583  Chapels, 
valued  at  £5,109,718;  showing  an  increase  of  279  Chapels,  and  of  value 
£1,236,981.  In  addition  to  these  there  are  553  rented  Chapels  and  Rooms, 
and  valuable  Church  property  in  New  Zealand  and  Africa.  During  the 
ten"^years  583  new  Chapels  have  been  built.  In  many  instances  these 
have  replaced  old  ones.  The  new  Chapels  as  a  rule  are  larger,  more  com- 
modious, better  situated,  and  altogether  a  vast  improvement  on  the  past. 

Missions — In  the  Home  Department  there  have  been  great  develop- 
ments in  large  centers  of  population  on  social  mission  lines,  but  except  at 
Whitechapel  and  St.  George's  Hall,  London,  these  missions  have  not  been 
a  conspicuous  success.  Greater  financial  resources  are  necessary  to  run 
a  social  mission  successfully. 

In  the  Foreign  Field  the  missions  are  confined  to  Africa.  On  the 
West  Coast  interesting  developments  have  recently  taken  place,  and  the 
missionaries  are  boldly  extending  the  outposts  far  inland.  There  are  im- 
mense populations  eager  to  have  the  ministries  of  salvation.  A  very  suc- 
cessful training  institute  for  boys  has  been  established  at  Oron,  and  another 
for  girls  at  Jamestown.  In  Southern  Africa  the  work  has  been  seriously 
hampered  by  a  native  question,  but  that  difficulty  is  now  removed.  In 
South  Central  Africa  much  success  has  been  realized,  and  most  encouraging 
attempts  are  being  made  to  give  the  people  the  Scriptures  in  their  own 
tongue. 

Sunday  Schools — The  last  ten  years  have  witnessed  a  gradual  in- 
crease in  all  the  departments  of  the  Sunday  schools  of  the  Primitive  Metho- 
dist Church.  In  common  with  the  other  Churches  we  have  experienced 
a  recent  declension,  but  the  figures  quoted  from  the  authoritative  sources 
show  advance  during  the  decade. 

The  number  of  Sunday  schools  has  increased  by  175,  there  being  at 
the  present  time  4,176.  During  the  same  period  there  has  been  an  in- 
crease of  1,632  teachers,  the  present  number  being  59,338.  Of  scholars 
we  have  463,821,  an  increase  during  the  ten  years  of  24,681. 

Through  the  agency  of  the  Christian  Endeavor  we  are  gradually  in- 
creasing our  hold  upon  the  young  people  so  far  as  Church  membership  is 
concerned.     Of  the  scholars  who  are  Church  members  we  have  a  total 


773  APPENDIX. 

of  78,225:  divided  into  Juniors,  42,437,  an  increase  of  16,765;  and  seniors, 
35,787,  an  increase  of  7,498. 

The  outstanding  features  of  our  Sunday  school  work  run  along  the 
lines  of  the  present  development  in  Sunday  school  life  generally.  There 
is  a  deepened  interest  in  primary  work,  together  with  all  the  adjuncts — 
the  Home  Department,  Cradle  Roll,  etc.  Teacher-training  has  recently 
assumed  an  organized  form.  The  Annual  Conference  has  sanctioned 
a  well-thought  out  and  practicable  scheme,  so  that  teachers  in  urban  and 
rural  centers  can  be  trained,  either  in  training-classes,  or  by  correspondence. 
Work  among  boys  and  girls  is  also  taking  hold  of  our  schools,  and  Boys' 
and  Girls'  Life  Brigades  are  being  organized  in  many  places. 

The  decade  has  also  witnessed  a  general  improvement  in  the  teaching 
given  in  our  schools,  the  teaching  being  more  systematic  in  consequence 
of  the  more  general  use  of  the  International  Lessons.  There  is  abroad, 
too,  in  all  parts  of  our  school  work  an  eager  desire  so  to  reform  the  school 
that  it  may  more  efficiently  answer  the  needs  of  the  day. 

Ministerial  Education — Perhaps  in  nothing  has  the  Connexion  ad- 
vanced more  than  on  the  question  of  ministerial  education.  Thanks  to 
the  boundless  munificence  of  that  great  Connexional  statesman  and 
financier,  Sir  W.  P.  Hartley,  the  College  at  Manchester  has  been  enlarged 
at  the  cost  of  many  thousands  of  pounds,  provision  being  made  for  upwards 
of  one  hundred  students.  There  is  an  excellent  staff  of  tutors,  headed 
by  Dr.  Peatre,  a  scholar  of  European  fame. 

Centenary — The  Centenary  of  the  Connexion  was  in  1910,  but  the 
celebrations  began  in  the  year  1907,  with  a  huge  camp-meeting  at  Mow 
Cop,  Staffordshire,  at  which  it  was  estimated  that  no  less  than  100,000 
people  were  present.  Rea'izing  that  money  is  the  sinew  of  war,  even  in 
the  Church,  it  was  resolved  to  commemorate  the  occasion  by  the  raising 
of  a  Thanksgiving  fund  of  £250,000.  This  amount  has  been  exceeded, 
and  many  Connexional  Institutions  will  benefit  thereby. 

On  the  whole  the  Connexion  is  healthy,  vigorous,  aggressive.  It  has 
a  large  and  practical  outlook,  and  enters  deeply  and  sympathetically  into 
the  spirit  of  the  times.  It  "holds  fast  to  the  form  of  sound  words,"  and 
believes  that  the  solution  of  the  social  problem  can  only  be  found  in  per- 
sonal redemption  from  sin.  It  enters  on  the  second  century  of  its  ex- 
istence full  of  hope  and  faith  that  its  future  will  be  greater  than  its  past. 

THE  METHODIST  NEW  CONNEXION,  1901-1907 

1901 — Wholesale  destruction  of  chapels,  hospitals,  schools,  etc.,  re- 
ported from  North  China  during  the  "Boxer"  outbreak:  five  martyrs, 
Teintsin;  forty-one.  Shantung;  forty-five,  Kai  Ping;  numbers  ascertained 
later  to  be  over  one  hundred.     Martyr  tablets  in  the  new  chapels  erected. 

Inauguration  of  Extension  Fund,  the  sum  of  £45,000  as  capital  having 
been  bequeathed  by  the  late  Mr.  John  Henry  Warhurst.  From  1903  to 
1907  grants  were  paid  to  new  Churches  amounting  to  £8,705;  1907  to 
1910,  several  thousands  more. 

1902 — -Exceptionally   large   increase   of   members. 

Ecumenical  Conference  Resolution  on  Union  considered,  and  Annual 
Committee  authorized  to  receive  communications  from  other  Methodist 
Conferences. 

Agreed  to  unite  with  Wesleyans  in  the  production  of  Hymn  Book. 

1903 — Resolution  adopted  approving  of  Methodist  Union  in  certain 
lines,  and  Committee  appointed  to  continue  negotiations  with  United 
Methodist  Free  Church  and  Bible  Christians. 

General  Rules  adopted  for  the  Women's  Missionary  Auxiliary. 

1904 — Further  progress  in  negotiations  for  Union,  and  results  of 
voting  in  Quarterly  meetings  reported:  approval,  ninety-three  per  cent. 
Similar  results  in  U.  M.  F.  C.  and  B.  C. 


APPENDIX.  77B 

Offer  accepted  from  Irish  Methodist  Church  for  the  transfer  of  our 
interests  in  Ireland  to  their  care.  Over  1,000  members  and  probationers 
transferred  with  properties  in  Belfast  and  neighborhood,  valued  at  from 
£10,000  to  £12,000,  exclusive  of  small  amount  owing  to  Irish  Manse 
Fund,  and  one  mortgage  and  several  small  floating  debts.  The  Irish 
Church  agreed  that  as  an  equitable  consideration,  in  view  of  the  large 
amounts  we  had  expended,  they  would  pay  £500  per  annum  for  eight  years. 

1905 — Further  details  reported  on  the  progress  of  Methodist  Union, 
and  lines  laid  down  of  ofificial  meetings,  etc. 

1906 — Thanks  received  from  the  Rev.  C.  H.  Kelly,  Wesleyan  Presi- 
dent, for  the  reply  made  to  the  Wesleyan  overture  previously  sent  on  the 
question  of  union. 

Detailed  constitution  for  union  with  U.  M.  F.  C.  and  B.  C.  submitted 
with  District  arrangements. 

1907 — Final  consideration  as  a  separate  Conference  of  the  question 
of  Union.  The  Conference  adjourned  to  September  7th,  to  unite  with 
the  other  Conferences  in  City  Road  Chapel,  London. 

Great  interest  attended  all  the  public  services  as  being  the  final  Metho- 
dist New  Connexion  Conference,  and  large  crowds  at  all  the  public  meet- 
ings. Last  of  great  series  of  Annual  Missionary  Meetings  during  which, 
in  the  last  ten  years,  the  collection  amounted  to  £4,558. 

George  Packer. 

UNITED  METHODIST  FREE  CHURCHES,  1901-1907 

In  the  history  of  Churches,  as  in  that  of  nations,  there  are  periods, 
sometimes  extending  over  many  years,  when  one  great  subject  absorbs 
exclusive  attention.  This  was  the  experience  of  the  United  Methodist 
Free  Churches  between  1901,  the  date  of  the  last  Ecumenical  Conference, 
and  1907.  At  that  Conference  the  amalgamation  of  Methodist  Churches 
became  a  creed,  and  at  the  close  of  the  Conferences  of  1907  it  happily 
became  a  fact  in  respect  of  three  denominations,  namely,  the  Methodist 
New  Connexion,  the  Bible  Christians,  and  the  United  Methodist  Free 
Churches.  The  intervening  years,  big  with  promise  of  future  good,  and 
occupied  with  zealous  labors  to  extend  the  Kingdom  of  Christ,  not  without 
much  spiritual  results,  were  nevertheless,  in  regard  to  the  three  denomina- 
tions in  particular,  filled  with  desire  and  effort  to  effect  an  organic  Union. 
And  this  was  happily  achieved  in  1907,  when  the  united  Churches  took 
the  name  of  the  "United  Methodist  Church,"  under  Parliamentary  sanc- 
tion and  recognized  legal  rights. 

The  first  practical  step  toward  securing  the  high  purpose  aimed  at 
during  the  Ecumenical  Conference  on  1901  was  taken  by  the  Rev.  David 
Brook,  M.  A.,  D.  C.  L.,  and  Mr.  Robert  Bird,  J.  P.,  both  belonging  to  the 
United  Methodist  Free  Churches,  who,  after  consultation  with  their  co- 
delegates,  invited  all  the  delegates  of  the  Churches  immediately  concerned 
to  a  meeting  where  Methodist  Union  was  talked  over  in  a  full,  friendly, 
and  candid  manner,  and  there  was  so  much  unanimity  and  desire  for  or- 
ganic union,  and  so  deep  a  conviction  of  its  utility  and  practicability,  that 
further  steps  were  speedily  taken,  till,  after  six  years  of  thought  and  toil, 
the  object  was  gained. 

Absorbing  as  this  question  was  to  the  United  Methodist  Free  Churches, 
they  nevertheless  pursued  their  way  in  active  and  successful  service. 
It  was  understood  on  all  sides  that  the  desire  and  preparation  for  union 
must  not  be  allowed  to  weaken  or  reduce  the  ordinary  work  of  the  Church, 
and  this  purpose  was  adhered  to  with  tenacity  and  success. 

In  1901  the  Twentieth  Century  Fund  was  nearing  its  completion, 
and  so  satisfactory  and  successful  was  the  scheme  that  not  only  the  £100,- 
000  aimed  at  was  secured  in  promises,  but  more  than  £8,000  in  addition; 
and  within  the  six  years  that  followed  above  £104,000  of  it  had  been  paid. 


774  APPENDIX. 

The  Missionary  zeal  of  the  Connexion  was  creditable  to  it.  Truly 
Methodistic  in  feeling  and  labor,  it  had,  even  in  its  weakest  days,  looked 
upon  millions  with  admiration,  and  done  something  for  their  support; 
and  now,  with  multiplied  numbers  and  means,  it  increased  its  missionary 
income  and  enlarged  its  sphere  of  operation.  Within  the  six  years  under 
review  it  had  thirty  missionaries  employed  in  foreign  parts,  two  of  whom 
were  medical  missionaries,  and  two  Principals  of  Colleges  in  China,  and 
one  Educational  missionary,  and  one  Agricultural  missionary  in  East 
Africa.  Nor  did  this  zeal  and  enterprise  exhaust  itself  on  Foreign  Missions. 
There  was  a  hunger  for  Home  Missions,  which  was  in  some  measure  met 
by  the  appointment  of  a  Home  Missionary  Secretar3%  the  appropriation 
of  a  definite  portion  of  the  General  Mission  Fund  to  Home  Mission  work, 
and  the  opening  of  Missions  here  and  there. 

The  Home  contributions  to  Missions  in  1907  were  £12,635  as  against 
£11,434  in  1901;  and  the  number  of  members  in  the  Foreign  Mission 
Stations  in  1907  was  10,922  full  members  and  7,817  probationers  in  con- 
trast with  8,680  members  and  3,850  probationers  in  1901. 

In  the  Home  Churches  meanwhile  there  was  much  activity,  progress 
showing  itself  in  almost  every  department.  The  membership  rose  from 
72,568  in  1901,  to  79,948  in  1907,  but  on  one  point  there  was  humiliation, 
for  the  probationers  at  the  later  date  revealed  a  decrease  of  1,958,  a  dark 
cloud  in  an  otherwise  clear  sky.  Year  by  year  the  desire  for  a  well-trained 
ministry  deepened  and  was  gradually  realized;  and  the  Christian  training 
of  the  young  people  by  a  separate  organization  was  undertaken  with  hope 
and  advantage.  Sunday  schools  gathered  in  3,720  additional  scholars 
and  1,159  teachers — a  matter  to  occasion  joy,  tempered,  however,  by  the 
fact  that  in  the  years  preceding  1901  larger  increases  had  been  obtained. 

The  United  Aiethodist  Free  Churches  stood  side  by  side  with  other 
non-conformist  bodies  in  opposition  to  the  reactionary  and  unjust  Educa- 
tion Act  of  1902,  and  some  members  of  the  Connexion  suffered  the  spoiling 
of  their  goods  and  even  imprisonment,  rather  than  pay  a  rate  for  teaching 
doctrines  which  they  believed  to  be  pernicious  and  erroneous.  In  the 
cause  of  Temperance  the  Churches  were  earnest,  as  they  had  been  from 
the  beginning,  and  they  had  a  Temperance  organization  which  did  a  good 
work.  Adherents  and  members  of  the  denomination  were  always  to  the 
fore  in  maintaining  liberty  of  conscience  and  personal  freedom,  and  they 
marched  in  the  vanguard  of  those  who  fought  for  the  sanctity  of  the  Sab- 
bath, for  moral  purity,  and  for  national  peace. 

The  sphere  of  woman  in  Christian  service,  recognized  for  several  pre- 
ceding years  in  the  denomination,  was  increasingly  appreciated  in  the 
years  under  review;  and  the  deaconesses  trained  in  Bowr9n  House  knew 
the  elements  of  nursing  and  how  to  help  the  afflicted  poor.  They,  or  some 
of  them,  were  competent  to  undertake  nearly  all  kinds  of  service  in  the 
Church;  and  the  Deaconess  Institute  grew  in  esteem  and  fruitfulness. 
Societies  of  Christian  Endeavor  also  were  multiplied,  and  pleasant  Sunday 
afternoon  services,  or  Brotherhoods  for  men,  began  to  be  held,  and  similar 
meetings  on  week  nights  for  women.  Thus  these  Churches  were  not 
effete  or  dying  and  forced  into  union  to  avoid  extinction;  but  they  came 
together  in  all  the  fervor  and  energy  of  youth,  prepared  to  bear  heavy 
burdens,  and  do  great  things  for  Christ  and  His  Kingdom. 

For  many  years  the  denomination  had  taken  a  deep  interest  in,  and 
rendered  support  to,  what  is  now  "The  National  Children's  Home  and 
Orphanage,"  which  gradually  increased.  Edward  Boaden. 

THE  BIBLE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH,  1901-1907 

As  the  question  of  union  with  two  other  Methodist  Bodies  was  under 
discussion  during  the  whole  of  this  period,  it  necessarily  occupied  much 
time  and  attention,  and  probably  was  the  means  of  keeping  in  abeyance 


APPENDIX.  ■  t75 

other  projects  and  enterprises  to  which  the  energies  of  the  Church  would 
otherwise  have  been  directed.  Union  was  not  only  in  itself  the  chief 
event  of  the  period,  its  anticipation  also  created  an  abnormal  condition  of 
things  with  regard  to  all  general  Connexional  effort,  and  accounts  in  some 
degree  for  what  may  seem  the  paucity  of  events.  At  the  first  Bible  Chris- 
tian Conference  after  the  Ecumenical  Conference  of  1901,  a  resolution 
was  passed  consenting  to  the  opening  of  negotiations  with  a  view  to  union. 
The  idea  had  been  first  mooted  during  the  sittings  of  the  Ecumenical 
Conference  at  a  meeting  of  the  representatives  of  the  three  Churches  then 
present. 

Opening  of  the  Miao  Mission. — This  event,  though  actually  oc- 
curring in  China,  was  no  less  an  event  for  the  Church  at  home,  since  it 
greatly  enlarged  the  opportunity  of  an  important  mission  field,  and  at 
the  same  time  almost  doubled  the  tax  on  our  resources.  It  came  unsought 
and  unexpected.  During  the  summer  of  1904  our  missionaries  in  Yunnan, 
China,  were  surprised  by  a  visit  from  a  small  number  of  men  of  the  Hwa 
Miao  tribe,  one  of  the  aboriginal  tribes  of  China,  living  in  the  wild  open 
country,  mainly  out  of  contact  with  the  Chinese  people,  and  speaking 
a  different  language,  which  had  never  been  reduced  to  grammar  or  writing. 
They  were  utterly  illiterate  and  extremely  poor.  Their  motive,  created  by 
some  unknown  cause,  was  to  obtain  instruction.  Beyond  this  they  asked 
nothing.  In  a  few  weeks  they  were  coming  in  scores  and  even  in  hundreds. 
The  task  of  dealing  with  them  became  so  huge  that  the  missionaries  were 
were  compelled  to  follow  them  back  into  their  own  country  to  learn  their 
language  and  reduce  it  to  writing,  to  build  chapels,  etc.  Of  all  this  work 
Mr.  Samuel  Pollard  was  the  pioneer.  Five  chapels  were  built  in  three 
years,  and  at  the  time  of  union  there  was  a  membership  of  over  3,000' 
who  had  been  duly  instructed  and  baptized,  with  2,000  on  trial  for  member- 
ship. This  work  is  gradually  becoming  consolidated.  It  must  be  regarded 
as  one  of  the  most  remarkable  movements  in  the  history^  of  missions. 

Death  of  the  Rev.  F.  W.  Bourne — The  Rev.  F.  W.  Bourne,  author 
of  the  extraordinarily  successful  and  well-known  "Life  of  Billy  Bray," 
died  in  July,  1905,  on  the  morning  after  his  seventy-fifth  birthday.  More 
than  half  a  million  copies  of  "Billy  Bray"  have  been  sold,  and  the  author 
received  upward  of  600  letters  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  stating  that 
the  writers  had  been  led  to  Christ  through  reading  it.  During  the  last 
year  of  his  life  Mr.  Bourne  wrote,  at  the  request  of  the  Conference,  a  his- 
tory of  the  Bible  Christian  Church  from  1815  to  1900.  He  was  among 
the  first  to  advocate  the  union  of  Methodist  Churches,  and  was  in  full 
sympathy  with  the  steps  taken  in  th's  direction  in  Canada  and  Australasia, 
though  in  each  instance  a  serious  loss  to  his  own  Church  was  involved. 
His  life-long  and  persi^.tent  support  of  the  principle  of  Methodist  Union 
accounted  largely  for  the  readiness  of  the  Bible  Christian  Church  to  enter 
the  Union  negotiations. 

Enlargement  of  Edgehill  Girls'  College. — The  keen  interest  which, 
from  the  beginning  of  their  history  the  Bible  Christians  have  taken  in 
education  was  further  exemplified  in  1906  when,  at  a  cost  of  several  thou- 
sand pounds,  an  extensive  addition  was  made  to  the  Girls'  College  at 
Edgehill,   Bideford. 

That  this  section  of  Methodism  continued  to  retain  its  aggressive 
qualities  up  to  the  end  of  its  existence  as  a  separate  body  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  during  the  six  years  between  the  Conferences  of  1901  and  1907, 
the  net  increase  of  members  in  England  was  3,740,  or  over  13  per  cent,  i.  c., 
from  28,462  to  32,202.  In  the  same  period  the  membership  in  foreign 
stations  had  risen  from  28  to  2, 442, with  over  2,000  on  trial. 

J.  B.  Stedeford. 


776 


APPENDIX. 


Home  Districts,  1901 


cn 

r 

o 

sr 

c« 

n 

is- 

cr 
n 

O 

It 

c  5. 

g 

n 
3 

cn 

o  ii 
2. 

cn 

n  1-1 

SI  "> 

•  •    &> 

•     3 

■     Cu 

1 

cn 

Meth.  New  Con 
Bible  Churches. 
U.  M.  F.  C .  . .  . 

195 

206 
393 

1,081 
1,491 
3,022 

32,324 
28,315 
72,568 

5,059 

458 
6,474 

V,484 
2,422 

446 

564 

1,227 

10,679 

7,331 

23,665 

82,617 

43,401 

185,448 

Home  totals  . 
For'n  totals.. 

794 
69 

5,594 
463 

133,207 
13,181 

11,991 

5,226 

3,906 
601 

2,237 
136 

41,675 
818 

311,466 
8,901 

Grand  total .  . 

863 

6,057 

146,388 

17,217 

4,507 

2,373 

42,493 

320,367 

1907.    At  the  Time  of  Union 


Meth.  New  Con 
Bible  Christian. 
U.  M.  F.  C .  . . . 

204 
236 
438 

1,123 

1,515 
2,983 

37,009 
32,202 
79,948 

4,866 

535 

4,516 

'l',834 
3,101 

457 

570 

1,237 

10,959 

7,416 

24,824 

87,741 

45,847 

189,168 

Home  totals. . 
For'n  totals.  . 

848 
55 

5,621 
630 

149,159 
16,343 

9,917 
11,856 

4,995 
1,877 

2,264 
174 

43,199 
568 

322,756 
8,815 

Grand  total 

903 

6,251 

165,502 

21,773 

6.872 

2,438 

43,767 

331,571 

1910.    United  Methodist  Church 


Home  totals.  .  . 
Foreign  totals.  . 

849 
46 

5,500 
739 

146,715 
19,007 

8,949 
9,334 

5,141 
1,710 

2,226 
148 

42,036 
520 

309,649 
8,008 

Grand  total 

895 

6,239 

165,722 

18,283 

6,851 

2,374 

42,556 

317,657 

Foreign  Districts,  1901 


Meth.  New  Con 

3 
11 

55 

90 

3 

370 

2,598 

28 

10,555 

1,276 

Bible  Christian. 

22 

150 

U.  M.F.  C 

3,928|     601 

136 

818 

8,751 

Total 

69 

463 

13,181 

5,226'     601 

136 

818 

8,901 

At  the  Time  of  the  Union,  1907 


Meth.  New  Con 
Bible  Christian . 
U.  M.F.  C 


11 

14 
30 

165 

5 
460 

2,979 

2,442 

10,922 

1,487 
2,552 
7,817 

'*452 
1,425 

53 

"in 

53 

30 

485 

55 

630 

16,343 

11,856 

1,877 

174 

568 

659 
2,170 
5,986 


8,815 


Note — In  1901  the  Victorian  Conference  was  connected  with  the 
Bible  Christians  Conference,  but  as  the  connection  has  since  ceased,  no 
account  is  taken  in  the  above  figures  of  ministers,  members,  etc.,  returned 
in  connection  with  the  Victorian  Conference.  In  the  same  way  the  Irish 
Churches  are  not  included  in  the  M.  N.  -C.  1901  returns. 


APPENDIX. 


777 


Trust  Estates,  Etc. 

At  the  time  of  the  union  1907  the  follov.-ing  were  the  official  statistics 
on  the  points  named: 


No.  of 
Chapel-; 

Accomo- 
dation 

Cost 

Debt 

Meth.  New  Conn 

462 

613 

1,268 

164,566 
150,365 
399,862 

£1,128,298 

855,682 

2,410,397 

£153,030 

Bible  Christians 

163,581 

Unit.  Meth.  Free  Church.  . 

440,112 

Total 

2,343 

714,793 

4,394,377 

756,993 

Note   (a) — The  above  figures  do  not  include  the  various  properties 
on  the  foreign  mission  fields. 

(b) — Subsequent  figures  are  not  available,  but  the  above  may 
be  taken  as  approximately  correct. 


WESLEYAN  REFORM  UNION 

The  Wesleyan  Reform  Union  is  comprised  chiefly  of  Churches  in  the 
Midlands  and  North  Midlands  of  England.  The  union,  however,  has 
societies  in  the  far  west  and  north,  and  extends  from  St.  Just  to  Middles- 
borough.  ConsequenUy,  being  so  scattered,  the  Churches  suffer  severely 
by  removals.  The  distinctive  feature  of  this  small  Methodist  denomina- 
tion is  its  polity,  being  purely  Congregational  in  its  Church  government. 
It  is  pleasing  to  report  that  in  the  last  ten  years  the  advance  in  member- 
ship has  been  at  the  steady  rate  of  one  hundred  a  year,  viz. :  1 ,000  additional 
members  upon  the  numbers  reported  in  1901,  making  a  total  of  8,000. 
The  number  of  Churches  have  risen  from  187  to  200.  The  value  of  chapel 
property  in  1901  was  £126,763,  to-day  it  is  £180,000,  while  the  accomoda- 
tion has  increased  by  6,000  sittings.  The  preachers  have  grown  from 
423  to  490.  In  the  Sunday  schools  the  same  quiet  progress  can  be  re- 
ported. In  1901  the  number  of  scholars  was  20,015;  now  there  are  22,810; 
scholars,  members  of  the  Church,  951;  to-day  1,355,  and  the  teachers 
have  increased  from  2,716  to  2,740.  It  is,  however,  in  foreign  missions 
that  the  greatest  advance  has  been  made.  Ten  years  ago  we  had  no 
foreign  mission  station;  to-day  we  have  stations  in  China,  Africa,  and  India, 
viz.,  China — three  stations  in  the  province  of  Honan,  and  one  station 
in  the  province  of  Hunan.  Africa — one  station  at  Bompona,  Congo 
Free  State.  Bompona  is  a  new  station,  1,500  miles  up  the  Congo  River, 
and  the  farthest  inland  mission  station.  India — Didhi,  North  India. 
Two  stations  with  native  teachers.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  whereas 
ten  years  ago  we  had  no  mission  station  abroad,  to-day  we  hold  seven. 

New  organizations  have  sprung  into  existence  in  the  working  machinery 
of  the  Union.  A  Young  People's  Department  has  been  formed  to  organize 
the  young  life  of  the  school  and  congregation,  and  prepare  them  for  real 
effective  work  in  the  Church.  A  Women's  Auxiliary  for  Home  and  For- 
eign Missions  is  creating  new  interest  in  all  branches  of  Christian  eiTort, 
while  an  order  of  Deaconess  has  been  instituted  by  the  Conference  for  visi- 
tation and  mission  work  amongst  the  Churches.  These  three  depart- 
ments have  been  formed  since  1901. 

The  work  of  Home  Missions  has  gone  steadily  forward,  as  also  the 
operations  of  the  Temperance  League,  though  not  so  much  progress  can 
be  reported  here  as  elsewhere  in  the  Union.  Generally  speaking,  the  de- 
cade has  been  spent  in  organization  and  consolidation,  while  no  little 
attention  has  been  given  to  entirely  new  fields  of  labor,  both  at  home  and 
abroad. 


778  APPENDIX. 


WESLEYAN  METHODIST  CHURCH  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1901- 

1910 

The  area  included  in  the  operations  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church 
of  South  Africa  comprises  the  Provinces  of  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  the  Orange 
Free  State,  and  Natal  and  Zululand. 

Basutoland  has  been  occupied  for  a  long  period  almost  entirely  and 
exclusively  by  missionaries  of  the  French  Protestant  Churches.  The 
Province  of  the  Transvaal,  Rhodesia,  and  the  Bechuanaland  Protectorate, 
in  their  relations  to  Methodism,  afford  the  sphere  in  which  ministers  and 
missionaries  of  the  British  Conference  and  the  American  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Churches  carry  on  their  work. 

The  latest  census  returns  show  that  within  the  area  of  the  South  African 
Conference  there  are  approximately  816,790  whites,  3,020,110  natives 
and  Dutch-speaking  colored  people,  and  112,126  Indian  Immigrants,  the 
latter  being  mainly  resident  in  Natal. 

Ecclesiastical  Census — It  must  be  observed  that  of  the  white  popu- 
lation a  large  proportion  are  of  Dutch  birth,  and  are  ministered  to  by  the 
rich  and  influential  Dutch  Reformed  Church.  This  is  especially  true  of 
the  Orange  Free  State  provinces.  Other  than  Dutch  people  there  are 
probably  not  more  than  400,000  white  persons  within  the  area  above 
described. 

The  Methodist  Church  records  about  40,000  white  adherents,  or  about 
one-tenth  of  the  whole  English-speaking  population. 

For  the  religious  benefit  of  the  Malays  who  reside  principally  in  Cape- 
town and  its  neighborhood,  very  little  has  been  achieved  or  attempted 
by  any  of  the  Churches. 

In  Christian  service  for  the  Asiatics  in  Natal  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church  led  the  van,  and  from  the  earliest  days  of  the  immigration  our 
agencies  have  been  at  work  for  the  conversion  of  this  constantly  fluctu- 
ating population.  The  ever  changing  conditions  of  these  people,  who 
return  to  India  on  the  completion  of  their  term  of  indenture  and  are  re- 
placed by  altogether  new  gangs  of  laborers,  render  it  practically  impossible 
to  build  up  local  Churches  amongst  them. 

The  3,000,000  natives  and  colored  people  returned  by  the  last  census 
are  rapidly  on  the  increase.  The  adherents  of  Methodism  are  said  to 
number  over  260,000,  and  something  like  105,000  are  meeting  in  our 
classes.  To  have  attained  such  a  position  is  clear  evidence  that  Metho- 
dism is  pre-eminently  a  missionary  Church.  Not  fewer  than  twenty-six 
other  Churches  have  their  representatives  at  work  alongside  the  agents 
of  the  Methodist  Church,  with  varying  degrees  of  success.  It  may  ap- 
pear as  if  the  field  were  fully  occupied,  and  yet  there  are  calls  from  large 
unevangelized  districts  to  which  we  can  not  respond  for  want  of  men  and 
money. 

Numerical  Progress — During  the  decade  under  review  our  Church 
membership  has  advanced  from  58,000  to  86,000,  whilst  there  has  been 
an  increase  of  63,000  adherents,  and  this  enumeration  takes  no  account 
of  the  constant  exodus  of  native  laborers  who  pass  beyond  our  boundaries 
to  the  great  centers  of  industr>\ 

Unlike  the  majority  of  other  Churches,  South  African  Methodism  is 
now  without  financial  assistance  from  Europe  and  America,  and  has  to 
rely  upon  its  own  resources. 

To  what  extent  these  have  been  developed  is  indicated  by  the  fact 
that  amidst  a  comparatively  small  English  population  and  by  congregations 
which  have  but  recently  emerged  from  heathenism,  the  voluntary  con- 
tributions amount  to  £160,000  each  year. 

Education — The  Governments  of  the  three  Provinces  have  made 
excellent  provision  for  the  elementary  education  of  the  white  children, 


APPENDIX.  779 

but  the  establishment  of  secondary  schools  was  long  delayed.  Our  people 
have  sustained  a  heavy  burden  in  the  establishment  of  Wesleyan  High 
Schools  and  Colleges  in  the  Provinces  of  the  Cape  and  Natal,  where  they 
have  attained  great  efficiency  and  influence. 

As  yet  there  has  been  no  attempt  to  create  a  State  system  of  schools 
for  the  children  of  natives,  but  it  has  been  left  to  the  missionary  Churches 
to  organize  and  maintain  these  schools  under  Government  inspection  and 
with  inadequate  grants-in-aid.  A  more  liberal  policy  is  foreshadowed 
in  the  Declarations  of  the  newly-formed  Union  Government.  A  large 
proportion  of  the  existing  primary  schools  are  controlled  bj"  the  Metho- 
dist Church. 

Ministerial  Training — With  the  exception  of  the  Dutch  Reformed 
Church  the  Churches  of  South  Africa  have  still  to  bring  their  ministers 
from  oversea.  In  the  case  of  the  Methodist  Church,  its  afiiliation  with 
the  British  Conference  permits  of  a  generous  arrangement  by  means  of 
which  the  English  candidates,  whether  of  South  African  or  British  origin, 
have  the  invaluable  benefit  of  training  in  the  theological  colleges  in  Eng- 
land. 

The  education  of  its  native  ministry  is  undertaken  in  a  small  central 
institute  which  is  maintained  by  native  donations  and  grants  from  the 
mission  fund  of  the  Church. 

Philanthropic  Institutions — The  creation  of  the  Children's  Homes 
in  the  Peninsular  of  the  Cape,  which  are  known  as  the  "  Marsh  Memorial," 
and  which  are  the  admiration  and  pride  of  South  African  Methodists, 
and  the  smaller,  but  not  less  laudable,  "Ethelbert  Orphanage"  in  Natal, 
are  the  outstanding  proofs  of  Methodist  benevolence  which  is  ever  prompt 
to  respond  to  the  cr>'  of  the  needy. 

The  Decade  of  Devastation  and  Reconstruction — Ten  years 
ago  the  Sub-Continent  of  Africa  was  in  the  throes  of  a  great  racial  war. 
Fortunately  the  native  tribes  were  not  embroiled,  although  the  whole 
political  fabric  was  in  jeopardy.  The  demoralizing  effects  of  the  war  were 
wide  and  deep.  It  meant  not  alone  the  sacrifice  of  valued  lives,  but  the 
breaking  up  of  homes,  the  destruction  of  property,  the  devastation  of 
large  tracts  of  the  countr\',  the  scattering  of  families,  the  exodus  of  the 
timorous,  and  the  disorganization  of  life  and  work  generally.  The  in- 
flation of  property  values,  and  the  extravagent  habits  which  the  lavish 
war  expenditure  naturally  created,  were  speedily  followed  by  reaction 
and  retrenchment,  which  meant  the  downfall  and  financial  ruin  of  large 
numbers  of  our  citizens. 

These  things  combined  to  make  the  work  of  reorganization  and  re- 
construction exceedingly  difficult,  and  the  wonder  is,  not  that  the  Churches 
have  merely  survived,  but  have  made  good  many  of  their  losses.  Whilst 
for  many  a  year  they  will  reap  the  harvest  of  the  seed  sown  during  the  war, 
there  are  many  tokens  that  in  this  new  decade  of  political  reconciliation 
and  reunion  the  Kingdom  of  Peace  and  Righteousness  will  steadily  ad- 
vance. 

Church  Union — Fortunately  for  South  Africa  there  does  not  con- 
front us  any  problem  of  Methodist  union.  The  Primitive  Methodist 
Church  has  a  small  but  important  mission  settlement  in  the  northern 
part  of  the  province  of  the  Cape.  That  station  is,  however,  regarded 
more  as  a  base  of  their  mission  operations  in  the  Zambesian  region  than 
as  a  center  of  local  missionary'  activity,  and  it  is  not  at  present  prac- 
ticable to  transfer  it  to  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

The  incorporation  of  the  Transvaal  and  Rhodesia  Districts  in  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  of  South  Africa  is  an  event  which  will  follow 
in  the  natural  course,  and  only  demands  the  exercise  of  patience  and  the 
caution  and  courage  of  wise  statesmanship. 

Overtures  which  have  been  made  on  behalf  of  the  organic  union  of  the 
Baptist,  Congregational,  Presbyterian,  and  Wesleyan  Churches  of  South 


780 


APPENDIX. 


Africa  proved,  at  least,  premature,  and  nothing  more  than  mutual 
concession  and  co-operation  seems  within  sight. 

Disintegration  of  Churches — In  common  with  every  other  Church, 
Methodism  has  suffered  through  the  introduction  of  the  divisive  move- 
ment and  proselytizing  agencies  which  are  so  glaring  a  feature  of  our  times. 

What  is  commonly  termed  the' Ethiopian  movement,  the  motto  of 
which  is  "Africa  for  the  Africans,"  did  serious  damage  to  a  few  of  our 
native  Churches  (its  effects  were  more  evident  in  some  other  denominations) , 
but  its  strength  appears  to  be  spent,  and  there  is  little  fear  that  it  will 
attain  to  large  dimensions. 

The  pretensions  or  impostures  of  the  falsely  so-called  Spiritualism  and 
Christian  Science;  the  speculations  and  theories  of  Swedenborgians, 
Millenarians,  Adventists,  and  a  host  of  others  who  have  stolen  in  unawares, 
do  much  to  unsettle  the  faith  of  many  of  our  people,  and  divide  our  small 
communities  into  antagonistic  sects,  whereas  the  needs  of  the  surrounding 
heathendom  claim  the  whole-souled  devotion  and  untiring  energy  of  the 
entire  Christian  Church  in  this  land. 

Assurance  of  Hope — It  is  no  disparagement  of  the  other  Churches 
to  declare  that  the  teaching,  the  polity,  and  the  methods  of  the  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church  have  proved  themselves  peculiarly  adapted  to  the 
various  conditions  of  the  mixed  populations  of  this  country,  and  if  Metho- 
dism is  true  to  her  traditions  she  may,  by  the  grace  of  God,  face  the  future 
without  faltering  or  fear,  and,  in  the  vigour  of  an  inspired  hope,  which 
is  the  assurance  of  greater  progress,  may  proceed  to  develop  her  plans 
for  expansion  and  extension  during  the  present  decade. 

The  attached  statistical  and  financial  schedules  will  be  an  index  to 
the  various  departments  of  our  Church  life  and  work.         E.  Nuttall. 


WESLEYAN  METHODIST  CHURCH  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 

C0MPA.R4.TIVE  NUMERICAL  RETURNS  AS  PRESENTED  TO  THE  CONFERENCES  OF  1900  AND  1910 


English 


Native,  Colored 
and  Indian 


1910 


Totals 


1900       1910 


Inc. 


Dec. 


Churches 

Other  preaching  places 

Ministers 

Evangelists 

Lojal  preachers ._ 

Class  leaders  other  than  ministers 

Church  members 

Total  number  of  communicants 

On  trial  for  Church  membership 

In  Junior  classes 

Sunday  schools — 

Schools 

Officers  and  teachers 

Scholars 

Day  schools — 

Schools 

Teachers 

Scholars 

Baptisms — 

Infant 

Adult 

Marriages 

Burials 

Approximate  nimiber  of  adherents,  in- 
cluding members  and  scholars 


157 

230 

128 

14 

243 

131 

6,339 

7,027 

4S7 

862 

139 
1,241 
10,703 

5 
31 


1,513 

2 

370 

592 

34,189 


210 
235 
148 
8 
258 
165 

9,704 

10,235 

720 

1,211 

172 
1,303 
11,440 


1,803 


451 
447 


39,521 


597 

1,720 

79 

211 

3,279 

4,250 

51,802 

51,802 

25,394 

14,478 

408 

1,325 

25,305 

583 

921 

37,429 

6,095 
4,159 
1,617 
1,602 

211,827 


1,062 

2,305 

106 

231 

5,380 

7,149 

76,375 

76,37 

31,399 

24,964 

587 

1,515 

27,962 

799 

1,364 

46,695 

9,023 
3,366 
2,088 
1,991 


754 

1,950 

207 

225 

3,522 

4,381 

58,207 

58,829 

25,831 

15,340 

547 

2,5G6 
36,008 


952 
37,977 

7,606 
4,161 
1,987 
2,194 

246,016 


1,272 

2,660 

254 

239 

5,638 

7,314 

86,07!, 

86,612 

32,11C 

26,175 

759 

2,818 

39,402 

799 

1,393 

46,695 

10,826 
3,375 
2,539 
2,438 

308,928 


518 

710 

47 

14 

2,116 

2,933 

27,878 

27,784 

6,238 

10,835 

212 

252 

3,394 

211 

441 

8,718 

3,218 


62,912 


APPENDIX. 


rsi 


WESLEYAN  METHODIST  CHURCH  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 

Comparative  Financul  Reti-rns  as  Presented  to  the  Conferences  of  1900  and  1010 
Income  from  all  source*. 


TEARS 


Total  circuit  income  as  per  schedule  No.  5 
Conncxional  trust  property  as  per  schedule 

No.  7 

Sunday  schools 

Day  schools — 

School  fees  and  local  contributions  as  per 
schedule  No.  3 

Government  Grants  as  per  schedule  No.  3. 
Training  Institutions — 

Fees,    industrial    profits,    and    contribu- 
tions as  per  schedule  No.  10 

Government  Grants  as  per  schedule  No.  1 
Sustentation  and  mission  fund  contributions 

as  returned  to  last  Conference 

Miscellaneous  contributions 

Total 


1900 


39,046 

29,665 
2,172 


9,464 
14,237 


7,010 
3,556 

7,603 

3,757 

116,513 


1910 


58,664 


32,409 
2,320 


17,209 
25,316 


8,307 
4,774 

12,316 

3,132 

161,451 


Increase 


19,617 


2,744 
147 


7,745 
11,079 


1,296 
1,217 


4,713 
4"7",937 


13    7 
16   3 


Decrease 


624 


AUSTRALASIAN  METHODISM,  1901-1910 

The  period  thus  covered  has  witnessed  the  unification  of  all  sections 
of  Methodism  in  Australasia.  At  the  beginning  of  1901  the  Wesleyan 
Methodist,  United  Free  Methodist,  Primitive  Methodist,  and  Bible 
Christian  Churches  were  separate  organizations,  under  the  government 
of  their  respective  Conferences  or  Assemblies,  and  compiling  their  own 
separate  statistics.  The  end  of  1910  finds  them  all  united  (with  the 
exception  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Connexion  in  New  Zealand)  under 
the  designation  of  the  Methodist  Church  of  Australasia,  and  harmoniously 
governed  by  the  General  Conference  as  the  supreme  legislative  court  of 
the  united  Church.  The  union  was  completed  in  the  year  1902.  It  has  been 
successful  from  every  point  of  view.  It  has  removed  competition  which 
in  some  cases  amounted  almost  to  antagonism.  It  has  given  a  new  im- 
petus to  Church  life  and  work,  and  raised  the  Methodism  of  Australasia 
to  a  leading  position  among  the  religious  agencies  of  the  Commonwealth 
of  Australia  and  the  Dominion  of  New  Zealand.  In  Australia  Metho- 
dism ranks  second  in  numerical  strength  among  the  Protestant  Churches; 
in  New  Zealand  third;  in  Figi  it  is  the  Church  of  the  people,  embracing 
84,000  out  of  90,000  of  the  native  population. 

In  1901  the  negotiations  for  the  Methodist  union  were  in  progress. 
The  .statistics  of  the  several  sections  of  Methodism  at  that  precise  time 
are  difficult  to  obtain.  But  at  the  first  General  Conference  of  the  united 
Church,  held  in  1904,  the  following  represented  the  position  of  the  Metho- 
dism of  Australasia,  including  its  mission  stations.  The  figures  were 
made  up  to  September  30,  1903,  viz.: 

Ministers  (including  supernumeraries) 841 

Home  missionaries 144 

Members,  including  trial  and  Junior  members 172,891 

Sunday  school  teachers 25,135 

Sunday  school  scholars 234,318 

Local  preachers 7,936 

Attendants  on  public  worship 636,355 

Class  leaders 8,662 

Churches,  schoolrooms,  parsonages 4,826 

Value  of  Church  property,  say £2,500,000 


782  APPENDIX. 

The  years  immediately  following  Methodist  union  were  to  some  ex- 
tent, years  of  adjustment  and  consolidation.  Not  a  few  places  were 
over-churched,  some  were  over-supplied  with  ministers.  But  these  ad- 
justments have  been  happily  completed,  and  the  last  four  or  five  years 
have  witnessed  expansion  and  growth  on  almost  every  hand.  The  fol- 
lowing may  be  taken  as  representing  the  position  of  the  Church  in  Austral- 
asia at  the  present  time: 

Ministers 1,065 

Home  missionaries 250 

Members,  including  trial  and  Junior  members 175,000 

Sunday  school  teachers 24,500 

Sunday  school  scholars 235,500 

Local  preachers 8,892 

Class  leaders 8,520 

Churches,  schoolrooms,  parsonages. 6,030 

Attendants  on  public  worship 682,500 

Estimated  value  of  Church  property £3,000,000 

A  gratifying  feature  of  the  decade  has  been  the  multiplication  of 
Central  missions  for  reaching  the  crowded  populations  of  the  great  city 
centers.  These  are  now  established  in  Sydney,  Melbourne,  Adelaide, 
Brisbane,  Hobart,  Auckland,  Wellington,  Dunedin,  and  in  some  of  the 
larger  inland  towns  also,  such  as  Newcastle  (N.  S.  W.). 

Another  feature  has  been  the  deepening  of  interest  in  the  foreign  mis- 
sionary work  of  the  Church,  and  a  corresponding  increase  in  the  con- 
tributions thereto.  In  1901  the  amount  raised  throughout  Australasia  (in- 
cluding the  mission  fields)  for  missionary  purposes  was  £18,247.  In 
1910  the  contributions  amounted  to  £35,500.  The  increase  during  the 
past  two  or  three  years  has  been  specially  encouraging. 

Our  present  claimant  needs  are:  more  ministers,  and  a  better  and  fuller 
equipment  of  those  whom  we  do  receive,     This  we  are  striving  after. 


INDEX 


Resolution   of   the    Conference    ; .  .  .  ii 

Contents    iii 

OfiScial  List  of  Delegates    xi 

Officers  of  the  Conference xix 

List  of  Committees    xx 

Daily  Programme    xxiii 

Rules  and  Regulations  for  the  Government  of  the  Conference   xxix 

First  Day — 

First  Session,   Opening  Services    3 

Second  Session,  Election  of  Oincers,  Addresses  of  Welcome,  Responses.  .  13 

Second  Day — "Ecumenical  Methodism" — 

First  Session   38 

Second  Session    65 

Third   Session    88 

Third  Day — "The  Foreign   Missionary  Enterprise'' — 

First  Session   109 

Second   Session    1 34 

Third  Session    (Missionary  Mass  Meeting)    155 

Fourth    Day — "Methodist    Theology" — 

Morning  Session    171 

Fifth   Day — Religious    Services — 

Morning  Service    194 

Afternoon  Session,   "Religious  Aspects  of  Industry  and  Commerce"    ....  210 

Evening   Service    228 

Sixth  Day — 

First  Session,    "The  Study  of  the  Scriptures"    237 

Second  Session,   "The  Church  and  Modern  Thought"    2G3 

Seventh  Day — 

First  Session,    "The  Church  and  Modern  Life"    284 

Second  Session,    "The  Church  and  the  Nation"    311 

Third  Session,    '  'The  Church  and  the  Message' '    334 

Eighth  Day — "The  Church  and  Social  Service" — 

First  Session    356 

Second  Session    393 

Third   Session,   Reception  of  Fraternal  Delegates    417 

Ninth  Day — 

First  Session,    "Home  Religion  and  Religious  Education  in  the  Home"  446 

Second  Session,    "The  Church  and  the  Child"    475 

Third  Session,   "Needs  of  Young  People' '    504 

Tenth  Day — 

First  Session,    "The  Laymen's  Movement"    524 

Second  Session,    "Woman's  Claims  and  Responsibilities"    554 

Eleventh  Day — 

First   Session,    '  'Temperance   Refonn' '    579 

Second  Session    605 

Twelfth  Day — 

Morning  Service    622 

Afternoon   fleeting    634 

Evening  Service    640 

Thirteenth  Day — 

First  Session,    '  'The  Training  of  the  Ministry' '    6  49 

Second  Session,   "Reli'^ious  Literature''    674 

Third  Session,   "Church  Schools  and  Religious  Education"    694 

Fourteenth  Day — 

Last  Session,    "Union  and  Federation"    724 

Appendix,  Statistics    753 

Appendix,  Not«s  of  Decennial  Progress 767 

783 


784 


INDEX. 


NAMES. 

(For  names  of  Delegates,  see  page  xi  ;  Officers  of  Conference,  page  xix  ;  Mem- 
bers of  Committees,  page  xz.) 


Adamson,    C. : 

Committee,    Australia,    742. 
Ainswortli,   W.  M.: 

Discussion  of  Ecumenical  Methodism, 
60. 
Alexander,  Gross: 

Essay,    The    Social    Teaching    of    the 
Old    and   New   Testament,    364;    Dis- 
cussion on  Religious  Literature,  691. 
Allen,  James: 

Devotional   Services,   155. 
Arbu'hnot,  S.  K.: 

Discussion   on   Needs   of   Young  Peo- 
ple, 517. 
Armitage,  G.: 

Devotional  Services,  446. 
Armstrong,   W.  L. : 

Opening     Devotions,      194;      Evening 
Services,   Fifth  Day.  228;   Devotional 
Services,    622 ;    Devotional    Services, 
640. 
Arter,  F.  A.: 

Discussion    on    Home    Religion  _and 
Religious    Education    in    the    Home, 
503. 
Atkins,    S.    G. : 

Essay,  The  Laymen's  Movement,  527. 
Baker,  P.  A.: 

Address,       Anti-Liquor       Legislation, 
537. 
Barkby,  Joseph  T.: 

Discussion  on  Foreign  Missionary  En- 
terprise,  153;  Discussion  on  Study  of 
the    Scriptures,    259 ;    Discussion    on 
Needs  of  the  Young  People,  519. 
Bateson,  Joseph  H.: 

Discussion  on  Ecumenical  Methodism, 
105;  Discussion  on  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Enterprise,  150;  Address,  Mis- 
sion Work  in  India,  170;  Discussion 
on  Temperance  Reform,  596. 
Beale,  E.  Is.: 

Discussion  on  Foreign  Missionary  En- 
terprise,   151. 
Bedford,  D.   S.: 

Address,   Methods  of  Religious  Train- 
ing in  the  Home,  404. 
Beecroft,  C.  E.: 

Discussion  on  Ecumenical  Methodism, 
87. 
Bek,   Ernst   G.: 

Discussion  on  Foreign  Missionary  En- 
terprise, 152;  Discussion  onStudy  of 
the   Scriptures,   258. 
Bennett,  Miss  Belle: 
Absence  of,  560. 
Bennington,  Thomas: 

Committee,  Australia,  742 
Berry,  J.  F. 

Absence  of,  504. 
Bickerton,  J.   G.: 

Discussion  on  Tbe  Church  and  Social 
Service,   409. 
Bond,  George  J.: 

Discus'-ion  on  Needs  of  Young  Peo- 
ple, 518;  Discussion  on  Religious  Lit- 
erature, 692. 


Bond,  Stephen: 

Assistant  Curator,  Exhibition  Meth- 
odist Antiquities,  238. 

Bovard,  F.  D.: 

Absence  of,  65;  Devotional  Services, 
649. 

Boyd,  S.  T.: 

Devotional  Services,  393. 

Bradlleld,   V.'illiam: 

Discussion  on  Ecumenical  Methodism, 
60;  Discussion  on  Methodist  The- 
ology, 191;  Discussion  on  The  Church 
and  Modern  Thought,  280;  AdJress, 
Relation  of  Methodist  Churches- 
City,  Suburban,  and  Rural,  404; 
Discussion  on  Home  Religiin  and  Re- 
ligious Education  in  the  Home,  498; 
Discussion  on  Woman's  Claims  and 
Responsibilities,  -572. 

Bray,    J.    A. : 

Address,  Methodism  as  a  Joyous  Re- 
ligion, 101  ;  Discussi-^n  on  Church 
Schools  and  Religious  Education,  722. 

Bridgman,  G.  H.: 

Devotional  Service,  622. 

Eridgewater,  S.  A.: 

Discussion  on  Laymen's  Movement, 
543. 

Erigg3,  William: 

Address  of  Welcome,  16;  Apnointed 
to  Conduct  Love-feast  and  Prayer- 
meeting,  524. 

Brailsford,  Edward  J.: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  the 
Message,  353;  Discussion  on  Wom- 
an's Claims  and  Responsibilities, 
574;  President,  Second  Session,  Thir- 
teenth Day,  674. 

Brook,  David: 

Address,  Mission  of  Methodism  to 
the  Non-Christian  Races,  118;  Dis- 
cussion on  Laymen's  Movement,  553. 

Bromage,  E.: 

Devotional  Services,  579. 

Broomfield,  Richard  F.: 

Discussion  on  Foreign  Missionary  En- 
terprise, 147;  Discuscion  on  The 
Church  and  Social  Service,  412;  Dis- 
cussion on  Needs  of  Young  People, 
■   522. 

Brown,  George  Warren: 

Discussion  on  Laymen's  Movement, 
550. 

Buckley,  J.  M.: 

Discussion  on  Methodist  Theolog.v, 
187;  Discussion  on  Study  of  tlie 
Scriptures,  254;  Discussion  on  The 
Church  and  Modern  Thou^jht,  278; 
President,  First  Session,  Ei^^hth  Day, 
356;  Discussi-^n  on  Conference  Mes- 
sage  to   the   Churchesv   453. 

Burt,  A.  J.: 

Devotional  Services,  605. 

Burt,  William: 

Address,  Mission  of  Methodism  to 
the  Latin  Races,  120. 


INDEX. 


785 


Burwash,  Chancellor: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  Mod- 
ern Life,  304;  Committee,  Historical 
Union,   717. 

Burwash,  N.: 

Discussion  on  Methodist  Theology, 
188;  Discussion  on  Training  of  the 
Ministry,   6G9. 

Butler,  Miss  Clementina: 

Discussion  on  Foreign  Missionary  En- 
terprise,   152;   Absence   of,    554. 

Butler,  J.  W.: 

Discussion  on  Foreign  Missionary  En- 
terprise,   127. 

Bysshe,  E.  W.: 

Discussion  on  Foreign  Missionary  En- 
terprise,   128. 

Cadman,  S.  P.: 

Fraternal  Address,   421. 

Camp,   Llewellyn  E.: 

Discussion  on  Foreign  Missionary  En- 
terprise, 154;  Discussion  on  Temper- 
ance Reform,   604. 

Campbell,  Marvin: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  the 
Nation,  332. 

Candler,   W.  A.: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  Mod- 
ern Life,  310;  Sermon,  622;  Discus- 
sion on  Training  of  the  Ministry,  667. 

Caman,  A,: 

President,  Opening  Services,  312; 
Discussion  on  Study  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, 252;  Discussion  on  Union  and 
Federation,  741 ;  Closing  Services, 
749. 

Carr,  George: 

Discussion  on  Laymen's  Movement, 
548 ;  President,  First  Session,  Elev- 
enth Day,   579. 

Carroll,  H.  K.: 

Secretary  Second  Division,  and  Chief 
Secretary  Fourth  C  )nference,  13; 
Discussion  on  C  "inference  Arran-^e- 
ments,  14;  Reading  of  Report,  38; 
Methodism  in  the  Western  Section 
in  the  Past  Ten  Years,  39 ;  Tele- 
gram sent  to  West  Virginia  Confer- 
ence, 66;  Retirement  of  Editorial 
C  )mmittee,  364;  Co-editor  Proceed- 
ings F  )urth  Ecumenical  Conference, 
393;  President,  TTiird  Session,  Thir- 
teenth Day,  694. 

Cassells,    Hamilton: 

Fraternal  Address,  437. 

Chapman,   H.   T.: 

President,  Last  Session,  Fourteenth 
Day,  724 ;  Benediction,  Close  of  Con- 
ference,  750. 

Chapman,  James: 

Secretary  Third  Division,  13;  Pre- 
sentation of  Bell  and  Gavel,  IG:  Re- 
tirement of  Editorial  Committee, 
364;  Co-editor  Proceedings  Fourth 
Ecumenical  Conference,  393;  Motion 
on  Desecration  of  Lord's  Day,  640. 

Clemens,  3.  S. : 

Devotional  Services,  134;  Discussion 
on  Study  of  the  Scriptures,  257. 

Clement,    G.   C: 

Discussion  on  Foreign  Missionary  En- 
terprise, 151  ;  Di'-cussion  on  The 
Church  and  the  Message,  350. 

50 


Clinton,  G.  W.r 

Address,  Mission  of  Methodism  to 
the   Backvrard  Races,   139. 

Cloud,  H.  L.: 

Discussion  on  Ecumenical  Methodism, 
106;  Discussion  on  The  Church  and 
Modern  Thought,   278. 

Chown,   S.  D.: 

Opening  Services,  3,  13;  Sacramental 
Service,  13;  Discussion  of  Ecumen- 
ical Methodism,  63 ;  Essay,  Adapta- 
tion of  the  Church  to  the  Needs  of 
Modern  Life,  286. 

Connaucht,  Duke  of: 

Greetings   from,    539 ;   Reply  to,    571. 

Conner,    Vv'illiam   F. : 

Address,  The  Church  and  Civic  Right- 
eousness, 317. 

Cooke,  R.  J.: 

Address,  The  Doctrine  of  Assurance, 
177;  Retirement  of  Editorial  Com- 
mittee, 364. 

Copeland,  Mrs.  T.  J.: 

Address,    Woman   and   Missions,    560. 

Coppin,  L.  J.: 

Essay,  Place  of  the  Religious  Press 
in  Modern  Life,  675. 

Cottrell,  E.: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  Mod- 
ern Thought,   277. 

Cornish,  E.  0.: 

Discussion  on  Church  Schools  and 
Religious  Education,  720;  Discussion 
on    Union    and   Federation,    733. 

Coultas,  A.  J.: 

Address,  Observance  of  the  Lord's 
Day,   635. 

Cranston,  Earl: 

President  Second  Session,  Second 
Day,    65. 

Crombie,   Andrew: 

Discussi  ;n  on  Religious  Literature, 
690 ;  Discussion  on  Union  and  Fed- 
eration,   737. 

Dalton,  Edwin: 

Sacramental  Service,  13 ;  President, 
Third   Session,    Second  Day,    88. 

Dancy,  J.  C: 

Discussion  on  The  Laymen's  Move- 
ment, 547;  President,  Second  Ses- 
sion,   Eleventh   Day,    605. 

Darlington,  U.  V.  W.: 

Devotional    Services,    311. 

Davey,  William  J.: 

Devotional  Services,  524;  Discussion 
on  Temperance  Reform,   600. 

Davidson,  Edward: 

Devotional  Services,  334;  Discussion 
on  Needs  of  Young  People,   521. 

Davies,  Sir  W.  Howell: 

President,  Third  Session,  Third  Day, 
155;  Address  to  Missionary  Mass- 
meeting,    156. 

Day,  James  E.: 

Sermon,  Sunday  Services,  194. 

Denny,  Collins: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  Mod- 
ern Life,  303;  President,  TITird  Ses- 
sion, Twelfth  Day,  640;  Discussion 
on   Mob   Violence,    718. 

Dickey,  J,  E.: 

Devotional   Services,    13. 


786 


INDEX. 


Slnnlck,  Joseph: 

Discussion  on  Methodist  Theology, 
185;  Discussion  on  The  Study  of  the 
Scriptures,  259 ;  Closing  Services, 
749, 

Downey,  David  G.: 

Discussion  on  Ecumenical  Metho- 
dism, 61 ;  Discussi  n  on  The  Church 
and  the  Message,  349. 

DuBose,    H.    M.: 

Discussion  on  Ecumenical  Methodism, 
62;  Discussion  on  The  Church  and 
Modern  Thought,  275;  R-esponse  to 
Fraternal  Delegates,  442 ;  Address, 
The  Battle  Against  the   Saloon,   592. 

Eayrs,  George: 

Committee,  Historical  Union,  715. 

Eckman,  George  P.: 

Address,    Settlement  Work,    401. 

Elliott,  George: 

Discussion,  Ecumenical  Methodism, 
58 ;  Devotional  Services,  65 ;  Discus- 
sion on  Methodist  Theology,  188; 
Discussion  on  The  Church  and  the 
Nation,  329 ;  Discussion  on  The 
Church  and  Social  Service,  388;  Dis- 
cussion on  H  ^me  _  Religion  and  Re- 
ligious Education  in  the  Home,  443; 
Discussion  on  Religious  Literature, 
687. 

Elsworth,  John: 

Official  Record,  134;  Discussion  on 
Home  Religion  and  Relisiiius  Educa- 
tion in  the  Home,  493;  Reading  of 
Records,   749. 

Essex,  R.  W.: 

Response  to  Addresses  of  "Welcome, 
35;  Address,  The  Brotherhood  of 
Man,   223. 

Fairbanks,  C.  W.: 

Address,  the  Aspects  of  Religion  in 
Industry  and   Commerce,   213. 

Tarmer,    J.   H.: 

Fraternal   Address,   418. 

Fellows,  S.  B.: 

Committee,    Australia,    742. 

Terens,  T.  B.: 

Chairman,  Afternoon  Session,  Fifth 
Day,   210;  Remarks,  210. 

rishburne,  T.  T. : 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  the 
Message,  351 ;  Discussion  on  the 
Laymen's  Movement,   541. 

ritchett,  W.  H.: 

Essay,  Methodism — Its  Place  in  the 
Church  Universal,  88;  Sermon,  Do- 
ing Wonders,   228. 

Fitzgerald,  W.  Blackburn: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  Social 
Service,  392 ;  Discussion  on  Needs  of 
Young   People,   516. 

Findlay,   Geo.  G.: 

Essay,  The  Theological  Heritage  of 
Methodism,  172;  Discussion  on 
Union  and  Federation,   736. 

Fleming,  T.  E.: 

Seconded  Resolution  on  Desecration 
of  Lord's  Day,   640. 

FUnt,  William: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  Mod- 
ern Life,  305 ;  Address,  Religious 
Education  in  Public  Schools  in  South 
Africa,  705. 


Forbes,  Robert: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  Social 
Service,  412;  Discussion  on  Home 
Religion  and  Religious  Education  in 
the  Home,  474;  Discussion  on  Tem- 
perance Reform,   600. 

Freeborougb,  J.  H.: 

Address,  The  Equipment  of  the  Sun- 
day   School   Teacher,    438. 

Galbraith,  John: 

Devotional  Service,  694. 

Gilbert,  Levi: 

Discussion  on  The  Study  of  the 
Scriptures,  252;  Discussion  on  Tem- 
perance  Reform,    601. 

Godbey,  V.  A.: 

Address,  Verification  of  Revelation 
in  Experience,   243. 

Godfrey,  J.: 

Closing  Services,  749. 

Goodman,   John  H.: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  the 
Message,  351;  Devotional  Servire, 
504. 

Goucher,  J.  F.: 

Devotional  Service,  356;  Motion, 
Desecration   of    Sabbath,    578. 

Gould,  John: 

Discussion  on  Home  Religion  and  Re- 
ligious Education  in  tue  Home,   470. 

Haddon,  B.: 

Address,  Socialism  —  Christian  and 
Anli-Christian,   381. 

Hall,  George: 

Committee,   Australia,   742. 

Haich,  Henry: 

Conference  Sermon,  3 ;  Sacrament,".! 
Service,  13 ;  Response  to  Addresses 
of  Welcome,  29  ;  President,  First  Ses- 
sion, Second  Day,  38 ;  Business  Dis- 
cussion, 38,  54;  Discussion  The 
Church  and  the  Nation,  326;  Discus 
sion  on  Conference  Message  to  the 
Churches,  455;  Discussion  on  Union 
and  Federation,  740 ;  Closing  Serv- 
ices,  749. 

HamiU,  H.  M.: 

Essay,  The  Psychology  of  Child- 
Training,  475;  Discussion  on  The 
Laymen's   Movement,    549. 

Hamilton,  Franklin: 

Address,  Broader  Preparation  for 
Admission  to  the  Ministry,  654. 

Hamilton,  John  W. : 

Chairman  Business  Committee,  13 ; 
Address  of  Welcome,  19;  Business 
Discussion,  359,  302;  Special  Com- 
mittee, 539 ;  Address  of  Thanks,  746. 

Hancher,  John  W.: 

Discussion  on  Home  Religion  and  Re- 
ligious Education  in  the  Home,  502 ; 
Discussion  on  Church  Schools  and 
Religious    Education,    718. 

Hanly,  J.  Frank: 

Address  on  Temperance,   613. 

Harris,  W.  H.  Cory: 

Devotional  Services,  724. 

Harris,  C.  R.: 

Devotional    Services,    263. 

Haven,  Mrs.  W.  I. : 

Prayer,  194;  President,  Second  Ses- 
sion,  Tenth  Day,    554. 

Helme,  Norval,  W.: 

President,  Third  Session,  Seventh 
Day,  334, 


INDEX. 


r«"7 


Henderson,  Arthur: 

Absence  of,  223;  Address,  The  Prob- 
lem of  Industry,  225. 

Henshaw,  S.  S.: 

Response  to  Addresses  of  "Welcome, 
32  ;  Address,  Arbitratory  Measures  of 
Religion  to  Labor  Question,  218; 
Discussion  on  Home  Religion  and  Re- 
ligious Education  in  the  Home,   499. 

Hendrix,  Eugene  B.: 

Discussion  on  Ecumenical  Metho- 
dism, 45 ;  Address,  The  World  as 
Mission-field,  157;  Discussion  on  The 
Church  and  Modern  Thought,  279 ; 
President,  Second  Session,  Seventh 
Day,  311;  Discussion  on  The  Church 
and  the  Nation,  324. 

Hocart,  Thomas: 

Address,  Methodism  and  France,  124 

Holland,   John: 

Discussion  on  Home  Religion  and  Re 
li^ious   Education  in  the  Home,    471 

Holds-worth,  W.  W.: 

Devotional  Services,  237;  Reading 
269;  Retirement  of  EJitorial  Com 
mittee,  364;  Discussion  on  The 
Training  of  the   Ministry,   668. 

Hoss,  E.  E.: 

Address  of  Welcome,  27;  Discussion, 
Ecumenical  Methodism,  55,  104; 
Discussion  on  The  Foreign  Missi  m- 
ary  Enterprise,  129 ;  Address,  Meth- 
odism in  Korea,  147;  Discussion  on 
Methodist  Theology,  189;  Discussion 
on  The  Study  of  the  Scriptures,  261; 
Discussion  on  The  Church  and  the 
Kation,  330;  Discussion  on  The 
Church  and  the  Message,  853;  Discus- 
sion on  Home  Religion  and  Religious 
Education  in  the  Home,  501;  Ad- 
dress on  Temperance,  605 ;  Discus- 
sion on  the  Training  of  the  Ministry, 
673;  Discussion  on  Union  and  Fed- 
eration,  735. 

Hovis,  William  P.: 

Devotional  Service,  475 ;  Discussion 
on  Home  Religion  and  Religious  Edu- 
cation in  the  Home,  495. 

Hnd3on,  L.: 

Address,  The  Church  and  the  Recre- 
ations of  Young  People,  512;  Discus- 
sion on  Temperance  Reform,  595. 

Hughes,  H.  Maldwyn: 

Absence  of,  263;  Written  Address, 
Christianity  and  Recent  Philosoph- 
ical  Tendencies,    269. 

Humphries,  E.: 

President,  First  Session,  Thirteenth 
Day,   649. 

Ingram,  James  E.: 

Motion,  Desecration  of  Sabbath,  578. 

James,  J.  A.: 

Absence  of,  634. 

Jansson,  E.  A.: 

Discussion  on  Temperance  Reform, 
603. 

Jennings,  J.  W.: 

Discussion  on  Home  Religion  ani  Re- 
ligious Education  in  the   Home,   495. 

Johnson,  Joseph: 

Discussion  on  Ecumenical  Methodism, 
107;  Address,  British  Home  Mis 
sions,  166;  Discussion  on  The  Church 
and  the  Message,  352;  Discussion  on 
The  Church  and  Social  Service,  880 ; 


Discussion  on  Woman's  Claims  and 
Responsibilities,  575;  Committee, 
Ecumenical   Sunday,   742. 

Johnson,   Mrs.   Joseph: 

Essay,  Methodism  -and  the  Woman's 
Movem-ent,  554. 

Johnson,  Simpson: 

Secretary,  Business  Committee,  14; 
Report  of  Meeting  of  Business  Com- 
mittee, 39;  Address,  Methodism  in 
the  Eastern  Section  in  the  Past  Ten 
Years,  66 ;  Resolution  on  Arbitration 
Treaty,    284. 

Johnson,  William  D.: 

Discussion  on  Needs  of  Yonng  Peo- 
ple,   520. 

Johnston,  Hugh: 

Motion,  Desecration  of  Sabbath,   578. 

Jones,  Joshua  H.: 

Discussion  on  The  Study  of  the 
Scriptures,   256. 

Jordan,  D.  A.: 

Address,  Special  Work  of  Young 
People   in  the  Clrurch,   509. 

Kendall,  H.  B.: 

Committee,    Historical   Union,    715. 

Kilgo   (Bishop) : 
Absence  of,  39. 

Kynett,   A.   G.: 

Discussion  on  the  Laymen's  Move- 
ment,  545. 

Iiamar,    A.   J.: 

Retirement  of  Editorial  Committee, 
364. 

Lark,  W,  B.: 

Essay,  Home  Religion  and  Religious 
Education  in  the  Home,  4.33;  Discus- 
sion on  Temperance  Reform,  600; 
Closing  Services,  749. 

Lee,  B.  F.: 

Sacramental    Service,    13. 

Lee,  Richard: 

Address,  The  Priesthood  of  the  Peo- 
ple, 536. 

Leonard,  A.  B.: 

Address,  Methodist  Native  Churches, 
144;  Discussion  on  The  Church  and 
Modern  Life,   308. 

Lewis,   James: 

Discussion  on  The  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Enterprise,  133;  Essay,  Our  Re- 
sources in  Men  and  Means,  134;  Dis- 
cussion on  The  Study  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, 260;  Discussion  on  Temper- 
ance Reform,  598;  Discussion  on 
The  Training  of  the  Ministry,  663. 

Lewis,   T.  H.: 

Sacramental  Service,  13;  Essay,  Rf-- 
sponsibility  of  Methodism  in  Worll- 
wide  Evangelism,  110;  President, 
First   Session,    Fourth  Day,   171. 

Lewis,  Wilson  S.: 

Address,  A  Plea  for  China,  161. 

Lldgett,  J.  Scott: 

Discussion  on  The  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Enterprise,  126;  President,  First 
Session,  Sixth  Day,  237;  Essay,  In- 
ternational R-elations  and  Responsi- 
bilities, 311;  Discussion  on  The 
Church  and  Social  Service,  411; 
Reading,  Message  of  the  Conference 
to  the  Methodist  Churches,  446 ;  Dis- 
cussion on  Union  and  Federation, 
734;  Resolution  of  Thanks,  742;  Ad- 
dress on  Conference,  744, 


788 


INDEX. 


Little,  r.  T.: 

Devotional  Services,   171. 

Lowrie,  S.: 

Committee,  Australia,   742. 

Iiuccock,  KapMali: 

Address,  Methodism  and  Christian 
Fellowship,  98;  President,  Business 
Session,    660.  ; 

McConnell,   Francis  J.: 

Address  Christianity  and  Modern, 
Ethical  Theories,  272. 

Maclaren,  J.  J.: 

Statement,  Methodist  Antiquities  and 
Their  Exhibition  to  the  Conference, 
237;  President,  Third  Session,  Eighth 
Day,   417. 

SScKeal,  Geo.  H.: 

Devotional    Services,    210. 

Machin,  Mrs.  W.: 

Discussion  on  Woman's  Claims  and 
Responsibilities,   573. 

Mann,  E.  6.  B.: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  the: 
Nation,  331;  Address  The  Church 
Paper  in  Every  Methodist  Home, 
680. 

Manning,    Thomas : 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  Social 
Service,   391. 

Mains,   George  P.: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  Mod- 
ern Life,   307. 

Marshall,  J.  W.: 

Discussion  of  Ecumenical  Conference, 
67;  Discussion  of  Home  Religion  and 
Religious  Education  in  the  Home, 
497. 

Martin,  I.  P.: 

Devotional   Services,   640. 

Mason,  James  £.: 

Discussion  of  Temperance  Reform, 
597. 

Mascn,  M.  C.  B.: 

Discussion  on  Ecumenical  Methodism, 
lOG;  Discussion  on  The  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary Enterprise,    155. 

Mascey,  Chester  D.: 

Tendered  Thanks,  745;  Discussion 
on  The  Training  of  the  Ministry, 
671. 

Mathews,  William  Burdette: 

Discussion  on  The  Laymen's  Move- 
ment,  540. 

Medlock,  Mrs.: 

Discussion  on  "Woman's  Claims  and 
Responsibilities,   575. 

Meyer,  Mrs.  Lucy  Eider: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  Social 
Service,  415 ;  Address,  Deaconesses 
and  Sisterhoods,   562. 

Mincher,  W.: 

Devotional  Service,  88. 

Mitchell,  C.  B.: 

Devotional   Services,  634;  Discussion 
on    The    Training    of    the    Ministry, 
665. 
Mitchell,  Thomas: 

Address,  The  Primitive  Methodist 
Church,  76;  .  Committee,  Historical 
Union,  716;  Discussion  on  Union  and 
Federation,  738;  Discussion  on  The 
Training  of  the  Ministry,  672. 
Moppins,  T.  J.: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  Mod- 
ern Life,   306. 


Morgan,  John  Hugh: 

Discussion  on  Ecumenical  Methodism, 
87;  Closing  Services,  749. 

Mott,  John  K.: 

Discussion  on  The  Laymen's  Move- 
ment,  552, 

Moulton,  James  Hope: 

Discussion  on  The  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Enterprise,  128;  Prayer,  223. 

Moulton,   Wilfrid  J.: 

Discussion  on  Methodist  Theology, 
185;  Discussion  on  The  Study  of  the 
Scriptures,  254;  Discussion  on  The 
Church  and  Modern  Thought,  276; 
Address,  The  Ministerial  Supply, 
657. 

Neely,  Thomas  B.: 

President,  Second  Session,  Ninth 
Day,  475;  Chairman,  Third  Session, 
Thirteenth   Day,    694. 

Nicholson,    Thomas: 

Discussion  on  Methodist  Theology, 
184;  Essay,  Problems  of  Church 
Schools,  694;  Discussion  on  The 
Training  of  the  Ministry,  670. 

North,   Frank  Mason: 

Essay,  Readjustment  of  Chiirch 
Work  in  Cities,  393;  Discussi:n  on 
Home  Religion  and  Religious  Educa- 
tion in  the   Home,    502. 

Nuelsen,  J.  L.: 

Discussion  on  Methodist  Theology, 
186;  Absence  of,  694. 

Oldham,  William  F.: 

Greetings  from,   109;   Reply  to,   110. 

Ogata,  S.: 

Discussion  on  Ecumenical  Metho- 
dism, 51;  Absence  of,  649. 

Packer,  Geo.: 

Sacramental  Service,  13;  President, 
Second  Session,  Third  Day,  13i. 

Parks,  Henry  B.: 

Address  of   Welcome,   23. 

Parker,  Franklin  N.: 

Absence  of,  334;  Essay,  Ideal  Evan- 
gelism, Formative  and  Reformative, 
334. 

Park,  J.  Oliver: 

Address,  Methods  of  Bible  Study, 
247 ;  President,  Second  Session, 
Eighth  Day,   393. 

Patten,  John  A.: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  So- 
cial Service,  414;  Discussion  on  The 
Laymen's   Movement,    542, 

Perks,    Sir  Robert  W.: 

Response  to  Addresses  of  Welcome, 
30 ;  Discussion  on  The  Church  and 
Modern  Life,  300;  Discussion  on  Tlie 
Church  and  the  Nation,  328;  Busi- 
ness Discussion,  358;  Discussion  on 
Home  Religion  and  Religious  Ec!uca- 
tion  in  the  Home,  496 ;  President, 
First  Session,  Tenth  Day,  524;  Ad- 
dress, Methodist  Brotherhood,  640. 

Peake,  Arthur  S.: 

Written  Essay,  Criticism  as  Applied 
to  the  Scriptures,    238. 

Pearce,  J.: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  Mod- 
ern Life,  302. 

Pearson,  W.: 

Committee,  Australia,   742. 

Person,  I.  S.: 

Discussion  on  Mob  Violence,  718. 


INDEX. 


789 


Phillips,  0.  H.:  ^.  .  .         ,„     T.- 

Secretary,    First    Division,    13;    Dis- 
cussion   on    Home    Re'.i^ion    and   Re- 
ligious Education  in  the  Home,   472; 
Discussion  on  Union  and  Federation, 
738. 
Philp,  Samuel  C,  Jr.:       „  ,^    ,.  ,     , 
Curator,     Exhibition     Methodist     An- 
tiquities, 238. 
Pratt,  Thomas: 

Discussion  on  Home  Religion  and  Ke- 
ligious  Education  in  the  Home,    500. 
Quayle,  W.  A.:  ,      ^  „ 

Essay,  Oonditiin  and  Needs  of  Youns 
People's    Societies,    504. 
Kadcliffe,  J.  E.:  j  o     •  i 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  Social 
Service,   390. 
Rankin,  George  C: 

Absence  of,  592. 
Randall,   Edwin  M.: 

Discussion  on  Ecumenical  Methodism, 
59 ;  Discussi  -n  on  Home  Religion  and 
Religious  Education  in  the  Home, 
500;  Discussion  on  Needs  of  Youn^ 
People,  522. 
Battenbury,  J.  Ernest:  . 

Address,    Modern   Evangelistic   Meth- 
ods,  346;   Discussion  on  The  Church 
and  Social   Service,  387. 
Rav!:ngs,  E.  C:  . 

President,   First   Session,   Ninth  Day, 
446. 
Redc'tt,  J.  J.: 

Statement     of    Free     Transportation, 
8S, 
Redfern,  William. 

Discussion  on  Methodist  Theology, 
134;  Discussion  on  The  Study  of  the 
Scriptures,  253;  Committee,  Histo- 
rical Union,  716;  Essay,  Union  and 
Federation,  724;  Discussion  on  The 
Training  of  the  Ministry,  666. 
BipT^on,  Thomas: 

Devotional    Services,    38;    Discussion 
on  Religious  Literature,  688. 
Robinson,  Mrs.  George  O.: 

Discussion    on    The    Foreign    Mis^^i-^n- 
arj-  Enterprise,    131;   Address,   Wom- 
an's Work  in  the  Church,  566. 
Robinson,  John  E.: 

Greetings   from,   109;   Reply  to,    110. 
Bomon,  C.  T.: 

Discussion    on    Methodist    Theology, 
192. 
Rose,  B.  W.: 

Discussion  on  Conference  Message  to 
the   Churches,    456. 
Boss,  J.  S.: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  Mod- 
ern   Life,    309 ;    Discussion    on    Tem- 
perance Reforui,   597. 
Boux,    Theophile: 

Discussi  .n   on   The   Foreign  Mission- 
arv   Enterprise,    130. 
Eowell,  N.  W.: 

Discussion  on  The  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Enterprise,  149;  Address,  In'cr- 
denominational  Co-operation,  205; 
Special  Committee,  539 ;  Discussion 
on  The  Laymen's  Movement,  551. 
Boyle,  George: 

Discussion   on   The   Laymen  s    Move- 
ment, 539. 


Ryckman,  E.  B.:  „       tv 

Communication     from,      333;      Devo- 
tional Services,  417. 
Salt,  Enoch: 

Discussion  on  Ecumenical  Jlethodism, 
64;  Discussion  on  The  Church  r.nd 
the  Nation.  333;  Address,  Co-opera- 
tion in  Missions,  Education,  Etc., 
729. 
Sargant,  Norman,  T.  C: 

Discussion    on    The    Church    and    the 
Message,    354;   Address,   Laj-men  and 
Home   Evan;;elization,    533. 
Scott,  Henri  Arnaud: 

Discussion  on  Ecumenical  Methodis-Ji, 
56 ;    Retirement   from    Editorial    Com- 
mittee,   304. 
Schoyer,  A.  M.: 

Discussion  on  Needs   of   Young   Peo- 
ple,   516. 
Shaflfer,  C.  T.: 

Devotional   Services,   109. 
Sharp,  J.  Alfred: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  Mod- 
ern Life,  302  ;  Motion  in  the  Ke  Te- 
mere  Decree,  364;  Address,  Sub"ti- 
tutes  for  the  Liquor  Saloon,  590; 
Address  on  Temperance,  618. 
Shaw,  A.: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  Mod- 
ern   Life,     308;    Discussion    on    The 
Laymen's   Movement,    547. 
Sheldon,  H.  C: 

Essav,  The  Newer  Forms  of  Unbelief, 
and  How  to  Meet  Them,  263. 
Simons,  G.  A.: 

Regrets  from,  171;  Response,  172. 
Skinner,  William  E.: 

Discussion    on    The    Church    and    tho 
Message,     348;     Discussion    on     The 
Laymen's  Movement,  544. 
Smith,  C.  S.: 

President,    First   Session,    Third  Day, 
109  ;  Discussion  on  The  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary   Enterprise,    131. 
Smith,  C.  W.: 

President,     Second    Session,    Twelfth 
Day,  634. 
Smith,  Henry: 

Address,       The       United       Methodist 
Church,   80. 
Smith,  Sir  George: 

Address,  Function  of  the  Church  in 
the  Life  of  the  Community,  292;  Dis- 
cussion on  Home  Religion  and  Re- 
ligious Education  in  the  Home,  473; 
Special  Committee,  539. 
Smith  Richard  T.: 

Address,    The   Family  Altar,    467. 
Smith,  W.  Hodson  : 

Address,  Our  Social  Duty  as  a  Peo 
pie's  Church.  378;  Discussion  on  The 
Church  and  Social  Service,  413;  Dis- 
cussion on  Temperance  Reform,  599; 
Discussion  on  Church  Schools  and 
Religious  Education,  721. 
Smart,  Henry  T.: 

Address,     Characteristics     of     Early 
Methodist  Preaching,   341. 
Snape,  Thomas: 

Secretary,  Fourth  Division,  13;  Ad- 
dress, The  Church  and  the  World's 
Peace,  321;  Discussion  on  The  Lay- 
men's Movement,  550, 


790 


INDEX. 


SomervlUe,  John: 

Fraternal   Address,   434. 

Spencer,  Claudius  B. : 

Reception  of  Fraternal  Delegates, 
418;  Discussion  on  'ieaiperuuce  lie- 
form,    602. 

Sprague,  Howard: 

Discussion  on  Ecumenical  Methodism, 
47. 

Stevenson,  Mrs.  K.  L.: 

Discussion  on  Home  Religion  and  Re- 
ligious Education  in  the  Home,  497; 
Devotional  Services,  554;  Discussion 
on  Woman's  Claims  and  Responsibil- 
ities,  577. 

Stuntz,  Homer  C: 

Discussion  on  Religious  Literature, 
689 ;  Address,  Economy  in  the  Use 
of  Force   and  Means,    731. 

Stubbs,  Albert: 

Devotional   Services,   284. 

Sumwalt,  John  W.  R.r 

Motion,  Desecration  of  Sabbath,  578. 

Tasker,  J.  G.: 

Discussion  on  Methodist  Theology, 
187;  Discussion  on  llie  Study  of  tiie 
Scriptures,  202  ;  Essay,  The  Improve- 
ment of  our  Theological  Colleges, 
649. 

Tagg,  r.  T.: 

Absence  of,  171. 

Terry,  M.  S.: 

Discussion  on  Methodist  Theology, 
190 ;  Discussion  on  The  Study  of  the 
Scriptures,  258;  Discussion  on  The 
Training  of   the   Ministry,   649. 

Thomas,  Frank  M.: 
Reading,  334. 

Tiger,  Moty: 

Last  Chief  of  Muskogee  Indians,  107. 

Vinter,  Arthur: 

Address,  Religious  Education  in  tlie 
School,  702  ;  Discussion  on  the  Train- 
ing of  the   Ministry,    671. 

Wakinshaw,  William: 

Discussion  on  Ecumenical  Methodism 
86 ;  Discussion  on  The  Church  ana 
Social  Service,  391;  Discussion  on 
Religious   Literature,    690. 

Walden,   John   M. : 

Sacramental  Service,  13 ;  Discussion 
on  The  Foreign  Missionary  Enter- 
prise,   132. 

Wallace,  A.  J.: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  Mod- 
ern Life,  301 ;  Discussion  on  The 
Church  and  the  Nation,  332. 

Wallis,  Miss  Lena: 

Discussion  on  Woman's  Claims  and 
Responsibilities,  572. 

Walters,  A.: 

Discussion  on  Ecumenical  Methodism, 
58;  Piesident,  Second  Session,  Sixth 
Day,   263. 


Walters,  C,  Ensor: 

Discussion  on  Ecumenical  Methodism, 
85;  Discussion  on  Methodist,  Theol- 
ogy, 192 ;  Discussion  on  The  Church 
and  tho  Message,  350;  Discussion  on 
The  Church  and  Social  Service,  409; 
Discussion  on  Temperance  Reform, 
602. 

Warne,  Trank  W.: 

Greetings  from,    109 ;   Reply  to,    110. 

Watkins,  Owen  S.: 

Discussion  on  The  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Enterprise,  148;  Motion  in  tiie 
Ne  Temere  Decree,   364. 

Wedgwood,  George  R.: 

Essay,   Temperance  Reform,   579. 

Welch,   Herbert: 

Discussion  on  The  Chtirch  and  Social 
Service,  386. 

Westerdale.  Thomas  E.: 

Discussion  on  ConTerence  Message  to 
the  Churches,  454;  Reading,   683. 

White,  E.  A.: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  Social 
Service,  410. 

Wilbur,  C.  E.: 

Address,  Widening  Mission  of  the 
Sunday   School,   486. 

WilUams,   W.: 

Address,  Methodism  in  Australasia, 
83  ;  President,  iirst  Session,  Seventh 
Day,   284. 

Willson,  J.  O.: 

Discussion  on  Church  Schools  and 
Religious  Education,   721. 

Wilson,  A.  W.: 

Sacramental  Service,  13;  President, 
First  Session,  First  Day,  13 ;  Bene- 
diction, 37;  Address,  Resolution  of 
Thanks,     748. 

Windsor,  W.: 

Address,  Essentials  of  Religion  Ac- 
cording to  John  Wesley,   180. 

Wiseman,  B.  A.: 

Response  to  Fraternal  Delegates, 
40  8. 

Workman,  H.  B.: 

Aa^ress,  Tne  Future  of  Methodist 
Literature,    683. 

Worthington,   Thomas: 

Discussion  on  The  Church  and  M,od- 
ern  Thought,  279;  Discussion  on  The 
Church  and  Social  Service,  415  ;  Dis- 
cussion on  The  Laymen's  Movement, 
546. 

Young,  W.  J.: 

Address,  The  Observance  of  the 
Lord's  Day,  634;  Address,  Church 
Control  of  Church  Schools,  709. 


INDEX. 


791 


SUBJECTS. 


Adaptation  of  the  Church  to  the  Needs 
of   Modern  Life,    2^0. 

Addresses  of  Welcome,  16;  Responses 
to,    29. 

Addresses  to  Missionary  Mass-meeting, 
156. 

Anti-Liquor  Legislation,   587. 

Antiquities,   Exhibition  of,    2.'?7. 

Appendix:  Statistics,  753;  Notes  of  De- 
cennial Progi-ess,   767. 

Arbitration,   Advance  of,    324. 

Arbitratory  Measures  of  Religion  to  the 
Labor  Question,  218. 

Arbitration  Treaty,  Resolutions  on,  285, 
324. 

Aspects  of  Religion  in  Industry  and 
Commerce,  213. 

Australasian   Methodism,    83. 

Baptist  World  Alliance,  Greetings,  413; 
Response,    438. 

Battle   Against   the   Saloon,   The,    593. 

Bell  and  Gavel  of  Judge  Waddy,   16. 

Bible    Study,    Methods   of,    247. 

British  Home   Missions,    166. 

Broader  Preparation  for  Admission  to 
the  Ministry,   654. 

Business   Committee : 

Arbitration    Treaty,    285,    324;    Aus- 
tralian    Committee,      742 ;      Business 
Proceedings,  13,   756;  Causes  of  Mob 
Violence,    717;    Close    of    Cjnference, 
750;    Conference    Arrangements,    39 
Conference     Message     to      Methodis 
Churches,     446;     Conservation,     713 
Daily       Record,       66;       Desecration 
Lord's     Day,     640;     Distribution     o: 
Mail,  110;  Editorial  Committee,  364 
Ecumenical     Commissijn,     356,     453 
525;    Ecumenical    Sunday,    663;    Fed 
erated  Action,  Temperance,  etc.,  71 
Historical      Union,      714;      Members 
xxi;     Open-Air    Meeting,     393,     524 
Opium,    Liquor,    Divorce,    Etc.,    660 
Prayers,    749;    Record,    749;    Speak 
ers'     Platform,    6G ;     Statistical    Com 
mittee,       741;      Thanks,      66,       742 
Thanksgiving,    713. 

Condition  and  Needs  of  Young  People's 
Societies,    504. 

Conference  Message  to  Methodist 
Churches,    446. 

Committee  on  Divorce,  Temperance,  and 
Other  Matters: 

1.  Suppression    of    Opium    Traffic ; 

2.  Shipment  of  Liquors; 

3.  Divorce; 

4.  Ne  Temero  Decree ; 

5.  Conference   Message,   660. 
Conference  Sermon,   llcnry  Hai-jh,   3. 
Co-operation      in      Missions,      Education, 

Etc.     729. 

China,  Plea  for,   161. 

Christianitv  and  Modern  Ethical  Theo- 
ries, 272. 

Christianity  and  Recent  Philosophical 
Tendencies,  269. 

Church  and  Civic  Righteousness,  The, 
317. 

Church  and  Evangelization  of  the  World, 
The,    713. 

Church  and  Modern  Life,  The,  284. 


Church  and  Modern  Thought,   The,   263. 

Church  and   Social   Service,    The,    353. 

Church  in  the  Life  of  the  Community, 
Function   of   the,    292. 

Church  and  the  Message,  The,   334. 

Church   and  the  Nation,    The,    311. 

Church  and  the  Recreations  of  Young 
People,   The,   512. 

Church  and  the  World's  Peace.  The,  321. 

Church  Control   of  Church   Schools,    700. 

Church  Schools  and  Religious  Education, 
694. 

Church  Paper  in  Every  Methodist  Home, 
The,   680. 

Church  Work  in  Cities,  Readjustment  of, 
393. 

Criticism  as  Applied  to  the  Scriptures, 
238. 

Deaconesses   and   Sisterhoods,   562. 

Death  Sentence,  Discussion  of  a,   55. 

Decennial  Progress,  Notes  of,  767. 

Divorce,   Resolution  on,    661. 

Doctrine  of  Assurance,  The,  177. 

Doing  Wonders,   228. 

Early  Methodist  Preaching,  Characteris- 
tics of,   341 

Economy  in  the  Use  of  Forces  and 
Means,     731. 

Ecumenical   Methodism,    38. 

Ecumenical  Methodist  Commission,  356, 
453. 

Essentials  of  Religion,  According  to 
John    Wesley,    180. 

Equipment  of  the  Sunday  School 
Teacher,    The,    488. 

Family  Altar,   The,    467. 

Foreign  Missionary  Enterprise,  The,  109. 

Fraternal  Delegates,  Reception  of,  417; 
Addresses  of,  418;  Responses  to,  438. 

Future  of  Methodist  Literature,  The, 
683. 

Gavel,    Strawbridge    Oak,    12. 

Home  Religion  and  Religious  Education 
in  the  Home,   458. 

Ideal  Evangelism — Formative  and  Re- 
formative,  334. 

Improvement  of  Our  Theological  Col- 
leges,  The,   649. 

India  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
Greetings  of,   109;   Response  lo,   110. 

Interdenominational   Co-operation,   295. 

International  Relations  and  Responsibili- 
ties,  311, 

Laymen   and   Home   Evangelization,    533. 

Laymen's  Movement,   The,   527. 

Men  and  Means,  Our  Resources  in,   134. 

Ji^ethodism  and  Cliristian  FeTlowship,  98. 

Methodism   and   Prance,    124. 

Methodism  and  the  Woman's  Movement, 
554. 

Alethodism  as  a  Joyous  Religion,  101. 

Jlethodist    Brotherhood.    640. 

Methodist   Historical    Union,    714. 

Jlethodism  in  Korea,   147. 

Methodism  in  the  Eastern  Section  in 
the  Past  Ten  Years,   63. 

Methodism,  Its  Place  in  the  Church  Uni- 
versal,   88. 

JTethodist  Native  Churches,   144. 

Methodist  Theology,    171. 

Ministerial  Supply,  The,  657. 


792 


INDEX. 


Missionary    Mass-meeting,    155. 

Mission  of  Methodism  to  the  Backward 
Races,   139. 

Mission  of  Methodism  to  the  Latin 
Races,   120, 

Mission  of  Methodism  to  the  Non-Chris- 
tian  Races,    118. 

Mission  Work  in  India,  170. 

Modern  Evangelistic  Methods,  346. 

Moty  Tiger,  Introduction  of,  107. 

National  Congregational  Council,  Greet- 
ings, 421;  Responses,  438. 

Newer  Forms  of  Unbelief,  and  How  to 
Meet  Them,   The,  2G3. 

Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day,  The,  634. 

Place  of  the  ReMgious  Press  in  Modern 
Life,  The,  675. 

Presbyterian  Al'.iance  Greetings,  434; 
Response,   438. 

Priesthood  of  the  People,  The,  536. 

Primitive  Methodist   Church,   The,    76. 

Problem   of   Industry,    The,    225. 

Problems  of  Church   Sch)ols,    694. 

Psychology  of  Child  Training,  The,  475. 

Records,   Reading  of,    749. 

Relation  of  Methodist  Churches — City, 
Suburban,   and  Rural,   The,   4  34. 

Religious  Aspects  of  Industry  and  Com- 
merce, 210. 

Religious  EJlucation  in  the   School,    702. 

Religious  Education  in  Public  Schools  in 
South  Africa,   705. 

Religious  Trrining  in  the  Home,  Meth- 
ods of,   404. 

Responses,  Addresses  of  "Welcome,  20. 

Responses,    Fratcrn'',l    Ad-'.reascs,    433. 

Responsibility  of  Meth-^dism  in  World- 
wide Evangelism,   110. 


Russian  Methodist  Episcopal  Mission, 
Greetings,    171;   Response,    172. 

Sacramental   Services,    13. 

Sermon,   Sunday  Services,   194. 

Settlement  Work,   401. 

Shipment  of  Liquors,   661. 

Social  Duty  as  a  People's  Church,  Our, 
378. 

Social  Teaching  of  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment The:  I.  The  Teaching  of  Jesus, 
3C4;   II.   The  Old  Testament,    374. 

Socialism — Christian  and  Anti-Christian, 
381. 

Special  Work  of  Young  People  xn  the 
Church,   509. 

Statistics,   753. 

Study  of  the  Scriptures,  The.  237. 

Substitutes  for  the  Liquor   Saloon,   590. 

Suppression  of  the  Opium  Tra&c,  660. 

1  hanks.    Resolution   of,    742. 

Telegram,   109;  Reply  to,   110. 

Temperance    Reform,    579. 

Temperance  Addresses,  605. 

Theological  Heritage  of  Methodism,  The, 
172. 

Training  of  the  Ministry.  The,  649. 

Union  and  Fe  lerati  n,   724. 

United   Methodist   Church,    The,    80. 

Verification  of  Revelation  in  Experi- 
ence,  243. 

West  Virginia  Conference,  Greetings, 
65 ;   Response,   66. 

Widening  Mission  of  the  Sunday  School, 
486. 

Woman   and  Missions,    560. 

Womrn's  Claims  and  Responsibilities, 
554. 

Woman's  Work  in  the  Church,   566. 

World  as  a  Mission-field,  The,  157. 


Date  Due 

FACULTY 

' 

JUN  i 

^  M^ 

1 

'  ^<y[)£i 

JUH  \' 

iW* 

JUN  1 

F,  ^M 

f) 

PRINTED 

IN   U.   S.   A. 

^Vv. 


BX820/  .tl9  1911 

Proceedings  of  the  fourth  Ecumenical 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1012  00041   4872 


